The souls who are called by God to live in the state of perfect self-abandonment lead on earth a life like to that of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin, and Saint Joseph. This life is entirely filled with the will of God. These souls fully submissive to the divine will as soon as it is manifested in preceptor inspiration are in continual dependence on what we may call the will of pure Providence.

It follows from this that their life, though most extraordinary in its perfection, shows nothing exteriorly except what is quite ordinary and common: they fulfill the duties of religion and of their state; others apparently do the same. Examine them in other matters; there is nothing striking or peculiar; only ordinary things happen to them. What distinguishes them is not perceptible to the senses; it is the dependence on the supreme will in which they live which seems to arrange everything for them. This will keeps them always masters of themselves through the habitual submission of their hearts.

Thus the souls of whom we speak are by their state solitary and free, disengaged from everything in order to content themselves in peacefully loving the God who possesses them and faithfully fulfilling the duty of the moment according as His will is signified to them without permitting any reflection on themselves or any scrutiny of consequences, causes, or reasons; it must suffice them to walk simply in pure duty as if there were nothing in the world but God and the particular duty of the moment.

+Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade, S.J.

The post Abandonment to the Will of God first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Just now you are the victim of one of the most dangerous temptations that can assail a well-intentioned soul: the temptation of discouragement. I adjure you to offer every resistance in your power.

Again, God permits our everyday faults only to humiliate us!  If you can profit by them and yet remain trusting and at peace, you will be in a better state than you would if you committed no obvious fault and so flattered your self-love greatly, leaving you in grave danger of self-complacency. Actually you can very easily make use of all your faults to become one degree more humble and to dig still more deeply within yourself the one foundation of all true holiness.

Ought we not to admire and bless the infinite goodness of God who can thus derive our greatest good from our very faults? All we need do is to have no love for them, and humble ourselves gently because of them; after each of our falls to pick ourselves up with tireless persistency, and to go to work peacefully to correct them.

Subject yourself to God’s will in the work you do, but do not be too eager and restless. Do honestly what you believe you ought to do, and rely on Providence for success, knowing neither care nor anxiety and thus possessing as far as possible a tranquil heart and unshackled mind. Be faithful in this practice and you shall dwell in peace even in the midst of perplexity; while the involuntary troubles you may encounter will serve to increase the merit of the fundamental compliance of your will with God’s.

+Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade, S.J.

The post Discouraged by Your Faults? first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Let us understand clearly that we shall not acquire true conformity to the will of God until we are perfectly resolved to serve Him according to His will and pleasure, and not according to our own. In all things seek God alone and you will find Him everywhere, but more so in those things in which you most of all renounce your own will.

When you have firmly convinced yourself that you are incapable of doing any good whatsoever, you will give up making resolutions and you will see humbly to God: “My God, I see from so many proofs that all my resolutions are useless. I have undoubtedly been counting too much on myself, but You have truly confounded me. I admit that You alone can do everything. Make me then do such and such a thing; and when necessary give me the thought, the impulse, and the will without which I will never do anything. I have had so many sad experiences of this in the past!”

+Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade

The post God’s Will and Our Will first appeared on AirMaria.com.