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TAN Books - de Caussade Rev. Fr. Jean-Pierre

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35 pages

English

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We are proud to introduce The TAN Classics Made Simple - a brand-new companion series to our bestselling TAN Classics collection.TAN Classics Made Simple booklets are designed to give you an orientation course before you embark on an exploration of the great works of Catholic literature found in our best selling TAN Classics line.Each full-color booklet covers the highlights of TAN Classics in 32 easy-to-read pages. Designed to provide you with the vital facts and features about the life of the Saint, their work, their call to Holiness and the events of their time.Including: Introduction to the TAN Classic, Major Events Timeline, Author Biography, How to Read a TAN Classic section, Words to Know, And much more!Perfect for parishes, schools, or simply a personal introduction to the TAN Classics, these booklets will provide you with a map and compass for navigating the best of Catholic writing!

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Catholic Church

Philosophie et théologie

Children's

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Publié par	TAN Books
Date de parution	21 septembre 2011
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781618901705
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0174€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Robert Gallagher
Publisher
Saint Benedict Press, LLC
TAN Books
Publisher’s Preface
You’ve picked up this booklet for a reason—a providential reason! In His perfect plan, God invites us to trust Him completely through abandonment to His perfect will. You will find no better teacher on the practice of abandonment to divine providence than Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade. This little booklet will introduce you to his life and teachings and prepare you to read his famous treatise on holy abandonment.
The Classics Made Simple series aims to introduce the great works of Catholic literature to a wide readership. The Classics of the Faith are not meant only for saints and scholars: they’re meant for everyone. They’re wise, human, practical, and they have something important to say to each of us.
The Classics are also timeless. Other books come and go, passing with the tastes and fads of each generation. But the Catholic Classics remain and God has used them to teach and sanctify men and women of every age.
We hope this TAN Guide will stir within you a desire to read Abandonment to Divine Providence , or if you’ve already read it, to re-read it with a renewed interest. You’ll discover each TAN Guide is a perfect vehicle to introduce your newest favorite Classic to your friends and family. Give this little booklet a few minutes of your time and see what happens!
Introduction to— Abandonment to Divine Providence
To truly understand any Classic work, we first must understand the world context in which it first appeared. Southwestern France prior to Jean-Pierre de Caussade’s birth in 1675 had endured nearly half a century of turmoil during the Wars of Religion from 1562 to 1598. During those years, much of southwestern France near Jean-Pierre’s hometown of Cahors was converted to Protestantism. The people of Cahors, however, maintained a Catholic stronghold which, one can imagine, led to intensified violence, rioting, and bloodshed during the conflict between French Catholics and Protestants.
The Edict of Nantes, signed in 1600 granted civil rights to French Protestants—called Huguenots—thus ending the Wars of Religion. Priests of the Society of Jesus—the Jesuits, founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1534—were at the forefront of the spiritual battle with Protestants throughout the conflict. By the time Jean-Pierre de Caussade was born in Cahors, seventy-five years after the Edict was issued, the Jesuits had a strong presence and a novitiate center in the nearby town of Toulouse. Coming as he did from a family that was most likely proud of its Catholic identity and ancestry, it would have been natural for Jean-Pierre to join the Jesuits to discern his calling to the priesthood.
Unlike other famous Jesuits who converted or re-converted thousands and brought the Catholic Faith to foreign lands, Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade’s mission was simple. Acting as their confessor and spiritual advisor, Father de Caussade’s gentle guidance nourished the souls of the Nuns of the Visitation in Nancy, France. The background of the Wars of Religion, the influence of Protestantism, and the continuing part the Jesuits played in the Counter-Reformation help us to understand the context of Father de Caussade’s spiritual masterpiece. Growing up in a country that had suffered so many years of strife and violence, Father de Caussade realized that the real battles, those with eternal consequences, are not fought with flesh and blood, but in the spiritual realm. Father de Caussade gave us a gentle, yet profound, work that cuts like a sword to the heart of mankind’s struggle to know, love, and serve God.
The Power of Personal Religion
Responding to the Protestant Revolution, the Catholic Church renewed her emphasis on a personal relationship with God. People were hungry for a faith that touched their lives in an individual way. One of the marks of the Catholic Counter-Reformation was a surge of new religious movements and the reform of existing religious orders which helped to feed that hunger for personal contact with God.
However, there are real problems that sometimes go with the wonderful feelings of a powerful, personal religious experience. Very often the emotional aspect fades, giving way to a series of difficulties, trials, and temptations that challenge faith and diminish the good experience one has had of God and His love. The serious seeker needs to develop a personal faith that is strong enough to weather that storm. The believer needs a resource that will not only take him to the mountaintop, but will also help him walk through the valley.
There are two other traps that accompany the pursuit of personal religion. The first is the need to do everything possible to stay close to God. When the feelings of closeness to God disappear, or problems in life arise, the spiritual person often feels that he did not “have enough faith,” or that to return to a close encounter with God he must pray more, study more, do more works of charity, or be more intense with his self-discipline and self-denial. When this doesn’t work, he can blame himself, becoming obsessed with the sin or weakness he believes is keeping him away from that close relationship with God.
The second trap is the opposite of the first. When the feelings of a close relationship with God begin to fade, the person doesn’t strive to do more and more to please God. Instead, he becomes passive, and simply accepts everything in a resigned way: like a leaf floating in a river. This person may think he is pleasing God with his passivity, but in fact he has opted out. He has become complacent and indifferent, and mistakes this indifference for the submission that he thinks God is looking for.
Abandonment to Divine Providence is the result of one priest’s attempt to steer the nuns under his care around these pitfalls of the spiritual life. At the heart of his teaching, Father de Caussade holds out to us the concept of “abandoning ourselves to divine providence.” However, this abandonment is neither the stressful “trying hard” to please God nor the “opting out” of indifference. The teaching of this book is subtle and beautiful, but it takes an alert mind and heart to understand it fully.
The Theory of Abandonment
Father de Caussade may have given his advice to guide the “religious professionals” in the convent, but his writings are just as vibrant and real for us today as they were 280 years ago. His words are simple and the style is lyrical, but we need to engage in a meditative form of reading for them to really sink in. Before we begin reading, we also need to understand the outline of his Classic.
The whole work is broken down into two main parts or “books.” The first book is theoretical and the second is practical. Book One outlines what Father de Caussade means by abandonment to divine providence. This first book is divided into two chapters. The first chapter explains how holiness consists in submitting to God’s will and it is delivered in nine sections—each of which can be easily read in one sitting. These short sections help us understand that divine providence, or the will of God, is available to us within each present moment.
So Father de Caussade writes in one of the sections of the first chapter, “The duties of each moment are the shadows beneath which hides the divine operation.” He corrects the desire we have always to understand what God is doing and writes, “Perfection consists in doing the will of God, not in understanding His designs.” At the heart of this theory of perfection is the acceptance of what God is giving us here and now. Even spiritual exercises and meditation and reading are useless if they are not what God wants us to be doing in this moment. “Whatever it may be in itself, even if very desirable, is nothing if it is not that which God wills for the present moment.”
The second chapter of the first book focuses on God’s action within time. Father de Caussade explains that God’s will is dynamic and active at all times and in all places; it is the eye of faith that helps us to see His will in action and “go with God.” There are twelve sub-sections in this second chapter, wherein Father de Caussade compares the dynamic action of God hidden in the present moment to His revelation of Himself down through history and in the scriptures.