By Debbie Daigler
While I was waiting in the airport after my visit to meet some society members, I read a line from Book 1 of the Society that stuck out to me:
“Never let yourself be defeated in truth. You need to setup prayers so that good fruit in abundance come out of all difficult, negative, or sinful circumstances.”
And as God usually does, He gave me an instance to practice this that same day, not even a few hours later. I missed my flight, not realizing the gate number had changed, thus causing the need to remain and wait in the airport for another nine hours. But even worse than that, I knew it disappointed my children and inconvenienced my husband, who would now have to pick me up at the airport past midnight. He was not happy.
I felt defeated. I was exhausted, wanting to see my family, and worried about my husband’s emotions. What I read in the book not long before came to mind. It was time to put what I had learned into practice. This was Crucified Martyr training – real time.
So, I prayed that God bring good fruit in abundance from this difficult, seemingly negative, potentially sinful situation. In addition, I was given recollection of what we had just read about at the society prayer meeting just a few days before – other “tools” to put into practice – to love souls, rebuke enemies, surrender to God’s Will, etc.
I am realizing more and more as negative situations arise to take an emotional step back, look at the situation objectively, and see God teaching me something within it – usually something I had just read about. How can I expect to become a Prayer Warrior without having opportunities to practice? It is not easy to go through these “training exercises,” but it helps seeing them as such.
Praise be to God, I got home safely and my family adjusted to the new arrival time. They were being taught patience, sacrifice, and working in loving ways under unexpected circumstances. I asked that God use my suffering to grant them the grace they needed to grow in those virtues, to the extent they needed.
In the words of St. Paul of the Cross, “The easiest way to keep your peace of heart is to accept everything as coming directly from the hands of the God who loves you. If you do this, any pain or persecution, anything which is difficult to accept will be transformed into a source of joy, happiness, and peace.”