If we want to endure every affliction and trial readily, let us long to die for Christ and let us keep this death continually before our eyes. For we have been commanded to take up the cross and to follow Him (Matt. 16:24); and this means that we must be prepared and ready for death. If we have this disposition we will endure every affliction, visible and invisible, much more easily. How can he who is anxious to die for Christ’s sake have any difficulty in putting up with suffering and distress? Yet we think afflictions are hard to bear, for we do not keep death for Christ’s sake before us or fix our mind always on Christ. But if we want to share His inheritance we must be willing to share His sufferings with an equal zeal. Those who love the Lord may be recognized by the fact that because of their hope in Him they bear every affliction that comes, not simply courageously but also wholeheartedly.
– St. Symeon the Metaphrast, “Paraphrase of the Homilies of St. Macarius of Egypt,” Philokalia, Vol. 3
Featured image: Svyato-Vvedensky island convent near Pokrov, Russia. source
