Source: Get Fed
How do the saints help us to offer it up?

These holy men and women did not cling to their comfort. They embraced their crosses as a way to follow Christ more closely.

Suffering is a mystery that every human being faces. It can feel isolating, confusing, and heavy. Yet in the life of the Church there is a great cloud of witnesses who show us that suffering can be transformed when united with Christ.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that suffering has a place in God’s plan. When a person offers their pain in union with Christ’s suffering, it can become a participation in the redemptive love of Jesus for the world (CCC 1505). This does not make suffering good in itself, but it does unite it with a greater purpose.

We see this truth reflected in Scripture. Saint Paul wrote from prison that he rejoiced in his sufferings because they “produce endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3-4). Paul did not romanticize hardship, but he showed how it can be embraced as part of the life of faith.

The saints are living examples of this transformation. Their lives did not bypass suffering. Instead, they walked through it with faith.

Consider the example of St. Therese of Lisieux. She suffered from tuberculosis for years, enduring pain, weakness, and spiritual dryness. Yet she offered each moment for the salvation of souls, writing in her journal that she desired to be “love in the heart of the Church.” Her Little Way teaches us that even the smallest sufferings, when offered in love, participate in Christ’s own offering.

Or consider St. Gemma Galgani, who endured chronic illness and intense spiritual trials. She offered her suffering for the Church and for souls, accepting pain as a way of staying close to the wounded heart of Christ. She often said that suffering, when united with Jesus, becomes an instrument of love.

Saint Padre Pio carried deep suffering, bearing physical pain along with the spiritual battle of temptation and intercession for souls. His life illustrates that suffering can deepen our compassion for others and draw us into greater prayer and dependence on God, especially when we offer it up for souls.

These holy men and women did not cling to their comfort. They embraced their crosses as a way to follow Christ more closely. This echoes the words of Jesus Himself: “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). The cross is never a burden we carry alone. It is the place where we meet Christ and where our suffering is taken up into His saving work.

Suffering can make us feel abandoned, but the saints teach us that we are never truly alone. Their lives remind us that God walks with us in our pain. In offering our suffering with faith, we join a long communion of saints who have turned suffering into prayer, love, and hope.