Living the Treasure We Have Been Given

Ave Maria Meditations

At the beginning of each day and at prayer, Mass, and Holy Communion declare earnestly to God that you wish to belong to him without reserve, and that for this purpose you wish to strive to devote yourself entirely to the spirit of prayer and the interior life.

Make it your chief concern to acquire conformity to the will of God in even the smallest things, saying to God in the midst of the most distressing troubles and frightening prospects: “My God, I want with all my heart what you want; I submit in all things to your good pleasure for both time and eternity” …

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 say 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 shall never do anything. I have had so many sad experiences of this in the past! … ”

Add to this humble prayer the practice of apologiz­ing straightway or shortly afterwards to all the people who have witnessed your little outbursts of hastiness or bad temper. The practice of these counsels is of great importance to you for two reasons: first, because God himself wishes to do everything in you; second, account of your secret presumptuousness you would never be able, even in the midst of your helplessness to ascribe everything to God as you ought without a thousand experiences of your utter inability to do anything good. But when you become thoroughly convinced of this truth, you will say almost unthinkingly whenever you do something good: “O my God it is you who are doing this in me by your grace”.

Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade  (+ 1751)