“my future to Thy Providence”

St. Padre Pio, the holy priest and stigmatist, used to pray (and encourage others to pray) thus:

“My past, O Lord, to Thy Mercy; my present, to Thy Love; my future, to Thy Providence.”

As children of an “infinitely loving Father” (St. Padre Pio), we must entrust the future to God’s love and wisdom. He knows what we need. God arranges everything for our greatest good, namely, eternal salvation. For this reason, we must trust in Him at all times. This will bring grace and peace.

Here is a beautiful illustration of God’s merciful providence, as well as our inability to discern the things of God: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways”, says the Lord (Isaiah 55:8).

(Taken from p. 319 of ‘The Life of Leon Papin-Dupont, The Holy Man of Tours’)

In everything that happened, even though in its human aspects it was most disastrous and apparently most detrimental to the interests of religion, his faith beheld the action of Divine Providence and the accomplishment of the Divine Will. Thus, when the terrible conflagration which took place in a church at Santiago, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, was exciting the greatest sensation throughout the civilised world, a lady of Tours felt herself tempted to murmur against God for having allowed so many devout clients of His Virgin Mother to perish by so frightful a catastrophe at the very time when they were rendering her their homage. Meeting M. Dupont in the street, she gave expression to her distress in passionate terms.

“But, madam”, he said, “you let your feelings carry you away. Instead of being afflicted, you ought rather to be thankful. See, I pray you, how, whilst His earthly children were occupied in glorifying their heavenly Mother, God chose that very moment for calling them to Himself and transported them straight into His Paradise. In an instant they are saved, they are happy; it is not a disaster; it is a mercy, and one of the greatest that could have befallen them.”

“I did not venture to reply”, adds the lady, who was herself the Abbe Janvier’s informant. “He was in another sphere. I looked only to earth, he to heaven.”

"The judgments of God are always right, perfectly just, and justice does not manifest severity except where souls 
have abused mercy." - Reginald Garrigou Lagrange

A Revelation From God To All: Atheists, Christians…

Words of Jesus to Sr. Josefa Menendez:

“My appeal is addressed to all: to those consecrated in religion and those living in the world, to the good and to sinners, to the learned and the illiterate, to those in authority and to those who obey. To each of them I come to say: if you seek happiness you will
find it in Me. If riches, I am infinite wealth. If you desire peace, in Me alone is peace found. I am Mercy and Love! and I must be sovereign King…

I am your God and your Father, your Creator and your Saviour. You are My creatures, My sons, bought at the price of My life and Heart’s Blood, which I shed to free you from slavery and the tyranny of sin… All you, whose craving for affection is unsatisfied, remember that you were made to love that which is eternal, not that which passes with time… Perhaps you will answer Me, ‘I have no faith, nor do I believe in a future happiness.’ Have you no faith?  Then how is it that you persecute Me? … Why do you rebel against My laws, and war against those who love Me?  And since you desire freedom for yourselves, why not grant it to others? You say you do not believe in a future life? … Tell Me: are you perfectly contented here and do you never feel a yearning for that which it is not possible to obtain here below? If after seeking for enjoyment, you succeed in obtaining it, does it satisfy your cravings? If after pursuing riches, you at last possess them, have you ever enough? … If you feel the need of affection, and one day find it, are you not soon tired of it? … None of these things is what you long for, and here below you will never obtain all that your heart desires. Your craving is peace; not the peace of this world, but that of the children of God; and how do you expect to find it in the midst of rebellion? That is why I have come to show you where true peace and happiness are to be found, and where you can slake the thirst that for so long has consumed you. Do not rebel when I tell you that all these things are to be found in accomplishing My law.  Do not fear this word law, for My law is no tyranny but a law of love, because I am your God and your Father. You know that in a well-regulated army, discipline must be maintained, just as in a household there must be established customs. So in the great family of Jesus Christ there must be law, albeit a law of love… I realize that you do not know Me or love Me, but rather detest and persecute Me.  On My part, I love you with an infinite tenderness, and I want you to know this heritage which is yours by right, and know also the means to acquire it: Believe in My love and My mercy… Do not imagine that I am ignorant of your state of soul.  I know that you have despised my grace, perhaps even profaned My Sacraments.  Yet you have from Me a full pardon. If then you would be happy in this world and at the same time secure your eternal salvation, do as I tell you: … Both employer and employed must accept the law of labour with submission, acknowledging a Supreme Being over all created things, who is both your God and your Father. As God, He demands of you the accomplishment of His divine law. As your Father, He asks you to accept His commandments in a spirit of filial piety. Thus, when you have spent a week in the pursuit of work, business or sport, He claims but one half-hour, that you may fulfil your Sunday duty. Is this excessive? Go then to your Father’s House, where day and night He awaits your coming, and as Sundays and Holidays recur, give Him the homage of this half hour by assisting at the Mystery of Love and Mercy, that is, Holy Mass. Tell Him about everything: about your families, your children, your business, your desires… Lay at His feet your sorrows, difficulties and sufferings… believe in the interest and love with which He listens to your prayer. You may perhaps say to Me: ‘I have not entered a church for so many years that I have forgotten how to hear Mass.’ Do not be afraid on that account … Come, spend this half-hour with Me; your conscience will tell you what to do, and be docile to its voice… Open your soul wide to grace, and it will inspire you… Youth, wealth, wisdom, human glory, all that is nothing; it will all end with this life; God only will endure forever.”

Personally, I believe that Christianity best makes sense of human suffering, love, intentionality, beauty, morality, guilt, pride, and a host of other things that reason unaided is at a loss to explain (convincingly).

I would be happy to discuss anything with you. 

All the best.  

 

 

 “The lives of the Saints are nothing but the Gospel put into practice.”