Offering it Up (or "Making a Good Intention")

The following writing was taken from the following website: http://
www.fisheaters.com/offeringitup.html

So, how do Catholics "offer up" their sufferings and sacrifices? In both formal and
informal ways.

Formally, many Catholics make the Morning Offering to give to Our Lord that
day's efforts, works, joys, sufferings, intentions, etc. (the form may vary). At the
Mass, we excercise our lay priesthood by consciously, silently, privately offering
ourselves up, along with the Son, to the Father during the Offertory.

Informally, we "offer it up" by simply asking God in our own words to use a
suffering as it occurs; we often do this for specific intentions (ex., "Use this pain,
Lord, for the salvation of my brother..."). We might follow the example of the
young St. Thérèse of Lisieux and make use of Sacrifice Beads, or the
extraordinary among us might make the Heroic Act of Charity for the souls in
Purgatory.

It's quite a discipline to react to suffering this way! In mental or physical pain?
Drop something on your toe? Putting up with a co-worker who is making your life
a living Hell? Enduring the constant ache of arthritis? Standing in line at the
grocery and hating every minute of it? Spill the milk? Accept these things in
peace, and ask God to use them for the good of the Church or for a more
specific intention close to your heart.* This isn't easy to do (and I in no way
claim to be good at it), but it does make the suffering more meaningful and less --
well, less insufferable!

*I highlighted this line because that is the gist of what I aim to do when I say that Iʼm
offering my wants up for L. and A.