1st December is the commemoration of the death of Charles du Foucauld, who lived an eremitic life in the southern Sahara desert in French Algeria, and was killed by Algerian insurrectionists in 1916. His life was made into a movie in 1936 called l’appel du silence. He is a modern day desert father most famous for his remarkable ‘prayer of abandonment’
Father,
I abandon myself into your hands;
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me,
and in all your creatures –
I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into your hands I commend my soul:
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,
for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father.