Remember the Innumerable Gifts of God
The Disciple
OPEN my heart, O Lord, to Your law and teach me to walk in the way of Your commandments.
Let me understand Your will. Let me remember Your blessings—all of them and each single one
of them—with great reverence and care so that henceforth I may return worthy thanks for them. I
know that I am unable to give due thanks for even the least of Your gifts. I am unworthy of the
benefits You have given me, and when I consider Your generosity my spirit faints away before its
greatness. All that we have of soul and body, whatever we possess interiorly or exteriorly, by nature
or by grace, are Your gifts and they proclaim Your goodness and mercy from which we have
received all good things.
If one receives more and another less, yet all are Yours and without You nothing can be received.
He who receives greater things cannot glory in his own merit or consider himself above others or
behave insolently toward those who receive less. He who attributes less to himself and is the more
humble and devout in returning thanks is indeed the greater and the better, while he who considers
himself lower than all men and judges himself to be the least worthy, is the more fit to receive the
greater blessing.
He, on the other hand, who has received fewer gifts should not be sad or impatient or envious
of the richer man. Instead he should turn his mind to You and offer You the greatest praise because
You give so bountifully, so freely and willingly, without regard to persons. All things come from
You; therefore, You are to be praised in all things. You know what is good for each of us; and why
one should receive less and another more is not for us to judge, but for You Who have marked
every man’s merits.
Therefore, O Lord God, I consider it a great blessing not to have many things which human
judgment holds praiseworthy and glorious, for one who realizes his own poverty and vileness should
not be sad or downcast at it, but rather consoled and happy because You, O God, have chosen the
poor, the humble, and the despised in this world to be Your friends and servants. The truth of this
is witnessed by Your Apostles, whom You made princes over all the world. Yet they lived in this
world without complaining, so humble and simple, so free from malice and deceit, that they were
happy even to suffer reproach for Your name and to embrace with great affection that which the
world abhors.
A man who loves You and recognizes Your benefits, therefore, should be gladdened by nothing
so much as by Your will, by the good pleasure of Your eternal decree. With this he should be so
contented and consoled that he would wish to be the least as others wish to be the greatest; that he
would be as peaceful and satisfied in the last place as in the first, and as willing to be despised,
unknown and forgotten, as to be honored by others and to have more fame than they. He should
prefer Your will and the love of Your honor to all else, and it should comfort him more than all
the benefits which have been, or will be, given him.