Category: 03.vii.22

I have received your last letter in which you tell me you are sill undecided as to the state of life you should choose, and that having communicated to your Pastor the advice I gave you – namely, to go for that purpose to perform the Spiritual Exercises in the house you father owns in the country – the said Pastor answered you it was not necessary to go there to torture your brains for eight days in solitude, but that it was enough for you to attend the Retreat he would soon have for the people in his own church

One thing is necessary (Luke x 42). It is not necessary we should be rich, or honoured, or in the enjoyment of good health, but it is necessary we should be saved. For this end alone has God placed us in this world, and woe to us if we do not attain it!

For obedience to be perfect, we must obey with the will and with the judgment. To obey with the will signifies to obey willingly, and not by constraint, after the fashion of slaves; to obey with the judgment means to conform our judgment to that of the superior, without examining what is commanded.

Oh, how beautiful a sight it was to behold our sweet Redeemer on that day, when, fatigued by His journey, He sat down, all engaging and loving, beside the well to await the Samaritan woman that He might convert and save her! Jesus, therefore, sat thus on the well–(Jo. iv. 6).

Now what is the surest way to know and ascertain what God requires of us? There is no surer way than to practise obedience to our superiors and directors. St. Vincent de Paul said the will of God is never better complied with than when we obey our superiors. The Holy Ghost says: Much better is obedience than the victims of fools-(Eccles. iv. 17}.

Why hidest thou thy face?–(Job xiii. 24). Job feared when he saw that God hid His face: but to know that Jesus Christ veils His majesty in the Most Blessed Sacrament should not inspire us with fear, but rather with greater love and confidence; since it is precisely to increase our confidence, and with greater evidence to manifest His love, that He remains on our altars concealed under the appearance of bread. Novarinus says: “God in hiding His face in this Sacrament discloses His love.” And who would ever dare to approach Him with confidence, and lay bare before Him his affections and desires, did this King of Heaven appear on our altars in the splendours of His glory?

We must receive with resignation, not merely the crosses which come directly from God; for instance, ill-health, scanty talents, accidental reverses of fortune; but such, moreover, as come indirectly from God, and directly from our fellow-men; for instance, persecutions, thefts, injuries; for all, in reality, come from God.