“From the time our sweet Jesus lifted the life-giving wood of the precious Cross on His immaculate shoulders and was hanged upon it, from that time and throughout the ages, lifting the cross is continued by His followers in the form of various afflictions and trials through which the Christian tryouts over the many forms of destructive self love. Through Luke the Evangelist Saviour stresses that ‘whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be my disciple.’”
Elder Ephraim of Arizona
~Counsels from the Holy Mountain