Customer Reviews

Abandonment to Divine Providence

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

There are just a few books that a person will keep on his or her shelve over the years and read again and again. It takes a special quality. I have found that unique quality in DeCaussade's "Abandonment to Divine Providence." It is the simple gospel message that Jesus lived each and every moment of his life. "My meat is to do the will of my Father in heaven." DeCaussade has a way of saying the same basic truth in so many ways but it never seems to tire the reader. I believe the reason is simply because one never gets tired of hearing the truth. In fact, for all its simplicity, it serves as a companion to the gospel itself. When the reader is open, DeCaussade's words touch the heart urge the person to take the words of Jesus to the young man...."give up everything and follow me." It is the decision that doesn't bring instant transformation; it gives the direction for the journey and the words to pray each moment. "All is your's Lord. I want what you want in all things." I would recommend this classic for anyone who has felt a growing desire to make the self offering to the Lord. DeCaussade's words are not just the theology of self-giving but they also treat the specific joys and struggles that come with that self-giving to the Lord. It is a book which will never grow stale or old.

Jean-Pierre de Caussade, a French priest born in 1675, never knew he wrote this book. It is an edited collection taken from letters and from notes on talks he had given. This translation is very good - full of life and not dry.

This book has deeply blessed me. In the absence of opportunity for spiritual direction, I have taken this book as my main guide for many years. It always has something that speaks directly to my journey, and is full of the heart of God.

Here is a quote from the translator's introduction: "Caussade combines intense practicality with profound mysticism - as did St. Teresa of Avila. This is nothing extraordinary. True mystics are always much more practical than the ordinary run of people. They seek reality; we, the ephemeral. They want God as he is; we want God as we imagine him to be."

Aldous Huxley, in his book, "The Perennial Philosophy," compares a quote from de Caussade with a quote from The Third Patriarch of Zen. Huxley writes in chapter 4, "The seventeenth-century Frenchman's vocabulary is very different from that of the seventh-century Chinaman's. But the advice they give is fundamentally similar. Conformity to the will of God, submission, docility to the leadings of the Holy Ghost - in practice, if not verbally, these are the same as conformity to the Perfect Way, refusing to have preferences and cherish opinions, keeping the eyes open so that dreams may cease and Truth reveal itself."

This is a short book, about 120 pages. It is one of those books that help you to KNOW God, rather than to know ABOUT God. Bless you on your journey.

My review is definitely influenced by the other reviews that I read. You can certainly tell those folks who live in their heads from those folks who live in their hearts. If you live in your head, you live in your own will. These folks have points and counterpoints, categories and subcategories, notes of historical interest, arguments and objections. Though they are just the ones who need the message of this book, they are the ones most resistant, the ones to completely miss the point. Our wills are not easily subdued. We identify our being with "our doing," "our opinions," "our judgments." We think that "me" equals "my will," "my way," "my view." These folks line up to inform God just how His Creation should run and, no doubt, they have very good arguments. ...This is not to demean the life of the mind, although it may sound that way. ... As Jean-Pierre de Caussade says, "The use of our reason and other faculties is profitable only when it serves as an instrument of God's activity." All too often the mind wants to serve as the instrument of its own and solely its own activity. So this book is not about fatalism or passivity. It's about TRUST. It's about believing that although all appears to be lost, God is working. It's about HOPE. It's about faith in yourself, though you appear to be a pretty poor instrument of goodness, God is using you---as much as you allow yourself to live in your heart. We fight, we struggle, we lose, or so we think. There are more than enough knocks in the most humdrum life. But everyday we get up, dust our bruised bodies off, and say a small prayer under our breath, "Not my will, But Yours." ...

Some people are called to a life of pure faith where they will only know the darkness of God. Others are called to a life fo pure love where the will often experience God's presence. Caussade says that both paths can be equal before God. The challenge of following Christ is not to replicate another's experience but to allow the Holy Spirit to guide me. I learn to yield to God's divine will in each moment. This book should never be confused with quietism, which suggest I can do nothing but wait before God. Caussade suggests some are called to active lives and some are called to lives of stillness. We are all called to pursue the Lord by yielding to the SPirit in the present moment. I find this book an excellent companion to Martin Buber's I and Thou.

What is Divine Providence? Shakespeare writes that "there is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will." (Hamlet) This book expands on the theme of allowing providence to shape our ends and trusting in the wisdom of providence.

Taken on its own, this book may inspire some readers to be passive regarding life's outcomes, as other reviewers have suggested, but we read this in light of so much contemporary preaching and Christian writing about being proactice and successful and prosperous and "blessed" in all we decide to do that reading this book gives us a different view that will provide balance to our spiritual lives. It is a view of contentment at the feet of God, a view of trusting in God's presence and compassion. I was thrilled while reading this book. It is a book to inspire us all to sit at Jesus' feet and listen to him, as Mary did, rather than asking Jesus to bless our busyness from a distance.

One must remember that this is a book of compiled letters to nuns and notes for lectures to a similar audience. These are exhortations to nuns who have devoted their lives to Christ. The casual Christian may find the exhortations extreme and that they do not fit into our Christian America mindset. The structure of the book does create a more laborious read than modern books that flow better due to proper formatting.

I recommend this book as I recommend Imitation of Christ by Thomas a'Kempis. They are books that are relevant and I think necessary to modern Christians, especially those caught up in the "Purpose-Driven Life" movement. I bought a copy for my pastor to read, because we plainly do not hear of this kind of devotion today. It is not a movement but a sacrificial life the author promotes.

I teach spiritual formation at the seminary level. This is one of my all time favorite books. And it has been a favorite in every class where it has been used. Unfortunately some of my students did not pay attention to the translation I requested and bought this one because it was the cheapest that Amazon listed. They uniformly hated the book until I read them passages from my translation. Please do not buy this translation. You will hate the book. Buy the Beevers translation from Image Books and you will be delighted and love this book.

Of all the self-help books I have read over the last 20 years, this has the most simple, direct approach to the meaning of our lives on this earth. Knowing this book has been around for so many centuries, also tells me of its long-staying value. I've recommended it recently to 5 different people, most of whom have already bought the book. When you read this, you have to be VERY receptive and TOTALLY willing to focus on each sentance, even reading each line 2 or 3 times. You can't have any distractions. Once you "GET IT", you've got it and now I look through it when I need to refresh my memory or to help keepme on track. I always worried about the future, would I have enough money to cover all future bills, whether my business was going to belly-up and I was going to loose my house because of some catastrophy. Now I look at "right now". I make each minute have value. I let go of trying to control the outcome of every happening and everyone. It's the feeling of jumping off a cliff and knowing God WILL catch me, NO MATTER WHAT. I have a feeling of lightness, and freedom, and should I start to slip into my old way of thinking, I quickly pick up the book and open it up ANYWHERE, and I am brought back to reality. I have a rainbow around me now.

November 4, 2000

God's omnipresence can be easily misunderstood because it is often applied merely to the physical and material world. If He is omnipresent in a physical sense, then He must also be omnipresent in every circumstance of our lives, no matter how small. Thus, we can experience God merely by yielding to what life brings.

De Caussade, in this beautiful book (I am in my third reading), has introduced me to this "new" way of experiencing God: I now "see" Him everywhere. This view of God brings great comfort and assurance. I find myself struggling less with life, accepting things that I would once have found distasteful, accomplishing much more, and discovering many new blessings from God. If you long for a more settled, fruitful life this little book will soon become a favorite.

This is a classic of spirituality - Some chapters are a bit repetitive (thus 4 stars) but the teaching is solid right on. Basically it is about finding and SEEING God's will in each moment of the day and each event of our life no matter how humdrum and common. It is much more appealing than "The Practice of the Presence of God" by Brother Lawrence (at least in my humble opinion.)

In our media saturated, entertainment driven culture where only the new and spectacular arouse interest, de Cassaude shows how God is found in the simple and ordinary of our daily lives. The problem is that we are too interiorily busy to hear and see him.

This is a wonderful, solid book of spiritual guidance. Though de Cassaude was a Jesuit his teaching echos the wisdom of the Carmelite saints. I wouldn't be surprised if he had contact with the writings of Carmel.

This book should find a permanent place on your bookshelf and your regular reading schedule. The paragraphs are short enough so you can read one a day or a week ... there is plenty to think about and apply to your life.

I have read this book twice and will read it many times again. This book will broaden your understanding of "God's will". Here's a quote: "The thing that must be noted about this will is that, to use human expressions, it seems to be casual and haphazard in its operation. I shall call it the purely providential will of God, to distinguish it from that other aspect of his will which imposes definite obligations we must fulfill" (pg. 77). There are two sides to God's will: The providential and the prescriptive. God's providential will encompasses everything that happens, both good and evil. God does not do or prescribe evil, but he certainly permits it and uses it. The profundity of Jean-Pierre's book is his deep understanding of this fact and his understanding of the need for each Christian to abandon themselves to God in the midst of all suffering and do only what God's prescriptive will is at any moment. And what is God's prescriptive will? Jean-Pierre says it is love, but, interestingly, he assumes that you already know what the details of this love is through God's revelation of his specific obligations with the circumstances of each present moment. So, don't read this book expecting to find a detailed ethical system; there isn't one provided. - Brad Clark