Dear Friends,
What’s your favorite book? Over the years, I’ve had many favorites, but there is one book that I realize I have turned to
more often than any other over the years, except the Bible. It is a slim volume entitled Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean-
Pierre de Caussade, a Jesuit priest of seventeenth century France. There is a vast difference between thinking that we are the ones
who must do everything and thinking that God will do everything and we just have to wait patiently. There is a much finer line
between thinking that God will provide and we must wait and God will provide and we must cooperate with God.
It is about that fine line of distinction that Father de Caussade writes. “God’s work on earth must truly be our own,” as
John F. Kennedy said in his Inaugural Address. But it is only through abandonment to God that we can discern if it is truly God’s
work given to us to do or merely our own personal agenda masquerading as God’s work. A good tool to help determine the
difference might be this: Anything that encourages you to ignore your legitimate duties and responsibilities is probably not what
God is asking of you. As St. Augustine said, “Sing but keep moving,” in other words, praise God but do your work.
Jesus knows the work assigned Him by His Heavenly Father. He must preach the Kingdom. But the “where” and “how” of
that mission, He places entirely in God’s hands, which is why, in today’s Gospel, Jesus is free to move on to the next place, in spite
of his celebrity status in Capernaum. Abandonment to Divine Providence is found in the willingness to follow God’s will, not our
own.
Peace and good will,

Fr. Bob