Many people are mad on themselves because of their suffering. Maybe they believe they deserve it. But they are wrong. Maybe it’s because they were educated by their parents to feel guilty, to punish themselves, that they are hurting themselves now. And yet, people are the only ones who can give a meaning to their pain, because only they know they are going to die. We will have to learn to give a positive meaning to the feeling of guilt and use it in order to become better persons, but give it a negative meaning, when guilt is punishing us, abducting our confidence and, therefore, the chance of growing, of taking action.

In the end what is the depression that comes after grievance, mourning, after things that we consider to be unfair, if not a punishment?

But you need, however, to learn how to laugh with your heart, with yourself!

Being aware that I’m going to die make life to be richer in meaning, just because time becomes limited and everything becomes a real choice.

We don’t have to ask God not to send us illness, or to exempt us from suffering, but we need to ask him to give us the strength to endure what we are living, to ask Him to stand near so that we don’t lose our spiritual integrity and choose to continue our life no matter what.

We need to ask Him to give us hope, strength and courage.

Laughing with the heart helps you stop searching for worldly justice and transforming in life what you believe that comes from death.

(Translated from Valerio Albisetti, Să râdem cu inima – o metodă simplă pentru a trăi mai senin, Traducere de Luminița Cosma, Editura Pauline, București, 2004, p. 52)