Product Description

French writer JEAN PIERRE DE CAUSSADE (1675-1751) believed that the present moment is holy and that people should abandon themselves to present, a stance that is it stark contrast to the Catholic focus on the future and life after death. For de Caussade, living in the moment meant having a complete trust and faith in God, for God's will defined and guided all things. The practical advice contained in his guidebook for the faithful was originally a series of letters written for the Nuns of the Visitation of Nancy, meant to help them navigate the confusing and difficult work of spiritual enlightenment, and comes together here in two distinct parts, one for the theoretical foundations of abandoning oneself to the present moment and one with practical advice on how to live such a life. Though a departure from the standard Christian perspective, Abandonment to Divine Providence remains a deeply spiritual work with a message that many Christians may find freeing and inspiring.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #533541 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 404 pages

Ingram
This is a book of profound spirituality that the 18th century author did not know he had written. It was compiled and published over a century after his death by Visitation nuns who, fortunate for the world, saved his letters and conference notes.

From the Publisher
For more than 250 years, this simple classic of inspiration has guided readers of all faiths to the open-hearted acceptance of God's will that is the sure path to serenity, happiness, and spiritual peace.

Customer Reviews

Excellent spiritual book that balances contemporary thought
What is Divine Providence? Shakespeare writes that "there is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will." (Hamlet) This book expands on the theme of allowing providence to shape our ends and trusting in the wisdom of providence.

Taken on its own, this book may inspire some readers to be passive regarding life's outcomes, as other reviewers have suggested, but we read this in light of so much contemporary preaching and Christian writing about being proactice and successful and prosperous and "blessed" in all we decide to do that reading this book gives us a different view that will provide balance to our spiritual lives. It is a view of contentment at the feet of God, a view of trusting in God's presence and compassion. I was thrilled while reading this book. It is a book to inspire us all to sit at Jesus' feet and listen to him, as Mary did, rather than asking Jesus to bless our busyness from a distance.

One must remember that this is a book of compiled letters to nuns and notes for lectures to a similar audience. These are exhortations to nuns who have devoted their lives to Christ. The casual Christian may find the exhortations extreme and that they do not fit into our Christian America mindset. The structure of the book does create a more laborious read than modern books that flow better due to proper formatting.

I recommend this book as I recommend Imitation of Christ by Thomas a'Kempis. They are books that are relevant and I think necessary to modern Christians, especially those caught up in the "Purpose-Driven Life" movement. I bought a copy for my pastor to read, because we plainly do not hear of this kind of devotion today. It is not a movement but a sacrificial life the author promotes.

It's about TRUST
My review is definitely influenced by the other reviews that I read. You can certainly tell those folks who live in their heads from those folks who live in their hearts. If you live in your head, you live in your own will. These folks have points and counterpoints, categories and subcategories, notes of historical interest, arguments and objections. Though they are just the ones who need the message of this book, they are the ones most resistant, the ones to completely miss the point. Our wills are not easily subdued. We identify our being with "our doing," "our opinions," "our judgments." We think that "me" equals "my will," "my way," "my view." These folks line up to inform God just how His Creation should run and, no doubt, they have very good arguments. ...This is not to demean the life of the mind, although it may sound that way. ... As Jean-Pierre de Caussade says, "The use of our reason and other faculties is profitable only when it serves as an instrument of God's activity." All too often the mind wants to serve as the instrument of its own and solely its own activity. So this book is not about fatalism or passivity. It's about TRUST. It's about believing that although all appears to be lost, God is working. It's about HOPE. It's about faith in yourself, though you appear to be a pretty poor instrument of goodness, God is using you---as much as you allow yourself to live in your heart. We fight, we struggle, we lose, or so we think. There are more than enough knocks in the most humdrum life. But everyday we get up, dust our bruised bodies off, and say a small prayer under our breath, "Not my will, But Yours." ...

Simple but filled with profound wisdom
Jean-Pierre de Caussade, a French priest born in 1675, never knew he wrote this book. It is an edited collection taken from letters and from notes on talks he had given. This translation is very good - full of life and not dry.

This book has deeply blessed me. In the absence of opportunity for spiritual direction, I have taken this book as my main guide for many years. It always has something that speaks directly to my journey, and is full of the heart of God.

Here is a quote from the translator's introduction: "Caussade combines intense practicality with profound mysticism - as did St. Teresa of Avila. This is nothing extraordinary. True mystics are always much more practical than the ordinary run of people. They seek reality; we, the ephemeral. They want God as he is; we want God as we imagine him to be."

Aldous Huxley, in his book, "The Perennial Philosophy," compares a quote from de Caussade with a quote from The Third Patriarch of Zen. Huxley writes in chapter 4, "The seventeenth-century Frenchman's vocabulary is very different from that of the seventh-century Chinaman's. But the advice they give is fundamentally similar. Conformity to the will of God, submission, docility to the leadings of the Holy Ghost - in practice, if not verbally, these are the same as conformity to the Perfect Way, refusing to have preferences and cherish opinions, keeping the eyes open so that dreams may cease and Truth reveal itself."

This is a short book, about 120 pages. It is one of those books that help you to KNOW God, rather than to know ABOUT God. Bless you on your journey.