Praying with Blessed Charles of Jesus

PRAYER OF ABANDONMENT
by Charles de Foucauld

Father,
I abandon myself into your hands;
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me,
and in all your creatures.
I ask no more than this, O Lord.

Into your hands I commend my spirit;
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,
for I love you, Lord,
and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands,
without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father.

As much as I like this prayer, and as frequently as I have prayed it over the past 40 some years, it's not an easy prayer for me. More often that not, the words stick in my throat. In truth, I do not always thank my Father for whatever He does, no more than I am ready for all and I accept all. I am still a rebellious enough child to want that my will rather than my Father's will be done. And because most of the time I am selfish and afraid, I don't always give my Father all the love of my heart. Yet I can and do say with sincerity and honesty the first and last lines of this prayer: "Father, I abandon myself into Your hands...for You are my Father." These two lines are like bookends that hold together my fragmented desires to be all and only my Father's child and to seek nothing but His will, for He alone is Infinite Love. With Blessed Charles of Jesus, I also have discovered that "As soon as I believed there was a God, I understood that I could not do anything other than live for him."

Other articles on the Web about Brother Charles of Jesus are Blessed Charles de Foucauld: seeking nothing but God's will, Venerable Charles de Foucauld, Charles de Foucauld, and Charles de Foucauld: From Playboy to Beatified Hermit.