Carrying your Cross, by Mother Luisita

A Letter From Mother Luisita About
Carrying Your Cross


My dear child,

In this life we shouldn't live without a cross. It is true that wherever we go we will find the cross. And woe to us if it were not so. God our Lord sends us whatever sufferings are beneficial to us so that we may be purified and practice virtue. How could we practice patience if the opportunity to be patient never presented itself? And it is the same with the other virtues. How can we enrich our souls if we never practice any virtue? According to the love that God has for us and the place He's destined in heaven for us, He provides us with the means to beautify our souls. Oh, my child, let us love the cross! Let's embrace it and see it as the proof of the love of a crucified God.

Our Lord Himself will be your reward. You will see what a prize He has prepared for you in exchange for your efforts in your work and for so many things that one suffers in this world. Wherever we are, we find Calvary and we learn how hard it is to go up that hill, but after we reach the summit, we possess heaven.

Forward, my child. Suffer with joy whatever the good Lord sends you. That's a very good thing to do. But don't suffer and complain. No. Not that. God our Lord loves you very much and awaits your little victories with affection. Don't expect to acquire sanctity in any other way than by conquering yourself and by doing little things which will enable your soul to attain the necessary strength to endure greater troubles.

It doesn't matter if we are trampled upon, if it becomes a means of raising ourselves up closer to God, and once elevated to God, may we remain that way. We have to be strong and valiant with ourselves and not let suffering get the best of us. All pain is transitory, and as Our Holy Mother Saint Teresa tells us, any pain that is not eternal, is no pain at all.

Sometimes it seems as if the crosses are falling from every angle and, indeed, life can seem a long martyrdom. It's not a matter of dying. Rather, it is a matter of living with contradictions and difficulties. Sometimes heaven itself will turn into bronze, but let nothing disturb you and nothing frighten you.

We grieve when Divine Providence uses the hammer and chisel to polish our souls, turning them into precious stones worthy to enter the building of the heavenly Jerusalem. Suffer, then, and wait. Pray and expect. Whenever we feel tired or exhausted, without strength and longing for a moment of rest...it is a great consolation to be able to say, My troubles resemble those of my Savior.

My child, don't worry. Rather, thank God infinitely for choosing you to follow Him in this manner. Let's praise Him in everything because all that happens is for our own good. Try to fulfill your duties the best way you can and do them for God alone.

If you examine the lives of the saints, you'll discover that there is no way to heaven except the road covered with thorns. At every step they pinch us and make us bleed. Let us bless our good God in every circumstance in our lives, and, smiling, let us look up toward heaven.

- Mother Luisita


Mother Luisita was declared Venerable by Pope John Paul II and founded the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles during the religious persecution in Mexico.