Starting out 2012 Right: In a Dying Sorta Way

"I cannot express to you, my dear sister, how deeply I sympathize with your afflictions.  However, my grief is also mixed with consolation.  God loves you, since He does not spare you.  Rather, He lays upon you the cross of Jesus Christ.  Whatever light--whatever feeling we may possess--is all a delusion, unless it leads to the real and constant practice of dying to self.  We cannot die without suffering.  Neither can we be said to be dead while there is still any part in us that is alive.

That death with which God blesses the soul, pierces even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and morrow.  He who sees in us what we cannot see, knows full well where the blow should fall.  He takes away that which we are most reluctant to give up.  Pain is only felt where there is life.  And where there is self-life, it is just the place where death is needed.  Our Father wastes no time by cutting into pieces those things which are already dead. If He wanted to continue life, He would do so.  However, He seeks to destroy self.  And this He can accomplish only by cutting into that which is quick and living.  You need not expect Him to attack those gross and wicked desires that you renounced forever when you gave yourself to Him.  Nevertheless, He will perhaps test you by destroying your liberty of soul and by depriving you of your most spiritual consolations.

Would you resist?  Ah! No!  Suffer all things!  This death of self must be voluntary, and it can only be accomplished to that extent to which you are willing for it to die.  To resist death and repel its advances, is not being willing to die.  Therefore, voluntarily give up to the good pleasure of God all the things you rely upon--even the most spiritual--whenever He is disposed to take them from you.  What do you fear, 'Oh thou of little faith?'  Do you fear that He alone may not be able to supply to you that human-based comfort that He takes away?  And why does He take it away, except to supply it from Himself?  And to purify you by the painful lesson?  I see that every exit is closed.  God intends to accomplish His work in you by cutting off every human resource.  He is a jealous God.  He is not willing that you should owe to any other that which He is about to perform in you.

Give yourself up to His plans.  Be led wherever He wills by His providence.  Beware how you seek aid from man when God forbids it.  Men can only give you what He gives them for you.  Why should you be troubled that you can no longer drink from the aqueduct when you are led to the perennial spring itself from which its waters are derived?"

Let Go

Francois Fenelon