St Chantal on Prayer

July 2nd
St Chantal on Prayer
Keep Your Eyes Upon God

So stand firm and endure, without reflecting on all that is going on within you.  Leave all that to God without giving it a thought.  It is the sacrifice of your son Isaac that God demands of you, and not the sacrificing of him a single time, but over and over by the abandonment of yourself in Him.  As a result all you have to do is, from time to time, to utter a few words, above all the following which may be your only prayer:  "My God, into Your hand I commend my spirit," or perhaps:  "My God, my soul is in Your holy grasp.  No longer am I able to see what is going on in it, but to You I leave all care of it, and wish nothing further than to take heed of Your will alone.  My great enlightenment is not to enjoy any; my joy will be found in heaven, and none other holds my heart.  My wealth lies in the privation of any good which the human mind can discern; my peace is in war; my tranquility lies in confusion.  The fire of my love for God flames in the thicket of sharp thorns which stab me on every side, without a hope for any end or fulfillment of my labors; rather every day do they increase.  My consolation is to be without any; my death is not to die; my riches are found in the poverty and bareness of the cross upon which my Lord gave His life, deprived of all earthly and heavenly comfort.  There is the road marked out for me, I seek no other.  Our Lord had granted me much in the way of sensible consolations, all these He has removed.  My He be forever blessed!  Amen."