Privation

“We must all experience privation, because everybody, has to do without something, in this life. Some people are never in good health. Besides their actual sufferings, they have to put up with their inability to work or to enjoy themselves.

Others, have no means of earning their livelihood. Their lives are a daily battle, not merely against poverty but against squalor and wretchedness. They have not enough bread to eat, nor have they homes where they and their families, can live.

In families where there is no such want, on the other hand, there may be no peace in the home.

Individuals, too, can lack peace of soul, because they are ridden by false ambition or jealousy.

Other people have a plentiful supply of this world’s comforts but, are destitute of the most necessary thing in life, which is goodness.

They are depressed because they have become slaves to sin.

Is there any remedy for all these privations and sorrows?

Yes! we must embrace our cross. We must turn confidently to God and ask Him that may be resigned to doing without, those temporal things, of which we are deprived. We must ask Him for the grace to rise from our sins and climb towards Christian perfection. There is no use in revolting, nor, in despairing. There is no real happiness in this world. If we are vexed and rebellious, our cross grows heavier. If we accept privation from God’s Hands, we are soon consoled.”

~Antonio Bacci