We should always praise God for:

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil,
It gathers to a greatness like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck His rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And bears man’s smudge, and shares man’s smell; the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights from the black west went,
Oh, morning at the brown brink eastwards springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast, and with, ah, bright wings.

God's Grandeur
by Gerard Manley Hopkins

end

Abandonment to Divine Providence
Fr. Jean Pierre de Caussade, S.J.

"Oh! all you that read this, it will cost you no more than to do what you are doing, to suffer what you are suffering, only act and suffer in a holy manner. It is the heart that must be changed. When I say heart, I mean "will." Sanctity, then, consists in willing all that God wills for us. Yes! sanctity of heart is a simple "yes, thy will be done," a conformity of will with the will of God.

"If the work of our sanctification presents, apparently, the most insurmountable difficulties, it is because we do not know how to form a just idea of it. In reality sanctity can be reduced to one single practice, fidelity to the duties appointed by God. Now this fidelity is equally within each one's power whether in its active practice, or passive exercise.

"The active practice of fidelity consists in accomplishing the duties which devolve upon us whether imposed by the general laws of God and of the Church, or by the particular state that we may have embraced. He never impels anyone beyond his strength, nor in any way beyond his aptitude. Its passive exercise consists in the loving acceptance of all that God sends us at each moment. For neither ear has heard nor eye seen, nor has it entered the mind what things God has planned in His omniscience, determined in His will, and carried out by His power in the souls given up entirely to Him. The passive part of sanctity is still more easy since it only consists in accepting that which we very often have no power to prevent, and in suffering lovingly, that is to say with sweetness and consolation, those things that too often cause weariness and disgust. Once more I repeat, in this consists sanctity. Therefore, whether we be grieving, or in sickness and spiritual aridity, in all that we are, and in all that befalls us in this life, let our reaction prove our fidelity and sanctity as we cry out with Job, "Blessed be the name of the Lord!"

"Would to God that kings, and their ministers, princes of the Church and of the world, priests and soldiers, the peasantry and labourers, in a word, all men could know how very easy it would be for them to arrive at a high degree of sanctity. They would only have to fulfil the simple duties of Christianity and of their state of life; to embrace with submission the crosses belonging to that state, and to submit with faith and love to the designs of Providence in all those things that have to be done or suffered without going out of their way to seek occasions for themselves. This is the spirit by which the patriarchs and prophets were animated and sanctified before there were so many systems of so many masters of the spiritual life.

"This is the spirituality of all ages and of every state. No state of life can, assuredly, be sanctified in a more exalted manner, nor in a more wonderful and easy way than by the simple use of the means that God, the sovereign director of souls, gives them to do or to suffer at each moment. Therefore when one thirsts after sanctity...speculation must be laid aside, and everything arranged by God as regards actions and sufferings must be accepted with simplicity, for those things that happen at each moment by the divine command or permission are always the most holy, the best and the most divine for us.

"I believe that if those souls that tend towards sanctity were instructed as to the conduct they ought to follow, they would be spared a good deal of trouble. I speak as much of people in the world as of others. If they could realise the merit concealed in the actions of each moment of the day: I mean in each of the daily duties of their state of life, and if they could be persuaded that sanctity is founded on that to which they give no heed as being altogether irrelevant, they would indeed be happy. If, besides, they understood that to attain the utmost height of perfection, the safest and surest way is to accept the crosses sent them by Providence at every moment, that the true philosopher's stone is submission to the will of God which changes into divine gold all their occupations, troubles, and sufferings, what consolation would be theirs!

"What courage would they not derive from the thought that to acquire the friendship of God, and to arrive at eternal glory, they had but to do what they were doing, but to suffer what they were suffering, and that what they wasted and counted as nothing would suffice to enable them to arrive at eminent sanctity: far more so than extraordinary states and wonderful works. O my God! how much I long to be the missionary of Your holy will, and to teach all men that there is nothing more easy, more attainable, more within reach, and in the power of everyone, than sanctity.

"To be satisfied with the present moment is to delight in, and to adore the divine will in all that has to be done or suffered in all that succession of events that fill, as they pass, each present moment. Those souls that have this disposition adore God with redoubled love and respect in each consecutive humiliating condition; nothing can hide Him from the piercing eye of faith. The louder the senses proclaim that in this, or that, there is no God; the more firmly do these souls clasp and embrace their God. Nothing daunts them, nothing disgusts them.

"Oh! what delightful peace we enjoy when we have learnt by faith to find God thus in all His creatures! Then is darkness luminous, and bitterness sweet. Faith, while showing us things as they are, changes their ugliness into beauty, and their malice into virtue. Faith is the mother of sweetness, confidence and joy. It cannot help feeling tenderness and compassion for its enemies by whose means it is so immeasurably enriched. The greater the harshness and severity of the creature, the greater by the operation of God, is the advantage to the soul. While the human instrument strives to do harm, the divine Workman in whose hands it is, makes use of its very malice to remove from the soul all that might be prejudicial to it.

"The will of God has nothing but sweetness, favours and treasures for submissive souls; it is impossible to repose too much confidence in it, nor to abandon oneself to it too utterly. It always acts for, and desires that which is most conducive to our perfection, provided we allow it to act. Faith does not doubt. The more unfaithful, uncertain, and rebellious are the senses, the louder faith cries: "all is well, it is the will of God". There is nothing that the eye of faith does not penetrate, nothing that the power of faith does not overcome. It passes through the thick darkness, and, no matter what clouds may gather; it goes straight to the truth, and holding to it firmly will never let it go.

"Can the divine will ever be inopportune? Can it be mistaken? "But there is this business of mine! I require such a thing! The necessary helps have been taken from me. That man thwarts all my good works, is it not most unreasonable? This illness comes on just when my health is most necessary to me." To all this there is but one answer-that the will of God is the only thing necessary, therefore what it does not grant must be useless. My good souls! nothing is wanting to you. If you only knew what these events really are that you call misfortunes, accidents, and disappointments, and in which you can see nothing but what is irrelevant, or unreasonable, you would lie deeply ashamed and excuse yourselves of your complainings as of blasphemies; but you never think of them as being the will of God, and His adorable will is blasphemed by His own children who refuse to acknowledge it.

"What great truths are hidden even from Christians who imagine themselves most enlightened! How many are there amongst them who understand that every cross, every action, every attraction according to the designs of God, give God to us in a way that nothing can better explain than a comparison with the most august mystery? Nevertheless there is nothing more certain. Does not reason as well as faith reveal to us the real presence of divine love in all creatures, and in all the events of life, as indubitably as the words of Jesus Christ and of the Church reveal the real presence of the sacred flesh of our Saviour under the Eucharistic species?

"Do we not know that by all creatures, and by every event the divine love desires to unite us to Himself, that He has ordained, arranged, or permitted everything about us, everything that happens to us with a view to this union? We have but to say "Yes," and to praise Him for the good and the bad. This is the ultimate object of all His designs to attain which He makes use of the worst of His creatures as well as of the best, and of the most distressing events as well as of those which are pleasant and agreeable. Our communion with Him is even more meritorious when the means that serve to make it closer are repugnant to nature.

"O great feast! O perpetual festival of love and praise! God! given and received under all that is most feeble, foolish and worthless upon earth! God chooses that which nature abhors, and human prudence rejects. Of these He makes sacraments of love and adoration, and by that which seems as if it would do most harm to souls, He gives Himself to them as often and as much as they desire to possess Him. (Fr. Jean Pierre de Caussade,"Abondonment To Divine Providence," Christian Classics Ethereal Library)

John of Ruysbroeck has some interesting thoughts that touch on Charity:

"When through love we deny our own will and give ourselves to that of God in such a way that we no longer wish for anything except what God wishes, then, we make a profession of true sanctity to God, whatever our condition, whatever our state in life. However, when we seek to be certain and sure, instead of trusting in God, when our will wants and does not want, it is still not yet united with the divine will...and we cannot profess love but must remain novices."

"When love recovers and burns within us to such an exalted degree that it completely destroys within us all such imperfect love, all pain and fear of losing and hope of gaining, and all that by which we seek our own ends, then there will be a pure , clean and perfect charity. In this , not only is love set in order, but all the other virtues as well, for here is to be found their source, their life, their growth, their sustenance and their conservation, in their proper order and variety of expresson according to the action performed and the habits acquired."

"Charity, however, rests with the beloved in the inner chamber, beyond reason and beyond the exercise of virtue as such; there...the soul has all that she can desire and long for, never having to look outside herself for anthing, for she has God within her and is enraptured in her ascent to God, being stripped of everything. She is made to transcend reason when ordinary means fail and in happy ignorance without hesitation, she is captivated by love."(John of Ruesbroeck, The Seven Guardians of Love, Ch. 13)

Psalm 34

1: I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2: My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
3: O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.
4: I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
5: They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.
6: This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
7: The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.
8: O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
9: O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.
10: The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.
11: Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
12: What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?
13: Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.
14: Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
15: The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.
16: The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
17: The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.
18: The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
19: Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.
20: He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.
21: Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.
22: The LORD redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

Since 01 May 2001