“Do not place upon yourself too many worldly cares, preserve rather your peace and live with God. Be accepting of all that transpires. We must entrust ourselves and our loved ones to God. The Lord is everywhere present, and nothing on earth happens without His providence or His allowance. When we fully inculcate within ourselves this attitude, then all becomes easier for us” – Elder Thaddeus Vitovnitsky.*
In all candor, my first thought upon reading the quote above by Elder Thaddeus was “easier said than done.” During times of turmoil, I strive to maintain a positive and trusting faith in God’s providence; however, when feeling overwhelmed by life’s challenges, I find myself wavering in my trust and worrying about things that I ultimately can’t control. The immediate turmoil often raises more general and fundamental questions: “Does God have a plan for my life? If so, how do I know what it is?”
In Orthodox Catholic theology, God is certainly believed to be transcendent, all-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere present, but God is not revealed to us in these abstract and ultimately non-human terms. Rather, the indescribable, infinite, transcendent God was fully revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. Everything there is to be known of God’s will for our lives is completely accessible and knowable in our daily personal encounter with the Son of God. This encounter takes place not in the future or the past, but in whatever is before us at any given moment. Although our minds may dwell in the future or the past, we don’t actually live then. As human beings, we live now; and, as a human being, now is where God reveals Himself to us.
So what is God’s plan for one’s life? God’s plan is evident in whatever situations, tasks and people are in front of us right now. John Lennon once sang, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” As long as we continue seeking God’s secret blueprint for our life, we will miss it. God’s will for each of us is to love our family and our neighbors, do the day’s work as best as we can, find and create joy, make today’s decisions conscientiously, and consciously embrace the Presence of God in every moment.
Living this way, in time we reflect back on our lives and see patterns and discover meanings. We start to understand why things happened as they did. We witness the guiding hand of Providence in our lives. Such backward reflection, however, is not an end in itself, but a reminder for us to be faithful now, which is always found in whatever is ‘at hand.’ Our only challenge is to accept that simplicity. To that end, I offer you the following prayer by Saint Philaret of Moscow:
“O Lord, grant that I may greet the coming day in peace. Help me to rely upon Your holy will in every moment. In every hour of every day, reveal Your will to me. Bless my association with those who surround me. Teach me to treat all that comes to me with peace of soul and the firm conviction that Your will governs all. In all my deeds and words, guide my thoughts and feelings. In unforeseen events, let me not forget that all is sent by You. Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without embittering or embarrassing others. Grant me to bear the fatigue of the coming day with all that it shall bring. Direct my will. Teach me to pray, and pray Yourself within me. Amen.”
*”Не принимай на себя слишком много житейских забот, а храни свой мир и живи с Богом. Пусть всё идёт, как идёт. И себя, и своих близких мы должны доверить Господу. Господь всюду, и без Его промысла, без Его попущения не бывает ничего на земле. Когда мы укореним в себе эту мысль, тогда всё нам легко” – Старец Фаддей Витовницкий.
from WordPress http://ift.tt/23uWoqB
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment