Act of Faith in the Love of God

O my Heavenly Father, it is especially when my sky is darker and my cross heavier that I feel the need to tell You: I believe in Your love for me!

Yes, I believe that You are my Father and I am Your child. I believe that You love me with an infinite love!

I believe that You watch over me night and day, and not a hair of my head falls without Your permission.

I believe that, infinitely wise, You know far better than I what is advantageous to me.

I believe that, infinitely powerful, You draw good out of evil. I believe that, infinitely good, You will never test me beyond my strength, and will make everything turn to the greater good of my soul and the souls that are dear to me. That is why, behind the hands that hurt me, I kiss Your healing hand…

I believe, but increase my faith, and especially my hope and charity. Teach me to see Your love directing all the events that happen to me. Teach me to abandon myself to Your ways as a child in its mother’s arms.

Father, You know all things, You see all things, You know me better than I know myself, You can do all things and You love me!

O Jesus, Your Heart watches over me and loves me. Your Heart, aware of my miseries, attentive to my sufferings, is beyond the failures and reversals of human love. It will always remain faithful to me. It will keep me until my frail heart stops beating. When all the other hearts that have legitimately loved me have succumbed and passed away, Your Heart, unalterable in Its tenderness, will remain the refuge and strength of my own: It will be my reward after having been my support. It is by It that I will live…

That is why, in the wake of my faults, when I am sad that I have wounded You, betrayed You perhaps, O my Jesus, far from turning in on myself in a thought of discouragement, I will go to You, repentant and confounded, and after having received Your merciful forgiveness, I will dare say to You again: “You know all things. You know well that I love You!”

In my daily combats, in my acute temptations, instead of permitting despondency to prevail over humble confidence, I will think that You allow this painful toil for me so that I may make it a tribute of fidelity and love for You.

In my trials and sufferings of all kinds, I will raise my eyes to Your Cross, and seeing You immolated for my love, I will have enough nobility of soul, if not to ask for the prolongation of my own crucifixion, at least to accept all pain, all failure, all contempt, all persecution as the gift of Your Heart which loves me and wants to associate me with Its redemptive work!

O Jesus, I want to live by faith in Your love and say unceasingly with ever more fervent conviction: “I know in whom I have entrusted myself. Those who hope in You, Lord, will never be confounded!”

Sister Jean-Baptiste, f.c.s.p.