If the Lord should give you power to raise the dead, He would give much less than He does when He bestows suffering. By miracles you would make yourself debtor to Him, while by suffering He may become debtor to you. And even if sufferings had no other. reward than being able to bear something for that God who loves you, is not this a great reward and a sufficient remuneration? Whoever loves, understands what I say. - Saint John Chrysostom
This Saint set so high a value on suffering, that he even said: "I venerate Saint Paul not so much for having been raised to the third heaven, as for the imprisonment he suffered. And so, if I were asked whether I would be placed in Heaven among the Angels, or in prison with Paul, I would prefer the latter. And if it were left to my choice whether I should be Peter in chains, or the Angels that released him, I would certainly rather be the first than the second."
Saint Louis the King, when conversing with the King of England about the slavery he endured in Turkey, in which he suffered many trials, expressed himself in this manner: "I thank God for the ill success of that war, and I rejoice more at the patience which the Lord granted me at that time, than if I had subjugated the country."
The Lord once appeared to the Blessed Baptista Verrani, and said to her: "Believe, My daughter, that I have shown you greater love in sending you afflictions, than in lavishing upon you every mark of tenderness. In what could I show My love more than in seeking for you what I chose for Myself? Know that to keep from sin is a great good, to perform good works a greater, but the greatest of all is to suffer."
- text taken from A Year with the Saints, composed by an unknown Italian, translated by a member of the Order of Mercy; it has the Imprimatur of Archbishop Michael Augustine Corrigan, Archdiocese of New York, New York, 21 January 1891