Michael Dubruiel

Sometimes after the stations I would join my classmates at a function

of the public school we attended. They would ask me where

I had been. “Church,” I would tell them. They would look at me

in unbelief. In my young and very fertile imagination, I thought

of them as the angry crowd surrounding Jesus during his Passion.

Why should my being at church cause them such discomfort?

But it did.

I realize now that the simple devotion that I participated in

throughout my youth taught me a lesson that my friends did not

receive: Failure and suffering are a part of every life. Seen through

the Passion of Christ, they can be a part of God’s plan for us.

From The Power of the Cross , by Michael Dubruiel available as a free download by clicking the cover below: