Vigils Reading

CREATED TO DO HIS WILL

By St John Henry Newman

◊◊◊

God was all-complete, all-blessed in Himself; but it was His almighty will

to create a world for His glory. He is Almighty, and might have done all things

Himself, but it has been His will to bring about His purposes by the beings He

has created. We are all created to His glory – we are created to do His will. I am

created to do something or to be something for which no one else is created; I

have a place in God’s counsels, in God’s world, which no one else has; whether I

be rich or poor, despised or esteemed by man, God knows me and calls me by

my name.

God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed

some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission – I

never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow I am

necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his – if,

indeed, I fail He can raise another, as He could make stones children of

Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work: I am a link in a chain, a bond of

connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good,

I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own

place, while not intending it, if I but do keep His commandments and serve Him

in my calling.

Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be

thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my

perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My

sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end,

which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life, He

may shorten it; He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends, He

may throw me among strangers, He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits

sink, hide the future from me – still He knows what He is about.