Carrying your cross...

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Thanks for posting that.

Everyone has different crosses to carry. The big things are obvious crosses, but sometimes the mundane can be a cross. Anything that causes suffering can be considered a cross. Some are large, some small, some featherlight, some exceedingly heavy. I believe God knows what we can bear.
 
Trotters80 said:
Hello. When we hear about “Carrying our cross courageously” does this mean major things in life eg illness, financial, unemployment etc or could it be little mundane things too?.

You’ve asked a question to which you could probably get any number of different answers. I’ve always had a bit of trouble with the idea of what constitutes a cross to be carried, and after years of trying to live out the Catholic faith, I’ve come to realize that a cross is anything that happens to you in life, that has the potential to drive you away from Christ and his message. Yes, a cross can be a major tragedy such as the things you cite, but it can also be the guy who cuts you off in traffic, or “steals” the parking space at Wal Mart you have been waiting from. Even things we love dearly can themselves become crosses. I.E. little children, they are a gift, a blessing, a joy, but ask any mom or dad dealing with a four year old throwing a tantrum … I hope you get the idea.

My antidote to the crosses I encounter daily, the words,“thy will be done…” And smile.

Works for me.

Shalom.
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Trotters80 said:
Hello. When we hear about “Carrying our cross courageously” does this mean major things in life eg illness, financial, unemployment etc or could it be little mundane things too?
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It’s not the size of the cross, it’s the love with which you carry it.
 
Trotters80 said:
Hello. When we hear about “Carrying our cross courageously” does this mean major things in life eg illness, financial, unemployment etc or could it be little mundane things too?.

I saw this…

catholic.org/homily/yearoffaith/story.php?id=51441

Thank you.
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Absolutely. Much of the time, we don’t have a major trial in our life, but we shall have headaches, stress, frustration with traffic jams, and so forth. It may seem like a small cross to bear, but it is a cross nonetheless, and a sacrifice to offer up. Look at our religious, who don’t often have to deal with the traumas and outrages that those in the secular world do, but consistently bear the cross often in the very mundane things you talk about, so much indeed that their entire lives are considered holocausts unto God.

If, for whatever reason, you’re drawn to carrying more of a cross, might I recommend the occasional pious recitation of and meditation upon the Stations of the Cross? It’s not just a Lenten devotion, but a means by which we, like Simon of Cyrene, can in our meditations accompany Christ on the way of the cross and be better disposed to utilize our common priesthood to offer with Christ’s sacrifice our sufferings on this earth, whether great or small.
 
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