Abandon yourself to God

By Lora Goulet

Contemporary trends bombard us relentlessly. We are encouraged to demand unrealistic outcomes from painstaking plans. This often leads to frustration. Failure, by the world's standards, is the most likely result.

Abandonment to Divine Providence offers the reader a clear view of the supernatural rewards of complete surrender to the perfect and holy will of God. Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade's classic work presents us with the option to free ourselves of the burden to acquire wealth, popularity and status.

Quietly living within God's will fills our every day with the joys of holy simplicity. We are strengthened to bear our trials with constancy and hope.

This is an excellent book for a spiritual journal.


Read Abandonment to Divine Providence on line at Catholic Treasury or puchase a copy at TAN Books

Lora originally posted this on her blog, Mommy Novenas. 

Insights on Divine Providence

By Barbara A. Schoeneberger

Portrait of a Young Man at Prayerby Memling
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).

This morning I was reading Father Romano Guardini’s The Art of Praying and found these passages that seem connected in a way with Archbishop Chaput’s address to the Baptist University of Houston on March 1, 2010 where he spoke on the vocation of the Christian in American public life:

The future of Christian life depends, among other things, on whether prayer can establish an active link with life as it is and with the stream of history.  Here, again, the idea of Providence is the starting point…

The will, the Divine Providence, of God is our salvation as St. Paul says (1 Thess. 4: 3), and we laity must work it out in the world, no matter how much some of us would like to flee to the cloister.The evil perpetrated by man against man and against creation cannot be lessened without each of us doing the job he has been given by God.  Yet sometimes life seems to be too much to bear and we want to give up and run away.  If we arrive at that point, it must be because we are depending too much on ourselves and not enough on God.  We are seeking our own will and not His Providential Will.  We are not praying the Our Father with an understanding of “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” 

Continue reading at Barb's blog  Suffering With Joy.

The man with the black fedora

 By Caroline

Cross in a Blizzard by Chelmonski
(Wikimedia Commons)

And Uncle Sal’s Donuts.

No, I haven’t lost it..not yet anyways. Actually, I was on my rosary walk when the enemy tempted me with my old foe…

fear

Down that spiral I started, asking the Lord how He planned on dealing with a few issues for which I can’t seem to see any resolution.
I got distracted in prayer and then quiet before the Lord when that still small voice broke into my silent anxiety.

Do you remember the man with the black fedora and Uncle Sal’s donuts?
Of course I remember, Lord.

Slowly, I recounted the adventure from long ago. It was a high school ski weekend with the local recreation center–before the days of Doppler radar and cell phones. My best friend Kate and I were were seated at the back of the old school bus without a care in the world talking about boys, the nuns, oblivious to how long the trip upstate would take. We’d done this together before, but we’d never had an adventure like the one we were about to have that weekend.


Continue reading at Caroline's blog Bell of the Wanderer.

Why I don't have a bucket list

By Lara

 

The Journal Entry by Muller (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

My son asked me the other night if I had a bucket list. This struck me as funny at first.

After all, he’s eight– what the heck does he know about bucket lists?  I am 40 and don’t think that much about them.  Of course, I saw the movie and understand the expression, but I can’t say I ever bothered to make one.

Partly because when I make grocery lists, I inevitably leave them on the kitchen counter and when I get home I find they are only useful for checking off the items I forgot to buy at the store. I am not sure what happens if you lose your bucket list. Do you forget what’s so important for you to see or do, the way I forget to buy Q-tips?

I am not that girl anyway.  I don’t have extravagant plans.  No desires to bungee jump, or go on safari, or make millions of dollars.  I realize that makes me kind of a bore.  But I’m afraid of heights, hate getting bit by mosquitos and presume I would also hate getting bitten by an African hyena.  As far as millions of dollars, 
I’m more neutral about the idea.  Still, that much money seems complicated, and the pursuit of it more so.

Why would I include complicated on my list?

My son’s question seemed random, but then I thought about the last few days.  My husband and I enjoyed a nice beach getaway and spent much of our conversation reflecting on our lives. Maybe if we had a bucket list we would have been looking forward, but instead, we talked a lot about how content we are right now.


Conitnue reading at Lara's blog Mercy Me! I've got work to do.