Weekday

CONFIDENCE IN GOD IS THE CURE OF SELF-LOVE
A letter from Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade to a religious sister 2
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My dear Sister,

When you have neither time nor inclination to read, try to keep yourself
simply in peace in the presence of God… If you seem to be wanting in courage for
many things, compel yourself at any rate to retain in your heart a determination
to be all for God. Humble yourself with the consideration of the inefficacy of your
own resolutions, and look upon yourself as having so far done nothing. The less
confidence you place in yourself, the more easy will it become to have entire
confidence in the mercy of God alone, through the merits of Jesus Christ. This is
that solid and perfect confidence which completely annihilates self-love by
withdrawing all those resources upon which it was accustomed to rely. There
could be nothing more salutary for some souls than this kind of martyrdom…

The more these sacrifices touch us to the quick, and the more they make us
die to ourselves, and detach us from all consolation, and sensible support, the
closer they draw us to God and unite us to Him. This union is all the more
meritorious in being hidden and further out of the range of the senses. Self-love,
therefore, has no share in it, since it cannot feed on what it can neither know nor
feel. May God deign to convince you of the truth of this consoling assurance, which
is the teaching of all the Doctors of the Church, and is confirmed by every
experience. In order to understand it thoroughly you must remember that in
almost everyone there is such a depth of self-love, weakness and misery, that it
would be impossible for us to recognise any gift of God in ourselves without being
exposed to spoil and corrupt it by imperceptible feelings of self-complacency. In
this way we appropriate as our own the graces of God, and are pleased with
ourselves for being in such or such a state. We attribute the merit to ourselves, not,
perhaps, by distinct and studied thought, but by the secret feelings of the heart.
Therefore, God, seeing the innermost recesses of the heart, and being infinitely
jealous of His glory, is obliged… to convince us, by our own experience, of our utter
weakness. It is for this purpose that He conceals from us nearly all His gifts and
graces…

For my part I can bear witness to this constant action of divine Providence.
God has so completely hidden from those who have appealed to me, the gifts and
graces with which he has loaded them, that they cannot see their own progress,
nor their patience, humility and abandonment, nor even their love of God. Then,
too, they can hardly help weeping at the supposed absence of these virtues and at
their want of generosity in their sufferings… God withdraws what He had given,
but He does not take it away to deprive us of it absolutely. He withdraws it to give
it back in a better way, after it has been purified from this malicious appropriation
made by us without our perceiving it…

In this terrible state, one simple “Fiat,” uttered very earnestly in spite of the
repugnance experienced in the soul, is an assurance of real and solid progress.
Then there remains nothing but bare faith in God, that is to say, an obscure faith
despoiled of all sensible devotion, and residing in the will… “We draw near to God
by faith,”… “The just man lives by faith.” All this ought to convince you that it is not
in anger but in mercy and in very great mercy that God deprives you more than
others. It is because He is more jealous of the possession of your whole heart and
all your confidence….

2
Jean-Pierre de Caussade. Abandonment to Divine Providence. St. Louis, MO: B. Herder Book Company, 1921. 192-193.