The apparent frustrations of circumstances, seen or unforeseen, of illness, of misunderstanding, even of our own sins, do not thwart the final fulfilment of our lives hidden with Christ in God.

The awareness of present risenness effects the integration of intuition and will, emotion and reason. Less preoccupied with appearances, we are less inclined to change costumes to win approval with each shift of company and circumstance. We are not one person at home, another in the office; one person at Church, another in traffic.

We do not pass rudderless from one episode to another, idly seeking some distraction to pass the time, remaining stoic to each new emotion, enduring with a shrug of our shoulders when something irks or irritates.

Now circumstances feed us, not we them; we use them, not they us. Gradually we become whole and mature persons whose faculties and energies are harmonized and integrated.”
Brennan Manning