The Essence of Perfection

The essence of perfection is to embrace the will of God in all things,
prosperous or adverse. In prosperity, even sinners find it easy to
unite themselves to the divine will; but it takes saints to unite
themselves to God’s will when things go wrong and are painful to
self-love. Our conduct in such instances is the measure of our love of
God. St. John of Avila used to say:“One ‘Blessed be God’ in times of
adversity, is worth more than a thousand acts of gratitude in times of
prosperity [20] .”

Uniformity With God's Will
Saint Alphonsus de Liguori