Meditating with St. Anthony Mary on the meaning of Cross...

"Religious life is a cross to be carried a step at a time and in a steady fashion, "for your sake we face death all day long,"[1] as the Apostles used to say;[2] and the Lord told us to take up our cross daily.[3]  Are you disciples of Christ?  Then, carry your cross, mortify your bodies with fasting and toiling, watch in prayer, spend your time helping your neighbor, nail yourselves to holy obedience never withdrawing from it.  So, for Christ's sake, do not make any more idols."  (Sermon 1)

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[1]Ps 44:22  [2]Rom 8:36 [3]Luke 9:23

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"He will grant you, in particular, a continuous spirit of self-abandonment on the ignominious cross, and lead you to a life conformed to Christ’s according to the pattern of the great saints.  Consequently, you will be able to say with your Father, “be imitators of us as we are of Christ.”[1]     (Letter V)

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[1]1 Cor 4:16; 11:1 

   

"O Father dear, you have constantly sweated and suffered and we enjoy the fruits of your zeal.  The cross was your dowry, and we will inherit abundant rest.  In other words, by always carrying and, as it were, eating up crosses, we will yield fruits, both yours and ours." 

 (Letter 7)