following

"There is an inward world into which they enter who come near to Christ, though to men in general they seem the same as before. They hold the same place as before in the world's society; their employments are the same, their ways, their comings in and goings out...But if they have drunk of Christ's cup and tasted the Bread of his Table in sincerity, it is not with them as in time past.

A change has come over them, unknown indeed to themselves, except in its effects, but they have a portion in destinies to which other men are strangers...They are soldiers in Christ's army; they fight against 'things that are seen'...

To their surprise, as time goes on, they find that their lot is changed. They find that in one shape or other adversity happens to them. ..they almost murmur; they have not yet mastered the great doctrine that endurance is their portion.

O simple soul, is it not the law of your being to endure since you came to Christ? Why come you but to endure? Why did you taste this heavenly feast but that it might work in you? Why did you kneel beneath his hand but that he might leave on you the print of his wounds? Why wonder then that one sorrow does not buy off the rest? Does one drop of rain absorb the second? Does the storm cease because it has begun? Understand your place in God's Kingdom, and rejoice, not complain, that in your day you have your lot with prophets and Apostles."

                                                            -   Cardinal John Henry Newman  1801 - 1890

Jesus said to his disciples: Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul? Or what can one give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's glory, and then he will repay each according to his conduct. 

-  Matthew 16:24-27