Whether you are challenged with overwhelming obstacles or just undertaking your daily responsibilities, The of Book of Confidence by Father Thomas de Saint-Laurent draws upon the wisdom of Saints and great thinkers of the Church in order to persuade the reader that God and his plan can be depended on. In fact, the chosen instrument of God to strengthen our confidence in him is adversity. Yes, virtues are tested by its opposite. Hence, confidence in God is tested by those very circumstances which naturally lend themselves to anxiety and uncertainty. ___________________________________________________________________
Excerpts from The Book of Confidence:
Neither the most afflicting temporal misfortunes nor the greatest spiritual difficulties will disturb the peace of the confident soul.
The soul will lean on Him with a certainty that increases in proportion to the degree that she feels herself deprived of human help.
On one of his journeys, Saint Martin fell into the hands of highwaymen. The bandits stripped him and were going to kill him. Suddenly, however, touched by the grace of repentance or moved by a mysterious fear, they turned him loose and, against all expectations, freed him. Later, the illustrious bishop was asked if, during the pressing danger, he had not felt some fear.
"None," he responded. "I knew that as human help became more improbable, the divine intervention was all the more certain."
"Providence," Louis of Granada used to say, "wishes to give the solution to the extraordinary difficulties of life directly, while it leaves to secondary-causes the resolving of ordinary difficulties." But it is always necessary to cry out for divine help.
This is the doctrine taught by St. Francis de Sales: "Providence only delays in coming to our aid in order to excite us to confidence. If our Heavenly Father does not always grant us what we ask, it is because He desires to keep us at His feet and to provide us with an occasion to insist with loving violence in our petitions to Him. He showed this clearly to the two disciples at Emmaus, with whom He did not consent to remain until the close of the day, and even after they had pressed Him."
Therefore, do not be discouraged when the mirage of human assistance fades away. To count on nothing but the help of heaven, is this not already a most high virtue?
Our Lord Jesus says, "Seek, therefore, first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you."
It is not enough for us to skip lightly over this discourse of Our Lord. We must fix our attention on it in order to seek its profound significance and to imbue our souls deeply with its doctrine.
It behooves us, then, not afflict ourselves. We must occupy reasonably with our obligations, not allowing ourselves to be dominated by anguish over the somber prospects of the future, and counting without hesitation on the aid of Divine Providence. The Lord will occupy Himself all the more with our interests when we concern ourselves with His interests.
The soul will lean on Him with a certainty that increases in proportion to the degree that she feels herself deprived of human help.
On one of his journeys, Saint Martin fell into the hands of highwaymen. The bandits stripped him and were going to kill him. Suddenly, however, touched by the grace of repentance or moved by a mysterious fear, they turned him loose and, against all expectations, freed him. Later, the illustrious bishop was asked if, during the pressing danger, he had not felt some fear.
"None," he responded. "I knew that as human help became more improbable, the divine intervention was all the more certain."
"Providence," Louis of Granada used to say, "wishes to give the solution to the extraordinary difficulties of life directly, while it leaves to secondary-causes the resolving of ordinary difficulties." But it is always necessary to cry out for divine help.
This is the doctrine taught by St. Francis de Sales: "Providence only delays in coming to our aid in order to excite us to confidence. If our Heavenly Father does not always grant us what we ask, it is because He desires to keep us at His feet and to provide us with an occasion to insist with loving violence in our petitions to Him. He showed this clearly to the two disciples at Emmaus, with whom He did not consent to remain until the close of the day, and even after they had pressed Him."
Therefore, do not be discouraged when the mirage of human assistance fades away. To count on nothing but the help of heaven, is this not already a most high virtue?
Our Lord Jesus says, "Seek, therefore, first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you."
It is not enough for us to skip lightly over this discourse of Our Lord. We must fix our attention on it in order to seek its profound significance and to imbue our souls deeply with its doctrine.
It behooves us, then, not afflict ourselves. We must occupy reasonably with our obligations, not allowing ourselves to be dominated by anguish over the somber prospects of the future, and counting without hesitation on the aid of Divine Providence. The Lord will occupy Himself all the more with our interests when we concern ourselves with His interests.
