The love of enemies requires the capacity to see one’s sufferings as good, as successes or blessings. This kind of vision is an aspect of a broader condition, known as abandonment. In the state of abandonment, one accepts not only human wrongdoing as from the hands of a beloved enemy, but any disaster, natural or otherwise, as coming from the hand of God in his providence.1 The state of abandonment is the end for which total renunciation is an effective means. But as we shall see -- as perhaps we have already seen -- vows, promises, and penances are neither necessary nor sufficient to achieve it.