Holy Abandonment is a profound, soul-stirring restatement of the theology of self-abandonment to Divine Providence. Key to this powerful devotional practice as Dom Vitalis Lehodey points out is the realization that all whatsoever happens to us in this life either has been allowed to happen by Almighty God, or He has sent to us directly as some kind of special cross or lesson or chastisement.
The author—who also wrote the comprehensive The Ways of Mental Prayer—cites many famous Catholic writers in what is probably the most thorough study of "holy abandonment," or "conformity to God's Holy Will," that has yet appeared in English. Point after point is covered by numerous poignant examples from the lives of the Saints and from passages from noted writers on the subject. He distinguishes between the Signified Will of God and His Will of Good Pleasure. The Abbot of Bricquebec also discusses the meaning of abandonment, the role of prudence on our part, how our desires and petitions and efforts fir into the picture, the role of suffering and self-oblation, the nature of detachment, faith and confidence in Divine Providence, abandonment in temporal things, abandonment in external things, health and sickness, reputation, humiliations, persecutions, failures, darkness of mind, insensibility, disgust, impotence of will, spiritual poverty, peace, fear of God, simplicity and liberty, constancy, joy and a number of other similar topics. Holy abandonment has nothing to do with fatalism or personal inertia, he says, but entails our constant, intelligent, loving union with God s Holy Will.
Do you see how we ought to measure our humility? he quotes St. Francis de Sales. By obedience. If you obey with promptitude, sincerity and joy, you are truly humble. For without humility, it is impossible to have true obedience. Obedience requires us to be submissive, and he that is truly humble renders himself inferior and subject to every creature for the love of Jesus Christ. Such is the caliber of Dom Vitalis Lehodey s Holy Abandonment—a work of the first order, one that makes life-long devotees, and a book that will form the reader as a true follower of Jesus Christ and His holy Mother, who as our principal Father s Holy Will in all things, which is the main lesson in life we all need to learn.
Rt. Reverend Dom Vitalis Lehodey, O.C.R., admitted in his preface to Holy Abandonment that many other books on the subject have already been written. He went on to say, however, that every author who wrote on the spiritual life naturally discussed the topic of Conformity to God's Will. His intent with Holy Abandonment was to provide a work both theoretic and practical to offer a solution to the problems of our times. Dom Lehodey also expressed his mission to contribute something, even if it were little, to the ineffable glory of God. The book was originally published in 1934 and received the Nihil Obstat, Imprimatur and Imprimi Potest from Fathers Daly and Smets as well as from the Bishop of Waterford in the 1930s.
