June 22nd
St Chantal on Prayer
In His Good Pleasure

Now, as to whether this state will go on for long, this is something which we must leave to God.  We must not wish to know when it will end, nor wish to be set free from it.  Should it please His goodness to abandon you in this condition even until the day of judgment, bow down before His holy will.  Your sole fear in these sufferings is that of offending God, of not being pleasing to Him, and of not being able to serve and glorify Him forever.  Now I promise you, on the part of Him to whom you have dedicated yourself for so long, that this condition in which you find yourself is more pleasing to Him than if by His grace you were raised to the third heaven, or rejoiced in all the convictions and feelings of virtue of which God has now robbed you.  Because in their effects, and in their substance, you do possess all these virtues but you are without the awareness and the sensible feeling of them.  Indeed, this is why you hold them in a purer state, more perfectly, and to a higher degree.  This state is similar to that which our blessed father was talking about concerning contemplation, which is like a quintessence of flowers from which we extract a perfume.