Back-ache

“I want to describe how the Master has made me find joy in the cross. After my profession, folio wing the advice that had been given me, I hastened to the “bleeding Flower of Calvary ” and plucked it continually with the cross for its stem. This cross was the daily, perpetual mortification of our austere life: austere indeed for one who refuses nothing to the good God and who is perfectly faithful to the Rule and duty. I no longer sought for imaginary crosses and dreamt of them no more, and as I received each day the grace to bear my daily cross, I carried it cheerfully, finding by experience that the first step is the hardest, and that the generous acceptance of a light cross brings with it a deep peace which gives strength for greater and harder mortifications.

Fasting tried me very much, I found it very hard to work in the morning on fast-days, as I was obliged to do for several years while I had sole charge of the refectory and swept and dusted it. The weight of th