Vigils Reading – Holy Family Sunday

THE DUTIES OF EACH MOMENT

From “Abandonment to Divine Providence” by Jean-Pierre de Caussade

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There are remarkably few extraordinary characteristics in the outward

events of the life of the most holy Virgin, at least there are none recorded in holy

Scripture. Her exterior life is represented as very ordinary and simple. She did

and suffered the same things that anyone in a similar state of life might do or suffer.

She goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth as her other relatives did. She took shelter

in a stable in consequence of her poverty. She returned to Nazareth from whence

she had been driven by the persecution of Herod, and lived there with Jesus and

Joseph, supporting themselves by the work of their hands. It was in this way that

the holy family gained their daily bread. But what a divine nourishment Mary and

Joseph received from this daily bread for the strengthening of their faith! It is like

a sacrament to sanctify all their moments. What treasures of grace lie concealed

in these moments filled, apparently, by the most ordinary events. That which is

visible might happen to anyone, but the invisible, discerned by faith, is no less than

God operating very great things… God reveals Himself to the humble under the

most lowly forms, but the proud, attaching themselves entirely to that which is

extrinsic, do not discover Him hidden beneath, and are sent empty away.

He who knows that a certain person in disguise is the king, behaves towards

him very differently to another who, only perceiving an ordinary man, treats him

accordingly. In the same way the soul that recognises the will of God in every

smallest event, and also in those that are most distressing and direful, receives all

with an equal joy, pleasure and respect. It throws open all its doors to receive with

honour what others fear and fly from with horror. The outward appearance may

be mean and contemptible, but beneath this abject garb the heart discovers and

honours the majesty of the king. The deeper the abasement of his entry in such a

guise and in secret the more does the heart become filled with love. Ah! how the

sight of God, poor and humble, lodged in a stable, lying on straw, weeping and

trembling, pierced the loving heart of Mary! Ask the inhabitants of Bethlehem

what they thought of the Child. You know what answer they gave, and how they

would have paid court to Him had He been lodged in a palace surrounded by the

state due to princes.

Then ask Mary and Joseph, the Magi and the Shepherds. They will tell you

that they found in this extreme poverty an indescribable tenderness, and an

infinite dignity worthy of the majesty of God. Faith is strengthened, increased and

enriched by those things that escape the senses; the less there is to see, the more

there is to believe…

Those souls that have this disposition adore God with redoubled love and

respect in each consecutive humiliating condition; nothing can hide Him from the

piercing eye of faith. The louder the senses proclaim that in this, or that, there is

no God; the more firmly do these souls clasp and embrace their “bundle of myrrh.”

Nothing daunts them, nothing disgusts them. Mary, when the apostles fled,

remained steadfast at the foot of the Cross. She owned Jesus as her Son when He

was disfigured with wounds, and covered with mud and spittle. The wounds that

disfigured Him made Him only more lovable and adorable in the eyes of this tender

Mother. The more awful were the blasphemies uttered against Him, so much the

deeper became her veneration and respect.

1 Jean-Pierre de Caussade. Abandonment to Divine Providence. Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal

Library, 2001. 7, 17.3