He gives the opportunity of showing Him the greatest love

Father Jean-Nicolas Grou (1731-1803) in his Manual For Interior Souls, knows of a prayer that he calls "the dark way of pure faith," but this is not an acquired contemplation. "We cannot enter of ourselves upon this way," he tells us, and a little while later he writes:

"...the chief sign by which we may know that God wishes to lead a soul into it is when that soul has no longer the same liberty of using its faculties in prayer that it formerly had; when it is able no longer to apply itself to a particular subject, to draw from it reflections and affections; but when it feels within itself, instead, a certain delicious peace which is above all expression, which takes the place of everything else and which forces it, so to speak, to keep itself in quiet and in silence."

In another part of his Manual, Father Grou goes through a litany of spiritual dryness or experiences, that one may consider being tested, but he maintains that faith prevails.

"And, in the midst of all this, (calumnies and persecutions), strengthened by the spirit of faith, they remain firm and cannot be shaken; they live, but with a life the principle of which is unknown to them; they preserve an unchanging peace, but they are scarcely conscious of it, except sometimes for a short interval, and they do not reflect upon it, because God does not allow them to seek any consolation or pay any attention to what is passing within them. They live thus, suspended, as it were, between heaven and earth, having nothing upon earth which attracts them, and receiving no consolation from heaven. But, perfectly resigned to the good pleasure of God, they wait in peace until it is His will to decide on their fate...

Therefore, in the midst of all the tempests which the devil may stir up against us, let us hold fast to the spirit of faith, and let us increase in it through the very means which are used to destroy it. He whom we serve is the All-Powerful, the Only True, the Ever-Faithful. Heaven and earth may pass away before He will suffer those to run any risk who have abandoned themselves to Him. He will try our love, for that is just: what is a love worth that has not been tried? And He will carry these trials to an extreme extent, because He is God, and there is no love too great for Him.

A thousand times happy is the soul whom God tries thus, and to whom He gives the opportunity of showing Him the greatest love which He can expect from a creature. Is it not just that there should be a kind of love for God which will go farther in suffering for Him even than the excesses of the most violent human passion? And the greatest favour He can grant to a soul here below is to inspire her with the efficacious desire of loving Him in this way. This love, stronger than death, more powerful than hell, is itself its own motive and its own recompense; it is fed with its own flame. God kindled it; God keeps it alive; God will crown it after the victim of it is consumed."

I beg your forgiveness for inserting this modern-day (one could almost label it 'sappy') video, but when I transitioned from meditation to contemplation on these words of Father Grou it came to me.


God: Let me ask you something... 
If someone prays for patience, 
you think God gives them patience? 
Or does He give them the opportunity 
to be patient? If he prayed for courage, 
does God gives them courage? 
Or does He give them opportunities 
to be courageous? If someone prayed 
for the family to be closer, 
you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings? Or does He give them 
opportunities to love each other?