Whether or not all that happens is according to the will of God, it is clear that God wills for us a patient, unruffled, and selfless submission to all that happens.
It is rightly said that his will consists in neither this nor that, but in a state of self-abandonment to whatever befalls us at any given moment, provided it is the present moment; for what has gone before, however sanctifying it may have been, is no longer useful for us, and what is to come, however sanctifying it may be, is not yet of any use to us. All things which befall us, whether they be good or evil in themselves, provide the raw material for the production of more abundant good within us, if only we receive them equally, as means of practicing submission to God.
Every obstacle, every delay, every inconvenience is in fact an invitation to rejoin the present moment; for what can block our way when we ourselves are the way; what can detain us when we ourselves are the destination; and what can inconvenience us when everything we encounter may be put to higher use?
So it is that we ought not to prefer one thing to another, -- riches to poverty, health to sickness, life to death, and even good to evil, -- for holiness consists in this: complete acceptance of whatever comes as being that which is most efficacious for the development of our soul; if only because it is that alone which occupies the present moment and is, therefore, the only means of which we may make use.
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