Saint Francis de Sales: Act of Abandonment

To celebrate Saint Francis de Sales, a master of the spiritual life whose work I have come to appreciate more fully over the past couple of years, I would like to share his Act of Abandonment.

I love this prayer and return to it frequently because it not only addresses carrying the cross given to us, but embracing it and venerating it, approaching it with reverence because it has been given to us for our salvation. When I struggle with spiritual desolation and feel the weight, it is not 'being tough' and soldiering on that carries me through, but recalling that I am following Jesus in his great outpouring of love.


O my God, I thank you and I praise you 
for accomplishing your holy and all-lovable will 
without any regard for mine. 
With my whole heart, 
in spite of my heart, 
do I receive this cross I feared so much! 

It is the cross of Your choice, 
the cross of Your love. 
I venerate it; 
nor for anything in the world 
would I wish that it had not come, 
since You willed it. 

I keep it with gratitude and with joy, 
as I do everything that comes from Your hand; 
and I shall strive to carry it without letting it drag, 
with all the respect 
and all the affection which Your works deserve. 

Amen.