The Grace of the Present Moment

Here are some quotes from Providence by Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange. These are from the section on “The Grace of the Present Moment and Fidelity in Little Things”. There are some great nuggets of wisdom and contemplation in that section!

He starts out the section saying:

We were saying that the duty we must accomplish with every succeeding hour is the expression of God's will for each one of us individually hic et nunc and thus conveys a certain practical instruction very valuable for sanctification. It is the Gospel teaching as applied to the various circumstances of our lives, a real object-lesson imparted by almighty God Himself.

If we could only look on each moment from this point of view, as the Saints did, we should see that to each moment there is attached not only a duty to be performed, but also a grace to be faithful in accomplishing that duty.

He often quotes from de Caussade’s Abandonment to Divine Providence. Here’s one such reference:

The present moment is ever filled with in finite treasures; it contains more than you have capacity to hold. Faith is the measure. Believe, and it will be done to you accordingly. Love also is the measure. The more the heart loves, the more it desires; and the more it desires, so much the more will it receive. The will of God presents itself to us at each moment as an immense ocean that no human heart can fathom; but what the heart can receive from this ocean is equal to the measure of our faith, confidence and love.  The whole creation cannot fill the human heart, for the heart's capacity surpasses all that is not God. The mountains that are terrifying to look at, are but atoms for the heart. The divine will is an abyss of which the present moment is the entrance. Plunge into this abyss and you will always find it infinitely more vast than your desires. Do not flatter anyone, nor worship your own illusions; they can neither give you anything nor take anything from you. You will receive your fullness from the will of God alone, which will not leave you empty. Adore it, put it first, before all other things. ... Destroy the idols of the senses. ...When the senses are terrified, or famished, despoiled, crushed, then it is that faith is nourished, enriched, and enlivened. Faith laughs at these calamities as the governor of an impregnable fortress laughs at the futile attacks of an impotent foe.

Back to Fr. G-L:

As the present minute is passing, let us likewise bear in mind that what exists is not merely our body with its sensibility, its varying emotions of pain and pleasure; but also our spiritual and immortal soul, and the actual grace we receive, and Christ Who exerts His influence upon us, and the Blessed Trinity dwelling within us. We shall then have some idea of the infinite riches contained in the present moment and the connection it has with the unchanging instant of eternity into which we are someday to enter. We should not be satisfied with viewing the present moment along the horizontal line of time, as the connecting link between a vanished past and an uncertain temporal future; we ought rather to view it along that vertical line of time which links it up with the unique instant of unchanging eternity. Whatever happens, let us say to ourselves: At this moment God is present and desires to draw me to Himself.

I pray for the grace to live my life in that way.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!

Divine Providence and Prayer

Recently I resumed reading Providence by Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange. Last night as I 
made my way through a few pages, I was struck by the thought that it seems in general have lost any sense of trusting Divine Providence in their daily lives.

Society in general, I think, encourages us to take an attitude of control – motivated more by self-interest than anything else. “I want it, so I should take the steps to get it.” Perhaps it’s always been that way, but still…our whole way of life these days seems oriented to the fast food mentality, and having everything “my way”. With medical issues, we are all about finding cures and making people well – not that that’s bad, but even in Catholic circles it’s difficult to find people looking for the spiritual meaning and effects of suffering. In terms of artificial contraception, almost no one questions the “right” of parents to determine the number and spacing of their children; to do so invites derision and opprobrium, along with the suggestion that such an attitude of openness to life is tantamount to Quietism. 

And when it comes to “happiness”, we are urged to find out what makes us happy and pursue it with all our resources (and maybe a few of the resources that belong to others!)

Fr. G-L points out that true happiness, true freedom lies in trusting the Divine Will, rather than our own. He addresses the important question of the importance of prayer, because on the face of it, it would seem that if we are to trust Divine Providence in everything, prayer – if its intention is to change God’s mind – is useless. That, again, is Quietism.

Fr. G-L says (my emphases):

We sometimes speak as though prayer were a force having the primary cause of its efficacy in ourselves, seeking by way of persuasion to bend God's will to our own; and forthwith the mind is confronted with the difficulty just mentioned, that no one can enlighten God or prevail upon Him to alter His designs.

As clearly shown by St. Augustine and St. Thomas (IIa IIae, q. 83, a. 2), the truth is that prayer is not a force having its primary source in ourselves; it is not an effort of the human soul to bring violence to bear upon God and compel Him to alter the dispositions of His providence. If we do occasionally make use of these expressions, it is by way of metaphor, just a human way of expressing ourselves. In reality, the will of God is absolutely unchangeable, as unchangeable as it is merciful; yet in this very unchangeableness the efficacy of prayer, rightly said, has its source, even as the source of a stream is to be found on the topmost heights of the mountains.

In point of fact, before ever we ourselves decided to have recourse to prayer, it was willed by God. From all eternity God willed it to be one of the most fruitful factors in our spiritual life, a means of obtaining the graces necessary to reach the goal of our life's journey. To conceive of God as not foreseeing and intending from all eternity the prayers we address to Him in time is just as childish as the notion of a God subjecting His will to ours and so altering His designs.

Trusting in Divine Providence can be very comforting! It’s not easy, though…I guess our fallen human nature seeks to impose its will wherever it can, and we (or at least I) sometimes have a hard time believing that God’s will is being done when our own selfish desires are not being fulfilled.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!