This was found in his desk a few days after he died:

“No one can understand Virgil’s Georgics unless he has been a farmer
for five years. No one can understand Cicero’s letters unless he has
busied himself in the affairs of a great empire for twenty-five years.
No one can presume to have indulged in Holy Scriptures sufficiently
unless he were in charge of all the churches for one hundred years
with the prophets Elijah and Elisha, John the Baptist, Christ, and the
Apostles. Do not seize hold of this divine aeneid, but adore its
tracks with humility. We are beggars, this is true.”

He wrote it in Latin, except for “we are beggars.” This he wrote in
German, to give it emphasis.

Happiness in life doesn’t come from attaining something. Striving, seeking, hard work, and extreme dedication will only earn you more of the same.

Happiness itself is really just a myth. A friend’s 10-year-old son died in a helicopter accident a few weeks ago. I will fight leukemia for the rest of my life. People are forced to live in a cyclically defeating system known as “poverty.”

All of life is absurd, and it hangs by a thread.

And yet, there is something very peaceful in that awareness. Contentment is truer joy. Being content with life means that you accept that which you cannot control.

The sooner we agree that life is hard, full of struggle, quiet desperation, pain, frustration and sadness, the sooner we can actually live our lives. Stop trying to avoid pain, and you can embrace it. If you embrace pain, you embrace life.

That is Tentatio. It is inevitable struggle, but its existence does not ensure a life dominated by pain. In fact, it guarantees a certain freedom from it.