Wandering thoughts part 3

Merton writes in "No man is an Island:" "Supernatural hope is the virtue that strips us of all things in order to give us possession of all things."  We do not hope for what we have.  Therefore, to live in hope is to live in poverty, having nothing.  (That does not sound so good, does it? Kind of scary!!! Please, don't stop now. The good stuff comes next.) And yet, if we abandon ourselves to economy of Divine Providence, we have everything we hope for.  By faith we know God without seeing Him. By hope we possess God without feeling His presence.  If we hope in God, by hope we already possess Him, since hope is a confidence which He creates in our souls as secret evidence that He has taken possession of us.  So the soul that hopes in God already belongs to Him, and to belong to Him is the same as to possess Him, since He gives Himself completely to those who give themselves to Him.  The only thing faith and hope does not give us is the clear vision of Him Whom we possess.  We are united to Him in darkness, because we have to hope. We are saved by patient hope.  Romans 8:24.