Daily Bread - Day 85

These are some wisely beautiful words of Saint Theresa, which well deserve your attention: "Let me no more trust, O my God, in anything I can desire for myself: dispose of me as you please. This I desire, for all my happiness consists in pleasing you. And if you would please me, by doing all that my desire craves, I see that I should be ruined. How pitiful is the wisdom of man! and their providence, uncertain! Let me die to myself, and Another live in me that is greater than I, and better to me than myself. Let Him live in me and give me life: let Him reign in me, and I be His slave, for my soul desires no other liberty. How can he be free that is separated from the Most High? What greater or more miserable captivity than for a soul to break out of the hands of her Creator? Happy those who, with the strong ties and chains of the Divine love, find themselves thus fastened: for love is strong as death. Oh! that one could see himself already dead by its hands." Who of us will make this holy longing of this saintly woman ours? or join in what she added: "I had rather live and die in the purpose and expectation of life eternal, than possess all the creatures and their advantages. Forsake me not, O Lord, for I trust in Thee. Let not my hope be confounded, let me always serve Thee, and do with me what Thou wilt."

- text taken from Daily Bread - Bring a Few Morning Meditations for the Use of Catholic Christians by Father Richard Waldo Sibthorp