Nov 6 Fri
What should I do in times of spiritual darkness?
In times of darkness, we must intensify our hope.
“For our Lord to act in us and for us, we must tell him that we are ready to struggle each day, even though we realize we are feeble and useless, and the heavy burden of our personal shortcomings and weakness weighs down upon us. We must tell him again and again that we trust in him and in his help: if necessary, hoping against all hope."
It may happen in our lives that the way ahead becomes dark for a time, that we lose our perspective and our sense of direction. A cloud of discouragement may hide the path markers. Then more than ever, we need to rest on the solid rock of faith and hope.
If God takes away all human consolations, it's so that our faith and hope may grow, and we may find our support only in him. Sometimes, when things turn out the very opposite of what we intended, we cry out spontaneously: "Lord, it's all going wrong, every single thing I'm doing!" The time has come for us to rectify and say, “With you, Lord, I will make steady headway, because you are strength itself."
“These difficulties shouldn't surprise us. As a consequence of our fallen nature, we carry within us a principle of opposition, of resistance to grace. It comes from the wounds inflicted by original sin and is aggravated by our own personal sins. Therefore, we have to strive ever upwards by means of our everyday tasks, which are both divine and human and always lead to the love of God. In this we must be humble and contrite of heart, and we must trust in God's help, while at the same time devoting our best efforts to those tasks as if everything depended on us."
Success is not final; failure is not fatal. The courage to continue is what counts.
Let us persevere even when our passions rear up and attack us, attempting to imprison us within the narrow confines of our selfishness; or when puerile vanity makes us think we are the center of the universe. I am convinced that unless I look upward, unless I have Jesus, I will never accomplish anything. And I know that the strength to conquer myself and win comes from repeating that cry: ‘I can do all things in him who strengthens me,’ words that reflect God's firm promise not to abandon his children if they do not abandon him.
“As we fight this battle, which will last until the day we die, we cannot exclude the possibility that enemies both within and without may attack with violent force. And, as if this burden were not enough, you may at times be assailed by the memory of your own past errors, which may have been very many. I tell you now, in God's name: don't despair. Should this happen (it need not happen), then turn it into another motive for uniting yourself more closely to our Lord, for He has chosen you as his child and will not abandon you. He has allowed that trial to befall you so that you may love him more and may discover even more clearly his constant protection and love.”