God imparts to the soul in the state of abandonment by means which seem more likely to
destroy it.

There is a time when God would be the life of the soul, and Himself accomplish its perfection in secret and unknown ways. Then all its own ideas, lights, industries, examinations, and reasonings become sources of illusion. After many experiences of the sad consequences of self-guidance, the soul recognizing its uselessness, and finding that God has hidden and confused all the issues, is forced to fly to Him to find life. Then, convinced of its nothingness and of the harmfulness of all that it derives from itself, it abandons itself to God to gain all from Him. It is then that God becomes the source of its life, not by means of ideas, lights, or reflections, for all this is no longer anything to it but a source of illusion; but in reality, and by His grace, which is hidden under the strangest appearances.

–‘Abandonment to Divine Providence’ by Father Jean-Paul de Caussade, 18th century French Jesuit, spiritual director to the nuns of the Order of the Visitation of the Holy Mother (Ordo Visitationis Beatissimae Mariae Virginis).