August 16, 2020

Dear St. Martin of Tours Family and Friends,

Do you recall when the news told us what happened, then we decided what to think? Today, the news tells us what to think, then we have to figure out what happened!

Fr. Francis Xavier Lasance, writing a little over one hundred years ago, compiled a book of counsels and prayers entitled, My Prayer Book. In it he reminds Catholics that of all the people of the world, we ought always be the ones who do not worry:

[T]he best “don’t worry club” in the world is the Catholic Church, because she directs her members to lead a pure and holy life, to do their duty, to rejoice in the Lord always, and to preserve their peace of soul by a simple, childlike confidence in the providence of Our Father in heaven.

St. Francis de Sales taught that even the smallest of incidences in life happen due to God’s Providence. (“God is in charge,” a friend of mine used to remind me when I asked her to pray.) St. Francis de Sales had so much trust that God was in charge, even in the midst of the greatest disasters and personal hardships, including threats against his life, nothing could unsettle the peace of his soul:

I cannot but be persuaded that he who believes in an infinite Providence, which extends even to the lowest worm, must expect good from all that happens to him.

In 1861, a series of spiritual counsels by Fr. Jean-Pierre De Caussade was compiled after his death into a book, Abandonment To Divine Providence, the final word on how to have complete trust in God. It makes for superb spiritual reading. The soul which abandons itself to God’s providence is the happiest and freest of all souls.

If you want peace in your soul, place your trust in God. Turn off the news. Ultimately, we can’t place our trust in any worldly system or the affairs of men. Nothing and no one is more faithful than God.

May Christ grant you the peace that the world cannot give,