Of the conformity that we must have to the will of God in the sharing of the other virtues, and of all the supernatural gifts

The same submission that we must have to the will of God, whatever way he treats us in prayer, we must also have with regard to all the other advantages of grace. It is good to desire virtue, to pursue it with ardor, and to strive to acquire it; but we must nevertheless conduct ourselves in such a way that if we do not arrive at the point of perfection that we desire, we still maintain the interior peace of the soul, being content with the measure of grace that God wants. give us, and to conform ourselves entirely to his divine will. If God does not want to grant you the purity of angels, if he wants to humiliate you and test you with continual temptations against chastity, it is better to submit you humbly to his divine will than to trouble yourself and complain about this. that you do not have this angelic purity. If God does not want to give you a humility as deep as that of Saint Francis, a meekness as great as that of Moses and David, a patience as constant as that of Job, and if he allows you to be internally agitated by contrary movements; it is good to take this opportunity to know your nothingness and your baseness; but for this you must not lose the tranquility of the soul, nor allow yourself to go to trouble and complaints; It does not please this sovereign Master to grant you the same graces as to these great saints. I do not believe, says Father Avila, that there have ever been saints so perfect, that they have not always desired to become more so; but this did not nevertheless disturb their peace, because it was not a desire which came from the disorder of an insatiable lust, but a feeling which the love of God alone inspired in them; so that they were nevertheless content with the portion they had received, and would even have been content with less, if God had given them less; they knew well that it is an illusion of self-love to desire great gifts, with a view to rendering great services to God; and that true love consists of being content with what one gives.

This doctrine or this maxim, someone will say, would not seem to tend to establish that we must not desire to be more virtuous than we are, but that we must abandon the care of our perfection to God, and what concerns the soul as well as what concerns the body? and does this not open the door to relaxation, give occasion for lukewarmness, and prevent one from working to become more perfect? This objection has its merit; and it precisely prevents the only inconvenience that there would be to fear in the matter that we are treating here. There is no doctrine so holy that we cannot abuse it, when we do not know how to apply it correctly; and lest this happens here, either in what concerns prayer in particular, or in what relates to all the other virtues in general, it is appropriate to give greater clarification to the principle that we have established. I am not saying that we should not desire to make ourselves more perfect in virtue every day, and strive to imitate those who are most consummate in it. What I say is that, as in external and corporeal things we must provide care free from worry and greed, so it is necessary that the care which concerns our interior dispositions and spiritual goods cannot not disturb our peace, and turn us away from that complete conformity which we must have to the will of God. When Jesus Christ said to his apostles (Matt. 6:25): Do not worry about your food or your clothing ; he only claimed to defend by this, say the Fathers, only too much haste and too much worry about these things; for as for reasonable care and work, they were not only not forbidden us, but were even commanded us: it was a punishment imposed on us, when God said to Adam (Genes. 3, 19): You will eat your bread in the sweat of your brow ; and it would be tempting God to want to dispense with it. It is the same with regard to spiritual things, we must seek them carefully, and do everything we can to acquire them; but if, by doing all that depends on you, you cannot reach the point you desire; For this reason, you must not allow yourself to become troubled and impatient, which would be more to be feared than the faults which would have caused them.

Try not to miss anything that depends on you; but if, despite all the care you take, you happen to make some mistakes, do not be surprised, do not lose courage because of this; for we are all subject to failure. We are neither angels nor saints confirmed in grace: we are weak men; and God who knows our weakness and our misery,he who knows from what silt we were formed(Ps. 102, 14), does not want us to be discouraged. What he asks of us after our falls is that we feel regret and pain; that we get up quickly; that we turn to him, asking him for new strength to fight, and that we try to maintain tranquility within and without ourselves. For it is better that you rise quickly with a holy confidence which revives your fervor and redoubles your courage for the service of God, than to allow your soul to be defeated, under the pretext of mourning your faults for the love of him, and than to thus displease him by your discouragement, your relaxation, your lukewarmness, and by a thousand other bad dispositions which are the inseparable consequences.

( Abridged from the practice of Christian perfection )

taken from the excellent Catholic blog : le-petit-sacristain.blogspot.com