St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696–1787) wrote that “it is not so much the sufferings of Jesus Christ as the love he showed us in enduring them that obliges and all but constrains us to love him.” For the last forty years of Alphonsus’ life he suffered from a severe disease that affected his spine, as well as other ailments. Today he is the patron saint of arthritics. This novena for those afflicted with arthritis looks to St. Alphonsus as an example of handling suffering with love.