Easy Ways of Divine Love.
Christian perfection is not that rigorous, tedious, cramping thing that many imagine. It demands only an entire surrender of everything to God, from the depths of the soul; and the moment this takes place, whatever is done for Him becomes easy. They who are God’s without reserve are in every state content; for they will only what He wills, and desire to do for Him whatever He desires them to do. They strip themselves of everything, and in this nakedness find all things a hundred-fold. Peace of conscience, liberty of spirit, the sweet abandonment of themselves and theirs into the hands of God, the joy of perceiving the light always increasing in their hearts, and, finally, the freedom of their souls from the bondage of the fears and desires of this world,—these things constitute that return of happiness which the true children of God receive a hundred-fold in the midst of their crosses while they remain faithful.
What God requires of us is a will which is no longer divided between Him and any creature; a simple pliable state of will, which desires what He desires, rejects nothing but what He rejects, wills without reserve what He wills, and under no pretext wills what He does not. In this state of mind all things are proper for us; our amusements, even, are acceptable in His sight.
No matter what crosses may overwhelm the true child of God, he wills everything that happens, and would not have anything removed that his Father appoints; the more he loves God, the more is he filled with content; and the most stringent perfection, far from being a burden, only renders his yoke the lighter.