So rejoice and be glad when God favours you with one of his choicest crosses; for without realising it, you are blessed with the greatest gift of heaven, the greatest gift of God. If you really appreciated it, you would have Masses offered, you would make novenas at the shrines of the saints, you would undertake long pilgrimages, as did the saints, to obtain from heaven this divine gift. The world calls this madness, degradation, stupidity, a lack of judgement and of common sense. They are blind: let them say what they like. This blindness, which makes them view the cross in a human and distorted way, is a source of glory to us. Every time they cause us to suffer by their ridicule and insults, they are presenting us with jewels, setting us on a throne, and crowning us with laurels.
--St. Louis de Montfort, Letter to the Friends of the Cross
--St. Louis de Montfort, Letter to the Friends of the Cross
