Prayer: "Perfect Resignation" by Joseph Pignatelli, S.J.

"Perfect Resignation" by Joseph Pignatelli, SJ (1737-1811)

My God, I do not know what must come to me today.
But I am certain that nothing can happen to me
that you have not foreseen, decreed,
and ordained from eternity.
That is sufficient for me.
I adore your impenetrable and eternal designs,
to which I submit with all my heart.
I desire, I accept them all, and I unite my sacrifice
to that of Jesus Christ, my divine Savior.
I ask in his name and through his infinite merits,
patience in my trials, and perfect and entire submission
to all that comes to me by your good pleasure.
Amen.

When Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Society of Jesus on July 21, 1773, Father Joseph Pignatelli, along with 23,000 others, were no longer Jesuits. He, however, continued to live the life of a Jesuit for the next 24 years and kept in contact with his dispersed brothers. In 1797 he, along with Jesuits who had arrived from Russia, renewed his vows as a Jesuit and two years later, with the pope's approval, opened a novitiate in Colorno, Italy. He became the living bridge between the old and the new Society of Jesus. The Society was restored on August 7, 1814, when Pope Pius VII issued the bull Sollicitudo omnium Ecclesiarum.