There is not a moment in which God is not present with us under the cover of some pain to be endured, some obligation or some duty to be performed, or some consolation to be enjoyed.
All that takes place within us, around us, or through us involves and conceals his divine hand.
God's hand is really and truly there, but it is invisibly present, so that we are always surprised and do not recognize his operation until it has ceased. If we could lift the veil, and if we were attentive and watchful, God would continually reveal himself to us, and we would see his hand in everything that happens to us, and rejoice in it. At every event we would exclaim, "It is the Lord!" and we would accept every fresh circumstance as a gift from God.
We would consider physical causes as very feeble instruments in the hands of an all-powerful Workman, and we would easily find that we lack nothing, and that God's watchful care disposes him to supply whatever we need at every moment. If only we had faith we would be grateful to all the external means he uses. We would cherish them, and be thankful for them in our hearts, because in the hand of God they have been so useful to us, so favorable to the work of our perfection.
--Father Jean Pierre de Caussade, S.J. "His divine hand." excerpt from The Joy of Full Surrender (Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2008).
The divine hand
HOW MUCH OUR FATHER GOD LOVES US
How good and how delightful is your spirit, Lord, in all men!
The eternal Father, indescribably kind and tender, turned his eye to this soul and spoke to her thus:
‘O dearest daughter, I have determined to show my mercy and loving kindness to the world, and I choose to provide for mankind all that is good. But man, ignorant, turns into a death-giving thing what I gave in order to give him life. Not only ignorant, but cruel: cruel to himself. But still I go on providing. For this reason I want you to know: whatever I give to man, I do it out of my great providence.
‘So it was that when, by my providence, I created man, I looked into myself and fell in love with the beauty of the creature I had made – for it had pleased me, in my providence, to create man in my own image and likeness.
‘Moreover, I gave man memory, to be able to remember the good things I had done for him and to be able to share in my own power, the power of the eternal Father.
‘Moreover, I gave man intellect, so that, seeing the wisdom of my Son, he could recognise and understand my own will; for I am the giver of all graces and I give them with a burning fatherly love.
‘Moreover, I gave man the desire to love, sharing in the tenderness of the Holy Spirit, so that he might love the things that his intellect had understood and seen.
‘But my kind providence did all this solely that man might be able to understand me and enjoy me, rejoicing in my vision for all eternity. And as I have told you elsewhere, the disobedience of your first parent Adam closed heaven to you – and from that disobedience came all evil through the whole world.
‘To relieve man of the death that his own disobedience had brought, I tenderly and providently gave you my only-begotten Son to heal you and bring satisfaction for your needs. I gave him the task of being supremely obedient, to free the human race of the poison that your first parent’s disobedience had spread throughout the world. Falling in love, as it were, with his task, and truly obedient, he hurried to a shameful death on the most holy Cross. By his most holy death he gave you life: not human life this time, but with the strength of his divinity.’
--St Catherine of Siena's Dialogue on Divine Providence
God's business is done little by little and his spirit is neither violent nor tempestuous. We must abandon ourselves to God's Providence and take great care not to run on ahead of it. The works of God achieve themselves and those that are not His soon perish. Rest assured of the truth of a saying that seems paradoxical, that he who is in a hurry delays the things of God. [p. 42]
(St Vincent de Paul. From Jacques Delarue, The Holiness of Vincent de Paul, Geoffrey Chapman Ltd, London 1960, 132 pp)
1 Levabo oculos meos in montes:
unde veniet auxilium mihi?
2 Auxilium meum a Domino,
qui fecit caelum et terram.
3 Non dabit in commotionem pedem tuum
neque dormitabit, qui custodit te.
4 Ecce non dormitabit neque dormiet,
qui custodit Israel.
5 Dominus custodit te,
Dominus umbraculum tuum
ad manum dexteram tuam.
6 Per diem sol non percutiet te,
neque luna per noctem.
7 Dominus custodiet te ab omni malo;
custodiet animam tuam Dominus.
8 Dominus custodiet introitum tuum et exitum tuum
ex hoc nunc et usque in saeculum.
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From whence does my help come?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot be moved,
he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD is your keeper;
the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
8 The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and for evermore.
(Psalm 121)
20 ...Sed omnia in mensura et numero et pondere disposuisti.
21 Multum enim valere tibi soli subest semper,
et virtuti brachii tui quis resistet?
22 Quoniam tamquam momentum staterae,
sic est ante te totus orbis terrarum,
et tamquam gutta roris antelucani, quae descendit in terram.
23 Sed misereris omnium, quia omnia potes;
et dissimulas peccata hominum propter paenitentiam.
24 Diligis enim omnia, quae sunt,
et nihil odisti eorum, quae fecisti;
nec enim, si odisses, aliquid constituisses.
25 Quomodo autem posset aliquid permanere, nisi tu voluisses?
Aut, quod a te vocatum non esset, conservaretur?
26 Parcis autem omnibus, quoniam tua sunt,
Domine, qui amas animas.
2 Ideoque eos, qui exerrant, paulatim corripis
et, de quibus peccant, admones et corrigis,
ut, relicta malitia, credant in te, Domine.
20 ...But thou hast arranged all things by measure and number and weight.
21 For it is always in thy power to show great strength,
and who can withstand the might of thy arm?
22 Because the whole world
before thee is like a speck that tips the scales,
and like a drop of morning dew that falls upon the ground.
23 But thou art merciful to all, for thou canst do all things,
and thou dost overlook men's sins, that they may repent.
24 For thou lovest all things that exist,
and hast loathing for none of the things which thou hast made,
for thou wouldst not have made anything if thou hadst hated it.
25 How would anything have endured if thou hadst not willed it?
Or how would anything not called forth by thee have been preserved?
26 Thou sparest all things, for they are thine,
O Lord who lovest the living.
2 Therefore thou dost correct little by little those who trespass,
and dost remind and warn them of the things wherein they sin,
that they may be freed from wickedness and put their trust in thee, O Lord.
(Wisdom 11:20-26; 12:3)
14 Quoniam mihi adhaesit, liberabo eum;
suscipiam eum, quoniam cognovit nomen meum.
15 Clamabit ad me, et ego exaudiam eum;
cum ipso sum in tribulatione;
eripiam eum et glorificabo eum.
16 Longitudine dierum replebo eum
et ostendam illi salutare meum.
Because he clung to me, I shall free him:
I shall lift him up because he knows my name.
He will call upon me and for my part, I will hear him:
I am with him in his time of trouble.
I shall rescue him and lead him to glory.
I shall fill him with length of days
and show him my salvation.
(Psalm 91:14-16)