Again I’ve been picking at a translation of Le chemin vers Tamanrasset by Antoine Chatelard, a biography of Blessed Charles de Foucauld. I came across this gem of a quote from Brother Charles:

If I have been able to do any good and to settle in the Sahara it is, according to Jesus, because I had been a military officer and had traveled through Morocco [before my conversion]. God prepares things from afar and uses the good, the bad, and the acts that are done without the least thought of him for the salvation of souls.

Charles travelled far from Jesus, and in a horrible state did many things. God uses them all. God knows what he permits. Good, in God’s hands, is stronger than evil. Not just now, in the present. It’s true of the past, too. The whole of our history and the whole of human history can ring these notes: God knows what he permits. Good is stronger than evil.

It’s amazing in how many places and in how many stories these truths reveal themselves!