I sympathize deeply in his misfortunes. I use this expression in conformity to common usage, but it does not express the sentiments of my heart. I am convinced that the loss of wealth, worldly honor, persecutions, are the best instruments to unite us to Jesus Christ.
All evils, or apparent evils, are great blessings when they unite us to our All in All. I pray God to sustain him. His sufferings only increase my sympathy and love for him in our Lord.
✦ The World's Vocabulary — Refused
Guyon refuses the world's vocabulary. She uses the word misfortunes only to say she doesn't mean it. What the world calls loss — wealth gone, honour stripped, persecution endured — she calls instruments. Not punishment. Not random suffering. Not misfortune. Instruments — tools in the hands of a God who is building something specific: union with Christ.
Nothing else strips away what stands between the soul and God as efficiently as loss does. Abundance can distract. Comfort can insulate. Success can deceive. But loss — loss removes everything that is not Him. And what remains, when everything else has been removed, is the All in All. 🙏
The losses we suffer are the best instruments to unite us to Jesus Christ. 🙏
Best. Not adequate. Not useful. Best. Le received Guyon's word and sharpened it. Because the 500 denari soul knows this from the inside — the loss was total, the debt was unpayable, and the forgiveness that met it was the instrument that united her to Christ forever. The size of the loss is the explanation for the depth of the union. Every trouble is intended to endear Jesus to your heart. James Smith's word from Espira-de-l'Agly — confirmed again in Dax by a woman writing from the Bastille three centuries ago. 🙏
"The losses we suffer are the best instruments to unite us to Jesus Christ."
Le · Guyon · The size of the loss is the explanation for the depth of the unionIt is important to use great care and sweetness in reproving others. Reprove only when alone with the person, and take not your own time, but the moment of God.
As we are not free from faults ourselves, we must not expect too much from others. Be yourself very humble and child-like, and this character will act sympathetically on others.
Jesus Christ was full of sweetness and charity. How patiently did He bear with His imperfect disciples — even with Judas — without anger, without bitterness, and even without coldness.
✦ Take Not Your Own Time
A whole theology of restraint in one phrase. The reproof may be true. The observation may be correct. The fault may be real. But the timing is not yours to choose. The moment belongs to God — and if you seize a moment that is not His, the truest words in the world will land as wounds rather than medicine.
This connects directly to Guyon's teaching on quenching the Spirit. The Spirit has His own timing — the gentle zephyr, the moment of action. To reprove before the Spirit's moment is to operate impetuously. To reprove in our own time is to substitute our urgency for His wisdom. The reproof given at the wrong moment does the enemy's work, no matter how correct it is.
✦ Even with Judas
The example that silences every objection. Jesus bore with Judas — without anger, without bitterness, and even without coldness. The one He knew would betray Him. The one whose heart was already turned. Jesus did not expose him publicly. Did not shame him. Did not withdraw His love. He washed Judas's feet at the Last Supper — knowing everything.
That is sweetness and charity at their most costly. The patience of Christ with Judas was not weakness. It was not ignorance. It was the deliberate choice to love fully even when the outcome was certain. If Jesus could bear with Judas in this manner — what excuse have we for bearing with anyone less patiently? 🙏
We walk a fine line with this, because we are not free from faults ourselves. Also, we don't want to create strife, which is the enemy's door of entry. His goal is to steal, kill, and destroy. 🙏
✦ The Enemy's Door of Entry
Le goes deeper than Guyon: she names what the wrong reproof actually produces. Not just hurt feelings. Not just damaged relationships. A door. John 10:10 — the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. The reproof given at the wrong time, in the wrong spirit, with the wrong tone — even if the content is true — opens a door through which the enemy enters. Strife follows. Division follows. And the enemy walks through the door that the well-meaning reprover opened for him.
We are not free from faults ourselves. Matthew 7:5 — first remove the beam from your own eye. The one who reproves must begin from humility, not from authority. And the fine line Le describes is exactly what Guyon is teaching: the line between the moment of God and the moment of self. One produces healing. The other opens the enemy's door. The difference is not the content — it is the timing, the spirit, and the humility. 🙏
Instruments, Not Misfortunes
Loss of wealth, honour, persecution — instruments to unite us to Christ. The world calls them misfortunes. Guyon calls them the best tools in God's hands. What remains when everything is stripped away is the All in All.
The Moment of God
Take not your own time. The reproof at the wrong moment does the enemy's work, no matter how true it is. The timing belongs to God. Wait for the zephyr. The Spirit chooses the moment — not our urgency.
The Enemy's Door
Strife is the door of entry. His goal: steal, kill, destroy. The wrong reproof opens the door — not because it is false but because it is untimely. Humility before correction. The beam before the speck. The fine line walked in love.
Guyon's eighteenth day. Two teachings — one about receiving loss, one about giving reproof. Together they form a complete picture: how the soul bears what comes to it, and how the soul handles what it gives to others.
James Smith — "Every trouble is intended to endear Jesus to your heart": From Espira-de-l'Agly, the tight road in the foreign city. And Guyon today: losses are the best instruments to unite us to Christ. Same truth, two voices, one road. The trouble endears. The loss unites. Neither is wasted. Both are instruments.
Day twelve — vicissitudes from Sword Beach: "The same God who causes the scarcity and the abundance." The losses Guyon describes today are the scarcity side — the season of stripping. And yesterday's truth holds: all is alike good, when God is with us. The loss is not the opposite of blessing. It is the instrument of it.
Day sixteen — quenching the Spirit: "As soon as the spirit in me was silent, I had nothing to say." And today: take not your own time, but the moment of God. The same discipline — wait for the Spirit's moment. Do not fill the silence with the impetuous operation of self. In Guyon's teaching on the Spirit, the issue was speaking. In today's teaching, the issue is reproving. Both require the same restraint: God's moment, not ours.
The March 6 entry — intercession over condemnation: Le chose intercession when the temptation came to judge harshly. Today Guyon teaches the same principle at the level of reproof: be humble, be child-like, be sweet. The one who walks the holy walk does not rush to correct. She prays first. She waits for the moment. And when the reproof comes — if it comes — it comes from humility, not from authority.
Le on the enemy's door: This is the pastoral insight that Guyon left implicit and Le made explicit. The wrong reproof is not merely unhelpful — it opens a door. Strife enters. Division follows. The enemy walks through. John 10:10 meets Matthew 7:5 — and the lesson is clear: the beam in your own eye is the door handle the enemy is waiting for you to turn. Remove the beam first. Wait for God's moment. And reprove — if you must — from the other side of humility. 🙏