Encouraging those during Lent who are trying to endure either the Dark Night of the Soul, or the beginnings of aridity, here is a section from Uniformity With God's Will, by St. Alphonsus Ligouri. One can find the entire book online here.
As my readers know, I especially like Rodriguez, and if anyone feels they can find his books for me, let me know. I read some of these in the convent two years ago. There are three volumes. I have tried several times to download the PDF and cannot do it.
Lastly, we should unite ourselves to the will of God as regards our
degree of grace and glory. True, we should esteem the things that
make for the glory of God, but we should show the greatest esteem for
those that concern the will of God. We should desire to love God more
than the seraphs, but not to a degree higher than God has destined
for us. St. John of Avila says: "I believe every saint has had the
desire to be higher in grace than he actually was. However, despite
this, their serenity of soul always remained unruffled. Their desire
for a greater degree of grace sprang not from a consideration of
their own good, but of God's. They were content with the degree of
grace God had meted out for them, though actually God had given them
less. They considered it a greater sign of true love of God to be
content with what God had given them, than to desire to have received
more."
This means, as Rodriguez explains it, we should be diligent in
striving to become perfect, so that tepidity and laziness may not
serve as excuses for some to say: "God must help me; I can do only so
much for myself." Nevertheless, when we do fall into some fault, we
should not lose our peace of soul and union with the will of God,
which permits our fall; nor should we lose our courage.
