To those who follow this path, divine love is all-sufficing.
While despoiling of all things those souls who give themselves
entirely to Him, God gives them something in place of them.
Instead of light, wisdom, life, and strength, He gives them His
love. The divine love in these souls is like a supernatural
instinct. In nature, each thing contains that which is suitable
to its kind. Each flower has its special beauty, each animal its
instinct, and each creature its perfection. Also in the different
states of grace, each has a special grace. This is the recompense
for everyone who accepts with goodwill the state in which
he is placed by Providence. A soul comes under the divine
action from the moment that a habit of goodwill is formed within
it, and this action influences it more or less according to its degree
of abandonment. The whole art of abandonment is simply
that of loving, and the divine action is nothing else than the
action of divine love. How can it be that these two loves
seeking each other should do otherwise than unite when they meet? How can the divine love refuse aught to a soul whose
every desire it directs? And how can a soul that lives only
for Him refuse Him anything? Love can refuse nothing that
love desires, nor desire anything that love refuses. The divine
action regards only the goodwill; the capability of the other faculties does not attract it, nor does the want of capability repel
it. All that it requires is a heart that is good, pure, just, simple,
submissive, filial, and respectful. It takes possession of such
a heart, and of all its faculties, and so arranges everything for
its benefit that it finds in all things its sanctification. That
which destroys other souls would find in this soul an antidote of
goodwill which would nullify its poison. Even at the edge of
a precipice the divine action would draw it back, or even if it
were allowed to remain there it would prevent it from falling;
and if it fell, it would rescue it. After all, the faults of such a soul
are only faults of frailty; love takes but little notice of them, and
well knows how to turn them to advantage. It makes the soul
understand by secret suggestions what it ought to say, or to
do, according to circumstances. These suggestions it receives
as rays of light from the divine understanding : "intellectus
bonus omnibus facientibus eum"; "A good understanding
to all that do it" (
Divine love then, is to those who give themselves up to it
Goodwill, therefore, has nothing to fear. If it fall, it can only do so under the almighty hand which guides and sustains it in all its wanderings. It is this divine hand which turns it again to face the goal from which it has strayed; which replaces it in the right path when it has wandered. In it the soul finds resources for the deviations to which the blind faculties which deceive it, render it subject. It is made to feel how much it ought to despise them, and to rely on God alone, abandoning itself absolutely to His infallible guidance. The failings into which good souls fall are put an end to by abandonment. Never can goodwill be taken unawares. That all things work for its good is an article of faith.