It is easy to say, “I believe in God.” But to say that “I believe that God is in control” can be very hard ­really to give him the evidence of the heart, of the soul bowed down before him, sometimes in confusion at what he seems to be doing (and not doing) and some­times in real anguish – and to believe. This is the evi­dence he is asking of us.  We tend to think of faith as a lovely thing. Faith is not just a matter of speaking, but it is a matter of believing when it is difficult to believe …  

Saint Claude de la Colombiere, the apostle of hope, said: “I hope, and I will always hope. And I will never cease hoping. When it is clear that there is no longer any reason to hope, then I will hope all the more.” But in his determination to give all his anxieties over to God, even he had to discover, as we do, that this is very hard to accomplish. We do not really want to let go of them. They are debilitating, they are degenera­tive of our forward action, and yet it can be very hard to let go of our anxieties. We ask: “But how is it going to turn out? It is getting more confused all the time; the skeins are more tangled all the time.” Hope is such a strong thing, because it is hope in the face of almost everything not presenting human reason for hope.

+ Mother Mary Francis PCC

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