A Hermit Believes!

When reading this morning's Scriptures from daily Mass, the Gospel includes Mary's kinswoman's words of joyful proclamation.  It is truly a statement of great faith, that Elizabeth exclaims in exultation when the Virgin Mary arrives to assist Elizabeth in the last month or more of pregnancy.

Elizabeth who had been unable to conceive previously, was soon to deliver a baby boy who the world would forever know as John the Baptist.  Elizabeth was given a "sign"; the infant leapt in her womb when Mary stood before Elizabeth upon meeting--Mary who was carrying in her womb, Jesus the Christ.

These final lines documented in the Gospel carry import for any human being.

Blessed are you who believed 
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled."

This morning, here in my unfinished, chilly hermitage, I pondered these words in my heart (as can be said truly) while making more Fortitude Fudge.  The kitchen is nearly complete, at least, and how lovely the quart countertops--cold and clean and just right for pans of fudge to set up properly.  

But the pain level of the body has been not setting up well within this hermit, and that means the emotions try to outbalance the mind, and the spirits risk faltering.  As in the spiritual ascent, managing pain is my forever-on earth contest; it may not be an achieved conquest in life.  I don't know.

I do know that in order to believe what is spoken to us by the Lord, we must listen.  We must listen to what the Lord is speaking to us.  And then we must have faith and great belief that what He says will be fulfilled.

The Lord may tell us messages through Scripture--broad as well as specific promises of our salvation, teachings that help us in daily life applications, example through His own life lived on earth.  The Lord may also tell us messages through angels--our guardian angel as well as various messenger angels depending upon the purpose and goal of the message.  

The Lord may speak to us in exterior and interior "words".  These are words that come so quickly and spontaneously, that we hear with inner ear mostly but sometimes outer ear--that we have to believe just in the fact that we heard some words that have special meaning in some way or other in our lives.  

The Lord may utilize other people to speak to us.  Sometimes these messages are difficult to accept, depending upon our degree of love and acceptance of the other person.  Yet, we ought examine all messages no matter the messenger, and discern truth, raw, unfiltered, or even falsely flattering the messages may be.

It is not always so easy to believe what is spoken to us by the Lord is going to be fulfilled.  But blessed are we if we do, or even if we try to believe, or even if we want to try to believe.  The Lord takes us where we are in our abilities to believe His messages and His fulfillment of His Words. 

(Perhaps the reason the angel told Zechariah that because he questioned the angel's message that Elizabeth would bear a son in their later years, Zechariah would be struck mute.  Zechariah, being a priest and older in years would be expected to have ability to believe an angel's message from God.)

This morning I've been pondering once again some messages from God and my weakness of belief.  I want to believe--such as messages about suffering, messages about it pleasing Him when I converted to Catholicism, messages even recently--such as to look at Him--or that He would guide my every step and path, or the message He delivered through my late mother, last spring in a dream:  You will have a place (and the means will be there).

I have faltered in belief on many levels.  Francisco just arrived and fixed the French doors.  As I see now, in hindsight, I could have fixed them with shims; but I did not know for sure if that would be the correct solution.  So I waited for a couple or three weeks, made several phone calls to remind the busy Raphael, as I also thought there was a leak in the pole barn roof.  When ill with the severe pain siege, the concerns increased as to how on earth would I be able to keep working on this place, finish it, have it salable as finances keep hitting new low's, and rock bottom is not far off.

What concerns did Mary have if any?  At first when the angel appeared and spoke God's message to her, she asked the angel "How can this be, for I have had no relations with a man?" She was not struck mute because of her wondering, her questioning.  Perhaps the quickening of the Holy Spirit in her body, how the Holy Spirit came over her, helped assuage what doubts might have come to a young woman hearing such news from an angel.

So it is that we must consider our degree of spiritual development, our ages, our attention given to listening to whatever God speaks and in whatever means He speaks to us His messages.  We must consider our availability to listening, as well.

As for me, a hermit of the 21st century who questions some aspects of the world in all its variations of groups of humanity, I need to very much question my own faith, and if I am truly believing, and if what I am believing is worthy of belief.  That means, am I centering my belief in His Real Presence, in His Law of Love, or am I trying to believe in other people, or myself, or in tangible and temporal aspects?

This hermit believes!  Yet, very much I must always add:  Lord, help my unbelief!

"Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled."

Holy Mother: Eric Clapton, Luciano Pavaroti

Eric Clapton: Holy Mother

Glen Campbell - Mary In The Morning

The nothing Catholic hermit's usual music fare is instrumental--Bach Masses, Mozart Masses, Requiems, and of the classical genre.  But in seeking the things of God, the hermit also utilizes any of God's Beautiful Creatures' inspired and talented gifts in order to touch upon the holy.  This song, for example, sung by the incomparable voice and guitar talent of Glen Campbell--to the hermit--is a song sung by St. Joseph to the Virgin Mary.

Listeners may be reminded that Joseph and Mary are people, are God's Created Beautiful Creatures with souls, and their lives were real like ours, with the emotions and thoughts and experiences not unlike what any of us find in our earthly journeys.

Plus, with a musical artist (some say a genius and prodigy) such as Glen Campbell, we also have his life journey, his rise, his fall, his conversion and baptism in the water and Spirit, and his then learning to live and exist as born from above, born of the Spirit--redeemed despite great suffering, yet being humbled in the process.  In the realm of the things of God, this rendition becomes Joseph singing to Mary.

Praying to Be a Better Hermit

Recently offered a heartfelt prayer to at least be a better hermit than have been, and more and more according to God's will, not the notions that come from others or self as far as what is the hermit life unfolding.  It needs to only be as God wills and directs as well as with the general guidance of those of the past centuries who were successful eremitics in their vocation.

And what clarifies as success?  It is those who are close to God, who become one with His Real Presence in this life, during one's life time experience no matter how long or short is that life.

Yesterday was very tired from a long day of work with the electrician who agreed to help with cabinet leveling and finishing the installation other than what this hermit can do alone with God, now.  But drove the distance to the daughter's to help clean in preparation for her in-law's visit.  Also had to get out a St. Bernard Love of God Bourbon Ball order.

All went smoothly until one template would not print out, although three others did, for the tin labels and inserts for the Love Ball order.   No substantial or communicative help was forthcoming.  Today there will be another attempt by driving to a library in hopes of more assistance with the obstacle.  It needs to be overcome in order to ship the order.

Awoke this morning in so much pain after returning late last night to darkness, chill.  But all the same, it is "home" here now, in the Order of the Present Moment.  And, getting up from this twin bed and thankful to have it, this "nothing" Catholic hermit got under the kitchen sink to see in what way possible to further support the sink.  There was a remaining glitch that came to light.  

Yet God has provided options now, and also the option of the printer at the library and maybe people there who might be in a helping mode.  God provides and overcomes all obstacles.  He lifts when we drop. He tosses the ball again when we fail to catch it.  What a gloriously patient and loving Father!

Then there come the thoughts as to what "nothing" would be if without God!  What would we be without Jesus Christ?  What would we be without the Holy Spirit?  How would we get past even one small obstacle?  

It seems as if a consolation comes, and on its heels comes two or three obstacles.  To pray for the grace of a good disposition and to better our attitudes and dispositions, is key.  We need the graces, and it is said that the Virgin Mary dispenses graces.  Include the Mother of God in our requests for more graces, and  pray for the appropriate ones according to God's omniscience. 

God knows what each unique soul needs and how much of it, and when to grant it.  He seems to let us go along for a hunk of earth time before we notice the grace has been granted.  It can happen nearly imperceptibly.  Or, it can happen all at once.  We don't know until we ask and also cooperate with all we can of our wills.

We can learn to overcome ourselves.  We have to desire it, though; and it requires us seeing ourselves and our flaws.  The good Lord has granted the prayer to see the flaws in this soul--the flaws and failures as a mother and wife in those vocations, although tried hard to be successful.  And now to see the lack in the hermit vocation.  It has not been an easy vocation and none that this soul would have selected from the vocations available across the vocational spectrum.

Yet, that can be a very positive reality.  Especially when we consider Jesus Christ, we see that He struggled with His mission, too.  He was tested by trials and obstacles, by every manner of rejection and hurt.  He was not accepted by many at all, and that really has not changed much today--maybe worsened with people not wanting to be His in spirit and truth.

From The Catechism of the Catholic Church, this selection strikes a solid tone:

1009 Death is transformed by Christ. Jesus, the Son of God, also himself suffered the death that is part of the human condition. Yet, despite his anguish as he faced death, he accepted it in an act of complete and free submission to his Father's will. The obedience of Jesus has transformed the curse of death into a blessing.

Despite His anguish as He faced death, he accepted it in an act of complete and free submission to His Father's will.

So it is with vocations that one might never know about, such as this Catholic hermit was unaware of hermit vocations for 44 years as a Protestant.  Had no idea that God would call it into the Catholic Church.  Then, had no idea of hermits or of the eremitic vocation for another four  years, although was at least introduced to St. Antony of the Desert and a bit of Merton's hermit experiment for a couple of years before his death. 

There have been gradations and levels of dying to the world, dying to others and even this hermit's notions as to what its hermit life would be or should be in the day-to-day experience.  It is increasingly more austere, more solitary, more intense in each of the Nine S'.  More silent, more solitary, more slow.  More suffering and selflessness is asked.  More simplicity, more stillness, more stability, more serenity.

One wonders at how foolish to think that a call to a vocation would be easy or without plenty of anguish along the way.  It is said the hermit life is one of the most challenging of the vocations, and perhaps this is due to its being directly correlated with the amount of dying that is involved--either in slight increments or huge hunks of acceptance.  The hermit must make daily acts of complete and free submission to God's will.  This does not happen only at the time of profession and consecration.

Just recently, nothing Catholic hermit has realized more fully it is a consecrated religious in the Catholic Church.  The somber reality of this fact has helped in appreciating the responsibility to shift into place.  The mind reflects more upon the holiest of hermits of the past, those very successful in dying to the world, including the secular or temporal of the church.  

The stricter separation in praise and prayer of God for the church and for the world and for all souls living and dead, comes with dying to what one might think or become accustomed to in living out this rather mysterious vocation--mysterious to those in the world-at-large and to other Catholics.  

It is also mysterious to the hermit him- or herself, for it is fluid yet pivotal around death of self-will and set-notions and all about obedience even unto death, death on a cross (and whatever all those crosses can be in daily dying in various aspects).  

A hermit must be open to, as Jesus exemplifies, transforming what can seem like a curse of death or many deaths, into a blessing.  Through, with and in Him, we can be given the success of this reality.


It is interesting to meditate upon Jesus as, at various levels, living out the hermit vocation.  He is God and Man.  He is a Priest in the Order of Melchizedek.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  He is the Living Word of God.  His Real Presence abounds in all the Sacraments of the Church. 

And yet, in a certain sense, perhaps mostly spiritual but also in practical, temporal aspects, He also lived the life of an eremitic.  Ponder these aspects.  Try, as a hermit, to imitate His life within this perspective.

God bless His Real Presence in us!  Little children, let us love one another, for God Is Love.

Mary as Hermit Mentor and Model

While I realize Mary of Bethany (by some historians and theologians considered to be also referred to as Mary Magdalene) was a hermit in the south of Gaul (France), living in a stone hut known as the cave of St. Baum, this morning thoughts of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, the Mother of God, rise with the sunlight.

Such hard work yesterday, with daughter and son-in-law traveling here to help another day with installing cabinets and also lending much-appreciated hands with ceiling board installation.  We worked a long day, and today the back pain is radiating in various directions through this mortal frame.  Truly, this is a literal Sabbath day of mostly bed rest.

Yet I am pondering Mary, Jesus' mother and our mother, and also bequeathed as mother of the Church.  Perhaps I am still sorting through accepting being an immolation during Mass, of participating in silence, faculties suspended, the movement of His Real Presence within my heart, mind and soul--the sole life in this my temporal body, in the Mass, united temporally and mystically with the Body of Christ in all members.

 

The Virgin Mary allowed herself to be indwelt and overcome by the Holy Spirit.  She accepted; she agreed.  She did not know what would be the experience.  How exactly would the Holy Spirit bring about the baby in the womb, the birth, the life of the child, the mysterious yet auspicious locutions regarding his future?

Mary continued living her life, doing her present moment tasks, living out her spiritual journey in obedience to the will of God.  From all we know of her personally, spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, theologically, we grasp her quiet ways, her focus on God, in love, of the devotion in her vocation as wife and mother and daughter of God.

In Mary's later years (some researchers suggest she lived about fourteen years following the Crucifixion of Jesus), there is evidence that she lived in a small stone house in Ephesus.  It is also suggested that she lived there with but one maid servant.  Some of the apostles, particularly John, would visit her when in that area of Turkey. 

It is also written in documents of the early centuries, that she meditated in the garden--the bit of land behind her house.  She used stones to "mark" the meditations she developed surrounding the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  Her doing so is considered the origination of the Stations of the Cross.

Mary's death was atypical as was her grace of being conceived without sin.  Rather than "death," her passage from this earthly life into eternity is considered a "dormition." 

What comes to my mind and heart is that Mary is a great mentor and model for me as a hermit.  She is a role model for being recollected in spirit and in His Real Presence:  Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Her life image presents itself to me as being the embodiment of the Nine S'--a means of hopeful unfolding of my chosen Gospel Rule of Life.

Silence.  Solitude.  Slowness.  Suffering.  Selflessness.  Simplicity.  Stability.  Stillness.  Serenity.

In life and in dormition, for all eternity, Mary emanates the power of presence, the life of one existing in the Order of the Present Moment perpetually.  She is not advocating much other than the spiritual view, the spiritual life, yet in a very practical understanding and enacting of our daily tasks and trials.  

Repeatedly through the centuries in visitations to living beings, through visions, dreams, and locutions, Mary asks that we pray.  (She often appears holding a rosary.)  She adjures us to cease sinning.  She intones that we obey, follow, adhere to the teachings of, and love (as she loves) Jesus, the Christ:  Messiah.

Just accept.  Be an immolation.  Consider and love Mary as mother and mentor who accepted the unknown in faith and love; she also accepted being an immolation.  I am grasping more and more that being an immolation is really not all that painful if one dies to outer and personal expectations and desires.  Die to all that, and being an immolation becomes grace-filled, lovely, freeing, and genuine.

Do not fear.  The Holy Spirit will accomplish God's will in us when we acquiesce to His loving will, when we fall in love with His Real Presence:  Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Every aspect of the Virgin Mary's life, then and now, models perfect direction for anyone--yet markedly so, amazingly so, when considering the hermit calling.  (In the life, heart, and soul of Mary is a role call to the Gospel Rule and Nine S' for each of us, no matter the vocational living out in this life, in one degree or another.)  Accept.  We are the handmaids of the Lord.  We are also the handmaids of the Handmaid of the Lord.  We can learn and live much in this awareness and actuality.

Let it be done unto me according to Thy Word, O Lord.  Come, be bound to the Sacred Heart of Jesus; flow in the Holy Spirit through the heart of Mary. Little children, let us love one another in God-Is-Love.  God bless His Real Presence in us!

Mary-Likeness Poem-Prayer

This is a copy similar to what I was given soon after I was confirmed in the Catholic Church.  Being open to and accepting Mary as a person and in her role as the Mother of God, as well as guiding me as a mother her child, was perhaps the most fearful aspect of my conversion due to negative bias passed on in my upbringing.

While this poem is ideal and pious, I also have read and will continue to read other persons' experiences and thoughts on Mary.  Perhaps most importantly, I desire to have a more personal and real relationship with Mary.  I have never quite understood some women's  (religious sisters, too) desire for greater position, prestige and power in the Church.  What woman had and still has all these and more, than Mary?  Yet she never desired nor demanded such.  

Some may say it was the culture in which she lived when on earth, and now is different.  When getting to know Mary after years of only considering her on Christmas Day, I opened up to Mary.  I asked her to be my mother in a different and additional way than my loving, earthly mother.  

At the time of conversion, I lived across the road from where Ven. Fr. Solanus Casey spent ten years of his life.  He loved reading Ven. Agreda's writings, "The Mystical City of God."  I did so, also, and would walk in the woods Fr. Solanus had walked, and I opened myself to Jesus' mother.  It is time to do so yet more.  This poem-prayer is sweet and simple.

MARY-LIKENESS

                

Mary-like in soul and body! Mary-like in mind and heart! Mary-like in every action – Child of God, how fair thou art! Fair to Christ and all His angels, Fair to earth since thou art seen To be like her – like MARY Earth’s and Heaven’s fairest Queen. Mary-like in soul! What beauty When thy soul is full of grace! What a Mary-smile will greet thee When thou’lt meet her face to face! Mary-like in body! Keeping All the senses in control; Looks and bearing both revealing A Mary-temple for thy soul. Mary-like in mind and memory! Sinful thoughts and fancies flee; Idle dreams and selfish musings Find no place, fair child, in thee. For the Mary-mind is lifted From all sordid thoughts to live On the high and noble promptings That a Mary-soul would give. Mary-like in thy affections, Loving all, excluding none – Loving, as you think our Lady Ever faithful, would have done; Mary-like in every action In enjoyment, work or prayer, Watching Mary, copying Mary, Loving Mary, everywhere.

Mayst thou catch her gentle manner, And her calm and queenly ways, Mayst thou learn her art of bearing Words of censure or of praise; Mayst thou learn the hidden secret Of her smile, so kind, so true, Which reflects the radiant beauty Of her pure soul gleaming through. In a word, may all the greatness, All the sweetness of her ways, All the inner grace and beauty, Heaven and earth delight to praise, Find their likeness in thine own soul Child of Mary, as thou art, Making these more like thy mother, Ever dearer to her heart. Night and day, in joy and sorrow, Night and day, ’neath crushing care, Ask of Christ true Mary-likeness, Through the year be this thy prayer, Christ will hear, and Christ will answer If thy pleading but ring true, “JESUS, make me just like MARY, MARY, make me just like YOU.” Nihil Obstat Joseph R. Casey Censor Deputatus April 11, 1941

Source: Louis W. Bernicken, Box 413 -- Mt. Vernon, Ohio.

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This page, maintained by The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute, Dayton, Ohio 45469-1390, and created by Father Johann G. Roten, S.M. ,

When God Does What He Wills

I've been able to be outside for a couple hours.  I mowed a little and later discovered I had inadvertently dismembered a snake with the lawnmower.  Then when piling more yard debris onto the mulch pile, I overturned some sod and discovered a very alive snake.  All the while I ponder, and today I've been pondering examples in His Living Word of God doing what He wills.

I thought of Jonah.  Jonah is one of those who intrigues because he avoided God's insistence that he go to Ninevah and warn the people of their impending demise by God if they did not repent.  After a series of refusals and running away, God forced the issue with a storm, some fearful seamen, and a whale.

Jeremiah also comes to mind.  He was just being Himself when God placed burning coals on his lips and told him he was to be a prophet.  King David did not have any choice, either, once God told Eli he would be shown which of several sons to anoint.  Well, Eli was made to anoint Saul as the first king, and Saul had no choice in the matter.  But I suppose being chosen as an earthly king might be something a person would not refuse.

But when God does what He wills, there seems not any way around it.  Sometimes He asks the person, but consider Mary.  The Angel Gabriel came and announced to her what was going to happen.  He told her the Holy Spirit would come over her, and she would give birth to the Messiah.  She gave her assent after being told, but she was not asked if she wanted to or not, actually.

God forced His way in and on many people, if we want to look at it that way.  May as well be realistic.  He chose certain ones over others for specific missions and purposes.  Consider Moses.  Frankly, there are so many instance in the Old Testament of God doing what He willed, that it is more fun for you to start thinking of them. Consider Sarah. She was told she would have a child within the year. 

Jumping to the New Testament, Zachariah and Elizabeth did not have a choice as to their son's name; he was told what it was to be.  In fact, Zachariah was overcome in the holy of holies and had his voice taken when he but questioned with amazement  and doubt what was to occur.  

St. Paul was knocked down by God's power and might, blinded, and then told where to go for further instructions.  Paul was not warned in advance nor asked if he would like to be part of the then "new evangelization."

Yes, I have been pondering these things because periodically I review the locutions, dreams, and visions in which the Three In One have told and shown me, without my anticipating a thing, and without my input and not allowing my avoidance, at least not for long.

I consider people in our time period or close enough, who were overshadowed or overpowered or unexpectedly had some event by God in their lives to which they had no choice, and beg or bribe, God did not take it away.  

Padre Pio is one such person.  St. Michael's imparted the five wounds of Christ into Padre Pio while he was praying before a Crucifix.  Padre Pio cried out from the pain, fainted, and was found bleeding on the stone floor.  God also did not remove the stigmata completely until his death.   Catherine of Siena wanted her stigmata removed, and God did grant her that but instead imprinted them within, known as "interior stigmata", and those expert in study of cases of stigmata report that the interior stigmata are more physically painful than the exterior.  I do not know how they measure that, as pain is individually relevant, but there are means and scales of attempting pain measurement.

But I return to St. Paul, perhaps because he is on my mind as Elizabeth of the Trinity's co-favorite apostle; the other is John.  It is absolutely irrefutable that God did in deed slay Paul as he walked along.  (I'm not sure why some people think he fell off a horse; it seems Scriptures mention he fell to the ground.) 

Regardless, he was, without warning, felled like a tree in a storm.  He heard a locution, and he knew it was Jesus.  Well, you know the sequence of events.  Paul had not asked for that phenomenon nor wanted it, nor expected it, nor agreed in advance to being put upon like that.  But he did agree, for he was blind and without recourse otherwise.  His soul was struck deeply, and he was overpowered by God.

People were and still can be overpowered by God or whoever the Trinity sends for God's will to be done.  Sometimes the way God takes over a body and/or soul, is nothing a person can seemingly refuse.  Perhaps, though, with what God has done and willed in them, their minds and hearts are made conformable to God's.  This may be due to the sheer power of the Holy Spirit when that force comes and one is helpless against it.  There is always the element of agreement in God's will, ours with His, but there certainly are many instances in Scripture and in documented lives, of ways in which God exacted His will with them.

Ah, think of Juan Diego!  It was as though he had no choice, despite his trying to hide and avoid the same path and "the lady".  But in many cases, God does ask, or has an angel or Mary ask the person to do this or that, from simple acts to major life course changes--even to be willing to die in God's will, for souls or other Divine intentions known by God alone.

Remember Jacinta and Francesco of Fatima, Portugal?  We could think how horrible that God would have Mary tell them they would die soon, and ask them if they are willing to suffer for souls to be saved?  And they were willing, for when God imparts what He wills with us, there is something stirred within us, and that is Divine love.  When God comes upon a person, Divine love is nothing the person wants to refuse.

I'm not sure why, other than His Real Presence is omnipotent. He can overtake a body, mind, heart and soul.  Even when God takes a body into His own Hands such as allowing suffering, the mind and soul of the one He holds so dearly, begin to change; and, sometimes, contrary to the person's previous nature, that person becomes alert to God and agreeable to His will.  If not, God may persist and usually does.  It is seen often enough if we are observant, and in Scripture, that God at times plucks souls from this earthly realm.  Yes, God does that which He wills, and we can be transformed in His will.

While we do have free will--this other of God's will be done is documented in real people's lives and encounters with God.  It does seem that most of the time, the person is already agreeable to God and loves God and has at some point given His life to God.  But there are the examples of God imparting His will and Himself in explicit ways in a person's life, and sometimes the person was not at all in tune with God prior. 

I have considered God's power and might regarding our wills and His, off and on in my life and particularly in the last few years.  On occasion I get the notion that perhaps I could take charge of my life again, and it would be more physically pleasant, somewhat carefree, and more humanly "easy".  Maybe I could make my life different than what it is.  

But, even on the few times I've tried to orchestrate a better situation, it simply does not turn out that way.  It seems the suffering is intensified instead.  And sure, the Lord has told me in locutions and various dreams, visions, and situations, that my earthly life's suffering is His chosen vehicle for me and as an aid to my soul's progression in this life.  I nonetheless tend to review these matters periodically, which could be a very human sin against faith except that I always offer myself to His will, all over again, and with more intensity.

Maybe that is why I have kinship with Jonah.  Call it a fable as some do, but it could be an actual, lived experience even down to the whale swallowing him.  I have no hesitation to acknowledge that God does what He wills in whatever ways He wills.  Nothing is out of God's range of possibility.  But I appreciate Jonah because he tried to avoid and escape what God effectively, made Jonah do.  Try as he might, Jonah was not going to get out of the assignment and mission God gave him.  But we must consider that Jonah was already God's prophet.  However, at the time of St. Paul's conversion, Paul was an enemy of Christ.

Neither will any of us be successful in running from God's will if God does with us as He wills.  And He can and He will. Even the most hardened of souls, will at some point come under God's will if only at judgment, when God does what He wills with us.