O my God, I firmly believe that you are one God in three divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe that your divine Son became man and died for our sins and that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the Holy Catholic Church teaches because you have revealed them who are eternal truth and wisdom, who can neither deceive nor be deceived. In this faith I intend to live and die. Amen.

(Act of faith)

Many people ask themselves and others the questions:” If God is all loving and merciful, all mighty and powerful, why is there so much suffering in the world? Where was God when in 1793-94 the regime of Maximillian Robespierre chopped off 40 000 heads with a device called the guillotine during French revolution? Where was He when 4 million people including children were starved to death by Joseph Stalin in Ukraine in 1932-34? Where was God during the Holocaust, where millions of Jews, Poles, Russians and others were killed by Hitler’s regime? Why didn’t God stop it?”

O my Heavenly Father, I know that You are in charge and everything occurs for a reason. I know that none of us is able to comprehend You and Your ways. There is no computer capable of predicting Your actions. I recognize that the objective behind all of it is to bring us, Your children, home, to Heaven. The salvation of our souls is the goal, and based on this recognition I am building my trust in You.

We people identify experiences which are struggle and pain free, enjoyable, as good and those which we would rather escape as bad. Suffering is one of those bad experiences everybody would like to escape. Even Your son, our Lord Jesus Christ while praying on the Mount of Olives said, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me”                      (Matthew 26; 39).

Suffering cannot be bad if the suffering of Your son brought salvation to so many. So much pain and suffering was endured by saints and martyrs in pursuit of You and eternal happiness.

St. John Vianney revealed the secret to good suffering in the words: “To suffer lovingly is to suffer no longer. To flee from the cross is to be crushed beneath its weight. We should pray for a love of the cross, then it will become sweet.”

Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh shared with us the sweetness of suffering in the book, Captive in Iran. Two Christian women raised in Muslim homes in Iran, arrested in 2009 and held for 259 days in Evin prison, charged with apostasy, antigovernment activity and blasphemy for promoting Christianity, which is punishable by death. They experienced brutal and humiliating treatment, poisoning, and illness, solitary confinement and interrogations up to nine hours at the time, on a weekly basis. They used their imprisonment as an opportunity to bear witness to other inmates. Prison was “like a church to us” says Marziyeh. Almost all the time they felt Your presence, O our Heavenly Father. When they were offered freedom in exchange for renouncing Christianity, Marziyeh replied,” I would rather spend the rest of my life in prison if that’s what it takes to stay close to Him. I would rather be killed than kill the spirit of Christ within me”.

O Lord You are using suffering to help us, as a motivation to correct our ways, to recognize the difference between good and bad, to perform acts of love and charity. Through our own suffering You guide us to salvation, if only we will accept it. We could offer our pains with love to You. O all loving and all caring Father how gentle You are in chastising us, and how eager to help and forgive our sins.

You gave us Catholic Church build on sacrifice of Your only son our Lord Jesus Christ and His mother Queen of Heaven and Earth, the Blessed Virgin Mary, with apostles and saints. A Church like no other, with a chest full of treasures coming from Your Holy Heart. The Bible, Holy Sacraments, indulgences, liturgical year with holidays and feasts, revelations and guidance passed to us through the chosen souls.

You even let us distribute Your mercy to others, through praying, offering our suffering and sacrifice for them, and for souls in purgatory we may also offer partial and plenary indulgences. O God You are so good. I love You my Father. Please help me to love You more and serve You better.

Amen.