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Saturday 5 July 2014

Reviewing Providence


I realized opening the book Providence, that, although I had started it years ago (2009), I had not finished it. That was the year I got cancer and Hashimoto’s Disease, and my focus changed for a while, from reading to watching fantastic DVDs, such as the life of Teresa of Avila and other great religious series.

I think that in God’s plan, He did not want me to read the rest of the book until after I had done research on the road to perfection through the Doctors of the Church and Garrigou-Lagrange’s Three Ages of the Interior Life, which are the topics of over 600 posts on this blog, from 2012-2014.

I prefer going to the original source material in order to learn something, and the writings of the Doctors of the Church provided the basis, as well as the above book on the levels of the interior life.

Now, in this book, I shall not, as I stated before here, cover the entire book but merely highlight some of the chapters which I think fit into one of the themes of this blog.

As a fast reader, I can usually finish a book in a few days. However, with Garrigou-Lagrange, one must stop and reflect continually, setting down and picking up the words of sheer, holy insight which he provides.

His books are books for meditation and active contemplation. One reason I break up his ideas is so that my readers can use the section for meditation and active contemplation.

One of the reasons I did not finish the book was that I would have been reading it purely as an intellectual exercise, rather than a heart-felt meditation. The past few years have allowed my soul to be pummeled into receiving some of these truths rather than just my intellect.

But, we are intellect, memory, understanding, body, will and soul, all of which must be brought together to the place where God can speak to us and we can actually hear His voice.

I shall return to examining the book, but am taking a break today, as I want what I have read to sink in, as it were. I am sure you readers will do the same with the short passages-read, reflect, think, act…..

To be continued….