A Spiritual Exercise for the Morning

I just finished reading Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence, a book that was cobbled together from excerpts from two different books from the French school of spirituality: The Knowledge and Love of Jesus Christ by Father Jean-Baptiste Saint-Jure and the Collected Letters of Saint Claude de la Colombiere.  I purchased the book during the Hanceville pilgrimage as a way to occupy my spiritual reading time until my return to North Carolina.  Obviously, it took a bit longer to finish than I had anticipated.  The book is full of profundities, but the passage that I want to share with you particularly is from the Claude de la Colombiere section of the book. 
    St. Claude says that there are two exercises that are particularly useful for building a habit of conforming ones self to Divine Providence.  The first is perhaps obvious: practicing the virtue of submission.  In other words, when we encounter adversity, we should submit to it.  The second exercise is more surprising.  St. Claude recommends that, when you get up in the morning, you spend some time thinking about all the misfortune that could possibly befall you during the coming day.  Then, having considered each individual item, submit to the possibility of each one with trust, love and confidence.  He puts it this way:

"Every morning as soon as you get up think of all the most disagreeable things that could happen to you during the day. Your house might be burnt down, you might lose your job or all your savings, or be run over, or sudden death might come to you or to a person you love.  Accept these misfortunes should it please God to allow them; compel your will to agree to the sacrifice and give yourself no rest until you really feel prepared to wish or not to wish all that God may wish or not wish."

      Naturally, it goes without saying that the necessary background for this exercise, or even for practicing the virtue of submission, is the belief that God does everything for our good. Living according to this belief is in itself a great mortification for us, since we continuously have to acknowledge the greatness of God's Wisdom, while admitting the paucity of our understanding.