'If anyone wants to come with me, he must forget self, take up his cross every day, and follow me' Luke 9:23.

(Stop Here! Don't pass on until you absorb these words! Keep repeating them and let them speak to your heart.)

To follow Jesus, we MUST take up our cross EVERY DAY.
Dodge the cross, step aside from it, ignore it, drop it, and we are no longer living the Christian life.

The wisdom of St. Therese is always Spirit-filled, and her logic in escapable. In this context she says 'If one wants to achieve one's object, one has to use the right means'. And so goes on 'I welcomed the cross, and my love of suffering grew steadily'. The 'cross', for St Therese, was NOT sufferings actively pursued or morbidly sought. Rather was it the ordinary, daily sufferings that the circumstances of life and the obligations of love regularly deliver. Avoid these sufferings, and our spiritual life will stagnate. Embrace them, and our heart will expand and our spirit strengthens.