I am emotional and events, particularly painful events, create a profound, a prolonged and often a most exaggerated impression on me.
This is true not only in regard to occurrences which have really happened, but also events which perhaps will never occur or which might be remotely possible. I make mountains out of fancies, picturing the worst and worrying myself unduly over merely possible evils.
What I lack is a sense of the real, and a deep spirit of faith.
The Sense of the Real: One day a pilgrim met a fearful looking sorcerer; it was the Plague.
"Where are you going?"
"I am going to Bagdad to kill five thousand persons."
Some days later the pilgrim met the sorcerer returning from Bagdad.
"But you killed fifty thousand victims!"
"Yes," responded the Plague, laughing. "I only killed five thousand of them; the other forty-five thousand died of fear."
Enough troubles come to me. I must not suffer a hundred times in advance from troubles which might happen, the greater number of which never arrive. I will strive to cultivate a deep spirit of faith by calling on the supernatural to correct my excessive apprehension. It is good if I acquire a just view of things to avoid naivete. I must also learn to practice a joyous spirit of abandonment, nothing happens without the permission of God. The Most High protects the lilies of the fields. Am I less in His eyes than a lily of the fields?
I will spend my life in living and not in dying of fear.
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
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