Evil is not a random or chance thing that happens to us but is from God

[Therese]

'The beginner, moved by fear, patiently bears the Cross of Christ; the one who has already made some progress on the road to perfection, inspired by hope, carries it cheerfully; the perfect soul; consumed by love, embraces it ardently.'

St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1 Serm. S. Andreae, 5)

[three degrees of conformity, of submission to God's will]

Yes, I've heard of these three degrees.  Thanks for mentioning them.  I should be reminded of them.

[Shin]

It's interesting to think that in many ways the last degree is easier than the first and second. Though the sufferings increase, because one has love. . .

"My yoke is easy, my burden light."

[Therese]

Yes, it reminds me of what St. John of the Cross says about souls with perfect union with God.

[martin]

It's interesting to think that in many ways the last degree is easier than the first and second. Though the sufferings increase, because one has love. . .

"My yoke is easy, my burden light."

The last degree is the one we all fear the most even though it's so easy to see the truth of it 

[Therese]

Sorry I still haven't been able to get a hold of the book Holy Abandonment to provide us with more quotes.  (Shin, you had asked me if I could provide us with some more quotes from the book.)  It might be a while till I am able.

[Shin]

Sorry I still haven't been able to get a hold of the book Holy Abandonment to provide us with more quotes.  (Shin, you had asked me if I could provide us with some more quotes from the book.)  It might be a while till I am able.

That's OK, patience is a great virtue. 

 I am still keeping my eyes open for a thing you asked me about quite awhile back. Still haven't quite found it, but when I do, I will know it!

[Therese]

 I am still keeping my eyes open for a thing you asked me about quite awhile back. Still haven't quite found it, but when I do, I will know it!

Great!

[Shin]

'There is a story to this effect in the "Lives of the Fathers" about a farmer whose crops were more plentiful than those of his neighbors. On being asked how this happened with such unvarying regularity, he said he was not surprised because he always had the kind of weather he wanted. He was asked to explain. He said: "It is so because I want whatever kind of weather God wants, and because I do, he gives me the harvests I want." If souls resigned to God's will are humiliated, says Salvian, they want to be humiliated; if they are poor, they want to be poor; in short, whatever happens is acceptable to them, hence they are truly at peace in this life. In cold and heat, in rain and wind, the soul united to God says: "I want it to be warm, to be cold, windy, to rain, because God wills it."

This is the beautiful freedom of the sons of God, and it is worth vastly more than all the rank and distinction of blood and birth, more than all the kingdoms in the world. This is the abiding peace which, in the experience of the saints, "surpasseth all understanding." It surpasses all pleasures rising from gratification of the senses, from social gatherings, banquets and other worldly amusements; vain and deceiving as they are, they captivate the senses for the time being, but bring no lasting contentment; rather they afflict man in the depth of his soul where alone true peace can reside.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Doctor of the Church

[Therese]

I am familiar with this story of the farmer.  St. Therese had the very same spirit as the farmer: she just wanted whatever God gave her, whatever he willed.  I try to be like this.

[Shin]

I am familiar with this story of the farmer.  St. Therese had the very same spirit as the farmer: she just wanted whatever God gave her, whatever he willed.  I try to be like this.

Let's all do our best! 

[Therese]

Yes!

[Therese]

I am in temporary possession of the book, "Holy Abandonment".  Here's more from the book.

"Follow likewise," continues St. Alphonsus, "this most important counsel given by the masters of the spiritual life: Whenever any great adversity befalls, nothing is more profitable than to make this very misfortune the subject of our prayer, and consequently the object of repeated acts of resignation.  The saints esteemed no exercise more highly than continual union with the will of God.  St. Peter Alcantara practiced it even in his sleep.  And St. Gertrude repeated three hundred times a day: 'My Jesus, let not my will but Thine be done.'"

"See our poor little Jesus in His crib.  He accepts the poverty, the nakedness, the company of the dumb animals, the inclemency of the weather, the cold of the stable, and everything that His Father permits to befall Him.  We do not find it written that He ever sought His Mother's breast, but neither does He refuse the little services she rendered Him.  He accepted likewise the services of St. Joseph, the adoration of the kings and the shepherds, and all with equal indifference.  Thus we should neither desire anything nor refuse anything, but be willing to suffer and receive whatsoever the Providence of God may decide to send us."

[Benedict]

Catechism
Providence and the scandal of evil.

309 If God the Father almighty, the Creator of the ordered and good world, cares for all his creatures, why does evil exist? To this question, as pressing as it is unavoidable and as painful as it is mysterious, no quick answer will suffice. Only Christian faith as a whole constitutes the answer to this question: the goodness of creation, the drama of sin and the patient love of God who comes to meet man by his covenants, the redemptive Incarnation of his Son, his gift of the Spirit, his gathering of the Church, the power of the sacraments and his call to a blessed life to which free creatures are invited to consent in advance, but from which, by a terrible mystery, they can also turn away in advance. There is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the question of evil.

310 But why did God not create a world so perfect that no evil could exist in it? With infinite power God could always create something better. But with infinite wisdom and goodness God freely willed to create a world "in a state of journeying" towards its ultimate perfection. In God's plan this process of becoming involves the appearance of certain beings and the disappearance of others, the existence of the more perfect alongside the less perfect, both constructive and destructive forces of nature. With physical good there exists also physical evil as long as creation has not reached perfection.

311 Angels and men, as intelligent and free creatures, have to journey toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential love. They can therefore go astray. Indeed, they have sinned. Thus has moral evil, incommensurably more harmful than physical evil, entered the world. God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral evil. He permits it, however, because he respects the freedom of his creatures and, mysteriously, knows how to derive good from it:

For almighty God. . ., because he is supremely good, would never allow any evil whatsoever to exist in his works if he were not so all-powerful and good as to cause good to emerge from evil itself.
312 In time we can discover that God in his almighty providence can bring a good from the consequences of an evil, even a moral evil, caused by his creatures: "It was not you", said Joseph to his brothers, "who sent me here, but God. . . You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive." From the greatest moral evil ever committed - the rejection and murder of God's only Son, caused by the sins of all men - God, by his grace that "abounded all the more", brought the greatest of goods: the glorification of Christ and our redemption. But for all that, evil never becomes a good.

313 "We know that in everything God works for good for those who love him." The constant witness of the saints confirms this truth:

St. Catherine of Siena said to "those who are scandalized and rebel against what happens to them": "Everything comes from love, all is ordained for the salvation of man, God does nothing without this goal in mind."
St. Thomas More, shortly before his martyrdom, consoled his daughter: "Nothing can come but that that God wills. And I make me very sure that whatsoever that be, seem it never so bad in sight, it shall indeed be the best."

Dame Julian of Norwich: "Here I was taught by the grace of God that I should steadfastly keep me in the faith. . . and that at the same time I should take my stand on and earnestly believe in what our Lord shewed in this time - that 'all manner [of] thing shall be well.'

314 We firmly believe that God is master of the world and of its history. But the ways of his providence are often unknown to us. Only at the end, when our partial knowledge ceases, when we see God "face to face", will we fully know the ways by which - even through the dramas of evil and sin - God has guided his creation to that definitive sabbath rest for which he created heaven and earth.