The Stone Rejected (written by Maximilian Kolbe)

The roads along which God leads his saits to their sublime destiny are varied and countless.

God often reinforces our natural inclinations with supernatural gifts and allows and commands us to use them, but sometimes he asks us to sacrifice our natural inclinations, whenever this is necessary, for a higher development of our soul.

"If God," says Bossuet, "wishes to make people worthy of him, he must educate them in different ways, and mold them according to his own project. In doing this, he respects and does not force our innate inclination."

That is why God led some people to the desert and completely isolated them from their fellow creatures; others he called to a life of commujity and mutual assistance in their progress to perfection. Still, he has left others in the whirl of the world, working at the plow, in craft workshops, or on royal thrones. He has made some famous for their profane and religious science, or for their social activity, whereas he has left others in the shade of oblivion throughout their entire lives. Some, in a manner of speaking, he has cherished, nourishing them with the milk of his spiritual sweetness, while others he has fed with the hard crust of suffering. All this depending on the needs of each individual soul and on the type of mission to which each soul has been destined.

--This was written by Maximillian Koble, a priest in the Roman Catholic church, who voluntarily gave his life as a substitute for another in the holocaust. He was made a saint by decision of Pope John Paul II. This exceprt is from a daily devotional. Typos belong to me.