Merton on Suffering

Part of my commitment to this blog is to post regularly, even when I don't have complete thoughts or time to elaborate. So in the interest of doing that, here's what Thomas Merton has to say about suffering. From No Man Is An Island:

The only decent thing is silence- and the sacraments. The Church is very humble and very reserved in her treatment of suffering. She is never sanctimonious or patronizing. She is never sentimental. She knows what suffering is.

In order to face suffering in peace: Suffer without imposing on others a theory of suffering, without weaving a new philosophy of life from your own material pain, without proclaiming yourself a martyr, without counting out the price of your courage, without disdaining sympathy and without seeking too much of it.