The Autobiography of Madame GuyonGuyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte
Religion
The Autobiography of Madame Guyon
Guyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte
Catholics -- France -- Biography; Guyon, Jeanne Marie Bouvier de La Motte, 1648-1717
The order of divine providence makes the whole rule and conduct of a
soul entirely devoted to God. While it faithfully gives itself up
thereto, it will do all things right and well, and will have everything
it wants, without its own care; because God in whom it confides, makes
it every moment do what He requires, and furnishes the occasions proper
for it. God loves what is of His own order, and of His own will, not
according to the idea of the merely rational or even enlightened man;
for He hides these persons from the eyes of others, in order to
preserve them in that hidden purity for Himself.
But how comes it that such souls commit any faults; because they are
not faithful, in giving themselves up to the present moment. Often too
eagerly bent on something, or wanting to be over-faithful, they slide
into many faults, which they can neither foresee nor avoid. Does God
then leave souls which confide in Him? Surely not. Sooner would He work
a miracle to hinder them from falling, if they were resigned enough to
Him. They may be resigned as to the general will, and yet fail as to
the present moment. Being out of the order of God, they fall. They
renew such falls as long as they continue out of that divine order.
When they return into it, all goes right and well.
Most assuredly if such souls were faithful enough, not to let any of
the moments of the order of God slip over, they would not thus fall.
This appears to me as clear as the day. As a dislocated bone out of the
place in which the economy of divine wisdom had fixed it, gives
continual pain till restored to its proper order, so the many troubles
in life come from the soul not abiding in its place, and not being
content with the order of God, and what is afforded therein from moment
to moment. If men rightly knew this secret, they would all be fully
content and satisfied. But alas! instead of being content with what
they have, they are ever wishing for what they have not; while the
soul, which enters into divine light begins to be in paradise. What is
it that makes paradise? It is the order of God, which renders all the
saints infinitely content, though very unequal in glory! From whence
comes it that so many poor indigent persons are so contented, and that
princes and potentates, who abound to profusion, are so wretched and
unhappy? It is because the man who is not content with what he has,
will never be without craving desires; and he who is the prey of an
unsatisfied desire, can never be content.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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