The story of Job is re-enacted in some way in the life of every soul dear to God; he was tried in his property, his children, his own person, deserted by his friends, and ridiculed by his wife.... Why does He let us suffer?... Because God wishes to try [us] as gold is tried in the furnace, purifying [us] and raising [us] to a good, to a state of happiness immeasurably superior to the goods and the happiness of earth.
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The least act of hope, of trust in God, made in the midst of trials, in a state of interior or exterior desolation, is worth far more than a thousand acts made in times of joy and prosperity.

--Divine Intimacy, Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D.