10/13/2020 5:47:39 AM
"Give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you"
“”
Saint Raphael Arnaiz Baron (1911-1938)
Spanish Trappist monk
Spiritual writings, 04/03/1938 (trans. Mairin Mitchell, 1964)
"Give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you"
God is in the unfettered heart, in the silence of prayer, the willing sacrifice to suffering in the rejection of the world and its creatures. God is in the Cross, and as long as we do not love the Cross we shall not see him, we shall not feel him. Let those who are only concerned with making a noise, keep silent! Ah Lord, how happy I am in my retreat! How much I love you in my solitude! How much I would like to offer you what I haven't got, for I have already given you all! Ask me, Lord, but what have I to give you? My body – it is yours already; my soul – Lord, for whom shall it crave but you, longing for you to take it once and for all. My heart, it is at the feet of Mary, shedding tears of love, of love for you only. My will? Perhaps, Lord, I want what you don't wish? Tell me, tell me, Lord, what is your will and I will place mine at your side. I love everything that you send me and everything that you command of me, health as much as sickness, to be here as much as to be there, to be one thing as much as another; my life, take it, Lord, when you will. How could we not be happy like this? If the world and mankind only knew (…) But they won't know, they're much too occupied with their affairs, their hearts are full of things which are not God. The world lives very much for earthly ends; people give themselves up to the illusions of this life in which all is vanity, and so they can't find that real happiness which is the love of God. Perhaps they will come to understand, but to experience that happiness they must live it. And there are very few, even among Religious, who surrender themselves to take up his cross (Mt 16:24). Lord, the things that you permit! Your wisdom will know the reason for this; take me by the hand and suffer not my feet to slip, for if you don't do this, who will help me? And “if you don't build” (Ps 127[126]:1) (…) Ah Lord, how I love you! When will it be, Lord?