A favorite book I have written about several times in this column is Abandonment to Divine Providence by Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade, a French Jesuit priest who served as spiritual director to a cloistered community of Nuns.
Tag: surrender
Surrendering out of love
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Meditating on the Agony in the Garden, the First Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary, is always a source of great spiritual fruit for me.
We see Jesus alone in the Garden of Gethsemane, facing His imminent Passion and death, praying that this cup of suffering pass Him by.
Jesus is so anxious and distressed that He sweats drops of blood, struggling to surrender to the will of the Father and the mystery of the cross.
Radical filial obedience wins out, as Jesus utters His fiat, “Let your will be done, not mine.”
When Christ arises from this prayer, He moves forward with determination, arousing the sleeping apostles, facing Judas and the approaching mob, ready and willing to drink the cup of suffering to the very dregs.
In the Gospel passion narratives, once Jesus has made His surrender in Gethsemane, He embraces the terrible details of His trial, torture, and death with a peace, acceptance, and love that is truly divine.
First spiritual steps: Humility, prayer, surrender
It’s a scene I’ll never forget: my one-year-old son taking his first steps, placing one foot uncertainly in front of the other, arms outstretched toward my hands, eyes wide open in wonder, and a big awe-struck smile on his upturned face.
As he closed the gap between us and finally grasped my hand, I swooped him up in a bear hug, and we all cheered for him. Amazingly, after months of crawling and pulling up and falling and getting up again, my baby had learned to walk.
God has entrusted remarkable powers to us
During this challenging pandemic experience, I have been meditating lately on power and the lack of it, the fear of vulnerability and dependence, the need to surrender control and accept what is beyond one’s ability to change.
Since the definition of power is “the capacity to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events,” we have probably all felt an ebbing of power and influence in our lives. The social restrictions, the loss of health or employment, the cancellation of activities and events have all thrust us into this opaque existence of limitation and diminishment.
Teens ‘surrender’ to faith and fun during Frassati Fest
This story could be all about water slides, but it isn’t.
Ask any teen who attends Frassati Fest every year. They will tell you one of the most memorable parts of the weekend is the water park, but there’s more — so much more.
Frassati Fest for teens set for February 5 to 7
WISCONSIN DELLS — The annual Frassati Fest weekend for teens is set for Friday, Feb. 5, to Sunday, Feb. 7, at Kalahari Resorts and Conventions in Wisconsin Dells.
Frassati Fest provides inspiring catechesis, prayer, good conversation, and an opportunity for teens to dive deeper into the beauty of the Catholic faith with hundreds of their peers.
It’s called “the coolest weekend around for Catholic high school students in the Diocese of Madison.”