pain as pain; thou shouldst take it from God as the very best thing,
for it must of necessity be the very best thing for thee. Therefore
I may even wish for it and desire it, and nothing would become me
better than so to do.

If there were a man whom I were particularly anxious to please, and
if I knew for certain that he liked me better in a grey cloak than
in any other, there is no doubt that however good another cloak
might be, I should be fonder of the grey than of all the rest. And
if there were anyone whom I would gladly please, I should do nothing
else in word or deed than what I knew that he liked.

Ah, now consider how your love shows itself! If you loved God, of a
surety nothing would give you greater pleasure than what pleases Him
best, and that whereby His will may be most fully done. And, however
great thy pain or hardship may be, if thou hast not as great
pleasure in it as in comfort or fulness, it is wrong.

We say every day in prayer to our Father, Thy will be done. And yet
when His will is done, we grumble at it, and find no pleasure in His
will. If our prayers were sincere, we should certainly think His
will, and what He does, to be the best, and that the very best had
happened to us. (134)

Those who accept all that the Lord send, as the very best, remain
always in perfect peace, for in them God's will has become their
will. This is incomparably better than for our will to become God's
will. For when thy will becomes God's will--if thou art sick, thou
wishest not to be well contrary to God's will, but thou wishest that
it were God's will that thou shouldest be well. And so in other