1. Nothing happens in this world but by the direction or permission of God.
2. Therefore, when we are robbed of our good name, despoiled of our wealth, abused, or otherwise wronged, we must ascribe it to the will of God. It is His hand that is visiting us; all is the work of His providence.
3. God wills you to be humbled and deprived of temporal goods, that thereby you may become better and more virtuous.
4. We must always discriminate between what God accomplishes through the instrumentality of men and what their own evil will may add thereto.
5. We should rest satisfied that, however hostile or inimical they may be toward us, they are only instruments of salvation in the hands of an All-good, All-wise, All-powerful God.
6. God deals with us in mildness. He takes into consideration the natural character, the talents of each individual.
7. God tries us only that we may attain perfection and this for the holiest and noblest end that can be conceived, His own glory and honor.
8. All things would contribute to our perfection if we corresponded to the intentions of Divine Providence.
9. Tribulations are, indeed, an essential feature in the means that work unto salvation.
10. God intends to fashion us to His own image; therefore, we must passively submit to His skillful hand. Every stroke is a master-touch toward our sanctification.
11. Perfection consists in nothing else than in conformity to the will of God. The more fully we submit to the Divine Will the more we advance; when we resist it, we go backward.
12. A soul truly resigned to God is like our Divine Lord, who, though scourged and fastened to the ignominious wood of the cross, yet ceased not to be happy. Immersed as He was in an ocean of suffering, His Sacred Heart still overflowed with infinite joy.
The Way of Interior Peace
Rev. Fr. De Lehen, SJ
