"Accept everything," wrote St. Joan of Arc the day before her torment. "Accept everything: it must be done so. Do not have any concern regarding your martyrdom: you will come finally to the kingdom of Paradise."
Such is the beautiful attitude of a soul whose sight goes beyond contingent events to rest only on its ultimate end, making the light of eternity its only criterion of judgment. Such should be the fundamental attitude of a Christian heart. It is summarized in the three words that one of our fellow priests, Fr. Henri La Praz, liked to repeat at the end of his life of suffering: "To accept, to offer and to give thanks."
Dear Friends and Benefactors,
"Accept everything," wrote St. Joan of Arc the day before her torment. "Accept everything: it must be done so. Do not have any concern regarding your martyrdom: you will come finally to the kingdom of Paradise."
Such is the beautiful attitude of a soul whose sight goes beyond contingent events to rest only on its ultimate end, making the light of eternity its only criterion of judgment. Such should be the fundamental attitude of a Christian heart. It is summarized in the three words that one of our fellow priests, Fr. Henri La Praz, liked to repeat at the end of his life of suffering: "To accept, to offer and to give thanks."
Thus, the first movement of our soul must be to agree to be subject to the will of God, knowing that we are not left at the mercy of chance or of a blind divinity. Behind the succession of events, sometimes so contrary to one another and often so insignificant, God directs the world with His wisdom and manifests His glory.
How foreign is such an attitude to us! It is so difficult for us not to be the ones in charge. Moreover, to accept thus the will of God, without seeking to understand it, seems to us a disavowal of our intelligence, inducing us to confuse submission to the divine will with a blind fatalism. Doing so, don't we insult God's Providence instead of honoring Him?
The children of Eve are past masters in the arts of deception, taking refuge behind questions which are in fact only so many subterfuges. Deep down, we refuse to acknowledge that we are creatures. Confronted by divine Providence and its government, we assert.our rights and want to understand everything before submitting. Imbued with democratic principles, we would like to relate to God on an equal footing.
But if we were reaily one of those simple souls who knows how to discover the action of Providence within the most fragile human realities, we would be souls of adoration who recognize that God is infinitely beyond ail our human designs and that the only way to attain Him is the absolute acknowledgment of His majesty. He is not obliged to render account to us, for His decisions are marked by His infinite wisdom and contribute to His glory. It is for us to adore in silence... and to accept. Who would have imagined that Adam's rebellion would enable us to sing "felix culpa" on Easter night? Who could think that our sins themselves, insofar as we regret and confess them, contribute to our holiness? The ways of God are not ours. It would be vain and even dangerous to try to reduce God to our human designs. The first attitude of the Christian soul is to accept, without understanding, the ways of God in order to penetrate the mystery of His love for us.
To accept the decisions of God without complaining is, indeed, to make an act of faith in God. Our intelligence, far from being weakened, is reinforced. Entering without discussion into the designs of God, we see reality from within, as God sees it, and our life becomes a song of praise offered to His Wisdom.
Discovering the divine plan, we let divine Providence shape us and we offer our-selves to His loving Will. We become happy to be able to count on Him, knowing that it is enough for us to rest in Him because this offering places us on the altar of His Love as victims united to His Sacrifice. God wishes us to learn this spirit of oblation, in order to attract us to Him and to transform us into His image. Alas, too often, our spiritual shortsightedness, rooted in our pride, prevents us from penetrating His designs, and the very shadow of the cross makes our souls tremble.
"To accept and to offer" so that God can purify our souls of their dross by the trial of the cross. Admittedly our nature, shaken by pain, will react violently. The mystery of divine Charity that purifies the heart exceeds infinitely the order of nature. To understand is useless, to adore is true. Consequently, assimilated to Christ on the cross we see reality as Christ sees it and everything in our lives becomes clear. Sin has profoundly disordered the world, the cross returns order to us and establishes us in the peace and joy that come from God alone.
How can we not thank God for inclining mercifully towards our sinful souls and, far from rejecting them as they had deserved in their madness, still attract them to Himself and give them "an even more marvelous beauty," as we say in the Offertory of the Mass?
•ur daily occupation should no longer be an unhealthy concern for ourselves, but to sing the benefits of God. We will discover the happiness of being attentive, of making our life nothing more than a vigilant attention to the action of God, a true and profound thanksgiving started upon this earth amidst the pains of the cross and completed in Heaven in glory, when our souls having "accepted everything" will sing the chant of eternal thanksgiving and adoration: "M/sericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo."
In Christo Sacerdote et Maria,
Fr. Yves le Roux
NEWS FROM THE SEMINARY
• As we write this letter, twenty-five new seminarians are expected to begin their studies this coming October. Fourteen of them will join the introductory course of Humanities, and eleven will enter directly into the year of Spirituality, joining the fourteen remaining from last year's Humanities course, it has been hard to find room for all of them, but we have managed once more, and our property is again bursting at the seams. Please keep us all in your prayers.
• During this summer, the Seminary has seen the departure of Rev. Fr. Joseph Dreher to become the U.S. District Secretary and of Rev. Fr. Robert MacPherson to St. Mary's Academy and College in Kansas. In their place have come Rev. Fr. Thomas Asher, the Seminary's new Vice-Rector, and Rev. Fr. Markus Heggenberger, It has been pointed out, with some amusement, that the Seminary faculty now seems to be composed of former Superiors, as Fr Peek was at one time Rector of the Australian seminary, Fr. Pazat former District Superior of Spain, Fr. Iscara former District Superior of Mexico, and Fr. Heggenberger former District Superior of Germany...