Mortification in Roman Catholic Teaching - Joy in Suffering

Joy in Suffering

Saint Paul speaks of joy in suffering in Colossians: "I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake". He had found a source of joy in overcoming the sense of the uselessness of suffering.

Faith in sharing in the suffering of Christ brings with it the interior certainty that the suffering person "completes what is lacking in Christ's afflictions"; the certainty that in the spiritual dimension of the work of Redemption he is serving, like Christ, the salvation of his brothers and sisters.

He states that it is suffering, more than anything else, which clears the way for the grace which transforms human souls. Suffering, more than anything else, makes present in the history of humanity the powers of the Redemption.

St. Louis de Montfort's prayer to the Virgin Mary includes, in his request to become more like Mary, the clauses "to suffer joyfully without human consolation; to die continually to myself without respite". Louis de Montfort was a strong advocate of finding joy and holiness in suffering. Those who have completed his 33-day Total Consecration to Jesus to Mary often wear a metal chain around their wrist or ankle. While this is not necessarily mortification, it represents a constant reminder of one's voluntary spiritual enslavement to Jesus through Mary, and the desire to accept suffering as a gift and offer it to God.