Entire Surrender

 Bishop Fenelon

As for the natural depression which arises from a melancholy temperament, it is from the bodily condition, and diet and other remedies will diminish it. It is true that it continually returns, but it is not voluntary. When God gives it, we endure it in peace, like a fever or other bodily suffering. The imagination is sunk in profound gloom and is hung with mourning; but the will, which lives by faith alone, is ready to bear all these impressions. We are at peace, because we are in accord with ourselves and in submission to God. The question is not what we feel, but what we will. We wish all that we have, and wish nothing which is denied to us.

If anything is capable of enlarging and freeing the heart, it is this entire surrender. If anything can render the mind serene, dissipate its scruples and its gloomy fears, relieve its sufferings by the anointing of love, give it a certain vigor in all its actions, and shed the joy of the Holy Spirit even over the countenance and words, it is this simple, free, and childlike manner of abiding in the arms of God.

Spiritual Letters