An Act of Abandonment
by the Reverend Father Pignatelli
O my God, I don't know what shall happen to me today; I am completely unaware of it; but I certainly know that nothing can happen to me that You have not foreseen, regulated and ordered from all eternity: that is enough for me. I adore Your impenetrable and eternal designs, I submit to them with all my heart; I want it all, I accept it all, and I unite my sacrifice to that of Jesus Christ, my divine Savior; I ask You in His Name and by His infinite merits for patience in my sufferings, and a perfect and entire submission to all that will happen to me according to Your good pleasure. So be it.
Another Act of Abandonment
O my God, I don't know what shall happen to me today; I am completely unaware of it; but I certainly know that nothing can happen to me that You have not foreseen, regulated and ordered from all eternity: that is enough for me. I adore Your impenetrable and eternal designs, I submit to them with all my heart; I want it all, I accept it all, and I unite my sacrifice to that of Jesus Christ, my divine Savior; I ask You in His Name and by His infinite merits for patience in my sufferings, and a perfect and entire submission to all that will happen to me according to Your good pleasure. So be it.
Another Act of Abandonment
by Saint Jeanne-Francoise de Chantal
O sovereign goodness of the sovereign providence of my God, I leave myself forever in Your arms, whether You are gentle or rigorous to me, lead me henceforth wherever You please; I will not look at the roads by which You will make me pass, but only at You, oh my God, Who lead me; my soul finds no rest outside the arms and bosom of this celestial Providence, my true mother, my strength and my rampart. This is why I resolve, with Your divine help, O my Savior, to follow Your desires and Your ordinances without ever looking at or dissecting the causes of Your doing this rather than that; but with closed eyes, I will follow You according to Your divine desires, without considering my own preference.
This is what I am determined to do, to leave everything to God, not getting involved except in keeping myself at rest in His arms, without desiring anything whatever except as He will incite me to desire: o my God, begging you to bless that; undertaking everything depending upon your goodness, liberality and mercy, in total confidence in You and distrust of me and of my infinite misery and infirmity.
O sovereign goodness of the sovereign providence of my God, I leave myself forever in Your arms, whether You are gentle or rigorous to me, lead me henceforth wherever You please; I will not look at the roads by which You will make me pass, but only at You, oh my God, Who lead me; my soul finds no rest outside the arms and bosom of this celestial Providence, my true mother, my strength and my rampart. This is why I resolve, with Your divine help, O my Savior, to follow Your desires and Your ordinances without ever looking at or dissecting the causes of Your doing this rather than that; but with closed eyes, I will follow You according to Your divine desires, without considering my own preference.
This is what I am determined to do, to leave everything to God, not getting involved except in keeping myself at rest in His arms, without desiring anything whatever except as He will incite me to desire: o my God, begging you to bless that; undertaking everything depending upon your goodness, liberality and mercy, in total confidence in You and distrust of me and of my infinite misery and infirmity.
JP Caussade, L'Abandon a la Providence Divine, Tome II, Lecoffre: Paris, 1870, 331-332.
Plinthos translation.
