October 2, 2026
Summary of the Morrow's Meditation
We will meditate to-morrow upon a third effect of the love of God, which is conformity to the divine will; and we shall see: 1st, in what this conformity consists; 2d, how it is a logical consequence of the love of God. We will then make the resolution: 1st, to be always content with God, with the condition in which He has placed us, the talents He has bestowed upon us, the position He has assigned us; 2d, never to desire anything, to ask nothing, to refuse nothing, but in all things to will simply the good pleasure of God. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the third clause of the Lord's Prayer: "Father, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore Our Lord Jesus Christ subjecting Himself, from His first entrance into the world, to the good pleasure of His Father, and thenceforth placing this good pleasure in the midst of His heart, there to be the sole rule of His conduct. Let us admire His constant conformity to the most holy, most amiable, and most adorable will of God, and let us beg Him to enable us to understand and practise it.
FIRST POINT
In what Consists Perfect Conformity to the Will of God.
There is to be understood by it an intimate union of our will to the will of God, which makes us desire nothing else but the divine good pleasure, which wills all that it wills and as it wills, which is ready to go peacefully and cheerfully wherever it calls us, and to do all that it asks of us. In this happy state, all things are done with entire sincerity of soul, without being troubled, without being eager to finish anything, without being kept back by dislike or weariness, without being preoccupied with the prospects either of success, which we desire only in so far as God wills it, or of failure, to which we submit beforehand, if God wills it. We are not more attached to one thing than to another, but are indifferent to all, having no choice or preference in regard to anything whatever, feeling no other love but that of the divine will, because we love, not the things themselves which God wills, but the divine good pleasure which wills them; and this divine will is as a most amiable attraction, which makes us happy to go wherever it wills. A holy indifference, which is neither apathy nor carelessness, but, on the contrary, the heroism of the will, accepting all that God wills, not only in the natural order, like health or sickness, beauty or ugliness, strength or weakness, life or death; not only in things belonging to the civil order, such as riches, honors, and dignities; but also in things belonging to the spiritual order, such as aridities or consolations, tastes or drynesses, in all the events of life, all the occupations of every day, in such a way that we are as content to apply ourselves to one thing as to another, and that it makes us happy to repeat the words of St. Francis de Sales: "Desire nothing, ask nothing, refuse nothing." At what point have we arrived in regard to this practice?
SECOND POINT
Conformity to the Divine Will is a Logical Consequence of the Love of God in the Heart.
It is impossible to conceive of a heart which loves God and which yet does not find its whole happiness in pleasing Him. Even amongst men, with whom love is imperfect, there is no sweeter enjoyment than that of conforming ourselves to the good pleasure of the person who is beloved. Therefore, to please God is the sole ambition of the heart wherein holy love reigns; it is its sole ambition in this world, the one aim of all its actions as well as of all its projects. We live then only to say with the Apostle: Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? (Acts ix. 6), or with the Psalmist: "What have I in heaven? and, besides Thee, what do I desire upon earth?" (Ps. lxxiii. 25.) To wish anything else would be to subtract from the love of God a part of one's self, and this partition would make the soul which loves shudder; it would be to substitute the will of the creature for the will of the Creator, and this substitution is revolting to God; it would be to forget that God knows better than we do what is good for us, that nothing is wiser or better than His divine good pleasure, and this forgetfulness is an intolerable injury inflicted upon love. This is why the soul which loves preserves such a perfect serenity of heart in the midst of the great inequality of events. All may be thrown upside down, not only around, but within it; whether it be sad or joyful, in sweetness or bitterness, in peace or in trouble, in light or in darkness, in pleasantness or in dryness, with its eyes fixed upon the good pleasure of God, it sings the canticle of eternal acquiescence: "Father, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." It takes delight in solitude when God places it there; it takes delight in conversation when God so wills it. It does not cling more to one way of serving God than to another; and if it prays, it is not impatient to have its prayer answered; it awaits in peace God's time. Are these our dispositions?
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.