I cannot tell you, my sisters, how great a point our Blessed Father made
of self-abandonment, _i.e._, self-surrender into the hands of God. In one
place he speaks of it as: "The cream of charity, the odour of humility, the
flower of patience, and the fruit of perseverance. Great," he says, "is
this virtue, and worthy of being practised by the best beloved children
of God."[1] And again, "Our Lord loves with a most tender love those
who are so happy as to abandon themselves wholly to His fatherly care,
letting themselves be governed by His divine Providence without any idle
speculations as to whether the workings of this Providence will be useful
to them to their profit, or painful to their loss, and this because they
are well assured that nothing can be sent, nothing permitted by this
paternal and most loving Heart, which will not be a source of good and
profit to them. All that is required is that they should place all their
confidence in Him, and say from their heart, _Into Thy hands I commend my
spirit_, my soul, my body, and all that I have, to do with them as it shall
please Thee."[2]
You are inclined, my sisters, to say that we are not all of us capable of
such entire self-renunciation, that so supreme an act of self-abandonment
is beyond our strength. Hear then, too, what our Blessed Father goes on to
say. These are his words in the same Conference: "Never are we reduced to
such an extremity that we cannot pour forth before the divine majesty the
perfume of a holy submission to His most holy will, and of a continual
promise never wilfully to offend Him."
[Footnotes 1, 2: Conf. 2.]