Anyone has read Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence?

[shanishani7]

I just finished reading “Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence” it claimed that if something is not from the will of man, then it is from the will of God, or at least God wills this to happen, except for sins.

How about the death, sickness and natural disasters? Does God really will these to happen? and why do some people have certain illness and some do not?

These are what I do not understand…

Any idea? Thanks.

 

[tifischer]

I just finished reading “Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence” it claimed that if something is not from the will of man, then it is from the will of God, or at least God wills this to happen, except for sins.

How about the death, sickness and natural disasters? Does God really will these to happen? and why do some people have certain illness and some do not?

These are what I do not understand…

Any idea? Thanks.

We may never know all the answers to the universe but accept the gift of life in the infinite void of space. Do you realize how much of the universe is actually hospitable to human life? Statistically speaking Earth is a pretty great place to be.

 

[BarbTh]

This might help your understanding - catholicexchange.com/gods-will

 

[hazcompat]

TRUSTFUL SURRENDER TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE

by St. Claude de la Colombiere

It is one of the most firmly established and most consoling of the truths that have been revealed to us that (apart from sin) nothing happens to us in life unless God wills it so. Wealth and poverty alike come from Him. If we fall ill, God is the cause of our illness; if we get well, our recovery is due to God. We owe our lives entirely to Him, and when death comes to put an end to life, His will be the hand that deals the blow.

But should we attribute it to God when we are unjustly persecuted? Yes, He is the only person you can charge with the wrong you suffer. He is not the cause of the sin the person commits by ill-treating you, but He is the cause of the suffering that person inflicts on you while sinning. God did not inspire your enemy with the will to harm you, but He gave him the power to do so. If you receive a wound, do not doubt but that it is God Himself who has wounded you.

Peace

If all living creatures were to league themselves against you, unless the Creator wished it and joined with them and gave them the strength and means to carry out their purpose, they would never succeed. You would have no power over me if it had not been given you from above, the Savior of the world said to Pilate. We can say the same to demons and men, to the brute beasts and to whatever exists – You would not be able to disturb me or harm me as you do unless God had ordered it so. You are sent by Him, you are given the power by Him to tempt me and to make me suffer. You would have no power over me if it had not been given you from above.

 

[Techno2000]

I just finished reading “Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence” it claimed that if something is not from the will of man, then it is from the will of God, or at least God wills this to happen, except for sins.

How about the death, sickness and natural disasters? Does God really will these to happen? and why do some people have certain illness and some do not?

These are what I do not understand…

Any idea? Thanks.

God allows nature to take its course, and will only suspend the law of nature went he thinks it’s necessary.If God was to tinker with every little aspect of life, then man would not have free will.

 

[Memaw]

I just finished reading “Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence” it claimed that if something is not from the will of man, then it is from the will of God, or at least God wills this to happen, except for sins.

How about the death, sickness and natural disasters? Does God really will these to happen? and why do some people have certain illness and some do not?

These are what I do not understand…

Any idea? Thanks.

When my young husband died in a terrible accident and left me with 4 small children, so many kind hearted people said, “It’s God’s Will and you must accept it.” I asked Father if this was really God’s will for us. His answer was, “It is NOT God’s direct will but it is His permissive will. In other words , He wills to permit it to happen without a direct intervention, (Miracle). HE will be with you through your suffering and help you guide your children. Our Blessed Mother will be there also as she has lost her husband too and knows what your going thru.” Fr. helped me more than he will ever know in those very difficult times with his wise consolation. God Bless, Memaw

 

[ready]

I have read this book and several other books on Divine Providence. God sends us death, sickness, natural disasters and other losses and trials, and He is the First Cause of everything. Nothing happens without His willing it either by His ordaining it or by His permissive will. God bless you.

 

[Richard_Feynman]

Yes, God allows natural disasters to happen. But what must be understood is the Catholic idea of sactifying suffering.

First, Catholics should not seek or avoid suffering IMO. If it’s the Will of God for us to experience pain, then we should submit ourselves to that Will. However, most of society today tries to avoid pain as “bad” or “unnecessary.” I completely disagree with that notion. Pain and suffering are intrinsically tied to the idea of salvation. Even Paul says that he suffers to complete the Passion (Col 1:24).

Second, I offer a different theory for natural disasters based on my very limited knowledge of Chaos Theory. From what I recall, we can only track weather patterns back a certain number of causes before the math becomes too much to calculate. So maybe a storm is actually caused by human will but we can’t prove this. (It’s more of a hypothesis, I admit.)

As to “why” some people have diseases while others don’t… I speak on behalf of myself when I answer this question. I have medical issues, but the problems only make me a stronger person (not physically, but in my personality, devotions, etc.) Some people need trials such as diseases because they give grace if taken correctly. They truly help people at the deepest level (the soul).

Feel free to disagree, these are just my beliefs to the questions.

 

[DesertSister62]

Shanishani7 said;
I just finished reading “Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence” it claimed that if something is not from the will of man, then it is from the will of God, or at least God wills this to happen, except for sins.*

How about the death, sickness and natural disasters? Does God really will these to happen? and why do some people have certain illness and some do not?*
.
These are what I do not understand…*

**Hi shanishani7!

On page 6 of Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence it says**, “I am the Lord, He tells us Himself by the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, and there is none else. I form light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:6-7)
“It is I who bring both death and life, I who inflict wounds and heal them,” He said to Moses. (Deuteronomy 32:35) The Lord killeth and maketh alive. It is written in the Canticle of Anna, the mother of Samuel. “He bringeth down to the tomb and He bringeth back again. The Lord maketh poor and He maketh rich, He humbleth and He exalteth.”
(I Kings 2:6-7) “Shall there be evil (disaster, affliction) in a city which the Lord hath not done?” **(Amos 3:6) ** asks the prophet Amos. “Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches are from God,” Solomon proclaims… ** (Ecclesiasticus/Sirach 11:14) **
(I have the Biblical references looked up below)

I would say that your answers were right in the front of the book that you are reading. Its difficult to understand, sometimes, why God does the things He does, but if we KNOW that He only wants the best for us, then we will pray that God will give us the strength and courage that we need to make it through this life, day by day. He knows what we need to grow, be that an illness or tribulation, but it is always for our eventual good!

For instance, I had it pointed out to me not long ago that maybe God didn’t set the world up to run itself, but rather it was created to need His intervention on a daily basis, or we would suffer the consequences. He did that FOR us so that we would come to understand how necessary He is to His creation. But instead of learning that we need to pray and ask for God’s help every day, we banned Him from the Classrooms, He’s being ridiculed in the news. So He steps back to give us the distance we think we need and the world slowly goes to Hell in a hand-basket. We experience terrible tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunami’s etc. THESE are terrible things but we have them because of our turning away from God! And maybe God is using them to help us turn back to Him. Do you see what the book is telling you?

We are slow learners, but that is not the way we were created to be. We were created with our “need for God” but as science has progressed we decided WE knew better. The results are what we see today.

Here are the Biblical references given in Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence; pages 6 & 7.

1 Kings 2:6-7Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)
6 Do therefore according to thy wisdom, and let not his hoary head go down to hell in peace.
7 But shew kindness to the sons of Berzellai the Galaadite, and let them eat at thy table: for they met me when I fled from the face of Absalom thy brother.

**Isaiah 45:6-7Douay-Rheims **1899 American Edition (DRA)
6That they may know who are from the rising of the sun, and they who are from the west, that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is none else:
7I form the light, and create darkness, I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord that do all these things.

Amos 3:6Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)
6*Shall the trumpet sound in a city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, which the Lord hath not done?

Deuteronomy 32:39Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)
39*See ye that I alone am, and there is no other God besides me: I will kill and I will make to live: I will strike, and I will heal, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

Sirach 11:14 (Ecclesiasticus) Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)
14*Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches, are from God.

 

[hazcompat]

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. Its passive exercise consists in the loving acceptance of all that God sends us at each moment.

Are either of these practices of sanctity above our strength? Certainly not the active fidelity, since the duties it imposes cease to be duties when we have no longer the power to fulfil them. If the state of your health does not permit you to go to Mass you are not obliged to go. The same rule holds good for all the precepts laid down; that is to say for all those which prescribe certain duties.

Only those which forbid things evil in themselves are absolute, because it is never allowable to commit sin. Can there, then, be anything more reasonable? What excuse can be made? Yet this is all that God requires of the soul for the work of its sanctification. He exacts it from both high and low, from the strong and the weak, in a word from all, always and everywhere. It is true then that He requires on our part only simple and easy things since it is only necessary to employ this simple method to attain to an eminent degree of sanctity. If, over and above the Commandments, He shows us the counsels as a more perfect aim, He always takes care to suit the practice of them to our position and character. He bestows on us, as the principal sign of our vocation to follow them, the
attractions of grace which make them easy. He never impels anyone beyond his strength, nor in any way beyond his aptitude. Again, what could be more just? All you who strive after perfection and who are tempted to discouragement at the remembrance of what you have read in the lives of the saints, and of what certain pious books prescribe; O you who are appalled by the terrible ideas of perfection that you have formed for yourselves; it is for your consolation that God has willed me to write this. Learn that of which you seem to be ignorant. This God of all goodness has made those things easy which are common and necessary in the order of nature, such as breathing, eating, and sleeping. No less necessary in the supernatural order are love and fidelity, therefore it must needs be that the difficulty of acquiring them is by no means so great as is generally represented.
Review your life. Is it not composed of innumerable actions of very little importance? Well, God is quite satisfied with these. They are the share that the soul must take in the work of its perfection. This is so clearly explained in Holy Scripture that there can be no doubt about it: “Fear God and keep the commandments, this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes xii, 13), that is to say—this is all that is required on the part of man, and it is in this that active fidelity consists. If man fulfils his part God will do the rest. Grace being bestowed only on this condition the marvels it effects are beyond the comprehension of man. 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. This is the grain of mustard seed which is the smallest of all the seeds, the fruits of which can neither be recognized nor gathered. It is the drachma of the Gospel, the treasure that none discover because they suppose it to be too far away to be sought. Do not ask me how this treasure can be found. It is no secret. The treasure is everywhere, it is offered to us at all times and wherever we may be. All creatures, both friends and enemies pour it out with prodigality, and it flows like a fountain through every faculty of body and soul even to the very center of our hearts. If we open our mouths they will be filled. The divine
activity permeates the whole universe, it pervades every creature; wherever they are it is there; …

Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean-Pierre de Caussade

ccel.org/ccel/decaussade/abandonment.html

Peace