Novenas - Totus2us

Day 4, Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes. Quote from John Paul II's apostolic letter on the salvific meaning of suffering, Salvifici Doloris: "Above all Christ drew close to the world of human suffering through the fact of having taken this suffering upon his very self. During his public activity, he experienced not only fatigue, homelessness, misunderstanding even by those closest to him, but, more than anything, he was ever more tightly encircled by hostility encircled by hostility and the preparations for putting him to death became ever clearer. Christ is aware of this, and often speaks to his disciples of the sufferings and death that await him: "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes; they will condemn him to death, hand him over to the Gentiles, they will mock him and spit upon him, scourge him and kill him; but after three days he will rise again". Christ goes towards his Passion and death with full awareness of the mission that he h