Our Lady of Divine ProvidenceIt was probably around 1987 or so that I came across a little book entitled Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean Pierre de Caussade. I don't know if my spritual director had recommended it or whether it came to my attention some other way. I just know that my paperback copy lived in my handbag for at least two years and became quite battered and dog-eared during that time. I still have that copy and all my underlinings remind me of what I was experiencing in those days and still experience (albeit with different material) today.
Here is a quotation. May it gladden your heart and console your spirit:
You are seeking God and he is everywhere. Everything proclaims him to you. He is by your side, over you, around and in you. Here is his dwelling and yet you still seek him. Ah! You are searching for God, the idea of God in his essential being. You seek perfection and it lies in everything that happens to you—your suffering, your actions, your impulses are the mysteries under which God reveals himself to you.
I read that book in the 1990's and need to re-read it. What a wonderful quotation--that I'll copy and read and read again. Thank you, Ellie.
ReplyDeleteHi! You probably logged on to this before I cleaned it up. (It needed editing right after I posted it the first time.)
ReplyDeleteYes, it's a wonderful passage, isn't it? And somehow, de Caussade always comes to my attention again when I really need to trust in the providence of the good God.
Gotta get me that book!
ReplyDeleteI also need to get this book. It has been a week from hell.
ReplyDeleteMarilyn