The cross is here every day. Sometimes it feels like pain, fatigue, swollen feet. Sometimes it acts like crankiness, indifference, fear. Sometimes it attacks like shame, resentment, despair.

To carry the cross is one thing. To practice trust, love, compassion, peace, forgiveness, and nonviolence despite its weight is another. But this is the way of Jesus that I am called to follow.

[Jesus said to his apostles,] “…and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.” Matthew 10:38