orthodoxgladness:

May you keep in mind when you find grief that the Lord is making your way to the Kingdom of God, or even more: takes the hand and leads. – St. Theophan the Recluse

Without God, suffering and grief is pure agony. It is pain without end. Meaninglessly beating me down. Destroying me. Annihilating me. Pushing me into the forgotten.

But this is a lie. A whisper in my ear from another place. One who is crouching near my soul picking at the scab of my distress.

In Christ, every moment of suffering. Every feeling of grief. Is a uniting with Him. It is a sharing in His pain. In His anguish. My sorrow is His sorrow. And as we are all united in Him, it is the sorrow of all the Body. No one suffers alone. To be hidden in Christ is to be crucified in the darkness in which He entered for us. It is to be hidden with every other Believer. To be one with the Saints.