The Practice of the Presence of God | Page 8

I have no will but that of God. I endeavor to accomplish His will in all
things. And I am so resigned that I would not take up a straw from the ground against His
order or from any motive but that of pure love for Him.
I have ceased all forms of devotion and set prayers except those to which my state
requires. I make it my priority to persevere in His holy presence, wherein I maintain a
simple attention and a fond regard for God, which I may call an actual presence of God.
Or, to put it another way, it is an habitual, silent, and private conversation of the soul with
God. This gives me much joy and contentment. In short, I am sure, beyond all doubt, that
my soul has been with God above these past thirty years. I pass over many things that I
may not be tedious to you.
Yet, I think it is appropriate to tell you how I perceive myself before God, whom I behold
as my King. I consider myself as the most wretched of men. I am full of faults, flaws, and
weaknesses, and have committed all sorts of crimes against his King. Touched with a
sensible regret I confess all my wickedness to Him. I ask His forgiveness. I abandon
myself in His hands that He may do what He pleases with me.
My King is full of mercy and goodness. Far from chastising me, He embraces me with
love. He makes me eat at His table. He serves me with His own hands and gives me the
key to His treasures. He converses and delights Himself with me incessantly, in a
thousand and a thousand ways. And He treats me in all respects as His favorite. In this
way I consider myself continually in His holy presence.
My most usual method is this simple attention, an affectionate regard for God to whom I
find myself often attached with greater sweetness and delight than that of an infant at the
mother's breast. To choose an expression, I would call this state the bosom of God, for
the inexpressible sweetness which I taste and experience there. If, at any time, my
thoughts wander from it from necessity or infirmity, I am presently recalled by inward
emotions so charming and delicious that I cannot find words to describe them. Please
reflect on my great wretchedness, of which you are fully informed, rather than on the
great favors God does one as unworthy and ungrateful as I am.
As for my set hours of prayer, they are simply a continuation of the same exercise.
Sometimes I consider myself as a stone before a carver, whereof He is to make a statue.
Presenting myself thus before God, I desire Him to make His perfect image in my soul
and render me entirely like Himself. At other times, when I apply myself to prayer, I feel
all my spirit lifted up without any care or effort on my part. This often continues as if it
was suspended yet firmly fixed in God like a center or place of rest.
I know that some charge this state with inactivity, delusion, and self-love. I confess that it
is a holy inactivity. And it would be a happy self-love if the soul, in that state, were
capable of it. But while the soul is in this repose, she cannot be disturbed by the kinds of
things to which she was formerly accustomed. The things that the soul used to depend on
would now hinder rather than assist her.
Yet, I cannot see how this could be called imagination or delusion because the soul which
enjoys God in this way wants nothing but Him. If this is delusion, then only God can
remedy it. Let Him do what He pleases with me. I desire only Him and to be wholly
devoted to Him.
Please send me your opinion as I greatly value and have a singular esteem for your
reverence, and am yours.

Third Letter: We have a God who is infinitely gracious and knows all our wants. I always
thought that He would reduce you to extremity. He will come in His own time, and when
you least expect it. Hope in Him more than ever. Thank Him with me for the favors He
does you, particularly for the fortitude and patience which He gives you in your
afflictions. It is a plain mark of the care He takes of you. Comfort yourself with Him, and
give thanks for all.
I admire also the fortitude and bravery of M--. God has given him a good disposition and
a good will; but he is still a little worldly and somewhat immature. I hope the affliction
God has sent him