To love God with a single eye to the good He can bestow, is not to lose one's self in Him, but to lose Him in self!
We must renounce, forget and forever lose sight of self, have no longer any will, glory or peace, but His only; we must love Him without loving self except in and for Him.
To love God for what He can give you is to lose God in self — Scougal's third counterfeit named with a sharper blade. The remedy: lose self in God. Not punish self. Lose sight of self entirely. Murray's absolute surrender. Scougal's inward principle. Fénelon's single eye. Three voices. One truth.
God who made us out of nothing, re-creates us, as it were, every moment.
Of ourselves we are nothing; we are but what God has made us, and for so long time only as He pleases.
He has but to withdraw the hand that sustains us and we plunge into annihilation, as a stone held in the air falls by its own weight when its support is removed.
God who made us out of nothing, re-creates us every moment. Of ourselves we are nothing; we are but what God has made us.
Fénelon's writing is marvelous. 🙏
Existence is not ours by right. It is conferred. Moment by moment. The hand holding the stone — that is God. The stone that falls when the hand withdraws — that is us. Not created once and left running. Re-created. Every moment. Every breath. The mornings are not achievement. The existence itself — the next heartbeat — is God's hand, holding.
To know that You are the God of my heart, that You there do what pleases You — this it is that elevates me!
When I am good, it is because You rendered me so; You give me a heart like Your own!
You are more intimately present to me than I am to myself.
Fénelon goes further than any author in this journal: God is nearer to the soul than the soul is to itself. Scougal said God dwells in the soul. Fénelon says God is closer to the soul than the soul is to itself. Augustine: You were more inward to me than my most inward part. And the gift: You give me a heart like Your own. Not guidance. Transformation.
God interposes Himself between me and myself; He separates me from myself; He desires to be nearer to me by His pure love than I am to myself.
He would have me look upon this "me" as a stranger; sacrifice it whole to Him, returning it absolutely to Him from whom I received it.
What I am ought certainly to be less precious to me than He by whom I am.
He made me for Himself and not to be my own; to love Him and to will what He wills.
The most breathtaking passage in Fénelon. God between me and myself. Murray's surrender taken to its mystical conclusion: the self itself was never mine to keep. What I am — less precious than He by whom I am. Not self-hatred. Right ordering. The stone returned to the hand. Not loss. Fulfillment.
Does anyone feel his heart revolt at this total sacrifice?
I weep for his blindness; I compassionate his bondage to self, and pray God to deliver him by teaching him to love Him above every other object.
✦ Bondage to Self
The soul that revolts — Fénelon does not condemn it. He weeps for it. The revolt is bondage. The self that clings to itself is enslaved. The self that returns to God is free. The bondage to self is the prison. The return is the freedom. 🙏
"God who made us out of nothing, re-creates us, as it were, every moment."
François Fénelon · Re-created every moment — nearer than self — the writing is marvelousThe Stone Held in the Air
Of ourselves we are nothing. Existence conferred moment by moment. The hand sustains. Re-created every breath.
Nearer Than Self
God between me and myself. More intimately present than I am to myself. He gives me a heart like His own.
The Return
What I am — less precious than He by whom I am. The self returned to the hand. Absolutely. Unconditionally. Not loss — fulfillment.
Bondage to Self
The soul that revolts is enslaved. Fénelon weeps. The bondage to self is the prison. The return is the freedom.