Gladly will i glory in my infirmities. (epistle of sunday. 2 cor. Xi. 19, 33)

What greater joy can there be than to suffer some cross and to know that by embracing it we give pleasure to God? St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi felt such consolation in suffering whatever came to her by God's will that she used to be lost in an ecstasy of Divine love.

I. He who is united to the will of God, enjoys a perpetual peace, even in this world: Whatsoever shall befall the just man, it shall not make him sad. (Prov. xii. 21); and it must be so, because a soul cannot have more perfect content than to see its every wish fulfilled; and he who wills nothing but what God wills, has all that he wishes, since whatever happens must be by the will of God. Solinus says, that when resigned souls receive a humiliation, they will it; if they suffer poverty, they wish to be poor; in short, they will whatsoever happens, and therefore they lead a happy life. Be the weather cold or hot, let the rain or the storm come, he who is united to God's will says: "I wish for this cold or heat (etc.), because God so wills it." If loss or persecution, sickness or death, should come, he still says: "I am willing to be poor, persecuted, sick, or even to die, because such is the will of God." He who rests on the Divine will, and is pleased with whatsoever God may do, is as if he were placed above the clouds, and saw tempests raging below, but remained unhurt and undisturbed by them. This is the peace which, as the Apostle says, surpasseth all understanding (Phil. iv. 7); which exceeds all the delights of the world, and is so steadfast as to admit of no change: A holy man continueth in wisdom as the sun; but a fool is changed as the moon. (Ecclus. xxvii. 12). The fool, that is, the sinner, changes like the moon, which increases today, and wanes tomorrow; one day he laughs, the next he weeps; at one time he is mild and cheerful, at another violent and sad; for he changes according as pleasing or adverse things happen to him. But the just man is like the sun, even and uniform in his tranquillity whatever may happen; for his peace rests in conformity with the will of God: And on earth peace to men of good will. (Luke ii. 14). We cannot help feeling some sting of pain from adversity in the inferior part of our souls; but peace will always reign in the superior part, when our will is united to that of God: Your joy no man shall take from you. (John xvi. 22). How foolish are those who resist God's will, since what He appoints must nevertheless be fulfilled! Who resisteth his will? (Rom. ix. 19). Those poor creatures must therefore endure their cross, but without fruit, and without peace: Who hath resisted him, and hath had peace? (Job ix. 4).

My Divine King, my beloved. Redeemer, come, and from this day forward reign alone in my soul: take complete possession of my will that I may desire and wish nothing but what Thou willest. In whatever shall befall me, I will always say: My God, I will only what Thou dost will. May Thy will be always done in me! Thy will be done!

II. And what else does God will but our good? For this is the will of God, your sanctification. (1 Thess. iv. 3). He wishes to see us holy by being content in this life, and happy in the next. Let us understand that all the crosses which come to us from God work together unto good (Rom. viii. 28). Even punishments are not sent in this life for our destruction, but that we may amend, and thus gain eternal happiness: Let us believe that these scourges of the Lord... have happened for our amendment, and not for our destruction. (Judith viii. 27). God so loves us, that He not only wishes, but eagerly desires, the salvation of each one among us: The Lord is careful for me. (Ps. xxxix. 18). He that spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how hath he not also with him given us all things? (Rom. viii. 32). Let us, then, abandon ourselves always into the hands of that God Who ever desires our good while we are in this life, casting all your care upon him, for he hath care of you. (1 Pet. v. 7). "Think of Me," said our Lord to St. Catherine of Sienna, "and I will always think of you." Let us say with the sacred Spouse: I to my beloved, and my beloved to me. (Cant. vi. 2). My Beloved thinks of what is good for me, and I will think of nothing but of pleasing Him, and uniting myself to His holy will. And we should never pray, as the holy Abbot Nilus tells us, that God would do what we wish, but that we may do what He wills.

He who always does this will lead a happy life, and die a holy death; he who expires completely resigned to the Divine will, leaves a moral certainty of his salvation.

O Jesus, my Redeemer, Thou didst give up Thy life in agony on the Cross, that Thou mightest be the cause of my salvation; have pity on me, then, and save me; do not suffer a soul which Thou didst redeem with such anguish and such love to hate Thee for ever in hell. Thou canst do no more to make me love Thee, and Thou didst give me to understand this when, before Thou didst expire on Calvary, Thou didst utter those loving words: It is consummated. (Jo. xix. 30). But how have I acknowledged Thy love? For the past, I may truly say that I have done nothing but displease Thee, and force Thee to hate me. I thank Thee for having borne with me with so much patience, and for now giving me time to repair my ingratitude, and to love Thee before I die. Yes, I wish to love Thee, and do whatever is pleasing to Thee. I give Thee my will, my liberty, all that I have. I sacrifice to Thee from this moment my life, and accept that death which Thou shalt send me, with all the pains and circumstances which may accompany it. I unite this sacrifice with that great sacrifice which Thou, my Jesus, didst offer for me upon the Cross. I desire to die, to fulfil Thy will. Grant me, I beseech Thee, by the merits of Thy Passion, the grace to live always in resignation to the disposition of Thy providence; and when death arrives, grant that I may embrace it with the same submission to Thy good pleasure. I wish to die, my Jesus, in order to please Thee. I desire to die, saying: Thy will be done. Thus didst thou die, O Mary, my Mother; obtain for me the grace that I also may so die.