Growing in trust is not becoming optimistic or self-confident: it is learning, step by step, to lean on God rather than on one's own strength. Christian trust is not a happy temperament — it is an act of the heart by which the soul holds for certain that God loves it, watches over it and will work all things for its good, even what it does not understand.
The difficulty is that we don’t decide one morning to “trust”. Like humility, trust is acquired slowly, through degrees, exercises and accepted tests. The saints were not content to praise it: they described the path - the "little way" of Saint Thérèse, the "act of trust" of Saint Claude de la Colombière, the "believing in Love" of Father d'Elbée, the "Jesus, I trust in You" of Saint Faustina.
This article is devoted to this practical path: how to progress, by what means, while avoiding what pitfalls. For the saints' own voice on this theme, we will refer to the anthology What do the saints say about trust. For the foundation—the trust that springs from recognized misery and infinite mercy—see The Double Abyss: Introduction. For its extension, total abandonment to the will of God, see How to grow in abandonment to God.
Why seek to grow in trust?
Trust, what touches the Heart of God the most
Throughout the revelation, God presents himself less as a master to be feared than as a Father in whom to rest. Trust is therefore not a temperamental option: it is the response that God expects from his children. To Jairus, Christ makes it the condition of the hoped-for miracle — a requirement found before many healings:
“Do not fear, only believe.” — Gospel according to Saint Mark 5, 36[1]
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, who made trust the heart of her doctrine, goes so far as to say that what hurts the Heart of Jesus the most is not the sin of weakness, but the refusal to trust in it:
“What offends Jesus, what hurts his heart, is the lack of trust.” — Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, letter to her cousin Marie Guérin, May 30, 1889[2]
Seeking to grow in trust is therefore not aiming for a psychological quality: it is consoling the Heart of God and returning love for love. Father d'Elbée sums up all spiritual life in this movement: “Love calls love. How do you return love to Jesus for Love? Above all and above all by your trust in him.”[3]
“In trust shall be your strength”
The second reason is that trust is a source of power. Scripture makes this the secret of the strength of the righteous: not support on oneself, but support on God.
“Through conversion and calm, you shall be saved; in tranquility, in trust shall be your strength.” — Book of Isaiah 30, 15[4]
The Psalter made it the prayer of every believer: “On God I lean: nothing frightens me anymore! What can beings of flesh do to me?” (Ps 55, 5)[5]. Trust does not remove the ordeal; it removes the fear which paralyzes. A soul that grows in trust does not become carefree: it becomes strong, because it no longer relies on its own resources but on those, infinite, of God. Saint Paul had experienced it: “I can do all things in him who gives me strength” (Phil 4, 13)[6].
Trust opens the hands of God
Finally, trust is the measure of what we receive. God gives himself in proportion to the expectation that we place in him. Saint Faustina received these words, which have become one of the keys to devotion to Divine Mercy:
“The graces of my mercy are drawn from a single vessel, and that is trust. The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive.” — Jesus to Saint Faustina, Little Journal, § 1577[7]
This is exactly what Thérèse verified: “Trust works miracles.”[8] The more we expect from God, the more he gives; the more we lean on it, the more it carries. Conversely, lack of trust closes the soul and prohibits it from receiving. Growing in trust is therefore constantly expanding the vase that God only asks to be filled.
📖 See also: How to grow in hope — the theological virtue (one of the three virtues that God himself places in the heart: faith, hope and charity) of which trust is the filial and emotional exercise.
Understanding What We Seek to Acquire
Before the means, a clarification: many fail to grow in trust because they aim for a counterfeit. We confuse it with optimism, self-trust, or a warm feeling that comes and goes depending on the mood. Christian trust is something else entirely.
Trust Is Neither Optimism nor Self-Confidence
Optimism bets that “everything will be fine”; trust, believes that God will do well, even if everything goes wrong humanly. Trust in itself is based on its own qualities; trust is based on an Other. This is why it can grow precisely when human forces collapse. The secret is paradoxical, as Thérèse notes about the little reed she feels herself to be:
“It’s his weakness that gives him all his trust.” — Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, letter 55 (LT 55) to Sister Agnès of Jesus, July 5-9, 1888[9]
True trust therefore never says: “I will get there”; she says: “he will achieve it in me.” It supposes that we have first given up trusting ourselves. It is in this sense that it is inseparable from humility.
The twin sister of humility
Tradition always holds these two virtues together: humility, which despairs of oneself, and trust, which hopes everything from God. One without the other is corrupted — humility alone turns to discouragement, trust alone to presumption. This is what Jesus said to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta (1865-1947) — the Italian laywoman to whom Jesus entrusted, in The Book of Heaven, the doctrine of life in the Divine Will, not mere obedience to God but a single will with him — in a striking image:
“If you knew how much I love humility! Humility is the smallest of plants, but its branches reach up to Heaven […]. The branches produced by humility correspond to trust. In short, there is no true humility without trust. Humility without trust is a false virtue.” — Jesus to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 2, April 3, 1899[10]
The venerable Marthe Robin expressed the same law in the form of a scale: the more humility descends, the more trust rises, and the more the soul rises to love[11]. Growing in trust and growing in humility are therefore one and the same path, traveled on both sides. This is why this article is a sister to How to Grow in Humility.
The double abyss: trust is born from recognized misery
So where does trust come from? Not from the illusion of being good, but from the discovery, made at the same time, of two abysses: that of our misery, and that — infinitely greater — of God's mercy. This is the central intuition of the entire school of trust. Saint Faustina formulates it thus:
“Jesus, I feel strangely close to your Heart during this retreat. Nothing disturbs the depth of this peace. I place before my eyes, on one side, the abyss of my misery, and on the other, the abyss of your Mercy.” — Saint Faustina, Little Journal, § 1344[12]
Far from discouraging, the sight of our weakness here becomes the support point of trust: it is misery which attracts mercy, as the void calls for that which fills it. This doctrine is developed for itself in the article The double abyss; we refer to it for the basis.
The degrees of growth: from demand to abandonment
Trust is not a state that one possesses suddenly: it is a progressive dilatation of the heart. We can distinguish three stages, from the most accessible to the most heroic.
Trust That Asks
The first degree is that of prayer of request. Believing that God listens, that he is good, that he can and wants to give — this is already an act of trust. Jesus multiplied it in the Gospel: “Whatever you ask in prayer with faith, you will obtain” (Mt 21, 22)[13]. At this stage, trust is still interested in his needs, and this is legitimate: God wants us to address him as a child to his father, “how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Lk 11, 13)[14]. Asking insistently, without tiring, is the first exercise of trust.
Trust That Rests
The second degree goes beyond the request: it is the trust which rests in God, which ceases to be agitated because it knows itself to be guarded. The psalmist gives the image of the infant against his mother: “I hold my soul equal and silent; my soul is in me like a child, like a little child against its mother” (Ps 130, 2)[15]. Here, trust no longer only expects a gift: it tastes a peace which no longer depends on circumstances. It is the rest of the believer who, having surrendered everything to God, no longer has to carry the weight of his own life.
Trust That Surrenders
The third degree is the summit: trust becomes abandonment. We no longer just ask that God give us what we want; we give him the task of wanting and choosing for us, some whom he loves better than ourselves. This is Thérèse’s movement:
“I can no longer ask anything ardently, except the perfect fulfillment of the will of the Good God for my soul.” — Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Autobiographical manuscripts, Manuscript A, f. 83r°[16]
This third degree joins the doctrine of abandonment, treated for itself in How to Grow in Abandonment to God. Trust is the root; abandonment, ripe fruit.
The “Little Way”: Growing by Becoming Small
No saint has illuminated the practical path of trust as much as Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897), Doctor of the Church. Her discovery is that we grow in trust not by becoming strong, but by agreeing to remain small — because smallness alone attracts God's tenderness.
The image of the elevator
Thérèse, comparing herself to the great saints, saw herself as a grain of sand at the foot of a mountain. Instead of being discouraged, she looked for a “new little path”:
“I would like to find an elevator to raise me to Jesus, because I am too small to climb the rough staircase of perfection. […] The elevator that must lift me to the heavens is your arms, O Jesus! For this I do not need to grow; on the contrary, I must remain small, becoming more and more so.” — Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Autobiographical manuscripts, Manuscript C[17]
Father d'Elbée's comment is luminous: “What I cannot do, Jesus will do. He will take me and lift me to the top of the mountain of love himself.”[18] Growing in trust means stopping wanting to climb the staircase of perfection by one's own strength, and accepting to be carried.
Having trust “because of” one’s miseries
Thérèse's most daring step is to dare to hope not despite her faults, but because of them, since they attract mercy. Shortly before her death, she confided to Mother Agnès:
“If I had committed all possible crimes, I would still have the same trust, I feel that all this multitude of offenses would be like a drop of water thrown into a burning inferno.” — Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Last Interviews[19]
Father d'Elbée draws from this the decisive reversal: “We must have trust, not despite our miseries, but because of them, since it is misery which attracts Mercy.”[20] And he diagnoses the most common error: “I am not telling you: “You believe too much in your misery.” […] But I tell you: “You do not believe enough in merciful Love.””[21] This is the pivot of all growth: moving the gaze from its darkness towards the Sun which consumes it. On the concrete art of rereading one's faults to make them a springboard for trust, see Using our sins to increase our humility and trust.
Concrete ways to grow in trust
Here is the practical heart of this article. Spiritual masters not only praised trust: they indicated precise, repeatable means, within everyone's reach. They can be grouped into a few major projects.
Ask for trust as a grace
The first and most decisive means is to recognize that trust is a gift, not a feat of willpower. We do not manufacture it by effort; we ask for it. The Catechism teaches that filial prayer is learned in a heart that acknowledges its poverty and entrusts itself to God[22]. Asking each day, “Jesus, increase my trust,” is already an exercise of trust. Repeating a short invocation — “Jesus, I trust in You,” given to Saint Faustina[23] — gradually carves in the soul the furrow in which grace takes root.
Nourish your faith in the promises of the Word
Trust is based on promises; it collapses when we forget them. A very concrete way is therefore to regularly meditate on the words by which God commits himself: “I will not leave you, I will not abandon you” (He 13, 5)[24]; “Even if a mother forgot her infant, I will not forget you” (Is 49, 15)[25]; “Come to me, all you who labor […], and I will give you rest” (Mt 11, 28)[26]. To learn some of these promises by heart, to repeat them to yourself in times of trial, is to give trust firm ground. Faith nurtures trust: see How to Grow in Faith.
Give up worrying about tomorrow
The daily enemy of trust is worry — that anxious anticipation of evils that do not yet exist. Jesus combats it head-on in the Sermon on the Mount:
“Don’t worry about your life […]. Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap, […] and your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you worth much more than them? […] Each day is enough for its pain.” — Gospel according to Saint Matthew 6, 25-34[27]
Saint Francis de Sales drew from this a rule of life: do not carry the weight of tomorrow in advance.
“Let us think only of doing well today; and when the day of tomorrow has come, it will also be called today, and then we shall think of it. [...] We must store up manna for each day, and no more; and let us not doubt, God will rain down more tomorrow, and past tomorrow, and every day of our pilgrimage.” — Saint Francis de Sales, letter to Mademoiselle de Soulfour, July 22, 1603[28]
The practical way is to constantly bring your heart back to the present moment — the only one where God gives us his grace. Father d'Elbée says it again: “It is the present moment that matters. You can always, in the present moment, turn all the past to good account by giving it to him.”[29] This way of living “day by day” is the door to abandonment (see How to grow in abandonment to God).
Transform your miseries into a surge of trust
It is the most liberating exercise. Instead of letting ourselves be dejected by the sight of our faults – which is still disappointed self-esteem – we learn to use them as a springboard towards mercy. Saint Paul had discovered the secret:
“I will rather glory in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. […] For when I am weak, then I am strong.” — Second letter to the Corinthians 12, 9-10[30]
Concretely: each time we fall, instead of ruminating, immediately make an act of trust and throw ourselves into the arms of God, like the prodigal son. Regular confession is a school here: not a tribunal that condemns, but the place where we learn to let ourselves be lifted up. On this reversal of outlook, see Humility and trust: changing our outlook on our sins and How to grow in regular confession.
Take repeated acts of trust
Trust, like any habitus (like any stable disposition that repetition durably instills in us), is formed through repetition of acts: like a habit that takes root by dint of starting over. For this reason, the saints composed prayers of abandonment that we can make our own. The most famous is the Act of trust in God of Saint Claude de la Colombière (1641-1682), confessor of Saint Marguerite-Marie:
“My God, I am so convinced that you watch over those who hope in you […] that I have resolved to live from now on without any worry, and to unload all my worries on you. […] I can lose everything, but not the hope I have in your mercy.” — Saint Claude de la Colombière, Act of trust in God[31]
Reciting such an act every day, slowly, by engaging the will, little by little imprints on the soul the disposition it expresses. We don’t always feel trust; but we can always want it and say it — and that is what makes it grow.
Hold on in the night: the trust that feels nothing
Trust is demonstrated especially in the test, when God seems absent and nothing consoles. This is precisely where she becomes heroic and grows the most. Thérèse, in the night of faith which marked her last months, continued to choose trust over the feeling of nothingness. She was already writing to Céline:
“Oh! that it is exile, exile from the earth, especially in these hours when everything seems to abandon us... But that is when it is precious.” — Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, letter to Céline[32]
The way, in these moments, is not to seek to feel trust, but to repeat the act in the night: “My God, I believe that you love me, even if I don't feel it.” It is the purest trust, because it no longer relies on any consolation, but on the sole word of God. Job is the model: “Even if he kills me, I will still hope in him” (Job 13, 15, according to the Latin Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible in use in the Church)[33].
Imitate and invoke those who trusted
Finally, we grow in a virtue by contemplating those who have lived it, and asking them to communicate it. The liturgy, the lives of saints, the psalms of trust (Ps 23, Ps 27, Ps 91, Ps 131) are daily nourishment. Reading and rereading those who have made trust their path — Thérèse, Faustine, Claude de la Colombière, Charles de Foucauld, Father d'Elbée — maintains and expands ours. The anthology What do the saints say about trust brings together their strongest words for this purpose.
Pitfalls to avoid when seeking trust
Trust has two symmetrical counterfeits: one which presumes, the other which despairs. Knowing them protects growth.
Presumption: the false trust that dispenses with effort
First trap: confusing trust with presumption, which expects everything from God without doing anything on its side - as if grace dispensed with the struggle. This is tempting God rather than trusting in Him. True trust never opposes grace and effort: it acts as if everything depended on it, while expecting everything from God. This is the balance formula which has become proverbial, traditionally attributed to Saint Ignatius of Loyola[34]. Mother Yvonne-Aimée summed up this right tension: getting to work “with sincere and complete distrust of myself, united with full trust in Him”[35]. Trust therefore does not remove responsibility: it supports it.
Discouragement: distrust disguised as humility
Second trap, opposite and more subtle: discouragement, which takes itself for humility. Believing yourself to be a hopeless case, dwelling on your failures, doubting that God can still lift us up — all this seems humble, but in reality it is a lack of trust, therefore a wound to the Heart of God. True humility never despairs, because it didn't count on itself anyway. As Father d'Elbée says again, "we are still much more miserable than we see" - but this itself should increase trust, not diminish it.[36]. Discouragement looks at sin; trust looks to the Savior. On this frequent confusion, see Humility and trust: changing our outlook on our sins.
The fruits of growing trust
How do we recognize that we are truly growing in trust? Not a feeling, but stable fruits.
Peace, even in the storm
The first fruit is a peace that no longer depends on circumstances. He who has entrusted himself to God no longer has to carry the weight of the future: he sleeps, like Jesus, in the boat beaten by the waves (Mk 4:38). Saint Paul promises this peace precisely to those who surrender everything to God through confident prayer: “the peace of God, which surpasses all that can be conceived, will guard your hearts” (Phil 4, 6-7)[37]. This peace is the thermometer of trust: where worry dominates, trust is still weak; where peace remains in trial, it has grown.
The boldness and joy of the children of God
The second fruit is bold freedom. He who knows he is loved and supported dares to undertake, to ask, to hope for great things - not out of presumption, but because he is counting on God and not on him. Thérèse dared everything precisely because of her smallness. Trust also generates joy: not euphoria, but the deep serenity of the child who knows his Father is all-powerful and good. “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4, 4)[38]: this joy is the sign of a trust that has been established.
A prayer that obtains
Finally, trust opens the hand of God. Christ expressly links hearing to trusting faith: “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have already received it, and it will be granted to you” (Mk 11, 24)[39]. The more trust grows, the more bold and fruitful prayer becomes — not because trust forces the hand of God, but because it prepares the soul to receive what he burns to give. We find Faustina's law: grace is drawn "with the vessel of trust".
Mary and Jesus, masters of trust
We do not grow in a virtue by fixing it as an abstract ideal, but by contemplating those who have lived it perfectly. But trust has two sovereign masters.
Marie: “Do whatever he tells you”
Marie is the accomplished model of trust. At the Annunciation, without understanding anything about the “how”, she relies entirely on the word of God: “Be it done to me according to your word” (Lk 1, 38)[40]. In Cana, faced with a situation with no human solution, she dictated nothing to her Son; she hands over the problem to him and directs the servants towards confident obedience:
“Do whatever he tells you.” — Gospel according to Saint John 2, 5[41]
This is the very formula of active trust: we expose the lack to God, then we do, in peace, what he asks, leaving him in charge of the result. Taking Mary as your mistress is learning to hope against all hope (cf. Rom 4:18), like her at the foot of the Cross.
Jesus: “Father, in your hands”
Jesus lived trust to its extreme. In Gethsemane, in the face of anguish, he does not stop saying "Father", and hands over his will to that, greater, of his Father: "not my will, but yours" (Lk 22, 42)[42]. And on the Cross, in apparent abandonment, he pronounces the supreme act of trust, which recapitulates the entire journey:
“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” — Gospel according to Saint Luke 23, 46[43]
Contemplating this Son who trusts even in death is the most powerful of means: faced with so much trust, ours no longer has an excuse to remain timid. Growing in trust, ultimately, is to resemble Christ, and to make our own, every hour, the word with which he entrusted himself to his Father.
A concrete path, day after day
Trust does not grow through great heroic resolutions, but through small and repeated fidelity. We can summarize the methods studied in a simple program, graded from the most accessible to the most demanding:
| Frequency | Trust exercise | What he works |
|---|---|---|
| Every day | A short invocation: “Jesus, I trust in You” | Trust as a gift |
| Every day | Meditate on a promise from Scripture and repeat it to yourself | The firm ground of faith |
| Every day | Bring your heart back to the present moment, let go of worry about tomorrow | Rest in Providence |
| With every fall | Immediately take an act of trust rather than ruminating | Misery transformed into momentum |
| Often | Slowly reciting an act of abandonment (Colombière, Foucauld) | Repetition of acts |
| In the test | Choosing trust over feeling, holding on through the night | Heroic Trust |
| Regularly | Confession and peaceful rereading of one's faults | Looking towards the Savior |
Reading the table: none of these exercises is spectacular; it is their faithful repetition that transforms. We start with one or two, hold them, then add.
The main thing is not to aim for trust in general, but to seize, today, the concrete opportunity that presents itself — this worry to be put aside, this fault to be transformed into momentum, this test where we must choose to rely on God. For trust is, of the three, the virtue which delights the Heart of God the most: to each true step towards him, he responds with a gift that elevates. As Thérèse summarizes it, “it is trust, and nothing but trust, which must lead us to Love”[44].
To go further
- What do the saints say about trust — an anthology of the great words of saints, doctors and mystics on this virtue.
- The double abyss: introduction — the foundation: the trust that springs from recognized misery and infinite mercy.
- How to grow in abandonment to God — the extension of trust: handing over to God even the care of wanting for us.
- How to grow in hope — the theological virtue (one of the three virtues that God himself places in the heart: faith, hope and charity) of which trust is the filial exercise.
- How to grow in humility — the twin virtue, without which trust degenerates into presumption.
- Humility and trust: changing our outlook on our sins — concrete daily application.
- How to grow in faith — the root of trust: believing in God's love for us.
Notes and References
Gospel according to Saint Mark 5, 36, official liturgical translation (AELF). Words of Jesus to Jairus, upon the announcement of the death of his daughter. The same requirement of trust precedes healing.
1Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus (1873-1897), letter 92 (LT 92) to her cousin Marie Guérin, dated Thursday, May 30, 1889, on the scruples surrounding communion. Text verified verbatim (« Ce qui offense Jésus, ce qui le blesse au coeur c'est le manque de confiance !... »). Critical edition: General correspondence, vol. I (1877-1890); Complete works, Cerf / Desclée de Brouwer, 1992. Text available at the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux (LT 92 to Marie Guérin, May 30, 1889).
2Father Jean of the Heart of Jesus of Elbée (1892-1982), Believing in Love, ed. Pierre Téqui, ch. II “Trust”, p. 43-44. The work is a spiritual commentary on the “little way” of Saint Thérèse.
3Book of Isaiah 30, 15, official liturgical translation (AELF). God's reproach to Israel for seeking security in political alliances instead of trusting in him.
4Psalm 55, 5, official liturgical translation (AELF). Refrain of trust repeated in verse 12. The liturgical numbering here follows the ancient translations of the Bible — the Septuagint (the Greek translation) and the Vulgate (the Latin translation in use in the Church) — which number this psalm 55; 56 in the Hebrew Bible.
5Letter of Saint Paul to the Philippians 4, 13, official liturgical translation (AELF). Cited by Father d'Elbée as a charter of trust (Believing in Love, with explicit reference “Phil 4, 13”).
6Saint Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938), Little Journal. Divine Mercy in my soul, § 1577 of the French edition (Association Marie-Reine de la Paix), ed. Marians of the Immaculate Conception. The same passage is numbered § 1578 in the English edition of the Marians (a one-paragraph shift between the two editions; the French § 1578 is the passage on hypocrisy). The meaning is confirmed by the English translation of the Marians: “The graces of My mercy are drawn by means of one vessel only, and that is – trust. The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive.” (the Polish naczynie = vase, vessel).
7Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, letter LT 129 to Céline, dated July 8, 1891: “Let us never tire of praying, trust works miracles” — concerning prayer for the conversion of the “unhappy prodigal”, a defrocked priest traveling through France. Edition: General correspondence, vol. II (1890-1897), Cerf / Desclée de Brouwer; text available at the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux.
8Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, letter 55 (LT 55) to Sister Agnès of Jesus, July 5-9, 1888, image of the “little reed”: « C'est sa faiblesse qui fait toute sa confiance, il ne saurait se briser puisque, quelque chose qui lui arrive, il ne veut voir que la douce main de son Jésus. » Edition: General correspondence, Cerf / Desclée de Brouwer.
9Jesus to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 2, April 3, 1899 (“Without trust, humility is false”). Passage verified page by page: French edition translated from the Italian manuscript by Guy Harvey, GE-La Volonté Divine – Lumen Luminis (for private use), p. 20. The bracket [...] covers: “entourant mon trône et pénétrant profondément dans mon Cœur”.
10Venerable Marthe Robin (1902-1981), Diary: December 1929 - November 1932, Éditions Foyer de Charité, 2012, p. 36.
11Saint Faustina, Little Journal, § 1344 (retreat, fourth day): « Jésus, je me sens étrangement bien près de Votre Cœur durant cette retraite. Rien ne trouble la profondeur de cette paix. Je place sous mes yeux, d'un côté, l'abîme de ma misère, et de l'autre, l'abîme de Votre Miséricorde. » Edition: Little Journal. Divine Mercy in my soul, Association Marie-Reine de la Paix / Marians of the Immaculate Conception. The doctrine of the “two abysses” (misery and mercy) is at the heart of the spirituality of trust.
12Gospel according to Saint Matthew 21, 22, official liturgical translation (AELF). Promise of Jesus linked to prayer “with faith” after the episode of the withered fig tree.
13Gospel according to Saint Luke 11, 13, official liturgical translation (AELF). Conclusion of the teaching on confident prayer (the unwelcome friend): the Father gives “how much more” the Holy Spirit.
14Psalm 130; 131 in the Hebrew Bible, 2, official liturgical translation (AELF). One of the purest psalms of trust; image of the satisfied child against his mother. The liturgical numbering here follows the ancient translations of the Bible — the Septuagint (the Greek translation) and the Vulgate (the Latin translation in use in the Church) — which number this psalm 130; 131 in the Hebrew Bible.
15Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Autobiographical manuscripts, Manuscript A, f. 83r° (written in January 1895, near the end of the narrative): « ...maintenant c'est l'abandon seul qui me guide, je n'ai point d'autre boussole !... Je ne puis plus rien demander avec ardeur, excepté l'accomplissement parfait de la volonté du Bon Dieu sur mon âme sans que les créatures puissent y mettre obstacle. » Edition: Complete works, Cerf / Desclée de Brouwer, 1992. The unique desire for the accomplishment of God's will marks the passage from trust to abandonment.
16Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Autobiographical manuscripts, Manuscript C, f. 2-3 (the image of the “elevator” which are the arms of Jesus). Quoted by Father d'Elbée, Believing in Love, p. 46-47. Scriptural reference: Pr 9, 4 and Is 66, 12-13.
17Father of Elbée, Believing in Love, ed. Tequi, p. 47-48, commentary on the “little way” of Saint Thérèse.
18Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Last Interviews, words reported by Mother Agnès of Jesus (Pauline). Edition: Derniers Entretiens, Cerf / DDB, 1971. Quoted by Father d'Elbée, Believing in Love, p. 50.
19Father of Elbée, Believing in Love, ed. Tequi, p. 49: “We must have trust, not despite our miseries, but because of them, since it is misery that attracts Mercy.”
20Father of Elbée, Believing in Love, ed. Tequi, p. 48-49: “You do not believe enough in merciful Love.”
21Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 2734-2741, on the prayer of petition and the “filial trust” which is experienced in the combat of prayer. Official French edition, Mame/Plon, 1992.
22Saint Faustina, Little Journal, § 47-48: inscription that Christ asks to be placed under the image of Mercy — “Jesus, I trust in You” (Polish: Jezu, ufam Tobie).
23Letter to the Hebrews 13, 5, official liturgical translation (AELF), citing Dt 31, 6 and Jos 1, 5.
24Book of Isaiah 49, 15, official liturgical translation (AELF). Image of God's tenderness greater than that of a mother.
25Gospel according to Saint Matthew 11, 28, official liturgical translation (AELF). Invitation to rest, immediately followed by the call to learn from Christ “meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29).
26Gospel according to Saint Matthew 6, 25-34 (Sermon on the Mount, on Providence), official liturgical translation (AELF). Key verses: 26 (the birds), 28-29 (the lilies), 33 (“seek first the Kingdom”), 34 (“for every day is enough its trouble”).
27Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622), letter CXC to Mademoiselle de Soulfour, Annecy, July 22, 1603. Text quoted from the original (spelling modernized): « ...n'ayons soin du lendemain (Mt 6,34). Pensons seulement a bien faire aujourd'huy ; et quand le jour de demain sera arrivé il s'appellera aussy aujourd'huy, et lhors nous y penserons... Il faut faire provision de manne pour chasque jour, et non plus (Ex 16,16) ; et ne doutons point, Dieu en pleuvra demain d'autre, et passé demain, et tous les jours de nostre pelerinage. » Edition: Works, Annecy edition (Visitandines), vol. XI, letter CXC.
28Father of Elbée, Believing in Love, ed. Pierre Téqui, 2007, p. 273-274 (spelling modernized in the article): « Vous pouvez toujours dans la minute presente vous jeter dans les bras de Jesus... C'est le moment present qui importe. Vous pouvez toujours dans le moment present tirer parti de tout le passe en le lui donnant, pour vous enfoncer au fond de son cœur. » See also Jean-Pierre de Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence.
29Second letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 12, 9-10, official liturgical translation (AELF). “The thorn in the flesh”: accepted weakness becomes the place of Christ’s power.
30Saint Claude de la Colombière (1641-1682), Act of trust in God (also called Act of abandonment), prayer composed from his retreat writings. Jesuit, confessor of Saint Marguerite-Marie Alacoque in Paray-le-Monial, canonized in 1992. Text widely distributed in collections of prayers; edition of Complete Works, ed. Guibert.
31Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, letter LT 129 to Céline, dated July 8, 1891: « Oh ! qu'il est exil, l'exil de la terre surtout à ces heures où tout semble nous abandonner... Mais c'est alors qu'il est précieux, c'est alors que luisent les jours du salut... » Edition: General correspondence, vol. II (1890-1897), Cerf / Desclée de Brouwer; text available at the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux. Trust “in these hours when everything seems to abandon us” announces the night of faith of his last months.
32Book of Job 13, 15, quoted here according to the reading of the Latin Vulgate (the Latin translation of the Bible in use in the Church: “Etiam si occiderit me, in ipso sperabo”). The Hebrew reads differently, hence the modern translations: « S'il doit me tuer, je n'ai plus d'espoir : je veux seulement, face à lui, justifier ma conduite » (official liturgical translation, AELF). Old Testament model of trust that stands up to extreme test.
33Maxim traditionally attributed to Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556): act as if everything depended on God, and give of ourselves as if everything depended on us (the formulation circulates in two inverted versions). No text of Ignatius contains it in these terms; the balance between the grace expected from God and the effort asked of man runs through all his spirituality, notably the Spiritual Exercises.
34Mother Yvonne-Aimée de Malestroit (1901-1951), Spiritual writings presented by René Laurentin, François-Xavier de Guibert, 2011, p. 53 ([14] November 1922, no. 417): « Ainsi fera pour moi le soleil du Bon Dieu, dès le moment où je me mettrai à l'œuvre avec calme, avec suite, avec une sincère et entière défiance de moi-même, unie à une pleine confiance en Lui. »
35Father of Elbée, Believing in Love, ed. Tequi, p. 49: “We are still much more miserable than we see” — but this view should increase trust, not destroy it.
36Letter of Saint Paul to the Philippians 4, 6-7, official liturgical translation (AELF): confident prayer and thanksgiving as a remedy for worry, and the “peace of God” as a fruit.
37Letter of Saint Paul to the Philippians 4, 4, official liturgical translation (AELF): “Always rejoice in the Lord; I say it again: be joyful.”
38Gospel according to Saint Mark 11, 24, official liturgical translation (AELF). Explicit link between confident faith and answered prayer.
39Gospel according to Saint Luke 1, 38, official liturgical translation (AELF). The fiat of the Annunciation, Mary's perfect act of trust and abandonment.
40Gospel according to Saint John 2, 5, official liturgical translation (AELF). Last words of Mary reported by the Gospel, at the wedding in Cana.
41Gospel according to Saint Luke 22, 42, official liturgical translation (AELF). Prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane: filial trust at the height of the test.
42Gospel according to Saint Luke 23, 46, official liturgical translation (AELF), citing Psalm 30; 31 in the Hebrew Bible, v. 6. Last word of Christ on the cross according to Saint Luke: the supreme act of trust.
43Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, letter 197 (LT 197) to Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart, September 17, 1896: “It is trust and nothing but trust that must lead us to Love.” Edition: General correspondence, Cerf / DDB. Taken up by Father d'Elbée as the motto of all his work.
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