But what does it mean to follow the designs of Providence?
And how can we know what God has in mind for us?
We turn to the words of Scripture:
"For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe! Plans to give you a future full of hope. When you call to me, when you go to pray to me, I will listen to you. When you look for me, you will find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart, you will find me with you, says the Lord...." (Jeremiah 29: 11-14)
A person who practices a spirituality of Providence tries to be grounded in the attitude that Jesus himself took toward life: embracing the present moment, and trusting God to provide whatever is needed to bring about what God has in mind.
In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus explains to his followers
just what this attitude is in greater detail:
"No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love
the second, or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. You cannot be the slave of both God and money. That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and how you are to clothe it. Surely life means more than food, and the body more than clothing!
Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are? Can any of you, for all your worrying, add one single cubit to his span of life?
And why worry about clothing? Think of the flowers growing in the fields; they never have to work or spin; yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his regalia was robed as one of these.
Now if that is how God clothes the grass in the field which is there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will he not much more look after you, you men of little faith?
So DO NOT WORRY; DO NOT SAY, "WHAT ARE WE TO EAT? WHAT ARE WE TO DRINK? HOW ARE WE TO BE CLOTHED? IT IS THE PAGANS WHO SET THEIR HEARTS ON ALL THESE THINGS. YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER KNOWS YOU NEED THEM ALL.
SET YOUR HEARTS ON HIS KINGDOM FIRST, AND ON HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND ALL THESE OTHER THINGS WILL BE GIVEN YOU AS WELL.
SO DO NOT WORRY ABOUT TOMORROW; TOMORROW WILL TAKE CARE OF ITSELF. (Mt 6: 24-33)
Jesus' advice is counter-cultural--and
it can be difficult to put into practice,
especially in today's world.
But there is a spiritual path that helps us
to deepen and grow in our commitment to live in this way.
It is a path that also gives witness to
a trust in Divine Providence,
and to a desire to rely on Providence alone.
That path is the practice of the four fundamental virtues that has been at the heart of providence spirituality for almost 250 years:
SIMPLICITY POVERTY CHARITY
ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE
Powerful energies of healing and transformation
are released when this spiritual path is embraced.
As we try to open our life to the action of Divine Providence, God can work through us to re-create places, moments, and especially human hearts. The practice of the four fundamental virtues
makes a space for God's Providence to act in ways
that offer us a "future full of hope,"
and is a spirituality for our own day,
a time of great change and uncertainty for the world.
Photo (header): "I commit myself to your Providence," carved into stone in Latin over main entrance
of the Provincial House for the Congregation of Divine Providence, St. Anne Convent, Melbourne, KY