DIVINE ABANDONMENT

Divine Appeal Reflection - 233

Today, consider in Divine Appeal 233: "Abandon yourself in My Will recognizing your nothingness and your honesty, allowing complete freedom and being at the command of My Will and I will guide you." 

There is a sacred place within the soul where God longs to dwell completely—where all resistance ends and love begins. Our Adorable Jesus calls us tenderly but firmly: “Abandon yourself in My Will... recognizing your nothingness and your honesty.” This is the invitation that echoed in the heart of every saint—not to do great things, but to let God do everything in them. It is not self-rejection, but self-offering. As the Catechism teaches, holiness is not our achievement, but the fruit of grace received in freedom (cf. CCC 2011). To abandon ourselves is to enter into love.

Saint Bakhita, once enslaved and stripped of dignity, found in Christ a freedom deeper than any chain. As a lay sister in a quiet convent, she abandoned bitterness and embraced God’s Will with childlike trust. Her life teaches the laity today that even in suffering, obscurity, and unfulfilled dreams, we are never lost to God. When parents are overwhelmed, when workers are overlooked, when young people feel uncertain—our Adorable Jesus says, “Let Me lead.” This surrender, honest and small, becomes luminous in the eyes of eternity. True greatness lies not in doing more, but in yielding more to Divine Love.

Saint Damien of Molokai, a priest who gave his life to lepers in Hawaii, embodies this abandonment in the priesthood. He did not seek comfort or recognition, but offered his health, his voice, and eventually his body to serve the forgotten. His surrender was not dramatic, but daily—offering Mass, cleaning wounds, listening to broken hearts. Today’s priests walk the same road when they persevere in hidden faithfulness, celebrate sacraments in empty chapels, or love their people even when unthanked. Like Christ, their fruitfulness flows from obedience, not outcomes (cf. CCC 1547). Our Adorable Jesus guides those who give Him everything.

In cloisters and quiet chapels, Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified, the “Little Arab,” teaches consecrated souls to abandon themselves in mystic simplicity. Her ecstatic love and profound humility flowed from a total emptying of self into God’s Will. She prayed, “Holy Spirit, inspire me, love me, guide me,” and trusted with her whole being. For religious today, surrender means letting go of consolations, trusting in the midst of spiritual darkness, and living every vow with joy. Their nothingness, freely offered, becomes a hymn to Divine Providence (cf. CCC 305). In this, the consecrated heart becomes the hidden furnace of grace for the whole Church.

Prayer

Our Adorable Jesus, draw us into the depths of Your Will, where fear dissolves and love remains. Teach us, in every state of life, to abandon all that we are. May our honesty and our littleness become Your dwelling place. And in we who surrender completely, be glorified forever. 

Sr. Anna Ali of the Most Holy Eucharist, intercede for us.