Ignatius Press has just come out with a new edition of Jean-Pierre de Caussade’s oustanding work of spiritual direction, Abandonment to Divine Providence. This work, written in the 18th century by a French Jesuit, has become one of the great classics of Catholic spiritual reading. Not only does it deserve a treasured place in each person’s library, but it is well worth revisiting at various stages of spiritual growth.
The core of Fr. de Caussade’s approach is the insight that God reveals himself through the daily events, possibilities, restrictions, cares and sufferings of ordinary life, and that we can ensure rapid spiritual growth only by fully recognizing and accepting His merciful will in every situation.
This, of course, is a common theme in all authentic Catholic spiritual direction, lodged deep in the mind of the Church. Some speak in terms of “resignation”, but Fr. de Caussade goes even further with the word “abandonment”, implying a relinquishing of our own wills in favor of a joyful perception of and total reliance on the will of God. His treatment of this topic is by far the most comprehensive we have in any one place.
Link (here) Catholic Culture for the full post.
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