Thursday, January 12 : Rabanus Maurus

You must never fail to trust in God nor despair of his mercy; I should not like you to doubt or despair of becoming better. For even if the devil were able to throw you down from the heights of virtue to the depths of wickedness, how much more can God recall you to the summit of goodness. And not just bring you back to the state you were in before your fall, but he can make you much happier than you seemed to be before. Don’t lose heart, I beg you, and don’t close your eyes to the hope of good for fear that what happens to people who don’t love God should happen to you. For it is not the great number of one’s sins that leads the soul to despair but disdain for God. As the Wise man says: “It is the characteristic of the impious to despair of salvation and hold it in contempt since they have fallen into the pit of sin” (cf. Prv 18,3 Vg). Therefore every thought that takes our hope away follows on from a lack of faith: like a heavy stone around our neck, it forces us to be always looking downwards to the earth and doesn’t allow us to raise our eyes to the Lord. But those with a brave heart and enlightened mind know how to release their necks from this horrid weight. “Behold, as the eyes of servants are on the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a maid are on the hands of her mistress, so our eyes are on the Lord our God till he have pity on us” (Ps 123,2).
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