Blessed Arnold died on 15^th January 1909, at the age of 71 years, 2 months and 10 days. External success was not the most important thing for Steyl’s founder. Above all else, he wished that the communities and individual confreres respond with love and courage to the will of God. Knowing and following the will of God was his main preoccupation throughout his life. By temperament he was rather slow to make important decisions, wanting first to have all relevant information at hand after consulting competent people. Nevertheless, once he believed that a project was the will of God, he went ahead with great courage, unconcerned about opinions or criticisms of others. Naturally, he felt hurt by negative comments and opposition, but he considered it something a superior had to endure. It was his way of following Christ Crucified.

 The text of the Letter to the Hebrews (10,7) – “Behold, I come to do your will, O God” – was the text that he cited most often and which he sought to put into practice in his life.  He gave this advice to the first two missionaries: “Go to China. You do not know what the Lord is preparing for you; whether he will make your efforts bear fruit or not… Confront the future, which you do not know, with confidence. Walk in this dark night by holding the hand of the loving God”. (Little Messenger, 6, 1879, 28. - Sermon of the Founder on the occasion of the mission departure ceremony of Frs. Anzer and Freinademetz). This counsel was genuine, because he himself sought to live it in this way. In fact, those words offer us the key to his spirituality. The love of the One, Triune God was for him the foundation of everything. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that we might have eternal life in him” (hn 3,16); this was another one of his favorite texts. To know God’s plan, to share his divine life with all humanity, filled him with joy and wonder. This was the source of his apostolic enthusiasm and the warmth and depth of his prayer life.   

Blessed Arnold was particularly attracted by the biblical image of the divine indwelling. His relationship with the three divine Persons became warm and personal, as his conferences and the prayers he composed show. He was not a great public speaker, but witnesses said that he became particularly inspired when he talked about this subject.

 The phrase found in the first Constitutions, “to walk in the presence of God” (Fontes Historici SVD 1, pp. 43ff), expresses the ideal to which all members are called and according to which he himself lived. Many have described Blessed Arnold as “a man who walked constantly in the presence of God” (Cf. McHugh, Spirituality of our Society, pp. 101 ff). The people he met and all of nature reminded him of God’s presence. He was a teacher of natural sciences. All his life, nature’s richness, the universe’s vastness, the beauty of flowers – were for him God’s messengers. The wonder of the hand or of the human eye spoke to him of God. In his conferences he often came to talk about this subject. He composed a prayer that was to be recited every quarter hour, as a way of giving glory to God and of keeping this ideal alive among all members of his congregations.

 This closeness to the One, Triune God, who lives in us, brought him to open his heart to all, because in God he found humanity. His path towards the heart of God passed through practical expressions of love for people. In the first Constitutions he cited the text of the First Letter of St. John (Jn 4, 20) where it states that love for God shows itself in love for one’s brothers and sisters. He added that the most sublime expression of love for a neighbour is to introduce him to the Gospel.

 Blessed Arnold summed up his spirituality in this prayer which was also his motto: May the Holy Trinity, the only One God live in our hearts and in the hearts of all.