The Joy of Full Surrender E-Book

Jean Pierre de Caussade

• Herausgeber: Paraclete Press
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: Paraclete Essentials
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 216

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2008

Beschreibung

"The will of God has nothing but sweetness, grace, and treasures for the surrendered soul" God speaks to us through every moment of every day. By facing ourselves honestly through active authentic contemplation, this timeless classic shows us the way towards comfort and fulfillment, and a life suffused with grace as we carry out God's purpose. These spiritual reflections on the mystery of faith provide wisdom, hope, and inspiration -- guidance for daily living and relationship with God, and an invitation to open our hearts, and learn to slow down and live life in the "sacrament of the present moment." "I count myself blessed that, at an important juncture in my life, a wise elder introduced me to the writings of Caussade. From them I gained not only the guidance I needed to traverse a difficult terrain, but also a permanent element in my outlook on life: an appreciation of the operation of God's providence and my need to be receptive of that providence despite the lack of full understanding and the pressure of contrary desires." —Michael Casey, O.C.S.O. from the Introduction

Leseprobe

THE JOY OF FULL SURRENDER

JEAN-PIERRE DE CAUSSADE

Foreword by Michael Casey, OCSO

A REVISED TRANSLATIONof THE FRENCH CLASSICL’ABANDON À LA PROVIDENCE DIVINE

EDITED BY HAL M. HELMS AND ROBERT J. EDMONSON, CJ

PARACLETE PRESS

BREWSTER, MASSACHUSETTS

The Joy of Full Surrender

2008 First Printing

Copyright © 2008 by Paraclete Press, Inc.

ISBN: 978-1-55725-609-6

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture verses marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Caussade, Jean Pierre de, d. 1751.

[Abandon à la providence divine. English]

The joy of full surrender / by Jean-Pierre De Caussade.

    p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-55725-609-6

1. Mysticism—Catholic Church. 2. Spiritual life—Catholic Church. I. Title.

BV5082.3.C3813 2008b

248.2’2--dc22

2008039112

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in an electronic retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published by Paraclete PressBrewster, Massachusettswww.paracletepress.com

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

FOREWORD BY MICHAEL CASEY

ABOUT THIS EDITION

INTRODUCTION

 

BOOK I

WHY FULL SURRENDER?

 

 1  Holiness Means Faithfulness to God’s Will

 2  Shadows That Veil the Hand of God

 3  The Work of Making Us Holy

 4  Perfection Means Submission to God’s Will

 5  The Limited Use of Reading and Other Exercises

 6  The Limited Use of Intelligence

 7  Attaining Lasting Peace

 8  Who Is the Most Holy?

 9  Holiness Made Easy

10  God’s Hand Present Everywhere

11  Recognizing God’s Hand by Faith

12  Finding the Will of God

13  God Revealed in Ordinary Circumstances

14  God’s Word Written on the Heart

15  Christians’ Disregard of God’s Action

16  The Hidden Work of Divine Love

17  Especially For Us

18  The Ever-Flowing Spring of Holiness

19  The Present Moment Manifests the Coming of God’s Kingdom

20  God’s Will Brings Us to Holiness

21  Modeled After the Incarnate Word

 

BOOK II

THE STATE OF BEING SURRENDERED TO GOD’S WILL

 

 1  When the Soul Lives in God

 2  The More Excellent Way

 3  Pure Faith, Hope, and Love

 4  The Joy of Full Surrender

 5  The Great Worth of Pure Faith

 6  Surrender Is Everything

 7  Enjoying the Blessings of Surrender

 8  The Treasury of Grace

 

BOOK III

GOD’S FATHERLY CARE OF THOSE WHO PRACTICE SELF-SURRENDER

 

 1  Sacrifice: The Foundation of Spiritual Life

 2  The Pains and Consolations of Surrender to God

 3  Regarding Rules and Inspirations

 4  A Direct and Safe Way

 5  The Common Way of All Saints

 6  The Obedient Heart

 7  Not Knowing Where the Road Will Lead

 8  A Simple, Wonderful Secret

 

BOOK IV

TRIALS CONNECTED WITH THE STATE OF FULL SURRENDER

 

 1  The First Trial: Unwise Counsel

 2  The Second Trial: Unjust Judgments by Others

 3  The Third Trial: Interior Humiliations

 4  The Fourth Trial: Distrust of Self

 5  The Happy Results of These Trials

 

BOOK V

GOD’S EVER-PRESENT HELP

 

 1  Songs in the Night

 2  Joy in the Morning

 3  God’s Loving Deceptions

 4  Grace Through the Ordinary Things

 5  Our Safety in the Hand of God

 6  Useful Enemies

 7  No Justifying of Self!

 8  No Self-Guidance!

 9  God’s Love, the Source of All Good

10  Grace to the Humble of Heart

11  Simplicity’s Strength and Vision

12  Faith’s Assurance

 

NOTES

FOREWORD

SOME THIRTY YEARS AGO flying from point to point in Papua New Guinea, I found myself sitting in the copilot’s seat. As we buckled ourselves in, the pilot looked over at me and said laconically, “Don’t touch anything.” As we traversed the vast ocean of jungle green more than a mile below us, I sat like a rock with my hands on my knees, trying not to be alarmed by the flashing lights and flickering gauges, and making sure not to bump into any of the controls that were so close at hand, directly in front of me. Understanding nothing. Despite or because of my total inability to contribute anything, we arrived at our destination without incident.

This experience has been a metaphor for me of an imperative of the spiritual life. I—we—encounter these sorts of situations from time to time in the course of our journeys. We are compelled to yield complete control into the hands of God so that the divine will can work its saving wonder in us. At times like these, God’s word to us is, “Don’t touch anything.”

I count myself blessed that, at an important juncture in my life, a wise elder introduced me to the writings of Caussade. From them I gained not only the guidance I needed to traverse a difficult terrain, but also a permanent element in my outlook on life: an appreciation of the operation of God’s providence and my need to be receptive of that providence despite the lack of full understanding and the pressure of contrary desires.

The original title of Caussade’s work was Abandonment to Divine Providence, and it is in this notion of “self-surrender” (as it is translated in the present version) that the book finds its focus. For Caussade, holiness consisted in faithfulness to God’s will, however this be manifested. The greatest obstacles to this conformity are our delusions that disguise the promptings of self-will and set us in opposition to God’s working in our life. We fail to understand that everything that happens in and around us needs to be interpreted as part of God’s lifelong conversation with us. This means that every opportunity for action that presents itself is an invitation from God to draw closer, every burden we experience can be a means of growth, whatever suffering comes our way is a divinely chosen means of bringing us to joy and holiness.

Caussade uses the phrase “the sacrament of the present moment” to make the point that at every moment of every day we have the opportunity to do God’s will as best we know it. Making this intention a priority in life is a sure means to deep inner peace, just as resistance to God’s will—conscious or unconscious—is a certain source of agitation, fault-finding, and confusion.

Caussade is often categorized as belonging to the socalled Quietist movement. But, in reality, his doctrine has two interrelating parts. Alongside the passive acceptance of whatever life brings, there is an emphasis on the wholehearted performance of whatever duties are attached to one’s state in life. In fact, this active fulfilment of God’s will is given primacy. “It is foolish to envisage any kind of self-surrender in which all personal activity is excluded,” he explains.

And what precisely is “self-surrender”? It involves the kind of faith or trust that acts on conviction that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. The only things that can truly stand in our way are our own compulsions to mastermind our lives and our own failures to yield control into the hands of Another.

—Michael Casey

ABOUT THIS EDITION

This is a revised English translation, using as the main sources from which to work a very fine English version by E.J. Strickland, published in England in 1921, and an older but incomplete version by Ella McMahon, published by Benziger Brothers in 1887. We have referred to all other English versions available for the sake of clarifying some of the difficult passages, and compared it with the eighth French edition. For this new edition, the original 1986 edition has been reviewed in its entirety and further modernized.

INTRODUCTION

WHEN ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE was first presented to the Christian public in France in 1861, it became an immediate hit. A classic work of spirituality, it has gone through many editions, some of which included additional letters written by the author. Under the same name it has been translated into several foreign languages. The Joy of Full Surrender is a newly edited version of this classic work, following the eighth French edition. It consists of collected notes from retreats and talks that had been given to several communities of religious by the Rev. Jean-Pierre de Caussade, SJ, who died in 1751. These notes were carefully kept and transmitted within these communities because of the high value attached to them. Caussade has been credited with playing an important part in the spiritual renewal among French Catholics of the nineteenth century, not only because of his respected preaching, but also because of his letters and other writings.

Fr. Henri Ramire arranged these notes in their present order, adding whatever connecting thoughts and explanations he thought necessary to make them useful for people seeking the joy of full surrender to God. His version has been termed “a veritable mosaic” made up of Caussade’s own words and those of Ramire himself. Nonetheless, it is this format in which the book has been widely read and loved, and we have thought it worthwhile to bring out another edition of it in today’s English.

Ramire set forth three principles to guide the reader in meditating on these pages, two of them from Caussade, and one from himself. They are as follows:

First principle: “Nothing is done, nothing happens, either in the material or in the moral world, that God has not foreseen from all eternity, and that he has not willed, or at least permitted.”

Second principle: “God can will nothing, he can permit nothing, but in view of the end he proposed to himself in creating the world; that is, in view of his glory and the glory of Jesus Christ, his only Son.”

Third principle: “As long as human beings live upon earth, God desires to be glorified through the happiness of these privileged creatures; and consequently in God’s designs the interest of making human beings holy and happy is inseparable from the interest of the divine glory.”

It is important to emphasize that Caussade never intends to lead his hearers into a passive fatalism. Nothing could be farther from his intent. The surrender called for here is the Yet not what I want but what you want of our blessed Lord, and the Let it be with me according to your word of his blessed mother.

Dom David Knowles, in his introduction to an earlier edition of this work, says, “If we set ourselves to choose the ten greatest spiritual guides since St. Bernard—a magnificent list, indeed, including St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross and St. Francis of Sales—it would without a doubt be necessary to find a place for Father de Caussade.”

Perhaps a word needs to be said about the change of title and the problem of translating Caussade’s French word abandon into some English equivalent. The word abandonment today has a negative connotation, hardly compatible with the central thrust of Caussade’s thought. Some writers have used the word “selfabandonment” to try to convey the thought more accurately.

If one sentence could characterize this book above all others, it would be this: “God’s will is always good, no matter how it may appear at the moment.”

It may be argued that the teachings of this book are more suitable to those living in enclosed communities of contemplative monks and nuns, such as those to whom many of its words were first addressed. But it may also be seen from Caussade’s own words, that the truths here and the call here are for all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with a simple and childlike faith. Whatever our state of life, there is always a “beyond” to our present level of commitment and surrender. And it is to the souls who feel the drawing of his great love to that fuller surrender of themselves to God that these words are addressed.

It is our prayer that such souls will find this book a welcome help on the path that leads to a closer walk with God.

BOOK I

WHY FULL SURRENDER?

CHAPTER 1

Holiness Means Faithfulness to God’s Will

God speaks today in the same way he spoke to our ancestors. There were no spiritual directors then, and spiritual methods were not so clearly defined. Spirituality simply consisted of faithfulness to the will of God. It was not reduced to an art, minutely explained, containing so many directions, maxims, or instructions as there are today. Our present needs may require this, but in those earlier days, when God’s people were more simple and upright, it was enough to see that each moment brought a duty to be faithfully fulfilled. Their whole attention was fixed on that duty, like the hour hand of a clock that moves its necessary distance minute by minute. With their mind and spirit constantly moved by the impulse of the Spirit, they turned imperceptibly to each new task that God presented to them at each hour of the day.

Such were the secret springs of Mary’s life, the most perfect example of simple and absolute surrender to the will of God. Her reply to the angel, “Let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38), expressed all the mystical teaching of her ancestors. All that theology was reduced, as it still is today, to the purest, simplest surrender of a soul to the will of God in whatever form his will might present itself. This beautiful and noble attitude, the very essence of Mary’s spirituality, is brilliantly shown in the words “Let it be with me.” Notice how perfectly those words match the words our Lord would have always on our lips and in our hearts: “Yet not what I want but what you want.” It is true that what was required of Mary at that moment was indeed something glorious for her. But all the splendor of that glory would have made no impression on her if she had not seen in it the fulfillment of God’s will.

It was God’s will alone that mattered to her. Whatever her occupations, commonplace or extraordinary, they were to her eyes only appearances, sometimes obscure, sometimes clear, within which she could worship God and recognize the workings of his almighty hand. She joyfully accepted the duty or suffering that each moment brought as a gift from him who fills with good things the hearts of those who hunger and thirst for him alone and have no desire for created things or empty fantasies.

CHAPTER 2

Shadows That Veil the Hand of God

The power of the Most High will overshadow you, said the angel to Mary. This shadow, behind which is hidden the power of God for the purpose of bringing forth Jesus Christ in the soul, is the duty, the attraction, or the cross that is offered to us at each moment. These are, in truth, only shadows like those in nature that, like a veil, cover the objects of our senses and hide them from us. In the same way, in the moral and supernatural realm, the duties of each moment, like dark shadows, conceal the only thing that should hold our attention: the reality of God’s will in them. This was the way Mary perceived them. As these shadows spread themselves over her mind, far from deluding her, they only increased her faith in the One who is unchanging and unchangeable. Withdraw, Archangel! You are only a shadow. Your moment has passed. You have delivered your message and you are gone. Mary passes beyond you without stopping. The Holy Spirit, with whom she has been filled under the outward appearance of your words, will never leave her.

There are remarkably few extraordinary events in the exterior life of the most holy Virgin. At least there are none recorded in Holy Scripture. Her life is pictured as outwardly very ordinary and simple. She did what others in a similar state of life might do, and suffered what they might suffer. She went to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Other relatives do that, too. She took shelter in a stable as a result of her poverty. She returned to Nazareth, from which she had been driven by the persecution of Herod, and lived there with Jesus and Joseph, who supported themselves by the work of their hands.

Such was the daily bread of the holy family. But what a divine nourishment Mary and Joseph received from this daily bread for the strengthening of their faith! It was like a sacrament to make all their moments holy! What treasures of grace lay concealed in these moments under the guise of the most commonplace events. That which was visible might happen to anyone, but the invisible, when understood and discerned by faith, was no less than God himself working great things. Bread of angels! Heavenly manna! Pearl of great value! Sacrament of the present moment! You bring God under the poor and humble appearance of the manger, the hay, and the straw! But to whom do you give him? “He has filled the hungry with good things” (Luke 1:53). God reveals himself to the humble in the lowliest things; but the proud, who attach importance only to outward appearances, cannot find him even in great things and are sent away empty.

CHAPTER 3

The Work of Making Us Holy

If the work of making us holy seems such a hard and impossible task, it is because we do not have the right idea of what it truly is. In truth, holiness consists of one single thing: faithfulness to the will of God. Now, this faithfulness is within the reach of everyone, whether it calls for active or passive practice of our faith.

Active faithfulness means fulfilling the duties that are ours by the general laws of God and of the Church, or by our particular state of life. Passive faithfulness consists in the loving acceptance of all that God sends us each moment.

Is either of these practices beyond our ability? Not active faithfulness, because any duties it might impose are no longer duties when we do not have the power to fulfill them. If the state of your health does not permit you to attend church, you are not obliged to go. The same rule holds good for all the precepts that have to do with duties to fulfill. Only those that forbid things that are evil in themselves are absolute, because it is never allowable to commit sin. Can anything, then, be easier or more reasonable? What excuse can we offer? Yet this is all that God requires of the soul for the work of making us holy. God requires it of both the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak—in a word, of everyone, always and everywhere.

So it is true that God requires nothing from us but what is simple and easy, for this simple method is sufficient to enable us to attain an eminent degree of holiness.

If, over and above the Ten Commandments, God shows us the Evangelical Counsels1 as a more perfect aim for our efforts, he is always careful to accommodate the practice of them to our position and character. As a principal sign of our calling to follow them, he gives us the attraction of grace that makes them easier. He never urges any of us beyond our strength, nor in any way beyond our aptitude. Again, what could be more just?

All you who strive after perfection and who are tempted to discouragement by what you read in the lives of the saints and what you find prescribed in spiritual books, you who are overwhelmed by the terrible ideas of perfection you have formed for yourselves: it is for your consolation that God wills me to write this. Learn what you do not seem to know.

In the realm of nature, the God of all goodness has made easy the things that are universal and necessary—breathing, eating, and sleeping. No less essential in the supernatural realm are love and faithfulness. Therefore the difficulty in achieving them cannot be as great as is generally thought. Consider your own life. Is it not made up of numerous, unimportant little actions? Well, God is quite satisfied with these. They are the very things in which we must cooperate in the work of our perfection. God himself expresses it in terms too clear for us to doubt: “Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). That is to say, this is all that is required on our part—that is what makes up active faithfulness. If we fulfill our part, God will do the rest.

Grace, working by itself, will achieve marvels that surpass human comprehension. For neither has ear heard nor eye seen, nor has it entered into the mind, what things God plans in his infinite awareness and insight, resolves in his will, and carries out by his power in the soul that is given up entirely to him.

The passive aspect of faithfulness is easier still, since it consists only of accepting what most frequently cannot be avoided, and in bearing with love, consolation, and sweetness what we too often endure with weariness and irritation.

Once more, then, here is the whole sum of holiness. Here is the grain of mustard seed that is the smallest of all the seeds, which, being so tiny, is unrecognized and lost. It is the lost coin of the Gospel, the treasure that we do not search for and do not find, because we imagine it is too far beyond us.

Do not ask how it may be found. It is no secret. The treasure is offered to us at every moment, in every place. Our fellow-creatures, friends, and enemies pour it out liberally for us, and it flows like a fountain through every part of our bodies and souls, even to the very center of our hearts. If we open our mouths wide they will be filled. God’s action floods the whole universe; it pervades every creature. Wherever they are, there it is. It goes before them, it goes with them, and it follows them. All we have to do is to allow ourselves to be carried forward on its waves.

Would that it might please God that kings and their ministers, princes of the Church and of the world, priests, soldiers, commoners—in one word, all human beings, might know how easy it is for us to arrive at a sublime holiness! All we have to do is to fulfill the simple duties of a Christian and of our state of life, and bear with submission the crosses involved, and to accept with faith and love the work and suffering that, although we do not search for them, come endlessly to us through God’s own providential designs. This is the spirit by which the Patriarchs and Prophets were moved and made holy before there were so many methods of direction and so many directors of the spiritual life.

This is the spirituality of all ages and conditions. Surely no state of life can be made holy in a more exalted manner or in a more wonderful and easy way than by the simple use of the means that God, the sovereign Director of souls, gives us to do or to suffer at each moment.

CHAPTER 4

Perfection Means Submission to God’s Will

The designs of God, the good pleasure of God, the will of God, the action of God, and the gift of his grace are all one and the same thing in the spiritual life. It is God at work in the soul to make it like himself. Perfection is nothing more or less than the faithful cooperation of the soul with this work of God. This work begins, grows, and is completed in our souls secretly and without our knowledge.

Theology is full of theories and explanations of how each soul is brought into this wonderful perfection to the fullest extent of its capacity. We may know all the theories and understand the explanations of this work in the soul, speak and write about them beautifully, or instruct and direct others. But if this knowledge is only head-knowledge, one who possesses it will be like a sick physician compared to simple people who enjoy perfect health, who live and act according to God’s designs, and who are guided by God’s holy will, even though they are ignorant of theories. When a faithful soul accepts the designs of God and his divine will with simplicity, this holy effect is brought about in it without its knowledge, just as medicine taken obediently will produce health, although the sick person neither knows nor wishes to know anything about medicine. Just as fire warms us, rather than philosophical discussions about fire or knowledge of its effects, so the designs of God and his holy will work in the soul to make it holy—not intellectual speculations concerning the principles or methods that produce holiness in our souls.

When we are thirsty, we must drink; theoretical explanations will not quench our thirst. The desire to know only increases our thirst even more. Therefore, when we thirst after holiness, the desire to know about it only drives it further away. We must put speculation aside and drink in simplicity of all that the will of God sends us, both to do and to suffer. Those things that happen at each moment by God’s command or permission are always the holiest, the best, the most divine thing that could happen to us.

CHAPTER 5

The Limited Use of Reading and Other Exercises