ANXIETIES? PROBLEMS? WORRIES? FEELING INADEQUATE? TURN TO GOD…

“First make an act of faith in God’s Providence. Meditate well on the truth that God’s continual care extends not only to all things in general but to each particular thing, and especially to ourselves, our souls and bodies, and everything that concerns us. Nothing escapes his loving watchfulness – our work, our daily needs, our health as well as our infirmities, our life and our death, even the smallest hair on our head which cannot fall without his permission.

After this act of faith, make an act of hope. Excite in yourself a firm trust that God will provide for all you need, will direct and protect you with more than a Father’s love and vigilance, and guide you in such a way that, whatever happens, if you submit to him everything will turn out for your happiness and advantage, even the things that may seem quite the opposite.

To these two an act of charity should be added. Show your deep love and attachment for divine providence as a child shows for its mother by taking refuge in her arms. Say how highly you esteem all his intentions, however hidden they may be, in the knowledge that they spring from an infinite wisdom which cannot make a mistake and supreme goodness which can wish only the perfection of his creatures. Determine that this feeling will have a practical result in making you ready to speak out in defence of Providence wherever you hear it denied or criticised…

Let us then trust ourselves entirely to God and his Providence and leave him complete power to order our lives, turning to him lovingly in every need and awaiting his help without anxiety. Leave everything to him and he will provide us with everything, at the time and in the place and in the manner best suited. He will lead us on our way to that happiness and peace of mind for which we are destined in this life as a foretaste of the everlasting happiness we have been promised.”
+St Claude de la Colombiere

A SHORT ACT OF FAITH:

My God, I believe in you and all that your Church teaches, because you have said it, and your word is true.

A SHORT ACT OF HOPE:

My God, I hope in you, for grace and for glory, because of your promises, your mercy and your power.

A SHORT ACT OF CHARITY:

My God, because you are so good, I love you with all my heart, and for your sake, I love my neighbour as myself.

The post Await God’s Help without Anxiety first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Act of Confidence in God:

My God, I’m so persuaded that You watch over all who hope in You and nothing can be lacking to those who await from You all things, that I have determined to live from now on without any concern, letting go and giving You all of my anxieties. I will sleep and rest in peace because You, O Lord, and only You, have secured my hope.

Men can deprive me of possessions and reputation; illnesses can take away my strength and means to serve You; I myself can lose Your grace because of sin; but I will not lose my hope; I will conserve it until the last instant of my life and all the efforts from demons trying to take it away from me will be useless. I will sleep and rest in peace.

May others expect happiness in their richness and talents; some may lean on the innocence of their lives, or the rigor of their penitence, or above all on the amount of their good works, or the fervor of their prayers. As for myself Lord, all my confidence is my confidence itself. Because You Lord, only You have secured my hope.

No one has been deceived by this confidence. No one who has waited in the Lord has been frustrated in their confidence.  Therefore, I am sure that I will be eternally happy because I firmly hope to be; and because You, Oh, My God, are in Whom I expect all. In You I hope Lord, and never will I be confused.

I know very well . . . too well that I am fragile and inconstant, I know well the power of temptations against the most firm virtue; I have seen thestars fall from heaven and columns from the firmament; but none of this can frighten me. As long as I maintain firm my hope, I will be conserved from all calamities; and I am sure to hope always, because I hope the same in this unchanging hope.

In conclusion, I am sure that I cannot hope in excess in You and that I will receive all that I would have hoped for in You. Therefore, I know You will sustain me on the most rapid and slippery slopes, that You will strengthen me against the assaults and make my weakness triumph over the most tremendous enemies.

I hope You will always love me and I will love you without interruption; to take once and for all my hope as far as it can reach. I hope in You and only in You! Oh, My Creator! In time and for all eternity.
Amen.

+ Saint Claude de la Colombière  (Feast day is February 15th. He was the spiritual director of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and thelped to promote the Sacred Heart devotion.)

The post Have Confidence in God first appeared on AirMaria.com.

 

As I feel a great attraction toward prayer I asked God, by Our Lady’s intercession, to give me the grace to go on increasing in love of this holy exercise until my death. It is the only means of purifying us, of uniting us to God, and of allowing God to unite himself to us and be glorified in us. We must pray to obtain the apostolic virtues; pray that we may use them to help others, and pray also that we may not lose them while serving others.

The counsel: pray without ceasing, seems sweet to me and in no way impossible. It includes the practice of the presence of God, and with his help I resolve to follow it. We always have need of God, therefore we must always pray. The more we pray, the more we please him and the more we obtain. I do not ask for consolation in prayer; that God gives where he chooses; I am not worthy of consolation and am too weak to bear it. Extraordinary graces are not good for me; to give them to me would be like building upon sand, or pouring a precious liquid into a broken vase. 

I ask God to give me a solid, simple gift of prayer which will glorify him and not make me vain. It seems to me that dryness and desolation accompanied by grace are very useful to me, for then I delight in making acts of real virtue: I strive against my bad inclinations and try to be faithful to God.

When we are distracted during prayer and find the time long because of our impatience to pass on to something else, it is good to say to yourself: My soul, are you tired of your God? Are you not satisfied with him? You possess him and do you seek for something else? Where can you be better than in his company? Where can you profit more? I have experienced that this calms the mind and unites it with God.

+St. Claude de la Colombiere (feast day is February 15th)

The post A Saint Writes about Prayer first appeared on AirMaria.com.