Spiritual Desolation: Part I

We ought to view in the light of God’s holy will, the loss of persons
who are helpful to us in a spiritual or material way. Pious souls often
fail in this respect by not being resigned to the dispositions of God’s
holy will. Our sanctification comes fundamentally and essentially from
God, not from spiritual directors. When God sends us a spiritual
director, he wishes us to use him for our spiritual profit; but if he
takes him away, he wants us to remain calm and unperturbed and to
increase our confidence in his goodness by saying to him: “Lord, thou
hast given me this help and now thou dost take it away. Blessed be thy
holy will! I beg thee, teach me what I must do to serve thee.”

In this manner too, we should receive whatever other crosses God sends
us. “But,” you reply, “these sufferings are really punishments.” The
answer to that remark is: Are not the punishments God sends us in this
life also graces and benefits? Our offenses against God must be atoned
for somehow, either in this life or in the next. Hence we should all
make St. Augustine’s prayer our own: “Lord, here cut,
here burn and spare me not, but spare me in eternity!”

Let us say with Job: “Let this be my comfort, that afflicting
me with sorrow, he spare not [67] .”
Having merited hell for our sins, we should be consoled that God
chastises us in this life, and animate ourselves to look upon such
treatment as a pledge that God wishes to spare us in the next. When God
sends us punishments let us say with the high-priest Heli: “It is
the Lord, let him do what is good in his sight [68] .”

Uniformity With God's Will
Saint Alphonsus de Liguori

[67] Job, 6:10.

[68] 1 Kings, 3:18.