“This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial…by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.” ~ The Catechism of the Catholic Church
“The combat of trials, distress, and temptations deadens the evil and imperfect habits of the soul and purifies and strengthens it. People should hold in esteem the interior and exterior trials God send them, realizing that there are few who merit to be brought to perfection through suffering and to undergo trials for the sake of so high a state.” ~ St. John of the Cross
“Jesus Christ has taken the lead on the way of the cross. He has suffered first. He does not drive us toward suffering but shares it with us, wanting us to have life and to have it in abundance.” ~ St. John Paul II
*I want to share these recent photos of myself (see below,) because I was astounded how different they are in appearance and tone from those taken of me when I was in the gay lifestyle; then, I was either semi-comatose, as in the screen-capture from a 1989 film (above left) or proud and haughty, as in a 1999 promo-shot (above right.) I never looked up, always downwards, in pain and in distress or feigning some sort of mortal power. In the end, I suffered, but it had nowhere to go. Everything was turned inwards. Only when the Lord Jesus Christ saved me, did all that sorrow take up its rest in God; He took it on for me; and He has never left my side.
