Catholic during the Great Apostasy

I. GOD BECOMES THE GUIDE OF SOULS COMPLETELY DEVOTED TO HIM. Sacrificate sacrificium justitiae et sperate in Domino. “Offer the sacrifice of righteousness and trust in the Lord,” says the prophet, meaning that the true and strongest foundation of spiritual life is devotion to God and His pleasure in everything, both external and internal; it is also a complete divestment of one’s self, which relinquishes all rights to oneself, to such an extent that God’s command becomes the only law, the whole joy, and the glory, happiness, and essence of God the only good of ours.

From this principle, the soul rejoices throughout its life that God is God, and leaves its own state to the will of God so far that whether this or that happens, it joyfully accepts everything from the hand of God, without any personal remarks about the intentions of that Will.

Therefore, after faithfully fulfilling the duties of one’s state, there remains one great duty, which is complete devotion to the will of God. The more perfectly we fulfill this duty, the greater the measure of holiness awaits us.

A holy soul is simply a soul perfectly devoted to the will of God through grace; everything that happens in it is not human work but the work of God and should be accepted with blind submission and holy indifference to everything. God demands no more than this disposition, the rest He chooses and designates according to His own intentions, like a builder selecting materials for the building he is to construct.

Therefore, in everything let us love God and His command; let us love Him as He presents Himself, desiring nothing more; what He sends is His business, not ours and it is certainly the best for the soul.

This principle of relying on the will of God is a great simplification of the spiritual life, as it leads to constant self-forgetfulness and continuous occupation with the love and glory of God, without those turns, anxieties, and considerations over one’s own perfection.

When God Himself decides to take care of our affair, let us entrust it to His infinite wisdom, and let us diligently watch over His holy cause.

So forward, my soul, regardless of what happens outside and inside us, let us rejoice in God’s command, let us rejoice in everything that does and occurs with us. Let us not wander on those treacherous paths of vain inquiries, which is the temptation of futile excursions; let us not entangle ourselves in those spider webs, having nothing real.

Let us break through weaknesses and dryness, through discouragements and doubts, through the traps of Satan and human obstacles, through prejudices, envy, and bad feelings. Above that, let us bathe in the rays of God’s sun, feeling its warmth amidst earthly cool, remembering, however, that our life is not to be just a feeling. Indeed, let us live in that lofty sphere where God and His will create an unchangeable, always equal, unshaken eternity, in that spiritual dwelling, where uncreated, unspeakable things keep the soul far from earthly dust and darkness in undisturbed peace, inaccessible to sensory storms. Then we will be freed from all anxieties, the senses conquered may still struggle and compete—they cannot restrain us, akin to bad weather and unstable air.

God and His will—this is the subject of our eternal adoration, both here in the state of faith and in the state of glory and eternal happiness, and this revered state of our soul should influence our material side and disperse the mists and shadows that cover it.

Even through these minor elements, divine action is capable of leading the soul to solar clarity, for the powers of the sentient soul and fallen body must mix and mature, and they will only achieve the purest form after many trials, after many devastations and losses, when groaning under God’s hand, they must go towards their perfection.

The believing soul possesses the mystery of God and this keeps it in peace; everything that happens in it increases this peace rather than disturbing it; most convincingly convinced that God leads it, it takes everything as grace and lives in oblivion of the object on which God’s work is done, thinking only of supporting this work.

Love continually motivates it to faithfully fulfill obligations, the action of grace is incessant in it, and small transgressions turn to good.

Of everything that happens in the soul, the most evident are the painful or comforting impressions resulting from the circumstances in which the will of God places the soul for its good; thus, under these appearances, to find God is the task of faith, and to use everything for union with God—constitutes its practice.

II. GOD MORE SURELY LEADS THE SOUL DEVOTED TO HIM, THE MORE HE SEEMS TO KEEP IT IN DARKNESS On souls devoted to the Lord, these words of St. John are fulfilled in a special way: “You do not need anyone to teach you, but as His (God’s) anointing teaches you about everything.” Thus, we must listen to this anointing to know what God demands from us; we must ask our hearts what God says to them, for it is the heart that receives inspirations and is their interpreter; for divine action reveals its intentions to it not in thoughts but in feelings.

Sometimes it reveals itself as an irresistible necessity, forcing us to act this way and not another, sometimes as a first impulse, a kind of supernatural attraction pushing to act without reflection, sometimes again as an attraction or aversion, which although it does not constrain free will, nevertheless attracts or repels from certain things.

At first glance, it would seem that it is a great moral deficiency to let oneself go on such uncertainties, and humanly speaking, nothing can be certain, stable, or deliberate in such an arrangement; but in essence, such a state is the highest degree of perfection and is achieved only as a result of long practice.

The property of such a state is perfection and the purest virtue. Just as a musician artist, who, besides great proficiency, has perfect knowledge of his art, and everything he creates in his profession, even thoughtlessly, bears the mark of his artistry, similarly a soul that has long practiced the science and practice of perfection, under the guidance of reasoning that helped it cooperate with grace, such a soul develops in itself a habit of acting without method, but by divine inspiration.

Then one can confidently do everything that presents itself without hesitation and assumptions that were initially needed; act blindly, giving oneself to the infallible guidance of grace, and it will produce, in this state of simplicity, wonders for eyes that can see and for minds that do not shy away from truth. Then everything will be accurate without any rules; everything moderate, without measure; everything will be profound without the need for inquiries, everything thoughtful without reflection, effective without endeavors, everything will be adapted to circumstances without a premeditated plan.

Spiritual reading often gives the reader enlightenments that the writer did not have at all; this is the action of grace. The Lord God uses human words and deeds to reveal truths that were not discovered, and when He enlightens in this way, it must be accepted, for every method of visitation through divine action has an effectiveness far exceeding the natural property of these methods.

A characteristic feature of submission is a life full of mysteries, receiving from God unusual and miraculous gifts in the use of natural, common, everyday things, in which nothing else participates, except the usual influences of humans and the course of ordinary events.

In this way, the simplest sermons, the most common conversations, books written without loftiness, become for these souls, through the power of the will of God, a source of light and knowledge; they gather the crumbs rejected by the wise, they rejoice in them, see treasures in them, enrich themselves with them; indifferent to everything, they disdain nothing, respect everything, and derive benefit from every thing.

Using everything, when God is in everything, is not the use of created things, but divine action, imparting itself through these tools, which in themselves do not sanctify, but as guides of divine action impart His graces to simple souls, although these means sometimes seem directly contrary to the effects they are to produce.

The coarsest means will produce the same effect as the most subtle, and when the Lord God uses it, it will always be effective; in His hand everything is equal. The believing soul never complains about the lack of means to progress on the spiritual path, for it knows in whose hand these means are and knows whose will is able to replace all means. This holy will constitutes the entire virtue of creatures.

III. THE ABANDONMENT IN WHICH THE SOUL DEVOTED TO GOD OFTEN FINDS ITSELF IS A SACRIFICE FROM WHICH IT WILL REJOICE IN ETERNITY. Souls living in the light sing hymns of light, while souls immersed in darkness sing a hymn of darkness. Let each stick to the state designated by God to the end, let it add nothing of its own, let it drink the cup of God’s bitterness to the last drop, to intoxication. So did Jeremiah and Ezekiel; every word of theirs was a sigh or a groan, and their whole comfort was the endurance of these hardships. He who would have dried their tears would have deprived us of the most beautiful passages of Holy Scripture. The Spirit that oppresses us is the one that can lift us up alone—these two streams flow from one source.

Let the soul tremble when God terrifies it, let it fear when God threatens, let God’s work develop in the soul, it brings with it illness and remedy; even if you were dying of anxiety, do not try to change or quiet this divine fear, this heavenly longing, joyfully accept a drop of this cup from which God drank a sea of bitterness.

Your tears are squeezed by grace, the same breath will dry them; the clouds will part, the sun will emerge, and spring will bloom. As you continue to rely on Providence, you will come to understand the marvelous variety of God’s action.

Truly, man needlessly worries, for everything that happens within him resembles sleep so closely; dream images change, one sad, another joyful; one nightmare chases away another, the soul is prey to these illusions devouring each other; awakening only reveals their insignificance, disperses impressions, and the sober person no longer cares about the happiness or misfortune experienced in dreams.

Yet You, O Lord, keep us asleep in Your bosom amid the darkness of this night of faith, moving through our souls thousands of images, and their great and unchanging variety is essentially just a dreamy vision, holy and mysterious. In the midst of this night and in this state of sleep, we experience real suffering and are often strongly shaken or consumed by longing: but on the day of awakening, on the day of eternal glory, You will transform our torments into true and lasting joy.

At the moment of this awakening and in its continuation, souls endowed with self-awareness and discernment will admire the loving artifices of the Bridegroom, His skill, and His plans in hiding. They will then understand how inscrutable His ways were, how difficult it was to solve His puzzles, to know Him when He wanted to hide, how hard it was to draw comfort when He decided to sow fear and dread. Jeremiahs and Davids will see at the hour of awakening that what they wept over is the joy of God and angels.

IV. THE MORE DEPRIVED THE SOUL DEVOTED TO GOD FEELS, THE MORE GENEROUSLY IT IS BLESSED. Let us then proceed further in recognizing the merciful concealment of God’s action, which, though it seems to take with one hand, secretly gives with the other, like a true friend who, in order not to spoil his beloved, suspends his generosity in his interest but does not cease to care for him and through others covertly supports his need; yet he, not knowing that this is only an appearance of rejection, feels it painfully and is saddened by this behavior. But let only this secret be revealed, what tenderness, what gratitude, love, and adoration, and at the same time what embarrassment, that one doubted for a moment! From then on, trust increases, zeal doubles; this trial confirms attachment and prevents similar illusions in the future.

The same is true with God. The more we seem to lose, the more we gain; He strips nature to endow us supernaturally. We loved Him for His gifts, so He hid them to make us love Him for Himself, and by taking away those gifts, He wants to give us that greatest and most precious of all gifts, for it includes all. Souls that have once completely surrendered to God’s action should interpret everything for the best, even if it means the loss of the best spiritual guide, even if it means distrust for those they are forced to accept out of necessity or who impose themselves. Generally, imposed spiritual leadership can rightly be suspected; for those who are guided by God’s thought do not usually show such haste, they come only upon request and always with a certain fear.

Let the soul, completely devoted to God, boldly pass through these trials and let nothing restrict its freedom. If it remains faithful to God’s action, this action will perform miracles in it despite all obstacles. God and the soul work in holy communion on one and the same work, the success of which depends entirely on the Divine master, but can be thwarted by the soul’s unfaithfulness.

When it is well with the soul, all is well, for God’s action is only a reflection of the soul’s faithfulness. The arrangement of this work is wonderful, similar to those huge carpets made from the left side; each worker knows only about his part, and does not know the whole; and only after completion does the magnificent whole and the amazing patterns from these individual stitches appear.

The soul devoted to God sees only two things: God and its duties. Fulfilling the obligations of each moment are those tiny stitches from which God brings forth miracles, sensed by us in time, but only understood in the great light of eternal day! How full of kindness and wisdom is God’s dealings with us! Everything that is great, sublime, worthy of adoration, in perfection and holiness, He has left to His action and His grace, and to our souls, supported by this grace, He has left everything that is easy, small, clear, so that there is no one in the world who could not reach the highest perfection by simply fulfilling the quietest and most common duties with love.

V. GOD IS A MIGHTY DEFENDER OF THE SOUL DEVOTED TO HIM, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT IS ITSELF INCAPABLE OF DEFENSE. God’s action is infallible in applying its activity to the simple soul, and this soul faithfully responds to this intimate guidance; it wants nothing other than what is happening, does not wish to feel otherwise than it feels, agrees to everything except sin. Sometimes this happens intentionally, sometimes unwittingly; in the latter case, the soul is instinctively driven to speak, to act, to leave things as they are, without any other reason.

Sometimes circumstances influencing this are quite natural; the simple soul sees nothing in them but an accident of necessity or social demands; neither in its eyes nor in the eyes of others is there anything else, yet the divine action, being the mind and counsel of its beloved, utilizes and opposes these minor circumstances so artfully to those who want to use them to harm, that they never achieve their intended goal.

God’s action liberates the soul from all these small and feverish means, which human prudence uses.

Such means are suitable for Herods and for Pharisees; — the three kings let them go quietly following the star; the Holy Child let him rest carefree in the bosom of his mother; Jesus’ enemies with their schemes will help His cause more than harm it; the more they try to catch it, the freer and more unrestricted it will be. He will not try to win them over or placate them vilely, indeed all their malice, fierceness, envy are needed by Him. Thus Jesus lived in Judea, and so He lives today in the souls of the simple; such in Him is grandeur, sweetness, simplicity, and freedom; he looks at no one, feeling that everyone is in the hand of the Father, to serve Him, some through wild passions, others through holy acts; some through resistance, others through obedience.

Wonderfully arranges all this divine action, nothing is too much or too little; the right measure is only of evil and good.

God’s command uses the appropriate tool at each moment, and the soul, simply nurtured in faith, desires no more, satisfied with what it has received. It blesses at every moment that heavenly source pulsing at its core, and accepts its friends and enemies with equal sweetness, for this was the way Jesus treated everyone, regarding each as a divine instrument. Really no one is needed, and yet it would like to embrace everyone; for divine action utilizes every thing, and from Him also every thing should be received, taking it according to its subjects and its nature, interacting with it in sweetness and humility, simply dealing with the simple, and gently with the rough. Saint Paul taught this way, and Christ did it even more perfectly.

Only grace can give this supernatural stamp, fitting in a miraculous way to the nature of every man; this cannot be learned from books. It is the result of an inner, prophetic revelation, it is the teaching of the Holy Spirit. To understand this, one must be completely devoted to God, must completely divest oneself of all intentions and plans, even the holiest; one must have only one affair in sight, that is, passive reliance on divine action in the strict fulfillment of the duties of one’s calling, leaving the management of our inner state to the Holy Spirit, not caring and not looking at his work, rather rejoicing that nothing is seen. Then we will be safe, for everything that happens in the world happens exclusively for the benefit of souls devoted to God.

VI. THE SOUL THAT GIVES ITSELF TO GOD, INSTEAD OF HAVING TO RELY ON ITS ENEMIES, FINDS IN THEM JUST EFFECTIVE HELP. Own action and the action of friends are much more dangerous than the action of enemies; therefore, there is no greater prudence than not to resist enemies, but to oppose them only by relying on Providence; then the ship has the wind behind it and moves forward, and the wicked, like galley slaves, must row. The traps of the body are so repelled by nothing as by simplicity; all their efforts break against tranquility!

To commune with a simple soul is in a way to commune with God! Who can penetrate the Eternal, whose ways are inscrutable? He stands on the side of simple souls, and then they do not need to seek and inquire, to respond to anxiety with anxiety; the Bridegroom has taken the entire burden on his shoulders, they stand behind him like a shield, full of peace. God’s action provides them with means so suitable that they astonish those who wish to approach them. All the efforts of the enemies turn to the benefit of the soul devoted to God, it benefits from those who want to benefit from it, it rises by what they want to degrade it; all adversities turn to its good, and by allowing enemies to act, it receives from them such services that it should only fear one thing, that is

to take personal part in the fight, which God Himself leads, and in which the enemies are merely tools; thus, it has nothing to do but to observe God’s work in peace and accept divine consolations with simplicity. The supernatural prudence of the Holy Spirit, which is the source of these consolations, penetrates infallibly the most secret circumstances and propels the soul in an enlightening direction so certainly that everything opposing this enlightenment disappears.

THE SOUL DEVOTED TO GOD CAN BOLDLY DO NOTHING FOR ITS JUSTIFICATION; GOD’S ACTION JUSTIFIES IT. The port and safe harbor where the soul devoted to God shelters from the storms of life is the command of God’s will, presenting itself moment by moment in the form of crosses or the most ordinary events. God’s hand is hidden in them, to support and guide those who surrender to Him, and this should prompt the soul to childlike surrender to God, because then it stands beyond all contradictions, needing nothing for its defense.

Since it is God and not someone else who acts, why seek justification elsewhere? It will be evident in the outcomes, just let them unfold. Dies diei eructat verbum. By not following one’s own thought, there is no need to defend oneself with words; words are unnecessary. What would they be good for? To account for what we are doing? But it is not our affair; it is only the cover of a higher Will, which prompted the action and whose pressure we feel in an ineffable way.

Let the consequences explain their own reasons, for everything is perfectly connected in this divine order, everything is consistent; the cause of previous things appears as the effect in subsequent ones. The soul devoted to God no longer lives in the world of thoughts, imagination, or many words; it is not occupied by, animated by, or sustained by them, it perceives nothing in all this for itself, does not see its path and does not try to predict where it will end, does not use caution, which would support it in weariness or show it a less arduous pilgrimage—but accepts and fulfills everything in the feeling of its immense weakness. The path before it is open, it steps onto it boldly and simply, proceeding in peace, truth, and simplicity, walking in God’s commandments step by step after Jesus, whom it encounters at every step, seeking Him only; He also reveals His presence and Himself thwarts its enemies.

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W. O. J. P. CAUSSADE, T. J. – RELY ON THE WILL OF GOD! Translated from the sixth edition of the French original, revised and abridged by W. O. H. RAMIERE, T. J. KRAKÓW 1935. PUBLISHED AND OWNED BY THE CATHOLIC BOOKSHOP