Wisdom of the Saints about surrender (part 6)

“When shall I be freed from the miserable slavery of vice? When Lord, shall I think of you alone? When shall I fully rejoice in you? When shall I be without hindrance, in true liberty, free from every grievance of mind and body? When will there be solid peace, undisturbed and secure, inward peace and outward peace, peace secured on every side? O good Jesus, when shall I stand to gaze upon You…When will You be all in all to me? I am left poor and exiled in a hostile land, where every day sees wars and very great misfortunes…send forth Your arrows and let the phantoms of the enemy be put to flight. Draw my senses toward You and make me forget all worldly things…Aid me, O heavenly Truth, that no vanity may move me. Come, heavenly sweetness, and let all impurity fly from before Your face.” Ven. Thomas a Kempis (15th century)

“Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him and if they were to allow His grace to mold them accordingly.” St. Ignatius of Loyola (15th-16th centuries)

“The great secret of the spiritual life is to abandon all that we love to Him by abandoning ourselves to all that He wishes, with perfect confidence that everything will turn out for the best.” St. Vincent de Paul (16th-17th centuries)

“If He destroys my little plans, I kiss His adorable hands. It is because He wants me to realize His own, which are more beautiful than those which I could have made myself.” St. Therese of Lisieux (19th century, Doctor of the Church)

“People often say to me, ‘My poor woman! My poor woman!’ I am not poor, because I belong to the Master and I live in His house. The ‘poor’ are those who are not completely His.” St. Josephine Bakhita (19th-20th centuries)

“Believe that Jesus, Sun of justice, is with you, loves you and always will, although He would like your consent to operate freely in you.” St. Pio of Pietrelcina (19th-20th centuries)

“Ever since the days of Adam man has been hiding from God and saying God is hard to find. The truth is that in each heart there is a secret garden which God made uniquely for Himself. The garden is like a safety deposit vault inasmuch as it has two keys. God has one key hence the soul cannot let in anyone else but God. The human heart has the other key hence not even God can get in without man’s consent. God is always at the garden gate with His key. We pretend to look for ours saying we cannot find it, but all the while it is in our hand did we but will to see it.” Ven. Fulton Sheen (19th-20th centuries)

“God is in all things, sustains all things, directs all things. To…see His will in all things was to accept each circumstance and situation and let oneself be borne along in perfect confidence and trust…By renouncing, finally and completely, all control of my life and future destiny, I was..freed thereby from anxiety and worry, from every tension, and could float serenely upon the tide of God’s sustaining providence in perfect peace of soul.” Ven. Walter Ciszek (20th century)

“You are called to bear witness to the fact that, amid the thousand and one attractions and options offered by the modern world, you have been ‘captured’ by Christ, to the point of giving up all the rest, in order to become His companions and disciples; in order to embrace His mission and, finally, His cross; and in order to know the power of His resurrection. The consideration of being witnesses to the strength of Christ’s grace leads us naturally to something that is at the summit of our very being: our own freedom. It is only through the exercise of this freedom – God’s great gift to us – that we can adequately respond to His invitation, to the call of His grace, to the love that He offers us. For each one of you the present challenge is this: to surrender your hearts and your wills to Christ under the action of the Holy Spirit, to give yourselves freely and totally and perseveringly to Christ. The Lord Jesus asks for the response of your freedom, for the oblation of your liberty. And the words of the psalm enable you to reply: My heart is ready, God; my heart is ready…You are therefore called to bear witness to your Catholic faith in all its purity; you are called to be witnesses to the victory of Christ’s love. Not as an abstract power, but as it touches your own lives and consecrates your own freedom.” Pope St. John Paul II (20th-21st centuries)