Daily Thought For March 31, 2017

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Keeping Our Cool
  
      If you should temporarily lose your sense of well-being, don't be too quick to despair. With humility and patience, wait for God, who is able to give you back even more profound comfort. 
     There is nothing novel about this to those who are familiar with God's ways. The great saints and ancient prophets frequently experienced the alternation of up and down, joy and sorrow. One of them, while he was enjoying a mountain-top experience said: When I felt secure, I said, “I will never be shaken." O LORD, when you favored me, you made my mountain stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed. 
     And yet, even while he was going through this, he did not feel crushed. With renewed passion he prayed: Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me; O LORD, be my help. 
     In time, his prayer was answered. This is his report: You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy. 
     If the great saints are exposed to such variations, we who are poor and weak should not be discouraged if our spiritual life fails to be uniformly ecstatic. The Holy Spirit gives and takes according to his own divine purpose. I have never met anyone so religious and devout that he has not felt occasionally some withdrawing of grace. 

Thomas à Kempis: The Imitation of Christ 

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