A Sunday Thought to Keep Us Holy and at Peace

In case we've allowed this thought to drift away over the past week, Sunday presents us the perfect time to ask God to keep us holy and at peace. As we'll see in these comments by Fr. Jean De Caussade, this is not a luxury. It's essential if we are to understand why God made us in the first place: show us His goodness and to share with us His everlasting happiness in Heaven. And the fact is, we don't wait until we die to make some progress towards Heaven. It starts here and now.

If we understand that we must do our best to develop a strong spiritual life, Father's words will prove an encouragement. If our spiritual life has taken a back seat to our worldly endeavors, these words will enlighten us and serve as motivation to get back on track.

“You must remember all your life that one of the principal reasons why certain souls do not advance is because the devil continually throws them into a state of uneasiness, perplexity, and anxiety which makes them incapable of applying themselves seriously, quietly, and with constancy to the practice of virtue. The great principle of the interior life is peace of soul, and it must be preserved with such care that the moment it is attacked all else must be put aside and every effort made to try and regain this holy peace, just as, in an outbreak of fire everything else is neglected to hasten to extinguish the flames. Read, from time to time, the treatise on peace of soul which is found at the end of the little book called ‘The Spiritual Combat,’ and which the ancient fathers very truly called ‘the road to Paradise,’ to make us understand that the high road to heaven is this happy peace of soul. The reason for this is that peace and tranquility of mind alone give great strength to the soul, to enable it to do all that God wishes, while, on the other hand, anxiety and uneasiness make the soul feeble and languid, and as though sick. Then one neither has a taste for nor an attraction to virtue, but, on the contrary, disgust and discouragement of which the devil does not fail to take advantage. For this reason he uses all his cunning to deprive us of peace, and under a thousand specious pretexts: at one time about self-examination, or sorrow for sin, at another about the way we continually neglect grace, or that by our own fault we make no progress; that God will, at last, forsake us, and a hundred other devices from which very few people can defend themselves. This is why masters of the spiritual life lay down this great principle to distinguish the true inspirations of God from those that emanate from the devil; that the former are always sweet and peaceful, inducing to confidence and humility, while the latter are intense, restless, and violent, leading to discouragement and mistrust, or else to presumption and self-will. We must, therefore, constantly reject all that does not show signs of peace, submission, sweetness and confidence; this point is a very important one for the whole of our life.”

If you're not familiar Father De Caussade and his extraordinary and wonderful work Abandonment to Divine Providence, consider spending time with it in 2023. As for The Spiritual Combat that he references, I plan to finally dig in as part of my spiritual reading this year.

An extra bonus: This will perfectly supplement and augment the Stability Project that has been the theme of our weekday posts. Our project will come to an end soon, but the endeavor to bring peace and stability into our lives should - if we're wise - continue.

Happy Sunday!