The smile that covered a "multitude of pains" was no hypocritical mask. She was trying to hide her sufferings - even from God! - so as not to make others, especially the poor, suffer because of them. When she promised to do "a little extra praying & smiling" for one of her friends, she was alluding to an acutely painful and costly sacrifice: to pray when prayer was so difficult and to smile when her interior pain was agonizing. Brian Kolodiejchuk
About This Quote

Mary was not only a saint; she was also a very human person. She was not afraid of any suffering and even talked about the sufferings that the Lord wanted her to bear. The pain that she lived with, however, wasn’t something that she could share with others. For instance, we know that Mary “hid her suffering from God as well as from her family” (Newman).

Source: Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light: The Private Writings Of The "Saint Of Calcutta"

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  2. To commit herself to becoming "an apostle of Joy" when humanly speaking she might have felt at the brink of despair, was heroic indeed. She could do so because her joy was rooted in the certitude of the ultimate goodness of God's loving plan for...

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  4. There is so much deep contradiction in my soul. Such deep longing for God - so deep that it is painful - a suffering continual - and yet not wanted by God - repulsed - empty - no faith - no love - no zeal....

  5. What mattered to her was that she loved God, whether or not He granted her the consolation and joy of His felt presence.

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