Comforting words for you for this week:

(Note to you, dear friend: Though I've put all fifteen chapters of my fictionalized biography on Facebook and on my blog for you to enjoy, free of charge, I'll try to add to my Facebook page and to my blog some quotes of St. Padre Pio and other Saints for you--at least once a week. These will be quotations I've found most helpful in my own journey through this "vale of tears.")

For this week, here are some comforting words from St. Padre Pio for when you think you have failed miserably, that God has rejected you, and that there is no hope left for you to lead a holy, tranquil life: "To call yourself a thorn that tormernts the lovable Lord, and to think that your unworthiness is a clear and obvious fact which leaves no room even for the shadow of a doubt, is a downright lie, a scene presented to you in vivid and glowing colors by the skillful artist of the darkness [guess who that is!] whose treachery is equal to his ability to enhance his picture by the bold use of light and shade. It is absolutely untrue that you have corresponded badly with God's grace, and that by your unfaithfulness you have cut yourself off from God, earning the refusal of His grace and earning His irreconciable enmity. The Lord is with you. He is with you; He is patient, suffering, eager Love; He is with you, crushed and trampled upon, heartbroken; in the shadows of the night and even more so in the desolation of your own personal 'Gethsemane,' He is associated with your suffering and associates you with His own. This is the whole fact of the matter, this is the truth, and the only truth. Therefore, you can and must be tranquil." (Letters 3, page 882)