Charles de Foucauld
1858-1916 19th century Feast day: December 1
“His compassions are new every morning.” Charles de Foucauld made dawn itself a prayer: to begin with open hands, holding nothing back from the day before, and to entrust the coming hour to the One who has already gone ahead of it. His self-abandonment is not resignation. It is receiving the day as a gift already begun.
Who was Charles de Foucauld?
French cavalry officer, atheist and libertine until 28. His conversion was sudden. He became a priest, then a hermit, and left to live alone in the Sahara, at Tamanrasset, among the Tuareg whose language he learned. Murdered in his cell in 1916. His Prayer of Abandonment, found in his papers, became one of the most-prayed prayers of the 20th century.
In their own words
Father, I abandon myself into Your hands; do with me what You will.