I must reject any and all reasoning that oppresses me, disturbs me, prevents me from uniting with Our Lord.

For several months He has been asking the same thing of me: gentleness towards Him and myself, trust, openness, joy. Through excessive good resolutions, I have been unfaithful to Our Lord on this point.

To obey blindly, with heart and will. To obey the word of guidance all the more, the less I understand it. This is difficult, especially when it seems to me that I should do exactly the opposite.

But this is the path entirely open before me. Therefore, I must not obstinately insist on going through a closed window.

It is through this obedience that I will give everything to Our Lord, that I will renounce myself entirely, abandoning my riches without reservation: that of my will and my own criteria.

And if I want to be generous in this struggle, I will not limit myself to rejecting what oppresses me, holds me back, disturbs me; I will go in search of that which ennobles and gladdens me. Of two thoughts that occur to me, I will choose the one that comforts me.

Not to argue; to believe firmly, without doubting. To obey completely. “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it,” said Our Lord (Mt 16:25). To give one’s life, one’s soul, is to give entirely to Our Lord what He asks through obedience.

 

UNE ÉPOPÉE DE VAILLANCE. La Servante de Dieu Sœur Eugénie Joubert. Liège: Saint-Gilles, 1927, p.46-47