Quotes from Abbot Marmion on suffering and union with Christ

 

God will care for you just insofar as you cast yourself and and your cares on the bosom of His paternal love and providence. [From Union with God, chapter 4, section 3] 

32

Abandon yourself blindly into the hands of this Heavenly Father Who loves you better and more than you love yourself. [Ibid.]

33

Abandon yourself blindly to Love; He will take care of you despite every difficulty. Nothing honours God so much as this surrender of oneself into His Hands. Ibid.]

34
The best form of mortification is to accept with all our heart; in spite of our repugnance, all that God sends or permits, good and evil, joy and suffering. I try to do this. Let us try to do it together and to help one another to reach that absolute abandonment into the hands of God. [Abbot Columba Marmion, chapter 17]

35

I find absolute submission to God's will a sovereign remedy in every trouble, and when I consider that in reality God's will is God Himself, I see that this submission is but the supreme adoration due to God, due to Him in whatever manner He may manifest Himself. [Abbot Columba Marmion, chapter 6]

36

Once it is thoroughly understood that the will of God is the same thing as God Himself, we see that we ought to prefer His adorable will to all besides, and take it, in what it does, in what it ordains, in what it permits, as the one norm of ours. Let us keep our eyes fixed upon this holy will, and not upon the things that cause us pain and trouble. [Abbot Columba Marmion, chapter 8]

.

It is recounted of St. Mechtilde that, in her sorrows, she had the custom of taking refuge with our Lord and of abandoning herself to Him in all submission. Christ Jesus Himself had taught her to do this: "If a person wishes to make Me an acceptable offering, let him seek refuge in none beside Me in tribulation, and not complain of his griefs to anyone, but entrust to Me all the anxieties with which his heart is burdened. I will never forsake one who acts thus." We ought to accustom ourselves to tell everything to our Lord, to entrust to Him all that concerns us. "Commit thy way to the Lord," that is, reveal to Him thy thoughts, thy cares, thy anguish, and He Himself will guide thee: Revela Domino viam tuam, et spera in eo, et ipse faciet. How do most men act? They talk over their troubles either within themselves, or to others; few go to pour out their souls at the feet of Christ Jesus. And yet that is a prayer so pleasing to God, and so fruitful a practice for the soul! Look at the Psalmist, the singer inspired by the Holy Ghost. He discloses to God all that happens to him; he shows Him all the difficultIes that beset him, the afflictions that come to him through men, the anguish that fills his soul. "Look upon my weariness, my miseries, my sufferings! Why, O Lord, are they multiplied that afflict me? Domine quid multiplicati sunt qui tribulant me ...? Look upon me, and have mercy on me, for I am alone and poor. The troubles of my heart are multiplied: deliver me from my necessities. ..! Bow down Thy ear to me: make haste to deliver me. Be Thou unto me ...a house of refuge to save me. ...I am afflicted and humbled exceedingly. ..my groaning is not hidden from Thee. ..Withhold not Thou, O Lord, Thy tender mercies from me ...for evils without number have surrounded me. ...I am a beggar and poor, but the Lord is careful for me. ..." [From Christ, the Ideal of the Monk, Part II, chapter 16, section 4]