Let us thank God a thousand times if in the sadness which
invades us it seems to us as we are rejected by the world.
The depression and suffering, the bitterness with
which we seem sometimes to be soaked, were the lot of
Our Lord on earth. Are we not fortunate to share them?
We should pity the happy people. Pity those whose
happiness even though it be quite legitimate and innocent,
keeps them attached to the world. God is good that he has
so despoiled us of everything, that we can draw breath
only by turning our heads towards him. How great is his
mercy, how divine his goodness, for he has torn every
thing from us in order that we may be more completely
his. So the sufferers are the happy ones through the
goodness of God. In suffering I give thanks. May these
days of Christmas festival bring you, in your suffering, I
do not say consolation, but the blessing God intends for
you. The Child Jesus will perhaps not give you any
sweetness,—he reserves that for the weak ones,—but his
hands will none the less be spread to bless you in these
days of Christmastide, and whether you feel it or no, he
will pour abundant grace into your soul.
—From Meditations of a Hermit by Charles de Foucauld