Abandonment; or, Absolute surrender to divine providence

Front matter

UNITED STATES OF AMEEJJ

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I

Book First

OF THE NA TURE AND EXCELLENCE OF THE VI R THE OF HOL Y ABA NDONMENT.

CHAPTER

I. The sanctity of the righteous of the Old Law, and of Joseph and of Mary herself, consisted

in fidelity to the order of God 31

II. The duties of each moment are the shadows

which veil the divine action 33

III. How much easier sanctity becomes when

studied from this point of view 36

IV. Perfection does not consist in knowing the

order of God, but in submitting to it 42

V. Reading and other exercises only sanctify us in so far as they are^ the channels of the

divine action 44

VI. The mind and other human means are useful only in so far as they are the instruments of

the divine action 49

VII. There is no enduring peace but in submission

to the divine action 52

VIII. The perfection of souls and the excellence of different states are in proportion to their conformity to the order of God 54

IX. All the riches of grace are the fruit of purity of

heart and perfect self-abandonment 62

28 Contents.

Book Second

THE DIVINE ACTION AND THE MANNER IN WHICH IT UNCEASINGLY WORKS THE SANCTIFICA TION OF SOULS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The divine action is everywhere and always present, though only visible to the eye of

Faith 69

II. The divine action is all the more visible to the eye of Faith when hidden under appearances most repugnant to the senses 74

III. The divine action offers us at each moment

infinite blessings which we receive in proportion to our faith and love 79

IV. God reveals Himself to us as mysteriously, as

adorably, and with as much reality in the most ordinary events as in the great events of

history and the Holy Scriptures 82

V. The divine action continues in our hearts the revelation begun in Holy Scripture; but the characters in which it is written will be only visible at the last day 86

VI. Divine love is communicated to us through the veil of creatures, as Jesus communicates Himself to us through the veil of the Eucha-

ristic species 92

VII. The divine action, the will of God, is as unworthily treated and disregarded, in its daily manifestation, by many Christians, as was

Jesus in the flesh by the Jews 94

VIII. The revelation of the present moment is the more profitable that it is addressed directly to us 97

IX. The revelation of the present moment is an inexhaustible source of sanctity 99

X. The present moment is the manifestation of the name of God and the coming of His kingdom 101

XI. The divine will imparts the highest sanctity to souls; they have but to abandon themselves to its divine action 100

XII. The divine action alone can sanctify us, for it forms us after the divine Model of our perfection 114

Contents.

Book Third. The Paternal Care With Which God Surrounds Souls Wholly Abandoned

TO HIM.

CHAPTER. PAGE

I. God Himself guides souls who wholly abandon themselves to Him 119

II. The more God seems to withdraw light from the soul aDandoned to His direction, the more safely He guides her 125

III. The afflictions with which God visits the soul

are but loving artifices at which she will one day rejoice 129

IV. The more God seems to take from a soul wholly

abandoned to Him, the more generous He is

to her 133

V. The less capable the faithful soul is of defending herself, the more powerfully does God defend her 136

VI. The soul abandoned to the will of God, so far from resisting its enemies, finds in them useful auxiliaries 140

VII. The soul that abandons itself to God has no need to justify herself by words or actions; the divine action abundantly justifies her. . . . 142 VIII. God gives life to the soul abandoned to Him by means which apparently lead only to death 144

IX. Love holds the place of all things to souls who

walk in the way of abandonment 149

X. The faithful soul finds in submission to the will of God more force and strength than the proudest of those who resist Him 154

XL The soul abandoned to God learns to recognize His will, even in the proud who resist Him. All creatures, whether good or evil, reveal

Him to her 158

XII. God assures to faithful souls a glorious victory

over the powers of earth and hell 160-

30 Contents.

Appendix

PAGE

I. A very easy means of acquiring peace of heart,

by Fr. Surin 165

II. On perfect abandonment, by Bossuet 172

III. A short and easy method of making the prayer

of faith, and of the simple presence of God, by Bossuet 173

IV. Exercise of loving union of our will with that

of God, by St. Francis de Sales 185

$0ok first.

The Nature and Excellence of the Virtue of Holy Abandonment.

Chapter I

The Sanctity of the Righteous of the Old Law, and of Joseph and of Mary herself, consisted in Fidelity to the Order of God.

God speaks to-day as He spoke to our fathers, when directors were not so numerous, nor methods of direction so well denned. All their spirituality consisted in simple fidelity to the orderof God;but it was not reduced to a science which explained it so sublimely or minutely, or contained so many precepts, so many maxims, so much instruction. Our present wants, no doubt, require this explanation. It was not so in the first ages of the Church, when men were more simple and upright. Each moment brought a duty to be faithfully fulfilled : this was sufficient for interior souls of that day. Their whole attention was concentrated simply upon the duty of each successive moment with the fidelity of the hour-hand of a clock which steadily traverses stroke by stroke the circle in which it is appointed to move. The mind, unceasingly moved by divine grace, turned insensibly to the new duty which presented itself in the order of God every hour. Such were the hidden springs of Mary's life, the most perfect example of simple and absolute self-abandonment to the will of God. The simple words, Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuuni, with which she was content to answer the angel, expressed all the mystic theology of the ancients. Then, as now, it was all reduced to the simplest and most absolute abandonment of the soul to the will of God under whatever form it manifested itself. This noble and ex-" alted disposition, the basis of all Mary's spirituality, is brilliantly manifested in the words Fiat mihi. Observe how perfectly they accord with those which our Lord would have ever on our lips and in our hearts: Fiat voluntas tua. True, the duty required of Mary at

The Divine Action Overshadowed. 33

that supreme moment was a glorious one for her. But all the splendor of that glory would have made no impression upon her if the divine Will, alone capable of influencing her, had not arrested her attention. It was this divine will which guided her in everything. Her occupations, whether ordinary or exalted, were in her eyes but shadows more or less obscure in which she found equal means of glorifying God and recognizing the workings of the Almighty. She joyfully accepted the duty or suffering of each moment as a gift from Him who fills with good things the hearts which are nourished by Him alone, and not by appearances or created things.

Chapter II

The Duties of each Moment are the Shadows which veil the Divine Action.

" The power of the Most High shall overshadow thee," said the angel to Mary.

This shadow, behind which the power of God effects the entrance and growth of Jesus Christ in our souls, is the form assumed by the duties, attractions, and crosses of each moment.

They are in truth but shadows like those to which we give the name in the order of nature, and which envelop sensible objects and hide them from our view. Thus in the moral and supernatural order the duties of each moment under their obscure appearances conceal the truth of the divine will, which alone merits our attention. Thus Mary regarded them. Therefore these shadows passing before her senses, so far from deceiving her, filled her with faith in Him who is always the same. Withdraw, Archangel ; thy moment passes ; thou vanishest. Mary passes beyond thee; she is ever in advance ; but the Holy Ghost, with whom she has been filled through the sensible appearances of thy mission, will never abandon her.

There are few extraordinary events in the exterior life of Mary. At least it is not to these that Holy Scripture calls our attention. Her exterior life is represented as very simple, very or-

The Divine Action Overshadowed. 35

dinary. She did and suffered as did others of her condition. She goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth : the other relatives go also. She retires to a stable : it is a consequence of her poverty. She returns to Nazareth : the persecution of Herod had driven her forth. Jesus and Joseph lived there with her, by the labor of their hands. Behold the daily bread of the holy family ! But with what bread was the faith of Mary and Joseph nourished ? What was the sacrament of all their sacred moments ? What did they discover under the ordinary appearance of the events which filled their lives? Exteriorly, nothing more than was happening to the rest of mankind ; interiorly, faith discovers and develops nothing less than God working great things. O bread of angels ! Heavenly manna! Pearl of the Gospel ! Sacrament of the present moment ! Thou givest God under appearances as poor and mean as the manger, the hay, and the straw ! But to whom dost thou give Him ? Esurientes reples bonis. God reveals Himself to the humble in little things ; and the proud, regarding only the exterior, find Him not even in great things.

Chapter III

How much Easier Sanctity becomes when studied from this Point of View.

If the work of our salvation offers obstacles apparently so insurmountable, it is because we have not a just idea of it. In truth, sanctity consists in but one thing — fidelity to the order of God; and this fidelity is equally within the reach of all, whether in its active or in its passive part.

The active part of fidelity consists in fulfilling the duties imposed upon us either by the general commands of God and the Church, or by the particular state we have embraced.

Its passive part consists in lovingly accepting all that God sends us each moment.

Which of these two parts of sanctity is above our strength ? Not the active part, since the duties it enjoins cease to be duties for us the moment our strength is really unequal to them. Will not the

How Sanctity may be made Easier. 37

state of your health permit you to hear Mass ? You are no longer obliged to do so. And so it is with all positive obligations which prescribe duties to be fulfilled. Only those precepts which • forbid things evil in themselves admit of no exception, for it is never permitted to do evil.

Is there anything easier or more reasonable ? What excuse can be urged against it ? Yet this is all the co-operation God requires of the soul in the work of its sanctification.

He requires it of great and small, of strong and weak ; in a word, of all, at all times, in all places.

Therefore He only requires of us what is easy, since to attain eminent sanctity requires but a simple good-will.

If over and above the commandments He shows us the counsels as the more perfect end of our efforts, He is ever careful to accommodate their observance to our position and character. As the chief mark of our vocation for the counsels He sends us the attractions and graces which facilitate the practice of them. He urges no one but in proportion to his strength and according to his attainments. Again I ask, what could be more just?

O you who aspire to perfection and are tempted to discouragement by what you read in the lives of the saints and find prescribed in certain pious books! O you who are overwhelmed by the terrible ideas that you form of perfection! It is for your consolation that God permits that I write this.

Learn what you seem not to know.

In the order of nature, necessary things, as air, water, earth, the God of all goodness has made common and easy of attainment. Nothing is more necessary than breath, sleep, food, and nothing is more common. Love and fidelity are no less necessary in the spiritual order; therefore the difficulty of acquiring them cannot be as great as you represent it to yourselves.

Observe your life; of what does it consist? Of a multitude of unimportant actions. Yet with these same unimportant actions God deigns to be content. This is the co-operation required of the soul in the work of its perfection. God Himself expresses it

How Sanctity may be made Easier. 39

too clearly to admit of doubt: "Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is all man" (Eccles. xii. 13). That is to say, this is all that is required on man's part; in this consists his active fidelity. Let him fulfil his part; God will do the rest. Grace, working by itself, effects marvels which surpass the intelligence of man. For ear has not heard, eye has not seen, heart has not felt, what God conceives in His mind, resolves in His will, executes by His power in souls wholly abandoned to Him.

The passive part of sanctity is still easier, since it consists in accepting what very often we cannot avoid, and bearing with love, that is, with consolation and sweetness, what we too frequently endure with weariness and irritation. Again let me repeat, herein lies all sanctity. It is the grain of mustard-seed the fruits of which we do not gather, because we fail to recognize it in its littleness. It is the drachma of the Gospel, the treasure which we do not find, do not seek, because we imagine it too far beyond us.

Ask me not the secret of finding this

4o Holy Abandonment.

treasure, for secret there is none. This treasure is everywhere; it is offered to all, at all times, in all places.

Through creatures, friends, and enemies it flows plentifully; it flows over the faculties of our bodies, of our souls, and into the very centre of our heans. Let us but open our mouths and they will be filled. The divine action floods the universe; it penetrates all creatures; it floats above them, about them; it is ever present with them; it precedes them; it accompanies them; it follows them, and they have but to allow themselves to be borne onward on its tide.

Would to God kings and their ministers, princes of the Church and of the wTorld, priests, soldiers, peasants, laborers, in a word, all men, knew how easily they can attain eminent sanctity! They have but to fulfil the simple duties of religion and their state in life, and bear with submission the crosses these duties bring, and accept with faith and love the work and suffering which unsought and unceasingly come to them through the order of Providence. This is the spirituality which sanctified the patriarchs and prophets before there were

How Sanctity may be made Easier. 41

so many methods and so many masters in the spiritual life.*

This is the spirituality of all ages and of all states, which cannot be more surely sanctified, or in a manner more noble, more extraordinary, more easy, than by the simple use of that which God, the Sovereign Director of souls, gives them each moment to do or suffer.

* It would be a gross misapprehension of the author's words to suppose that he wishes to urge souls to enter the paths of the spiritual life without a director. He himself expressly states elsewhere that to be able to do without a director, one must have been long and skilfully directed. Still less does he wish to discourage the practices adopted by the Church for the extirpation of vice and the acquisition of virtue. What he desires to say, and what we cannot impress too much upon Christians, is that the first of all directions is the guidance of Providence, and that the most necessary and the most perfect of all practices is the faithful accomplishment and loving acceptance of all that this fatherly Providence sends us to do and suffer,

Chapter IV

Perfection does not consist in knowing the Order of God, but in submitting to it.

The order of God, the good pleasure of God, the will of God, the action of God, the grace of God, all these are one and the same thing in this life. It is God laboring to render the soul like unto Him. Perfection is nothing but the soul's faithful co-operation in this labor of God. This work is silently effected in our souls, where it thrives, increases, and is consummated unconsciously to ourselves.

Theology is full of conceptions and expressions which explain the wonders of this work effected in individual souls according to their capacity.

We may know all the theory of this work, admirably write and speak thereon, and instruct and direct souls; but if our knowledge be only theoretical, then I say that in comparison with souls which live and act by the order of God and are guided by His divine will, though ignorant of the theory of its

Nature of Perfection. 43

operations or its different effects, and unable to speak thereof, we are like a sick physician compared to ordinary persons in perfect health.

The order of God, His divine will, received with simplicity by a faithful soul, effects this divine work in her unconsciously to herself, just as a remedy submissively taken restores the health of a sick man, although he have not, and need not have, any knowledge of medicine.

It is the fire which warms us, and not the philosophical knowledge of the element and its effects; so it is the order of God, His divine will, and not the curious speculation on its principles and its methods, which produces the sanctification of our souls.

If we thirst, we must drink; theoretical explanations will not quench our thirst. Curiosity for knowledge only makes us thirst still more. Therefore, if we thirst for sanctification, curious speculations only keep us farther from it. We must abandon all theories and drink in simplicity of all that the will of God sends us of work and suffering.

That which comes to us each moment by the order of God is best and holiest and most divine for us.

Chapter V

Reading and other Exercises only sanctify us in so far as they are the Channels of the Divine Action.

All our science consists in recognizing God's will in regard to the present moment. All reading pursued in any other spirit than that of submission to the order of God is injurious. The will of God, the order of God, is the grace which works in the depths of our hearts by means of our readings and' by all our other works. Without it our readings are but shadows, vain appearances, which, coming to us devoid of the vivifying virtue of the order of God, serve only to empty the heart by the very plenitude they cause in the mind.

The virtue of this divine will flowing into the soul of a simple, ignorant girl by means of suffering or ordinary actions, effects in the depths of her heart this mysterious work of the supernatural Being; without filling her mind

How far Reading Sanctifies us. 45

with any idea likely to awaken pride ; while the proud man who studies spiritual books only through curiosity, and does not unite his reading to the will of God, receives into his mind the letter without the spirit, and becomes colder and more hardened than ever.

The order of God, His divine will, is the life of the soul under whatever appearances the soul receives it or applies it to herself.

Whatever may be the relation of the divine will to the mind, it nourishes the soul, and unceasingly strengthens her growth by giving her each moment what is best for her. Nor is one thing more efficacious than another in producing these happy effects ; no, it is simply the duty of the present moment which comes to us by the order of God. That which was best for us in the past moment is no longer best for us, for it is stripped of the will of God, which has passed on to other things from which it creates for us the duty of the present moment ; and it is this duty, under whatever appearance it is manifested, which will now most perfectly sanctify our souls.

46 Holy Aba?idonment.

If the divine will make reading the duty of the present moment, the reading will effect His mysterious work in the depths of the soul. If, in obedience to the divine will, we leave the reading for the duty of contemplation, this duty will create the new man in the depths of the heart, and reading would then be injurious and useless. If the divine will withdraw us from contemplation to hear confessions or to other duties, and that during a considerable time, these duties form Jesus Christ in the depths of the heart, and all the sweetness of contemplation would only serve to banish Him.

The order of God is the fulness of all our moments. It flows under a thousand different appearances which, successively becoming our present duty, form, increase, and complete the new man in us, in all the fulness which the divine wisdom has destined for us. This mysterious growth of Jesus Christ in us is the work produced by the order of God ; it is the fruit of His grace and of His divine will.

This fruit, as we have said, is germinated, increased, and nourished by the

How far Reading Sanctifies us. 47

succession of our present duties filled with the virtue of this same divine will.

In fulfilling these duties we are always sure of possessing the " better part," for this holy will is itself the better part. We have but to yield to it, blindly abandon ourselves to it with perfect confidence. It is infinitely holy, infinitely wise, infinitely powerful, for souls which unreservedly hope in it, which love and seek but it alone, and which believe with unfaltering faith that what it assigns to each moment is best without seeking elsewhere for more or less, and without pausing to consider the relation of material things with the order of God, which is the seeking of pure self-love.

The will of God is the essential, the reality and virtue, of all things ; it is that which adapts and renders them suitable to the soul.

Without it all is emptiness, nothingness, falsehood, the empty husk, the letter without the spirit, vanity, death.

The will of God is the health, the life, the salvation of soul and body, whatever its manifestation or ways of reaching us.

Therefore we must not judge of the virtue of things by the relations they bear to mind or body, for these relations are unimportant. It is the will of God alone which gives to all things, whatever they may be, the power to form Jesus Christ in the depth of our hearts. We must frame no laws for this will and place no limit to its action, for it is all-powerful.

Whatever the ideas which fill the mind, whatever the feelings which the body experiences, were it for the mind but distractions and trouble, for the body but sickness and death, the divine will nevertheless is ever for the present moment the life of body and soul; for both one and the other, whatever their condition, are sustained by it alone. Bread without it is poison; and through it poison becomes a salutary remedy. Without it, books but confuse and trouble us ; with it, darkness is turned into light. It is the wisdom, the truth, of all things. In all things it gives us God: and God is the infinite Being who holds the place of all things to the soul which possesses Him.

Usefulness of the Mind limited. 49

Chapter VI

The Mind and other Human Means are Useful only in as far as they are the Instruments of the Divine Action.

The mind with all its powers would hold the first place among the instruments of the divine will ; but it must, like a dangerous slave, be reduced to the last.

The simple of heart who know how to use it can derive great profit therefrom; but it can also do much injury when not kept in subjection.

When the soul sighs after created means, the divine action whispers to the heart that it sufficeth ; when she would injudiciously reject them, the divine action whispers that they are instruments not to be taken or rejected at will, but to be simply received from Providence and adapted to the order of God — the soul thus using all things as though not using them, being deprived of all things, yet wanting nothing.

The divine action, being limitless in its fulness, can take possession of a soul only in as far as the soul is void of all confidence in her own action ; for this confidence and self-activity fill the heart to the exclusion of the divine action. It is an obstacle which, existing in the soul herself, is more likely to arrest the divine action than exterior obstacles, which Providence can change at will into powerful aids ; for it can work with all things, even those which are in themselves useless. With the divine will nothing is everything, and without it everything is nothing.

Whatever the value in itself of meditation, contemplation, vocal prayer, interior silence, acts of the will whether sensible, distinct, or less perceptible, retreat, or active life, — better than all of them is what God wills for the soul at the present moment; and the soul should regard everything else with perfect indifference, as being of no value whatever.

Thus seeing God alone in all things, she should take or leave them at His pleasure in order to live in, hope in, and be nourished by Him, and not by the things which have force and virtue only through Him. Under all circum-

Usefulness of the Mind limited. 5 1

stances the soul should constantly say with St. Paul, " Lord, what wouldst Thou have me do ?" Not this more than that, but simply Thy adorable will ! The spirit loves one thing, the flesh another; but, Lord, let Thy will be mine. Contemplation, action, prayer vocal or mental, affective or passive, light or darkness, special or general graces, — all these are nothing, Lord, for in Thy will lies their sole virtue. Thy will alone is the end of all my devotion, and not these things, however elevated orsublime in themselves; for the end of divine grace is the perfection of the heart, not of the mind.

The presence of God which sanctifies our souls is that indwelling of the Trinity which penetrates to the depths of our hearts when they are submissive to the divine will ; for the presence of God which we enjoy through the exercise of contemplation effects this intimate union in us only as do all other things which come to us in the order of God. It holds, however, the first rank among them, for it is the most excellent means of uniting one's self with God when He wills that we should use it.

We may therefore justly esteem and love contemplation and other pious exercises, provided the foundation of this esteem and love be wholly God, who mercifully deigns through them to communicate Himself to our souls.

We receive the prince himself when we receive his suite. It would be showing him little respect to neglect his officers under pretext of possessing him alone.

Chapter VII

There is no Enduring Peace but in Submission to the Divine Action.

The soul that is not united solely to the will of God will find neither rest nor sanctification in any self-chosen means — not even in the most excellent exercises of piety. If that which God Himself chooses for you does not suffice, what other hand can minister to your desires ? If you turn from the food the divine will itself has prepared for you, what viands will not prove insipid to a

Enduring Peace only in Submission. 53

taste so depraved ? A soul cannot be truly nourished, strengthened, purified, enriched, sanctified, except by the fulness of the present moment. Then what more would you have ? Since you here find all good, why seek it elsewhere ? Are you wiser than God ? Since He ordains it should be thus, how could you desire it should be otherwise ? Can His wisdom and goodness err ? Should you not from the moment He ordains an event be utterly convinced thatit is thebest that could happen ? Do you think you will find peace in struggling with the Almighty ? On the contrary, is it not this struggle too often renewed, almost unconsciously, which is the cause of all our disquiet. It is but just that the soul which is not satisfied with the divine fulness of the present moment should be punished by an inability to find contentment in anything else.