ACCRM’s 40 Days With Christ For Lent: Day Four
Holy Indifference
[exerpts from “My Daily Bread” by Anthony J. Paone, S.J. – 1954]
Image by artist, Greg Olson
CHRIST:
MY CHILD, let Me do with you as I please. I know what is best for you. You think as a human being, so that your judgments are often influenced by your feelings, moods or prejudices.
2. I take better care of you than you could ever take of yourself. Anyone who does not give Me his whole-hearted attention and loyalty, is taking a great risk. I alone can lead you to eternal life. Let Me do with you as I please. Whatever I do will always be best for you.
3. Knowing all things, I know your most important needs. I want you to gain the perfect and unending joy of Heaven. For this reason I will place you at times in a spiritual darkness of doubts and confusion. Then again I will let you enjoy the light of My truth and joy. One day I will console you, and on the next day you may find life hard and sorrowful. But through all these changing conditions, remember that My hand is leading you on toward Heaven.
4. Follow My Will in all things. Be just as ready to experience suffering as to have joy, just as glad to be poor and needy as to be well off. If you prefer My Will in all these things, you will be preferring the Perfect Wisdom and the Highest Good.
THINK:
Where are the pleasures and joys of last year? Gone and forgotten. If they made me worse, I shall find death and judgment a little harder to face. Why do I fail to value things according to God’s way of thinking? He wants me to live a sinless and useful life. Even my pleasures should improve me in some way, and make me better able to do my work. Heaven is far greater than I can ever deserve. Still I should try each day to be a little less unworthy of it.
PRAY:
My God and my All, You made and control all things in my daily life. How can I forget this truth and complain about anything? Grant me the holy dispositions which you mentioned a moment ago. Make me equally willing to receive from Your hand the sweet and the bitter, the joy and the sorrow. I thank you now for whatever You decide to send me. Only keep me from sin, and I shall fear neither death nor hell. As long as You do not separate me from You forever, nor blot me out of the book of life, whatever suffering comes to me will not hurt me for long. Grant me the grace to see, love, and prefer Your Will in everything that happens to me today. Amen.
