Daily Thought For June 11, 2019

Jesus Most Compassionate & Tender

James 5:11: "You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful."

But weakness and fatigue threaten to keep me from enduring like Job. 

     Padre Pio's assurance: "I feel very weak, it is true, but I am not afraid on this account, for will Jesus not see my anguish and the weight that oppresses me? He has told us by the mouth of the royal prophet that, 'As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him. For he knows how we were made; he remembers that we are dust.' The Lord then consoles me and causes me to 'boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses.'  
     "I am glad to have to manifest all the gratuitous favors which Jesus has bestowed on my soul. 
     "I fully recognize that there is nothing in me capable of attracting the gaze of this most tender Jesus of ours. His goodness alone has filled my soul with many good things .... He follows me everywhere, revives my life poisoned by sin, disperses the dense clouds which had enveloped my soul after I had sinned." 

     Lord, thank you that your compassionate and tender presence will always empower me to endure, no matter what enters my life. Amen. 

from Padre Pio's Words of Hope edited by Eileen Dunn Bertanzetti p.96