An unknown Italian

“ Conformity is a complete subordination of our will to the Divine Will in all our actions, and in all occurrences and events, so that we will and accept all that God wills and sends, however painful and repulsive it may be. Uniformity is a close union of our will with the Divine Will, by which we will, not only all that God wills, but we will it solely because He wills it, and so all repugnances are banished. ”

“ There is no pest more malignant than that of self-will, which is so subtle, so malicious, so deeply seated, which conceals itself in so many ways and defends itself by so many reasons, that it seems indeed a demon. When it cannot gain direct obedience, it knows well how to win its way in some other form and under various excuses and pretexts, such as health, necessity, charity, justice, perfection, suffering for God, giving good example, finding spiritual consolation, condescending to the weakness of others, while we are all the while seeking, contriving and cherishing our own interests. ”

“ I have cast myself wholly upon the Divine Will, to which I so conform my own that whatever God wills, I will also. So when hunger, thirst, cold, heat or sickness molest me, I do nothing but praise God, and whatever happens to me----whether it be prosperous or adverse, whether it be pleasing or unpleasant----I take all from the hand of God with great gladness, as that which can but be good, since it comes from a Cause which can produce only what is best. ”

“ When Divine Love has held the soul for a time in this suspense, and in despair and disgust with all she had hitherto loved, then He reveals Himself to her with a countenance full of beauty and splendor. ”

“ The soul of the Venerable Mother Seraphina had arrived at this happy state, as appears from an account she gave of herself to her director in these terms: "The state in which I find my soul at present is that I wish for nothing except what God wills. The will and pleasure of God has so penetrated me, and has become so wrought into my own will and pleasure, that it has made itself mine and I desire that alone which God wills, and not only do I will it, but I am not able to will otherwise, nor to have any pleasure or will but His. ”

“ This is the reason why holy souls have been so earnest in making good Communions. The Empress Leonora, who received three times a week, spent two hours in previous meditation, and wore a girdle of hair-cloth and chains, with sharp points wound several times about her arms. After receiving, she remained for a quarter of an hour prostrate with her face upon the ground, conversing with her Divine Guest in sweet and tender welcome. Then, to retain the warmth of devotion through the day, she remained in silence and solitude in her room. ”

“ The soul which remains attached to anything, even to the least thing, however many its virtues may be, will never arrive at the liberty of the Divine union. It matters little whether a bird be fastened by a stout or a slender cord----as long as he does not break it, slender as it may be, it will prevent him from flying freely. ”

“ One of the principal effects of holy abandonment in God is evenness of spirits in the various accidents of this life, which is certainly a point of great perfection, and very pleasing to God. The way to maintain it is in imitation of the pilots, to look continually at the Pole Star, that is, the Divine Will, in order to be constantly in conformity with it. For it is this will which, with infinite wisdom, rightly distributes prosperity and adversity, health and sickness, riches and poverty, honor and contempt, knowledge and ignorance, and all that happens in this life. ”

“ The object of all virtues is to bring us into union with God, in which alone is laid up all the happiness that can be enjoyed in this world. Now, in what does this union properly consist? In nothing save a perfect conformity and resemblance between our will and the will of God, so that these these two wills are absolutely alike----there is nothing in one repugnant to the other; all that one wishes and loves, the other wishes and loves ”

“ If I eat, if I drink, if I speak, if I am silent, if I sleep, if I wake, if I see, if I hear, if I meditate, if I am in the church, if I am in the house, if I am in the street, if I am sick or well, in every hour and moment of my life, I would do only God's will and my neighbor's for His sake ”

“ As you are one of our best friends, I cannot do less than let you know of the loss we have met with----not, indeed, as a misfortune that has befallen us, but as a favor which the Lord has bestowed on us, and in the intention that you may help us to render Him due thanks. Favors and benefits are the name I give to the afflictions that He sends us, especially when they are well received. And as His infinite goodness has ordained this loss, He has made us accept it with perfect and entire resignation, and, I can safely say, with as much gladness as we should have felt at any prosperous event. ”

“ To attain union with God, all the adversities that He sends us are necessary; for His only aim is to consume all our evil inclinations from within and from without. Therefore, slights, injuries, insults, infirmities, poverty, abandonment by friends and relatives, humiliations, temptations of the devil and many other things opposed to our human nature----all are extremely needed by us, that we may fight until by means of victories we have extirpated all our evil inclinations, so that we may feel them no longer. ”

“ To acquire perfection in general and all the virtues in particular, even to attaining union with God, it is necessary to set before ourselves an example which may serve as a guide for all our actions and all our progress. ”

“ Vincent de Paul and applied himself so earnestly to the pursuit of perfection that he became a model to all. Desiring still to advance, and feeling sure the more he separated himself from creatures, the more he would be united by God, he often examined himself as to whether he had any attachment for relatives, friends, honors, property or comforts, and whenever he discovered anything that was an entanglement to him, he immediately broke or cut it away. ”

“ Deiformity is a transformation which renders our will one with that of God, so that it is no longer conscious of itself, as if it were no longer in existence, but only feels in itself the Divine Will, and, as if it were changed into it, no longer desires in any of its acts and operations anything, even what is most holy, with or through the created will, but only in the uncreated, made its own by transformation.----Fr. ”

“ To arrive at perfect union, there is needed a total and perfect mortification of the senses and desires. The shortest and most effectual method of obtaining it is this: As to the senses whatever pleasing object may offer itself to them, unconnected with pure love to God, we should refuse it to them instantly, for the love of Jesus Christ, who in this life neither had nor desired to have any pleasure except to do the will of His Father, which He called His food. ”

“ Perfect resignation is nothing else than a complete moral annihilation of thoughts and affections, when one renounces himself totally in God, that He may guide him as He wills and pleases, as if one no longer knew or cared for either himself or anything else except God. ”

“ A farmer who always had larger and better crops than his neighbors was once asked the reason by one of them. "Why, I always have the weather to suit me," he answered, "for I always wish it to be as God wishes it, and not otherwise." ”

“ And if I should ask myself what I desire or aim at, I could only answer, 'Nothing except what Love gives me!' He keeps me so occupied and satisfied with Himself that I have no need to plan or seek for anything to sustain my powers, supported and sustained as they are. ”

“ Self-will, as God says by the Prophet, is what spoils and corrupts our devotions, labors, and penances. Therefore, not to lose time and trouble, we must endeavor never to act from the impulse of nature, interest, inclination, temper, or caprice, but always from the pure and single motive of doing the will of God, and accustom ourselves to this in all things. This is the most effectual, nay rather the only means of arriving safely and quickly at union with God.----St. ”

“ When we have totally abandoned ourselves to the pleasure of God, submitting without any reserve our will and affections to His dominion, we shall see our souls so united to His Divine Majesty that we shall be able to say with that perfect model of Christians, St. Paul: "In myself I no longer live, but Jesus Christ in me."----St. ”

“ For if a great noble goes to the house of one of his retainers with the intention of filling all his boxes and chests, but finds them full of chaff and earth and sand, he is forced to retire with regret. ”

“ Monseigneur de Palafox, as we read in his Life, at the very beginning of his conversion had a light from on high by which he understood that he ought to live day by day, that is, to take all possible care to live as if he believed each day that he was then to die and render his account to God. ”

“ See why we never arrive at sanctification after so many Communions as we make! It is because we do not suffer the Lord to reign in us as He would desire. He enters our breasts and finds our hearts full of desires, affections and trifling vanities. ”

“ The nuns of the Visitation make special profession of detachment from everything, as they cannot appropriate to themselves the smallest article, not even a needle. They maintain this excellent spirit in its full vigor and prevent them from becoming attached to any object, their Rule requires them to exchange with one another every year the articles of which they make use----their rooms, books, furniture, everything----even the crosses they wear upon their bosoms. ”

“ For the third, she lived as one dead to herself, without any intention or will of her own. In another ecstasy, the Lord showed her her own soul in this condition, under the form of another soul, which she described in these terms: "She follows her Spouse without understanding, without speaking, without hearing, without tasting, and, so to speak, without acting, and as if dead. She thinks only of following the interior attraction of the Divine Word, that she may not offend Him." ”

“ How beautiful it is to behold a person destitute of all attachment, ready for any act of virtue or charity, gentle to all, indifferent as to any employment, serene in consolations and tribulations, and wholly content if only the will of God be done!----St. ”

“ So great is the delight which the Angels take in executing the will of God, that if it were His will that one of them should come upon earth to pull up weeds and root out nettles from a field, he would leave Paradise immediately and set himself to work with all his heart, and with infinite pleasure.----Bl. ”

“ This Saint never ceased to wonder at the great privilege which man possesses in being able to unite himself to his Creator, and at the wonderful desire which so great a sovereign entertains to see him united to Himself. ”

“ All that was not God was nothing for him, and this was one of his principal maxims.
20. When one seeks to unite himself to God, he should endeavor to discover, by self-examination, whether there is anything which forms a barrier between his soul and God, and whether in anything he seeks himself or turns back to himself.----Bl. Henry Suso
St. John Berchmans, after examining himself to see whether he had an attachment to anything whatever, found that there was nothing on earth for which he felt or could feel affection. ”

“ For, to a soul freed from attachment to any creature, the Lord cannot fail to communicate Himself fully, as the sun cannot help entering and lighting up an open room when the sky is clear.----St. John Chrysostom
It is related in the Life of St. Gregory that a rich man left the world and retired into a wood, taking with him, to afford him some recreation in that solitude, only a little cat, as he loved it and often caressed it. After living thus for some years in a constant course of prayers and penances, he prayed the Lord to be pleased to show him what reward was prepared for him. ”

“ She confessed that she had derived greater profit from this exercise than from any other. She took care, however, in her previous preparation, to furnish the place well for Him, with devout affections and various acts, that He might rest with less discomfort.
27. When I see some persons very anxious about being attentive in prayer, and keeping their heads bowed while occupied in it, as if they did not dare to stir in the least, or to move even in thought, that the joy and sensible devotion they have may not leave them even in the slightest degree ”

“ If you give yourself to the practice of holy abandonment, though you may not perceive that you gain at all, you will, in fact, advance greatly, as it is with those who sail upon the open sea with favorable winds, trusting wholly to the care of the pilot.----St. ”

“ He acted in this manner through the whole remainder of his life, and he confessed that a method so sure to give him satisfaction at the hour of death had also been of great value during his life. It is thus that we should profit in our lives by the lights that God gives us, if we desire in death to rejoice at having received them. ”

“ Therefore, when things present themselves to be done, to which obedience or charity obliges you, do not at all regard losing that devotion and enjoyment of God, that you may give Him pleasure by doing these things; for they will lead you more quickly than the others to holy union.----St. ”

“ When shall we cast ourselves unreservedly into the arms of our most loving Father in Heaven, leaving to Him the care of ourselves and of our affairs, and reserving only the desire of pleasing Him, and of serving Him well in all that we can?----St. ”