In The Tablet, Robert Ellsberg writes about what he learned

The saints do not teach us how to avoid suffering. Nor do they teach us that suffering makes us happy. What they do show is that it is only along the path of holiness that we can comprehend a type of happiness for which suffering is no necessary obstacle. Through figures ranging from St Therèse, to Julian of Norwich, Teilhard de Chardin and Henri Nouwen, we learn that our attitude need not depend on outward circumstances. There is a meaning or truth at the heart of life which suffering is powerless to destroy. There is no place that is literally “godforsaken”, but in every situation there is a door that leads to love, to fullness of life, to happiness. This is the deepest mystery of the Gospel. Our task, if we would learn from the saints, is to find that door and enter in.