October 18

Thirteenth Friday after Trinity

Shew me Thy ways, O Lord; teach me Thy paths. Psalms 25:4.

God would have thee serve Him after His fashion, not after thine own. God often inspires the longing for a higher perfection than that to which a man was first called. One living in the world will be drawn to devote himself to God in poverty, chastity, and obedience; another, despite his busy life of servile tasks, will be drawn to the highest contemplation, and some will be led to practise greater austerities in the world than those of ascetic solitaries. God has often called His chosen ones from amid the lowliest states of life and the most uneducated minds. Do not be surprised, therefore, if God leads a soul beyond its own apparent calling. He therein manifests His universal empire, and displays His mighty designs for that soul: He sets forth the triumph of His grace, outstepping all our ideas, and using what seem to us unlikely instruments for His own glory.

Whatever thing is done, by Him is done, Ne any may His mighty will withstand; Ne any may His sovereign power shun; Ne loose that He hath bound with steadfast band; In vain therefore dost thou now take in hand To call to count, or weigh He works anew, Whose counsel's depth thou canst not understand, Sith of things subject to thy daily view Thou dost not know the causes nor their courses due.

For take thy balance, if thou be so wise, And weigh the wind that under heaven doth blow; Or weigh the light that in the east doth rise; Or weigh the thought that from man's mind doth flow: But if the weight of these thou canst not show, Weigh but one word which from thy lips doth fall, For how canst thou those greater secrets know, That dost not know the least thing of them all? Ill can he rule the great that cannot reach the small.