> [[362-union-of-will|← 362. Union of Will]] | [[-divine-intimacy-toc|TOC]] | [[364-the-end-of-the-world|364. The End of the World →]] --- # 363. Divine Assistance PRESENCE OF GOD - O Lord, You anticipate, accompany, and sustain me with Your grace. Grant that it may not remain sterile. ## Meditation 1 “If A soul is seeking God, its beloved is seeking it much more; and, if it sends after Him its loving desires... He likewise sends after it the fragrance of His ointments, wherewith He attracts the soul and causes it to run after Him” ([[jc-living-flame|J.C. LF]], 3,28). The soul is never alone in its efforts to attain union: God goes to meet it, giving it His helping hand and drawing it to Himself by means of the Holy inspirations which enlighten its mind, and the interior touches which inflame its will. These inspirations and divine touches are none other than the actuation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, by which God directs the soul and works within it, first to purify and dispose it for union, and then to unite it effectively to Himself by love. It is most consoling to consider that this wealth of divine help enters into the normal course of the development of the life of grace, and hence is encountered even in the ordinary way of holiness. This is the heritage which God has prepared for every soul, provided it is generous in giving itself to Him With St. John of the Cross we must conclude that if souls which actually reach perfect union are so few, “it is not because God is pleased that there should be few raised to this high spiritual state,” or that He is sparing of His help; “it is rather that He finds few vessels which can bear so high and lofty a work” (LF 2,27). If after many years of the spiritual life we find ourselves still far from union with God, we cannot attribute this to the insufficiency of divine help; rather, we should blame our own lack of generosity and fidelity to grace. St. Teresa emphatically declares: “True union can quite well be achieved with the favor of Our Lord, if we endeavor to attain to it by not following our own will but by. submitting our will to whatever is the will of God.” And, while recognizing that one does not attain this except by painful labor, she assures us, “You must not doubt the possibility of this true union with the will of God” ([[tj-interior-castle-ccel|Int C]]) V, 3). ## Meditation 2 “We do not require extraordinary favors from the Lord before we can achieve this [union]. He has given u all we need in giving us His Son to show us the way” (ibid.). Jesus suffices for us! He has not only shown us the way to divine union, but has likewise procured for us the means of obtaining it. Jesus washes and purifies our souls in His Blood; He nourishes them with His Flesh, instructs them by His doctrine; every day, and many times a day, He renews His sacrifice upon the altar on our behalf; Jesus, glorious at the right hand of the Father, is always interceding for us, obtaining grace and dispensing it to us according to our need. Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit, His Spirit, that He may guide us on the road to sanctity. Jesus gives us His Mother, the most Holy Virgin Mary, that she may be our Mother, our refuge, our support in time of trial. What more could we desire? Should we consider these graces less precious because they form part of the “ordinary” graces accorded to all souls? Oh! if we were truly convinced of the great efficacy of these means of sanctification, we would not seek others; instead of waiting for some extraordinary favors in order to give ourselves wholly to God, we would work at corresponding with great fidelity to the grace which He offers each day with wonderful largesse, and thus we would surely achieve our end. “Let us beg the Lord,” St. Teresa exhorts us, “that, since to some extent it is possible tor us to enjoy heaven upon earth, He will grant us His help so that it will not be our own fault if we miss anything” (ibid. V, 1). The heaven which we can enjoy here below is precisely the state of union with God in which the soul, perfectly conformed to the divine will, enjoys great peace, even amid the inevitable sorrows of life, because it abandons itself always into the hands of divine Providence. We can all reach this happy state, provided we are determined to follow the way which Jesus Himself has marked out for us: “If anyone love Me he will keep My word.... You are My friends if you do the things that I command you” (Jn 14,23 — 15,14). It is the way that Jesus Himself travelled, desiring no other food than the Father’s will and doing always the things that pleased Him. Let us follow Jesus, entrusting ourselves to His guidance, and He, who is the way, the truth and the life, will lead us to the union we so desire. ## Colloquy “O Jesus, in those words by which You told us that Your food was to do the Father’s will, You have shown us that Your will was His, and His will was Yours, and, having but one will with Him, You have declared to us that You are equal to the Father, and one with Him. Further, You have taught us how we, too, can become by grace, in a certain manner, equal to God and one with Him. We can do this by accomplishing His will, which should be the rule and pole toward which our will, like a magnetized needle, ceaselessly tends; and when we deviate, be it ever so slightly, from the divine will, we will lose this equality and union. “O Lord, deign to unite me entirely to Yourself as a bride. Take from me my will and all my desires, so that I may neither will nor desire anything except what You will. Make my will so conformed and united to Yours that I may no longer will anything of myself, being preoccupied neither with living nor dying, but only willing what You will. “My God, when I shall have offered You my will in all and for all, You will return it to me, for, when it is no longer mine, but I shall have given it entirely to You, then You will be content that I follow it in all things, since it will not be mine but Yours” (cf. [[mary-magdalen-dei-pazzi-saint|St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi]]). “Receive, O Lord, all my liberty; take my memory, my understanding and my will. All that I am and have, You have given to me. I give it all back to You to dispose of according to Your will. Give me Your love and Your grace. With these I am rich enough and have nothing more to desire” ([[ignatius-loyola-saint|St. Ignatius]] Loyola). --- ## Reference Int C - [[tj-interior-castle-ccel|Interior Castle]] # References J.C. - [[john-of-the-cross-saint|Saint John of the Cross]] LF - [[jc-living-flame|Living Flame of Love by Saint John of the Cross]] Int C - [[tj-interior-castle-ccel|Interior Castle (Mansions) by Saint Teresa of Avila]] --- ![[bibliography#^biblio-di]] > [[362-union-of-will|← 362. Union of Will]] | [[-divine-intimacy-toc|TOC]] | [[364-the-end-of-the-world|364. The End of the World →]]