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The Fiftieth Chapter
HOW A DESOLATE PERSON OUGHT TO COMMIT HIMSELF INTO THE HANDS OF GOD
THE DISCIPLE
LORD God, Holy Father, may You be blessed now and in eternity. For as You will,
so is it done; and what You do is good. Let Your servant rejoice in You -- not
in himself or in any other, for You alone are true joy. You are my hope and my
crown. You, O Lord, are my joy and my honor.
What does Your servant possess that he has not received from You, and that
without any merit of his own? Yours are all the things which You have given, all
the things which You have made.
I am poor and in labors since my youth, and my soul is sorrowful sometimes even
to the point of tears. At times, also, my spirit is troubled because of
impending sufferings. I long for the joy of peace. Earnestly I beg for the peace
of Your children who are fed by You in the light of consolation. If You give
peace, if You infuse holy joy, the soul of Your servant shall be filled with
holy song and be devout in praising You. But if You withdraw Yourself, as You so
very often do, he will not be able to follow the way of Your commandments, but
will rather be obliged to strike his breast and bend the knee, because his today
is different from yesterday and the day before when Your light shone upon his
head and he was protected in the shadow of Your wings from the temptations
rushing upon him.
Just Father, ever to be praised, the hour is come for Your servant to be tried.
Beloved Father, it is right that in this hour Your servant should suffer
something for You. O Father, forever to be honored, the hour which You knew from
all eternity is at hand, when for a short time Your servant should be outwardly
oppressed, but inwardly should ever live with You.
Let him be a little slighted, let him be humbled, let him fail in the sight of
men, let him be afflicted with sufferings and pains, so that he may rise again
with You in the dawn of the new light and be glorified in heaven.
Holy Father, You have so appointed and wished it. What has happened is what You
commanded. For this is a favor to Your friend, to suffer and be troubled in the
world for Your love, no matter how often and by whom You permit it to happen to
him.
Nothing happens in the world without Your design and providence, and without
cause. It is well for me, O Lord, that You have humbled me, that I may learn the
justice of Your judgments and cast away all presumption and haughtiness of
heart. It is profitable for me that shame has covered my face that I may look to
You rather than to men for consolation. Hereby I have learned also to fear Your
inscrutable judgment falling alike upon the just and unjust yet not without
equity and justice.
Thanks to You that You have not spared me evils but have bruised me with bitter
blows, inflicting sorrows, sending distress without and within. Under heaven
there is none to console me except You, my Lord God, the heavenly Physician of
souls, Who wound and heal, Who cast down to hell and raise up again. Your
discipline is upon me and Your very rod shall instruct me.
Behold, beloved Father, I am in Your hands. I bow myself under Your correcting
chastisement. Strike my back and my neck, that I may bend my crookedness to Your
will. Make of me a pious and humble follower, as in Your goodness You are wont
to do, that I may walk according to Your every nod. Myself and all that is mine
I commit to You to be corrected, for it is better to be punished here than
hereafter.
You know all things without exception, and nothing in man's conscience is hidden
from You. Coming events You know before they happen, and there is no need for
anyone to teach or admonish You of what is being done on earth. You know what
will promote my progress, and how much tribulation will serve to cleanse away
the rust of vice. Deal with me according to Your good pleasure and do not
despise my sinful life, which is known to none so well or so clearly as to You
alone.
Grant me, O Lord, the grace to know what should be known, to praise what is most
pleasing to You, to esteem that which appears most precious to You, and to abhor
what is unclean in Your sight.
Do not allow me to judge according to the light of my bodily eyes, nor to give
sentence according to the hearing of ignorant men's ears. But let me distinguish
with true judgment between things visible and spiritual, and always seek above
all things Your good pleasure. The senses of men often err in their judgments,
and the lovers of this world also err in loving only visible things. How is a
man the better for being thought greater by men? The deceiver deceives the
deceitful, the vain man deceives the vain, the blind deceives the blind, the
weak deceives the weak as often as he extols them, and in truth his foolish
praise shames them the more. For, as the humble St. Francis says, whatever
anyone is in Your sight, that he is and nothing more.
