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Declared Will of God Union of Man’s will with God’s Declared Will
How we are to comply with God’s declared will
Christian doctrine clearly sets forth the truths God wants us to believe, the blessings he means us to hope for, the punishments he intends us to fear, the things he would like us to love, the commandments he means us to keep and the counsels he wishes us to follow. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 8, Chapter 3)
Our wills compliant with God’s will to save us
God has revealed in so many ways, by so many means, that he intends us all to be saved, no human being can be unaware of the fact. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 8, Chapter 4)
God’s will declared in the Counsels
A command reveals a definite intention on the part of the person giving the order; a counsel betrays only a desire. A command obliges us; a counsel merely invites. A commandment renders those who break it blameworthy; a counsel simply renders those who fail to follow it less worthy of praise. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 8, Chapter 6)
God’s will declared through inspirations
The sun’s rays give both light and warmth together. Inspiration is a ray of grace bringing light and warmth to our hearts: light to show us what is good; warmth to give us energy to go after it. The Holy Spirit is infinite light; he is the living breath we call inspiration. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 8, Chapter 10)
The third proof of inspiration – obedience to the church and superiors
Peace of soul and patience are inseparably bound up with humility. However, I do not call obsequious words and gestures, or bowings and scrapings, humility; especially when they are done, as frequently happens, with no inner conviction of self-abasement, no due regard for one’s neighbour. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 8, Chapter 13)
A short method of knowing God’s Declared Will
God’s will is made known to us, says St. Basil, by what he disposes, what he commands. This calls for no deliberation on our part; we simply carry out God’s orders. In everything else, however, we are perfectly free to make our own choice of what seems good – though it is not a question of doing everything that is permissible, but only such things as are suitable. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 8, Chapter 14)
Permissive Will of God Union of Man’s will with God’s Permissive Will
The will of God’s good pleasure, “Permissive Will”
Sin excepted, nothing happens but by God’s will – by a positive or permissive will which no one can obstruct, which is known only by its results. These events, when they occur, show us that God has willed and planned them. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 1)
Permissive Will seen especially in Trials and Difficulties
There is nothing attractive about trials in themselves; only when seen as coming form providence, enjoined by God’s will, are they infinitely lovable. On the ground Moses’ staff was a frightful serpent; in his hand it was a miraculous wand. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 2)
Permissive Will accepted through resignation or “deference”
Love of the cross leads us to go out of our way to meet unpleasant things – fasting, vigils, hair shirts, and other bodily mortifications; it makes us give up pleasures, honours, riches. God finds the love behind these practices most attractive. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 3)
Embracing the Will of God’s good pleasure or “Disinterested Love”
Deference means that we prefer God’s will to all else, though we know a great attraction to many other things. Disinterestedness is a stage higher – it means that we are lovingly attracted to a thing only because we see God’s will in it; nothing else interests the unencumbered heart, when God’s will makes itself felt. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 4)
Disinterested love extends to everything
Disinterestedness is to be shown in natural things, such as health, sickness, beauty, plainness, weakness, strength; in social life, such as honours, rank, or wealth; in the ebb and flow of the spiritual life, such as dryness, encouragement, enthusiasm, boredom; in activity, in suffering – in a word, whatever happens. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 5)
Disinterested love in what concerns God’s service
Things that happen are the almost exclusive means of recognizing God’s positive or permissive will. As long as we are unaware of what God wants here and now, we must cling as closely as possible to his declared will, which has been revealed to us. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 6)
Disinterestedness to be shown over growth in virtue
God has laid upon us the obligation of doing all we can to acquire virtue, so let us overlook nothing hat may ensure success. But after we have planed and watered, let us be aware that it is God who gives the increase to our good tendencies and habits. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 7)
How we are to unite our wills with God’s in allowing sin
God knows an utter hatred of sin; yet, in his great wisdom, he permits it. He does so to allow rational creatures to act in accord with their natures; also to make those who are good more praiseworthy for doing no wrong, when wrong lay in their power. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 8)
Disinterested Love exercised in prayer
One of the finest musicians this world has known, a marvellous lute player, in a short time went stone deaf. He still continued to sing, however, and to finger his lute with wondrous delicacy, for deafness did not deprive him of his long-accustomed skill. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 9)
A way of knowing if we change in charity
You will recognize it all right, Theotimus. If the mystic nightingale sings to please God, it will sing the song it knows God likes; but if it sings to please itself, it will sing what takes its own fancy, what it thinks will give the self the most pleasure. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 10)
Bewilderment due to ignorance of whether or not we are pleasing God
The musician I mentioned found no satisfaction in singing, after he became dear, except when he was aware that his prince was listening and enjoying it. Blessed indeed is the heart that loves God for the sole pleasure of pleasing God! (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 11)
The passing over of the Will
What happens when a man is weighed down by inner trials? Though he is quite capable of believing in, hoping in, and loving God; though he actually does so – yet he is too weak to be aware of it. So powerfully does his distress engross and overwhelm him, he cannot come to himself, to see what he is about. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 12)
Dead to self, the will is alive only to God
We have a neat way of referring to death as a passing, and to the dead as the departed. It simply means that for men death is a passing from one life to another; to die is but to depart from the limitations of mortality and achieve immortality. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 13)
Further light on the death of the will
It is quite likely that the blessed Virgin, our Lady, found such happiness cradling her dear little Jesus in her arms that her contentment proved a barrier to weariness, or at least alleviated it. If she let him toddle beside her, holding him by the hand, it did not mean that she preferred this to feeling his arms around her neck; she was merely training him to walk by himself. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 14)
How best to deal with the troubles of life, once we have achieved disinterestedness and death to self-will
Once upon a time, a famous surgeon’s daughter fell into a fever that lasted a long time. Aware of her father’s deep affection for her, she remarked to one of her friends: “I am in great pain, but it never occurs to me to take any medicine; after all, I don’t know what would be needed to cure me. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 15)
God’s Will strips … and re-clothes
Let us picture to ourselves the gentle Jesus in Pilate’s house … There, for love of us, he was divested of his garments one by one at the hands of soldiers, the agents of his death. Not content with that, they tore his skin from him with cudgel-blows and whips. Later his soul was divested of his body, his body bereft of life, by the death he suffered on the cross. (Read further in Treatise on the Love of God, Book 9, Chapter 16)
God’s Declared Will
God’s declared will has four parts: His Commandments, His Counsels, the Commandments of the Church, His Inspirations. (Read further in Spiritual Conferences, Trans. by Fr. Ivo Carneiro MSFS)
God’s Permissive Will
We have to find this will in all the events, I mean, in all that happens to us: in sickness, in death, in trouble, in consolation, in failure and in success, in short, in all that is unexpected. (Read further in Spiritual Conferences, Trans. by Fr. Ivo Carneiro MSFS)
Doing God’s will
What is and in what consists the perfect determination to know and to follow God’s will in all things? And can we find it and follow it in the will of the Superiors or inferiors, which we see clearly proceeding from their natural and habitual tendencies? (Read further in Spiritual Conferences, Trans. by Fr. Ivo Carneiro MSFS)
Obeying God’s will in all things
The counsel to renounce oneself (Mt. 16:24; Lk. 9:23) is nothing else than to abandon one’s own will at every opportunity, one’s own personal judgement, in order to follow God’s will, and to make ourselves available to all and in everything, always with the exception of actions by which we would offend God. (Read further in Spiritual Conferences, Trans. by Fr. Ivo Carneiro MSFS)
Doing God’s will by doing my neighbour’s will
It is precisely here that God’s goodness wants us to earn the reward of obedience. For, if we always understood that it was right to give us an order, or to ask us to do a certain thing, we would not have much merit in obeying. In fact, we would have no great dislike because surely our whole heart would gladly accept it. (Read further in Spiritual Conferences, Trans. by Fr. Ivo Carneiro MSFS)
Accepting God’s will
(Letters to Persons in the World, Thy will be done) You should resign yourself entirely into the hands of the good God, who, when you have done your little duty about this inspiration and design that you have, will be pleased with whatever you do, even if it be much less. In a word, you must have courage to do everything to become a religious, since God gives you such a desire. (Read further in Letters to Persons in the World)
(Letters of Spiritual Direction, Memo on Christian Perfection) Everyone is obliged to strive for the perfection of Christian life, because Our Lord commands that we be perfect and St. Paul says the same (Mt. 5:48; 2 Cor. 13:11). Perfection of Christian life consists in conforming our wills to that of our good God, who is the sovereign standard and norm for all actions. |
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