Souls who can recognize God in the most trivial, the most grievous and the most mortifying things that happen to them in their lives, honor everything equally with delight and rejoicing, and welcome with open arms what others dread and avoid.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes finding divine presence in all aspects of life, both positive and negative.
Jean-Pierre De Caussade's quote highlights the ability of certain individuals to perceive the sacred in both the mundane and the challenging experiences of life. These souls have a unique capacity to embrace every circumstance with joy and acceptance, transforming adversity into an opportunity for growth and recognizing the value in everything around them, where many might shrink away in fear or avoidance.
In practice
In a speech about resilience, one could use this quote to illustrate finding positivity in tough situations.
There is not a moment in which God does not present Himself under the cover of some pain to be endured, of some consolation to be enjoyed, or of some duty to be performed. All that takes place within us, around us, or through us, contains and conceals His divine action.
If the work of our sanctification presents us with difficulties that appear insurmountable, it is because we do not look at it in the right way. In reality, holiness consists in one thing alone, namely, fidelity to God's plan. And this fidelity is equally within everyone's capacity in both its active and passive exercise.
The books the Holy Spirit is writing are living, and every soul a volume in which the divine author makes a true revelation of his word, explaining it to every heart, unfolding it in every moment.
There is no peace more wonderful than the peace we enjoy when faith shows us God in all created things.
You would be very ashamed if you knew what the experiences you call setbacks, upheavals, pointless disturbances, and tedious annoyances really are. You would realize that your complaints about them are nothing more nor less than blasphemies - though that never occurs to you. Nothing happens to you except by the will of God, and yet [God's] beloved children curse it because they do not know it for what it is.
God instructs the heart, not by ideas but by pains and contradictions.
Truthiness is what you want the facts to be as opposed to what the facts are. What feels like the right answer as opposed to what reality will support.
Zen pretty much comes down to three things -- everything changes; everything is connected; pay attention.
He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars: general Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer, for Art and Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars.
I am not made for politics because I am incapable of wanting or accepting the death of the adversary.
It was our view of the worst that could befall our people if they were taken captive. So, what was fascinating to me was that somehow it appears the techniques that we have feared most in the world would be used on our people, we are using on people in our custody.
. And it is youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow and the triumphs that are the aftermath of war.
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