"Some interior consolations are for infant souls. They are not signs of perfection. It is not consolations that are needed, but suffering. Aridity, listlessness, helplessness, these are the signs of real love. Suffering is pleasant. Exile is beautiful because by suffering we have something to give to God. The gift of our pain, of our suffering is a great thing, which we cannot do in Paradise."  St.  Pio  of Pietrelcina