Wow. Wow. Just wow.

Have you ever heard something that just struck you and changed the way you live your life?

I was just watching EWTN and a priest was talking on suffering. It was something I had never heard before, and it's on a topic I have really needed to understand lately.

He said that we are allowed to suffer on earth to perfect our love. That if we just surrender to the suffering - if we stop complaining about it, fighting against it, just ACCEPT it (an aside: Oh my word I am PATHETIC. I just *yelled* at my daughter while writing this because she was making me suffer by not listening to me. PaTHETic). Anyway, he was saying that if we accept the suffering, our love will grow and be purified. That if we DON'T accept the suffering, we will need to be perfected in purgatory. AND, that once we die, we can not GAIN more love, meaning whatever amount of charity is in you at your death is all you get -- your "place" in heaven can't change. But if you grow in love *during* your time on earth, your "place" in heaven, your amount of eternal bliss so to speak, will be higher than if you just complained your way through life.

Oh that was a poor summary of what he said. I wish I could find it in print! I need to memorize and live it. It was on EWTN's 6PM Eastern time Benediction and Devotions tonight.