Giving to God

In his novel, The Diary of a Country Priest, the hero brings his life to a close with the following prayer:

"Dear God, I give all to You, willingly. But I don't know how to give, I just let you take. The best is to remain quiet. Because, though I may not know how to give, You know how to take. . . Yet I would have wished to be, once, just once, magnificently generous to You."

In a moment of candor, Bernano once said, "Of all the people I have ever known, the boy I used to be was most important."