What counts is the way a person reacts in the face of suffering. That is the real test of the person: What is our personal attitude to life and its changes and chances?

It is not the same as optimism or wishful thinking, for these imply a denial of reality.

The role of the doctor, nurse, social worker, minister, or loving friend is simply this: to keep the nutcracker of circumstances from destroying, and to help the sufferer see that even the worst hardships open up the potential for growth and development.

Those who suffer can respond to the call of the gospel with a certain abandonment and uncomplicated totality because they have so little to lose and are ready for anything.

a long period of struggle and effort precedes nearly all worthwhile human accomplishments.

Faith like Job's cannot be shaken because it is the result of having been shaken.

He transforms pain, using it to teach and strengthen us, if we allow it to turn us toward him.

suffering can serve as instruments to teach us the value of dependence, and unless we learn dependence we will never experience grace. The apostle Paul gave the Corinthians an

Viktor Frankl, who spent time in one of Hitler's camps, said, "Despair is suffering without meaning.

Faith like Job's cannot be shaken because it is the result of having been shaken." C.

As Solzhenitsyn elegantly expressed it in his classic One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, faith in God may not get you out of the camp, but it is enough to see you through each day.

Pain allows us, the fortunate ones at least, to lead free and active lives. If you ever doubt that, visit a leprosarium and observe for yourself a world without pain.