The moment I realized God existed, I knew that I could not do othewise than to live for Him Alone...Faith strips the mask from the world and renders meaningless such words as anxiety, danger and fear, so the believer goes through life calmly and peacefully, with profound joy--like a child, hand and hand with his mother.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the deep sense of peace and joy that comes from faith in God, transcending fears and anxieties.
Charles De Foucauld's quote expresses a transformative realization of God's existence, which leads to a life devoted solely to Him. This faith provides a powerful shield against the worries of the world, allowing believers to navigate life with a childlike innocence and joy, unburdened by fear and anxiety, like a child walking hand in hand with a caring mother.
In practice
In a sermon about overcoming life's challenges, one might use this quote to inspire and comfort the congregation.
To love anyone is to hope in him for always. From the moment at which we begin to judge anyone, to limit our confidence in him, from the moment at which we identify him with what we know of him and so reduce him to that, we cease to love him and he ceases to be able to be better.
It is not necessary to teach others, to cure them or to improve them; it is only necessary to live among them, sharing the human condition and being present to them in love.
My faith inspires me so much. It is the very reason that I run. I feel that my running is completely a gift from God and it is my responsibility to use it to glorify him.
When our whole life is one faith, hope, love, prayer and silence, a consecrated life always bound up in the Eucharist, then the 'urge' towards God springs.
Let the storm rage and the sky darken - not for that shall we be dismayed. If we trust as we should in Mary, we shall recognize in her, the Virgin Most Powerful "who with virginal foot did crush the head of the serpent.
I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you will trust God.
So often we have a kind of vague, wistful longing that the promises of Jesus should be true. The only way really to enter into them is to believe them with the clutching intensity of a drowning man.
Do not be afraid to cast yourselves into the arms of God; whatever he asks of you, he will repay a hundredfold.
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