August 25

Behold we count them happy which endure.

DO not think of your woes as a punishment, but as a call from God, a call to go home to His peace. . . .

I say that after God there was never anything that is nobler than sorrow. For had there been anything nobler than sorrow, then surely the Father from heaven would have granted that nobler gift to His Son, Jesus Christ. But we find that, except for his humanity, there was nothing of which Christ had so much of as sorrow. . . . Yes, I say, too, that were there anything nobler than sorrow, then therewith would God have redeemed man, . . . therefore sorrow must be above all things.

MEISTER ECKHART, quoted in Studies of Good and Evil

OUR SISTER SORROW