Ever hear of the idea of living between the “two wills” of God?

[KevinBanet]

Those of us who are devoted to God need to discern how to recognize God’s will. The divine will may be understood in two ways:

1. God’s declared will, namely, the Commandments of God and the Church, the evangelical counsels and inspirations
2. The will of God’s good pleasure, which we see in all the events and circumstances that may befall us.

Salesian Spirituality calls us to live between what we perceive to be the two wills of God.

http://visitationspirit.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/STS1-225x300.jpg

St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal, founders of the Visitation Order

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[Father_La_Fleur]

Yes,

I certainly have heard of it, and hopefully, am living it. This difference is thoroughly explained in St. Francis of Sales, Treatise on the Love of God, and Introduction to the Devout Life speaks of it. It is very well explained in a bood put out by TAN Books called Holy Abandonment which I am reading as I type this. I decided to write this purely for 2)God’s Good Pleasure(to make Him smile, shed a tear of joy, possibly chuckle), while as, I checked my parish email to fulfill 1) the Signified Will of God(to satisfy the minimum or normal requirement and make Him nod in simple approval) through my daily pastoral duty.

One is based on the other and leads to the other. Perhpas this analogy can help, like Martha and Mary; Signified will says set the table for Jesus but, if it would please Him to sit at His feet and listen, then you do that first, His Good Pleasure, then, set the table in the right Spirit, all for Jesus. One does not hamper the other but orients each other to God’s Greatest Pleasure-the Greatest Love, until they become one constant effort to love God and each other as He loves us, to do for others what God does for us. Commandments, Counsels and finally Beatitudes(Be-Attitude, Way-to-Be, with God and neighbor).

The Blessed Virgin accomplishes both levels of the Divine Will perfectly, which corresponds to different levels of love of God and of obedience, of abandonment. Basic training, more advanced, commandos of Love; novices, apprentices and virtuosos of the Cross, of Obedience. We pay God with the same currency He bought us with, blood for Blood, as the Saints have said. We give back as much as we can in gratitude, not just enough to get into Heaven and to save our skin and our soul but others as well. It is like a child who does his assignment then helps others to their, and, the most difficult, least performing students at that. The Saints and Martyrs go beyond just doing the minimum requirement for their A+.