Father Jean-Paul de Caussade

Dec262020

Gratia Infusia

The apparent uselessness and faults of people chosen by God for the state of abandonment.

In the eyes of the world, these people are useless nonentities. They can expect neither esteem nor reward. This is not to suggest that people who hold important positions are thereby prevented from attaining the state of self-abandonment; nor, of course, is this state inconsistent with great holiness, which attracts universal veneration. Yet a vastly greater number of souls in this state have their virtue known only to Cod. Their condition sets them free from nearly every external obligation, and they are not suitable for worldly affairs or for anything demanding thought or steady application. They seem quite useless, weak in mind and body, with no creative power and lacking in all emotion. They involve themselves in nothing, they plan nothing, they foresee nothing and set their hearts on nothing. They are, as it were, quite uncivilized and have none of those qualities which general culture, study and thought give a human being. They are children before they have been taught how to behave, and we notice their faults which, though no worse than children’s, shock us more. God strips them of everything except their innocence so they have nothing but him alone. The world, knowing nothing of this, can judge only by appearances, finds nothing likable or worthwhile about them and so rejects and despises them. They are the laughingstock of everybody. more closely they are observed, the more they are disliked. No one knows what to make of them. Yet there is an indefinable something which seems to testify in their favor…

‘Abandonment to Divine Providence’ by Father Jean-Paul de Caussade

In honor of the year of St Joseph and a personal devotion: an angel guides Joseph as he sleeps.

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Dec232020

Soaring above

So come! Never mind weariness, illness, lack of feeling, irritability, exhaustion, the snares of the devil and of men, will all that they create of distrust, jealousy, prejudice and evil imaginings. Let us soar like an eagle above these clouds, with our eyes fixed on the sun and its rays, which are our duties. We cannot help being aware of all these evils, of course, and we cannot be indifferent to them, but let us never forget that ours is not a life governed by our feelings. We must live in those upper reaches of the spiritual life where God and his will are active in a process which is eternal and unchanging. There, he who is uncreated, immeasurable and cannot be described by human words, will keep us far removed from all the shadows and turmoil of the world. We shall feel through our senses countless disturbances, it is true, but they will all disappear like the clouds in a windswept sky. –‘Abandonment to Divine Providence’ Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade

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Dec192020

Self-propulsion a mistake

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).

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Dec182020

Detachment usurping pride

If books, the example of the saints, and spiritual conversations deprive the soul of peace; if they fill the mind without satisfying it; it is a sign that one has strayed from the path of pure abandonment to the divine action, and that one is only seeking to please oneself. To be employed in this way is to prevent God from finding an entrance. All this must be got rid of because of being an obstacle to grace. But if the divine will ordains the use of these things the soul may receive them like the rest—that is to say—as the means ordained by God which it accepts simply to use, and leaves afterwards when their moment has passed for the duties of the moment that follows. –‘Abandonment to Divine Providence’ by Jean-Pierre de Caussade

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