Do Not Let Your Hearts be Afraid

Complete freedom from fear is one of those things we owe wholly to Our Lord.  To be afraid is to do him a double injury.  First, it is to forget him, to forget that he is with us, that he loves us, and is himself almighty, and second it is to fail to bend to his will.  If we shape our will to his, as everything that happens is either willed or allowed by him, we shall find joy in whatever happens, and shall never be disturbed or afraid.

So then, we should have the faith that banishes all fear.  Beside us, face to face with us, within us, we have Our Lord Jesus, our God, whose love for us is infinite, who is himself almighty, who has told us to seek for the kingdom of God and that everything else will be given us.  In that blessed and omnipotent company, we must go straight along the path of the greatest perfection, certain that nothing will happen to us that we cannot use as a source of the greatest good for his glory and the sanctification of ourselves and others, and that everything happens is either willed or permitted by him, and that therefore, far from lying under the shadow of fear, we have only to say, "Whatever happens - God be praised!" praying that he will arrange everything not in accordance with our ideas, but for his greater glory.  We should never forget the two axioms:  "Jesus is with me" and "Whatever happens, happens by the will of God."

Blessed Charles de Foucauld

-Charles de Foucauld (1916), contemplative and mystic, lived among the Tuareg people of Algeria.  Beatified in 2005 by Pope Benedict XVI.