Finding the Will of God

If we are able to greet each passing moment as the manifestation of the will of God, we will find in it all our heart can desire. What could there be more reasonable, more perfect, more divine than the will of God? Could any change of time or place or circumstance alter or increase its infinite value? If you possess the secret of discovering it at every moment and in everything, then you possess all that is most precious and worthy to be desired. What is it that you seek, you who desire to become holy? Give full scope to your longings. Your wishes need have no measure, no limit. However much you may desire, I can show you how to attain it, even though it be infinite. There is never a moment in which I cannot enable you to obtain all that you can desire.

The present moment is always filled with infinite treasure. It contains more than you have the capacity to hold. Faith is the measure of these treasures; according to your faith you will receive. Love also is the measure. The more the heart loves, the more it desires, and the more it desires, the more it will receive. The will of God is constantly before you like an immense, inexhaustible ocean that no human heart can fathom; but none can receive from it more than he has the capacity to contain. It is necessary to enlarge this capacity by faith, confidence, and love.

The whole universe cannot fill the human heart, for its capacity is greater than anything other than God. It is on a higher plane than the material creation, and for this reason, nothing material can satisfy it. The divine will is a deep sea, the surface of which is the present moment. If you plunge into this sea you will find it infinitely more vast than your desires. Offer no homage to creatures; do not adore your own illusions. They can neither give you anything nor deprive you of anything. Receive your fullness from the will of God alone, and it will not leave you empty. Adore it, put it first, before all things. Tear all disguises from vain pretenses and forsake them all going straight to the sole reality. The reign of faith is death to the senses; it is their spoilation, their destruction. The senses worship the physical. Faith adores God’s divine will. Destroy the idols of the senses and they will weep and rebel, but faith must triumph, because the will of God cannot be separated from it. When the senses are terrified, famished, despoiled or crushed, then it is that faith is enriched and nourished. Faith laughs at these calamities as the commander of an impregnable fortress mocks at the useless attacks of an impotent foe.

When we recognize the will of God and surrender entirely to it, then God gives Himself to us and we experience the most powerful assistance in all difficulties. Thus we enjoy great happiness in this coming of God, and the more we learn to surrender ourselves to His all-adorable will at every moment, the more joy we have.

Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade