When I struggle and fail, struggle and fail

[BarbaraTherese]

I bought a while back a little book that is based on “Abandonment to Divine Providence” by Jean Pierre de Caussade - at least his concept of Divine Providence. The Chapters are quite small and written with clarity and simplicity and also conciseness and very handy to keep in the handbag, on the bedside table or the computer desk.
"Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence"
(4half inches x 2half inches. 139 pages)
(By: Fr, Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure - and - St. Claude de la Colombiere, SJ)
TAN Books and Publishers Inc.

Shining through and in these pages, even when it is not actually mentioned, are concepts based on a God of Abandoned and All Embracing Love and Mercy…and this is what drew me to the sprituality of Abandonment and Surrender to Divine Providence.

I am only quoting parts of the chapter (which is only two small pages)on “In the consequences of Sin”…can’t give a link as to my knowledge there is no online text and I am typing direct from the book.

"With submission and conformity to the Will of God, we should bear any evil consequences of which falling into sin is often the cause - (my comment: and there can be many consequences including deep regret, sorrow perhaps even temptation to despair…or consequences like being short of money due to overspending, i.e. more practical type consequences rather than interior ones)

…the situation (or the consequences) fills us with worry and anxiety and we feel unable to cope with it. God certainly did not wish you should sin, but the sin committed, He wishes for your good that it should be followed by a punishment. Accept it then from His hand in the belief that there is nothing more suited to regaining His favour than your humble acceptance of the consequences.
Then far from being projudicial to you, your failures, insofar as they give you the opportunity of submitting to His Will, will be as it were a monument to your perseverance in God’s service…and the more numerous they have been, the more glorious will be their witness to your perseverance.

…Let us take a practical example:
A man has to make a journey on foot. He must go across rough country, he is without food and almost exhauses…and so he falls repeatedly.
But he gets to his feet again each time, determined not to give in and, come what may, arrive at his destination.
When he finally arrives, is it not true to say that his perseverance had been all the greater and the more heroic in proportion to the number of obstacles he has had to overcome, and the falls from which he has recovered?"

What a wonderful perspective, I thought, on those of us who may know nothing but struggle against imperfections and failings…constantly seeming to fall and get up and though wearied and tired, persevere on the way. Great encouragement too if one should feel some kind of discouragement or even despair in the face of failure and falls - be they most small or most great.

 

[Trishie]

Dear Barb, as usual, you’re so right.
And Scripture agrees:
“Do not gloat over me, my enemy: though I have fallen, I shall rise; though I live in darkness, God is my light. I must suffer the anger of God, for I have sinned against Him, until He takes up my cause and rights my wrongs; He will bring me out into the light and I shall rejoice to see the rightness of His ways.” [Micah 7:8-9]

Jesus took our sins on Himself, and regardless of we suffer as consequence to our sins and misjudgements, we owe our redemption to Him:

“Yet ours were the sufferings He bore, ours the sorrows He carried.
But we, we thought of Him as someone punished,
struck by God and brought low.
Yet He was pierced for our faults, crushed for our sins.
On Him lies a punishment that brings us peace.
We had all gone astray like sheep, each taking his own way,
and God burdened Him with the sins of us all.
Harshly dealt with, He bore it humbly…
God has been pleased to crush Him with suffering…
And through Him, what God wishes shall be done.
His soul’s anguish over He shall see the light and be content.
By His sufferings shall my servant justify many,
…for surrendering Himself to death
and letting Himself be taken for a sinner,
while He was bearing the faults of many
and praying all the while for sinners.” [Isaiah 53:4-6 10-12]

If we didn’t have Him our repentance and restitution would count for nothing. If we had never sinned, would He have come? The richness that He brings to us is the greater for our frailty

Thank you Barb for your amazing ability to give us a river of inspiring threads of authentic humanity/spirituality winding through the forum.
Trishie
Conversion through Jesus
Jesus, from eternity, the Eternal Father proclaims, “Behold My Son, the beloved. Heed Him!”

Jesus, You lived God’s will in the ordinary human joys and struggles of infancy, childhood, and manhood. As a man like other men, You learned a trade and undertook a mission. All the while, You prayed. You suffered greatly, yet with redemptive love.

Jesus, You love us enough to become human and to live in poverty. You love us enough to share creatively and joyously in our humanity and to accept human flaws humbly. You love us enough to strive against ignorance, hypocrisy, and selfishness to create the path to God for everyone. You loved us enough to die in immense misery of soul and body for redemption of each person.

Jesus, as God, You know who I am created to be. As man, You experienced my human weaknesses, fears and hopes. In Your abandonment, You experienced my ache of separation from God and the fear of suffering that makes dying difficult. Convert me in image of Your love, so that the eternal Father, beholding You in me, can say, “Behold my beloved child in whom I am well pleased!”

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Quoting Trishie
Dear Barb, as usual, you’re so right.

And Scripture agrees:
“Do not gloat over me, my enemy: though I have fallen, I shall rise; though I live in darkness, God is my light. I must suffer the anger of God, for I have sinned against Him, until He takes up my cause and rights my wrongs; He will bring me out into the light and I shall rejoice to see the rightness of His ways.” [Micah 7:8-9]

Hi Trishie…it is not me who is right and often far from that indeed. It is these books and Catholic sites with reflections, articles etc., that have it all so very correct and right…and of course these reflections etc. are based on Scripture, drawn from Scripture, which makes for sound theology every time.
It is one thing to write etc. and another matter entirely to “walk the talk”!!!

If we didn’t have Him our repentance and restitution would count for nothing. If we had never sinned, would He have come? The richness that He brings to us is the greater for our frailty

Isiah’s reflection on the Suffering Servant are overwhelmingly beautiful and moving and sad. Knowing that we had sinned and would sin and over and over again, He loved us so much that His Love had to be greater than it all…and it is and it was and from all eternity without beginning and end! That is absolutely stunning to ponder. I think this can be difficult for us to grasp as often that spirituality that we “are coming from” emphasizes at times our own sinfulness etc. etc…and we can be bowed down by it all and most difficult to raise our eyes to our God of Mercy.
What greater evidence of the Abandoned and All Embracing Love that The Lord has for us than the (startling really!) theology of The Sacrament of Reconciliation, huh!
…or to ponder a crucifix…
And what Jesus said to Faustina lifted me from the dust too “The greatest sinner has the most right to My Mercy”.

Thank you Barb for your amazing ability to give us a river of inspiring threads of authentic humanity/spirituality winding through the forum.

… …I share them because they have first spoken deeply to me and often because I have gone looking for something that would speak deeply to me and hopefully bring me out of the darkness and depths of my own struggles and failures. In fact, that is how the Opening Post and the quote from the book originated…I was starting to let myself get the better of myself and needed something to give me heart and hope and finding it, thought I would share it. I might, over time, share more reflections on different spiritual subjects from this entirely comforting and so easy to understand book. It cost me $12 and I intend to get another two copies…for my bedside and the computer desk - on which I spend far too much time and if Hell is paved with good intentions, then I am well and truly consigned. But The Love and Mercy of God is even greater than all my good intentions unmet.
Deo Gratius!

Conversion through Jesus
Jesus, from eternity, the Eternal Father proclaims, “Behold My Son, the beloved. Heed Him!”

Jesus, You lived God’s will in the ordinary human joys and struggles of infancy, childhood, and manhood. As a man like other men, You learned a trade and undertook a mission. All the while, You prayed. You suffered greatly, yet with redemptive love.

Jesus, You love us enough to become human and to live in poverty. You love us enough to share creatively and joyously in our humanity and to accept human flaws humbly. You love us enough to strive against ignorance, hypocrisy, and selfishness to create the path to God for everyone. You loved us enough to die in immense misery of soul and body for redemption of each person.

Jesus, as God, You know who I am created to be. As man, You experienced my human weaknesses, fears and hopes. In Your abandonment, You experienced my ache of separation from God and the fear of suffering that makes dying difficult. Convert me in image of Your love, so that the eternal Father, beholding You in me, can say, “Behold my beloved child in whom I am well pleased!”

I am taking it that the above is one of your prayers and again it is awesomely beautiful with great insight…spot on theologically.

Blessings Trishie…and regards…Barb

 

[Conservative]

BarbaraTherese -
Thank you for recommending this book. It sounds very interesting, and I plan to look for it.
God bless you.

 

[TOP]

God has been pleased to crush Him with suffering…
I think about this mystery often as well as Matthew 21:44 And whosoever shall fall on this stone, shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder.
Jesus is the stone that was rejected to become the cornerstone. For me, each fall is harder and harder to get back up, making me wonder what side of the stone I am on. I am finding out that the one with a hardened and unrepentant heart is the one who is under the weight of the stone. Only that grinding will make one come to the conclusion that repentance and reconciliation is the only way to lift the weight off. Grinding away the hardened shell, exposing a softened heart that accepts mercy and forgiveness.
Hebrews 3:8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation; in the day of temptation in the desert,

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Conservative
I hope that the book will be readily available where you are!
Deo Gratius!

Top
Scripture is full of references that God well knows that our status as sinners and that we do and will fail…and of course in the Four Gospels as well…and that His Loving Mercy is forever and in all circumstances absolutely faithful to those who turn to Him.
I think perhaps that you experience personally as a result of failure, be it your own or those of others (and to grieve for the failures of others is holy) are the consequences of sin that the article in the OP speaks about. Sometimes suffering is interior.

Grinding away the hardened shell, exposing a softened heart that accepts mercy and forgiveness.

Reminds me of that wonderful Scripture passage that occurs during Lent especially:
“I will take your hearts of stone and grant you hearts of flesh”

Blessings and my regards…Barb