In an artist's life, death is perhaps not the most difficult thing.

oy where did my ear go?

The sadness will last forever.

Suffering is a great favor. Remember that everything soon comes to an end . . . and take courage. Think of how our gain is eternal.

Take courage. We walk in the wilderness today and in the Promised Land tomorrow

Be not cast down. If ye saw Him who is standing on the shore, holding out His arms to welcome you to land, ye would wade, not only through a sea of wrongs, but through hell itself to be with Him.

Death is the waiting-room where we robe ourselves for immortality.

I'm Catholic and I can't commit suicide, but I plan to drink myself to death.

Oh God, God, why did you take such trouble to force this creature out of its shell if it is now doomed to crawl back -- to be sucked back -- into it?

And when no longer we can see Thee, may we reach out our hands, and find Thee leading us through death to immortality and glory.

The fact that Jesus came to earth where he suffered and died does not remove pain from our lives. But it does show that God did not sit idly by and watch us suffer in isolation. He became one of us. Thus, in Jesus, God gives us an up-close and personal look at his response to human suffering. All our questions about God and suffering should, in fact, be filtered through what we know about Jesus.

Maybe God isn't trying to tell us anything specific each time we hurt. Pain and suffering are part and parcel of our planet, and Christians are not exempt.