The Cross, Death and Resurrection

Novena Prayer to St. Emilie de Rodat

Foundress of the Congregation of the Holy Family

 

DAY 8                                                                                                               17th September

 

St. Emilie is well acquainted with suffering in her life.  Here’s what she has to say.

 

“There are troubles that only God knows and for which human beings have no remedy.”

 

“What can I say to you, except to tell you to listen in your hearts to these words of our Saviour:  Let those who want to come after me, renounce themselves, carry their cross each day of their lives and follow me.”

 

“The cross has been the prerogative of the saints: may it be ours too, and let us carry it in such a way that through our patience it may become for us a source of salvation.”

 

“The essential thing is to stay united to God, even in the midst of the greatest trials, in our moments of sorrow and when we encounter setbacks.”

 

“Since we cannot bear to do great mortifications, we should welcome the little and continual ones that come a thousand times daily.”

 

“Accept with a good heart our occasions of suffering both small and great in body and soul. …The best of all means to cure our ills is to embrace the Cross wholeheartedly.”

 

“Try to remember the extreme agony Our Saviour endured for all of us.  Unite your sufferings to His…..Seek your strength and consolation near the Cross.”

 

“Intensify your fervour and remember the Good Lord only permits the trials you are enduring to unite you more intimately with Him.”

 

“Through the humiliations that God sent me, I became more like Jesus Christ.”

 

“I wish you with all my heart the joy that Our Saviour’s resurrection brings.  Let us rejoice in Him. L He has won the victory for us and we enjoy the fruits of that victory.”

 

Prayer to St. Emilie

 

St. Emilie, you encountered in your life, trials and sufferings of body and soul but you embraced them wholeheartedly, uniting your sufferings with that of Jesus on the Cross, from which you derived your strength and consolation. 

 

Help us to welcome the daily crosses in our lives with that same faith and love so that  our sufferings may unite us more intimately to Jesus and transform us more and more into His image and likeness. 

 

Help us not to fear setbacks and difficulties as we try to do our mission in revealing God’s love and be witnesses of the Good News of Jesus Christ in the place we live and in the world.  Amen.

 

St. Emilie, pray for us.