Spiritual Snippet - Let Go!

Archbishop Francois Fenelon

For my Lenten spiritual reading, I've selected the brilliant meditation guide called  Let Go (To Get Peace and Real Joy).  I happen to find this short little book on the bottom shelf at my local book store.  This is series of letters written in the seventeenth century by Archbishop Francois de Salignac de La Mothe Fenelon of Cambrai, France.  What a treasure trove of spiritual advice!!   It's exactly what I need to read.  It's almost as if Archbishop Fenelon sits in the same room with me, counseling me but through words written hundreds of years ago and originally in French!

I highly recommend buying a copy and keeping it near your prayer space.  Read a letter each day.  There are 40 letters in all, so perfect for 40 days of Lent.  The words are simple to understand; no heavy theology.  Through its simplicity is an amazing depth of wisdom.

Here are excerpts from Letter 16 titled "Those Who Injure Us Are to Be Loved and Welcomed as the Hand of God":

"I certainly sympathize with you in all of your troubles, but I can do nothing else for you except pray that God will comfort you.  Your have great need of the power of the Holy Spirit, both to sustain you in this time of trouble, and also to restrain you in your natural desire to find a way out......."

"Don't allow yourself to be upset by what people are saying about you. Let the world talk.  All you need to be concerned about is doing the will of God.  As for what people want, you can't please everybody, and it isn't worth the effort.  One quiet moment in the presence of God will more than repay you for every bit of slander that will ever be leveled against you."

"You must learn to love other people without expecting any friendship from them at all.  People tend to be quite fickle.  They love us and leave us, they go and come.  They shift from one position to another like a kite in the wind or like a feather in the breeze.  Let them do as they will.  Just be sure that you see only God in them. They could do nothing to you without His permission.  So, in the end, it is He that tests or blesses us, using them as we have need."

 Let Go, Let God!  What better way of handling our personal struggles in relationships and situations.  What if Fenelon lived in today's world?  Something to think about.....

Archbishop Fenelon, Pray for Us!!

-J.