Eugene reflects on the importance of maintaining inner serenity in God.
Important maxim. Always do all that depends on me for success in the undertakings I believe good, but when I have done everything I can, when I have turned to both God and men, when I have made use of all the means that faith and my mind and position provide me with, if the outcome does not come up to my expectations, re-enter as soon as possible into my inner-self and not lose one ounce of that precious peace which is the greatest of possessions.
St. Ignatius used to say that a quarter of an hour’s prayer would suffice to reconcile him even to the destruction of his Society.
Retreat Journal, December 1814, O.W. XV n.130
I think I understand what Eugene is trying to say – it is sometimes difficult. If he/I have exhausted all my resources and it still is not working (the way I think it should) then return to the “inner self” and immerse myself in peace.
Another way of “returning to prayer”, to listening and to just being. Like Eugene, I recognize and know the truth and life of this – funny how often I want to almost forget it by getting caught up in some action or another. All life it seems flows out from that inner self, that place where God is, that place that is God within. It calls to mind an image of gently stepping back a pace and reaching for the hand of Him who I walk with and reconnecting.