Conformity to the Will of God.
“Not my will, but Thine be done.” — St. Matt. 36:39
TWENTY-FOURTH DAY.
The most efficacious and shortest means to acquire this universal detachment to which Our Saviour invites us, and without which we cannot have perfect union, is great mortification of the senses and of the passions. — St. John of the Cross.
This saint mortified his senses by refusing them what might delight them, in order to prove his love for Jesus’ suffering. He mortified his desires by choosing that which was most painful, most disagreeable, and most difficult. Desirous for mortification, either interior or exterior, nothing could satisfy him. “O Jesus, crucified for me, let me suffer and be despised for Thee.” Such was his motto. How intimate must have been his union with God!
St. Francis Borgia often begged Our Saviour to render everything in life disagreeable to him, and by his mortification, it became so to him. By this means he became a man of prayer, who found all things delicious and agreeable that Our Lord asked of him.
Prayer.
My God, give me the grace necessary to mortify my senses and my passions unceasingly, that I may acquire detachment from all things.