Description
Author: Francois Fenelon
Do you struggle through family problems, battle with the tensions of raising children, or find yourself overwhelmed with pressures on the job? Are personal failures and disappointments on the increase as you face each day? What a fountain of life it would be to discover how to let go of those distresses and learn to embrace the joy and peace that God has promised! Fénelon--with amazing insight--speaks firmly, but lovingly, to those whose lives have been an uphill climb and reveals just how to Let Go!
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Letter 1--The Advantages of Humility
Letter 2--How to Bear Suffering Peacefully
Letter 3--The Beauty of the Cross
Letter 4--The Death of Self
Letter 5--Peace Comes Through Simplicity and Obedience
Letter 6--The True Source of Peace Is in the Surrender of the Will
Letter 7--True Goodness Is Only Reached by Abandonment
Letter 8--"Knowledge Puffeth Up: Charity Edifyeth"
Letter 9--We Are Not to Choose the Manner in Which Our Blessings Shall Be Bestowed
Letter 10--The Discovery and Death of Self
Letter 11--The Sight of Our Imperfections Should Not Take Away Our Peace
Letter 12--Living by the Cross and by Faith
Letter 13--Despair at Our Imperfections Is a Greater Obstacle than the Imperfection Itself
Letter 14--Pure Faith Sees God Alone
Letter 15--Our Knowledge Stands in the Way of Our Becoming Wise
Letter 16--Those Who Injure Us Are to Be Loved and Welcomed as the Hand of God
Letter 17--Quietness in God Our True Resource
Letter 18--True Friendships Are Founded Only in God
Letter 19--The Cross a Source of Our Pleasure
Letter 20--Do Not Be Distressed by the Revelation of Self or the Absence of Feeling
Letter 21--The Imperfection of Others to Be Born in Love
Letter 22--The Fear of Death Is Not Taken Away by Our Own Courage But by the Grace of God
Letter 23--Sensitivity to Reproof Is the Surest Sign We Needed It
Letter 24--Only Imperfection Is Intolerant of Imperfection
Letter 25--We Should Listen to God and Not to Self
Letter 26--Absolute Trust Is the Shortest Road to God
Letter 27--The Time of Temptation and Distress Is No Time to Make Decisions
Letter 28--If You Have Love, You Have Everything
Letter 29--Weakness Preferable to Strength, and Practice Better than Knowledge
Letter 30--Beware of the Pride of Reasoning: the True Guide to Knowledge Is Love
Letter 31--The Gifts of God Are Not to Be Rejected because of the Channel That Brings Them
Letter 32--Poverty and Deprivation Are Jesus' Way
Letter 33--The Will of God Our Only Treasure
Letter 34--Surrender Is Not a Heroic Sacrifice, but a Simple Sinking into the Will of God
Letter 35--Bearing Dying Takes the Place of Final Death
Letter 36--Suffering Belongs to the Living, Not the Dead
Letter 37--God Gives Grace in Proportion to Our Trials
Letter 38--Resisting God, an Effective Hindrance to Grace
Letter 39--God Speaks More Effectually in the Soul than to It
Letter 40--The Circumcision of the Heart
Excerpt:
Letter 1 The Advantages of Humility
I often pray to God that He would keep you in the hollow of His hand. And this He certainly will do if you remember to keep a humble and obedient spirit. Humility is good in every situation, because it produces that teachable spirit which makes everything easy. And you, of all people, would be more guilty than many others if you made any resistance to the Lord on this point. For on the one hand, the Lord has taught you so much on the necessity of becoming like a little child; and on the other, few people have had an experience more fitting to humiliate the heart and destroy self-confidence. The good that comes from any experience of personal weakness is the realization that God wants us to be lowly and obedient. So may the Lord keep you!
