I have been praying for years to be able to follow God's will. Due to various factors, I don't feel like I am following it. Since God's will for me is still a complete mystery, how do I best follow it?
I think that my spiritual reading for today was meant for you:
Suffering A Test of Virtue
Suffering increases merit by insuring not only greater purity but also greater earnestness of motive.
It has a bracing influence upon the will, and gives tone and vigor to its exercise
. Difficulties and sufferings bring out manliness and strength of will and nobility of soul. They try earnestness of purpose. They are an unmistakable test of solid virtue. There is beauty and merit in each least aspiration of virtue breathed on the playful wing of joy, but there is greater and more solid merit in the depth and vigor of determination evinced in the practice of virtue under difficulties, temptations and trials. There is no trial, temptation, or Suffering which cannot be turned into a blessing by the will of a conscious sufferer...
The treasure of holiness lies open to all, and the secret of utilizing these precious treasures consists in turning to our spiritual profit the common routine of everyday duties and the events of Providence.
That which happens to us hour by hour, by God's will, is what is best and most profitable for us. Daily we have active or passive means of sanctity offered us. Active sanctity consists in fulfilling with purity of intention the duties imposed by God, by the Church, by our state of life.
Passive sanctity consists in the loving acceptation of what is painful and repugnant to nature, without heeding our likes and dislikes. If only we utilize the means of holiness thus provide, we shall surely become saints sooner or later.
Patience (Thoughts on the Patient Endurance of Sorrows and Sufferings)
By: Rev. F. X. Lasance