A thought for the final week of Lent...

...from Pope Benedict XVI, excerpted from the book, God and the World:

(emphasis mine) 

Pain is part of being human. Anyone who really wanted to get rid of suffering would have to get rid of love before anything else, because there can be no love without suffering, because it always demands an element of self-sacrifice, because, given temperamental differences, it will always bring with it renunciation and pain. When we know that the way of love - this exodus, this going out of oneself - is the true way by which we become human, then we also understand that suffering is the process through which we mature. Anyone who has inwardly accepted suffering becomes more mature and more understanding of others. Anyone who consistently avoids suffering does not understand other people; he becomes hard and selfish.... If we say that suffering is the inner side of love, we then also understand why it is so important to learn how to suffer - and why, conversely, the avoidance of suffering renders someone unfit to cope with life.

Thank you, Lord for this pope of ours.