Losing money, job and health are great losses, but losing our most prized possession, our SOUL, would be the greatest loss of all.  Matthew 16:26 says, “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?”

Sr. Josepha Menendez writes in her book, The Way of Divine Love, what she heard in Hell when she was taken there by Satan to suffer for Jesus:

 “I heard a demon, from whom a soul had escaped, forced to confess his powerlessness.  ‘Confound it all … how do so many manage to escape me?  They were mine.’ (and he rattled off their sins) … ‘I work hard enough, yet they slip through my fingers … Someone must be suffering and repairing [making reparation] for them’ ”

After hearing the words of this demon, we really know that we can save our family and friends from darkness and Hell by our prayers, sacrifices (sufferings) and reparations for them.  Msgr. John Sweeney, former pastor of Our Lady of Peace Church in Santa Clara, California, often said, “Many souls are lost because there is no one to pray and make sacrifices for them.”  In my morning prayers, I offer up my day for all my family and friends. 

In Luke 14:27, Our Lord tells us, “Whoever does not take up his cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple.”  Our suffering is the greatest prayer that we can offer to Jesus. In the early 90’s, I did pastoral care at Our Lady of Fatima Villa, a Catholic nursing home in Saratoga, California.  Sometimes residents would say that they couldn’t pray because they were suffering so much.  I would tell them that offering up their suffering was the greatest prayer that they could give to the Lord.  As Catholics, part of our mission on this short pilgrimage of life is to pray and make sacrifices, joyfully carrying the crosses that we receive, for all of our family and friends to get them into the Kingdom, especially those who have turned their back on God and don’t go to Church any longer.

People often ask why God has given them their sufferings.  God has His reasons, but a good guess is because the world is in such terrible shape and God knows that they can better serve Him by their prayers and the offering up of their suffering.  How God makes our prayers more powerful when we suffer is a mystery, but He can turn the suffering into graces to be given wherever needed. 

Jesus told St. Faustina, “You will save more souls through prayer and suffering than will a missionary through his teachings and sermons alone.”  St. Louis de Montfort said, “There is always a reason for suffering.  It is a priceless coin with which to purchase good things for one self and for others.”

Occasionally, we will meet Jesus’ Cross in some painful way, such as an illness, an economic disaster, or the death of a loved one, but more often our crosses are less severe, such as loneliness, ridicule, opposition, unkind words, and malicious gossip.  Those are all crosses that are not our choice, but like St. Therese of Lisieux, we can choose little crosses ourselves that we want to offer to Jesus out of our great love for Him.  Examples of these would be: skip a dessert tonight, don’t take that second helping at the dinner table, spend an hour at Adoration, visit a sick parishioner, pray a rosary or offer a plenary indulgence for the souls in Purgatory, assist in preparing or serving a meal at a soup kitchen, place additional funds in the Sunday collection for a worthy cause, or something as small as saying a kind word or doing a small act of kindness towards someone when we don’t want to.  We must always remember that those acts of kindness that we do for others while on our earthly journey will benefit us the most at our judgment before Jesus.

We don’t ever suffer alone.  Jesus is always within us, encouraging us to help Him save the souls of our families and friends. We have a merciful Jesus, Who hears our every prayer.  Call upon His grace to help us through difficulties, which we certainly can expect as one of His disciples.  Prayer group leaders that I have talked to, often tell me that they are immediately under attack whenever they do something good for the Lord.  So we can expect to be under attack, either directly or through someone else, when we pull souls from Satan’s clutches by our efforts to save them.  It is important to remember that the greater the cross that we carry for Jesus, the greater will be the strength that He gives us to carry it.  NOW, LET’S SAVE SOME SOULS FOR CHRIST!