rejoice in the trembling

"We tremble at the thought of eternity, and well we may; but if the fear was turned to good account, we should soon learn to rejoice in trembling. To those who yield unrestrainedly to their passions, the thought of eternity must needs be terrible. Yet they too might well pause and think whether they do well to sacrifice an eternal future to the moment of time now passing. Those who cling tightly to the hopes and joys of this life may tremble to feel that what they cherish most is gliding from beneath their grasp, and eternity alone remains. But then arises the question, why not seek that which endureth forever rather than that which is but as foam upon the sea, as lightning in the midnight sky? Some timid souls shrink from the thought of the possible condemnation, and loss of that blessed eternity promised to the faithful.

But let such remember that God loves them better than they love themselves; that He has given them unfailing means of salvation if they will but use such means. Their overweening fearfulness comes of self...from measuring God by their own poor standard, rather than themselves by His boundless greatness. They have not looked chiefly at His Glory, His Will, His Love, but at themselves. Let them look higher, and fear will yield to love; peace will come to their souls, and eternity will cease to dismay them." ~Jean Nicolas Grou

the food of humility

"As Jesus Christ does not only teach humility, but also bestows it, let us begin by asking Him to give us a love for that virtue...No prayer could be more pleasing to Him; we can feel sure of that; He will infallibly grant our request if we sincerely wish it to be granted. But may who pray for humility would be extremely sorry if God were to grant it to them. This is one of the points on which people are most easily deluded. Some book, or meditation, of Communion touches their heart; they feel the attraction of this virtue, and ask God to give it to them; but they forget that to love, desire, and ask for humility is loving, desiring and asking for humiliations, for these are the companions, or rather the food of humility, and without them it is no more than a beautiful but meaningless idea. Now, if the bare thought of humiliation fills us with horror; if we repel it with our whole strength; if pride and self-love get the better of us on every occasion; and if, instead of stiffening ourselves against them, we yield to them and cannot for a moment endure anything that wounds them, we are flattering ourselves if we think we love humility. The fact is that we dislike it, and our prayer is a delusion. We shall do well, then to examine ourselves a little on this point before offering our petition to God; and instead of giving reign to our imagination, and making proposals that we are too weak to carry out, see whether we be resolved and prepared to bear the lightest and most ordinary humiliations. Otherwise such a prayer can have no result except self-deception; for our inmost feelings would nullify it if we were really abhorring what we seemed to be asking for.

But there are truly those, though not very many, who ask God in all sincerity to grant them humility and offer themselves to carry all the humiliating crosses that He is pleased to send them. This offer on their part is a real consecration. From that moment they should feel that they are not their own, but belong to Jesus Christ and are fighting under His standard."

~Jean Nicolas Grou