One must stop considering the observation of religious laws, faith and even charity as guarantees of a happy life on earth.
It is true that divine Providence watches over us. But the natural laws themselves are the first manifestations of that Providence, the first and universal manifestation of Wisdom. God lets them operate and produce all their consequences. Miracles are rare. The only assurance of privilege that we have is that all things work together for the good of them that love God (St. Paul); but that all includes all calamities and all tribulations.
In certain exceptional vocations which demand the concurrence of certain material circumstances, Providence does, it is true, app rear, as it were, particularly favorable, granting extraordinary graces such as charisms and miracles.
But what is more frequent than these favors is, on the contrary, the apparent harshness with which God's closest friends are treated. There is not only visible martyrdom, there is the daily and hidden martyrdom of God's faithful - of those who are called not only to the active imitation of Christ, but to be assimilated by Him to Himself, to become flesh of his flesh, an additional humanity in which is fulfilled what is lacking (St. Paul) in the Passion of the Savior. These are souls of singular generosity, and who have, indeed been providentially prepared by divine grace for this redemptive vocation.
Raissa's Journal
Jacques Maritain
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One of the attractions of the retreat is that each day will be a hermit day as much as possible. Monks' Bread will have to be baked as usual and other necessary chores will have to be done but we hope to be able to keep them at the barest minimum.
