Consoling thoughts from Father Faber

We can only carry our crosses one way, and that is heavenward. They keep our faces in that direction. They push us uphill; downhill they would prostrate us, and fall heavily upon us, and kill us. All the faces of cross-carriers are turned one way. The end which is meant to go into the earth points to the earth: the cross of the cross looks over our shoulders into heaven, and rights itself there, however unsteady we may be, like the needle always trembling in reverent fidelity towards the pole. So let us not miss our opportunity, but take up our cross at once, and turn round and follow Jesus, for so only shall we fall into the procession of the predestinate.