Saint John of Kronstadt
If God does not leave a blade of
grass, a flower, or a small leaf of a tree without His good providence,
will He leave us? O, let every man be convinced with his whole heart
that God is true to Himself in His providence for even the least of His
creatures. Let him understand that the Creator invisibly dwells in all
His creatures. In the words of our Saviour, God clothes the grass of the
field, feeds the fowls of the air.[52]
Excerpts from the diary of St. John of Kronstadt on Providence and the Will of God
We must trust in God in all temptations, in all desolate conditions of the soul. The Lord will deliver.
Give
yourself up entirely to God's providence, to the Lord's Will, and do
not grieve at losing anything material, nor in general at the loss of
visible things; do not rejoice at gain, but let your only and constant
joy be to win the Lord Himself. Trust entirely in Him: He knows how to
lead you safely through this present life, and to bring you to Himself —
into His eternal Kingdom. From want of trust in God's providence many
and great afflictions proceed: despondency, murmurings, envy, avarice,
love of money or the passion for amassing money and property in general,
so that it may last for many years, in order to eat, drink, sleep and
enjoy; from want of trust in God's providence proceed in particular
afflictions such as arise, for instance: from some loss of income
through our own oversight, from the loss of objects, specially valuable
and necessary, as well as immoderate joy at recovering some objects, or
at receiving some large income or gain, or some profitable place or
employment. We, as Christians, as "fellow citizens with the Saints and
of the household of God,"[574] ought to commit all our life, together
with all its sorrows, sicknesses, griefs, joys, scarcities and abundance
unto Christ our God.
Bear with humble submission to the will of
God every sorrow, every sickness and infirmity, every labour, every
offence and disappointment, saying: "Thy Will be done,"[1360] knowing
that God's mercy orders everything for your good, and that the Lord can
easily change every disappointment into happiness and joy.
"That
they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that
they also may be one in us."[522] What separates us from God and each
other? Money, food, and drink — this dust, this dross, this corruption.
Why? Because we have not living Christian trust and faith in God. We do
not know, or we forget, that man's true life is love for God and his
neighbour. Setting our life upon dust and trusting in it, we do not
render to the Heavenly Father the glory that is due to Him, by putting
our whole trust in Him, by casting all our care upon Him, as His
faithful children in Christ should do. "If then I be a Father, where is
Mine honour? [523] Where is your trust in Me? Where is your love for Me?
Where is your detachment from earthly, corrupt things, and your hearty
desire for the heavenly, spiritual, and eternal ones?
When you
are disturbed and depressed by the wickedness of men, remember how
boundlessly you are beloved by the Almighty and All-righteous God, Who
suffers the evil until the time comes, and then will justly punish it.
You cannot master yourself, your tongue, or one single member of your
body. Judge by this what He must be, Who governs the whole world, Who
keeps it in such wonderful order, Who governs the whole of mankind,
evil, perverted as we are, ever ready as we are to destroy each other,
and yet meanwhile more prosperous than needy under His sovereignty. How
almighty and wise must He be to govern such heterogeneous multitudes!
Trust in Him entirely.
"Thy will be done." For instance, when you
wish and by every means endeavour to be well and healthy, and yet
remain ill, then say: "Thy will be done." When you undertake something
and your undertaking does not succeed, Say: "Thy will be done." When you
do good to others, and they repay you by evil, say: "Thy will be done."
Or when you would like to sleep and are overtaken by sleeplessness,
Say: "Thy will be done." In general, do not become irritated when
anything is not done in accordance with your will, but learn to submit
in everything to the Will of the Heavenly Father. You would like not to
experience any temptations, and yet the enemy daily harasses you by
them; provokes and annoys you by every means. Do not become irritated
and angered, but say: "Thy will be done."
It is never so
difficult to say from the heart, "Thy Will be done, Father," as when we
are in sore affliction or grievous sickness, and especially when we are
subjected to the injustice of men, or the assaults and wiles of the
enemy. It is also difficult to say from the heart "Thy Will be done"
when we ourselves were the cause of some misfortune, for then we think
that it is not God's Will, but our own will, that has placed us in such a
position, although nothing can happen without the Will of God. In
general, it is difficult to sincerely believe that it is the Will of God
that we should suffer, when the heart knows both by faith and
experience that God is our blessedness; and therefore it is difficult to
say in misfortune, "Thy Will be done." We think, "Is it possible that
this is the Will of God? Why does God torment us? Why are others quiet
and happy? What have we done? Will there be an end to our torments?" And
so on. But when it is difficult for our corrupt nature to acknowledge
the Will of God over us, that Will of God without which nothing happens,
and to humbly submit to it, then is the very time for us to humbly
submit to this Will, and to offer to the Lord our most precious
sacrifice — that is, heartfelt devotion to Him, not only in the time of
ease and happiness, but also in suffering and misfortune; it is then
that we must submit our vain erring wisdom to the perfect Wisdom of God,
for our thoughts are as far from the thoughts of God "as the heavens
are higher than the earth."[317]
"For Thine is the kingdom, and
the power, and the glory," not ours. We ourselves should like to reign
with our passions — that is, to order everything as we like, to trust to
our own power, and not to Thine, to seek our own glory, and not Thine;
but this is the Devil's wish in us. We ought to submit everything to Thy
will, seek in all matters Thy power, and do everything for Thy glory.
"Do all to the glory of God."[756]
"Let it be as I will, and not
as thou wilt." Such is the mighty voice of God, which our soul ever
hears when it has fallen into sin and desires to emerge from a state of
spiritual, sinful affliction. "Let it be as I will: either repent from
the depths of your heart in proportion to the sin, and return to the
road that leads to life, shown by Me; either bear the punishment,
corresponding to the sin and determined by My justice, or your sin will
torment you as a deviation from My laws." And only then will our soul
enjoy peace when we truly repent from the depths of our heart in
proportion to the sin, or bear the punishment due from God. O! Almighty
and most just power of our God, invisibly governing our invisible souls,
all glory to Thee, glory to Thee, God our Saviour! Thy will be done in
us!
Breathe by faith (by certitude in God's truth), by trust in
God, and by love for God and your neighbour. And how can you help
yourself in this? By unbelief in the durability of everything earthly;
by not putting your trust in earthly blessings, such as food, drink,
money, riches, and earthly ties; by not caring for, by being indifferent
to everything earthly and perishable. Do not let your heart cling to
anything, do not attach yourself to anything. "Set your affection on
things above, not on things on the earth."[1295]
To trust in God
means to confide to Him our life, our fate, all our future, and to wait
with confidence for the fulfilment of His promises. Hope proceeds from
faith, as the plant from the seed, or the stream from the source. We
believe that the Lord is good and merciful, that He loves us as a
Father, and therefore that He desires every good and true happiness for
us. He is most wise and omniscient, and consequently He knows better
than we ourselves what is really needful and useful for us. He is
almighty; and thus He is always able to bestow upon us that which He
pleases, to fulfil that which He has promised. He is holy and righteous,
and therefore all His words are truth. His promises are unchangeable.
The highest proof of God's love to man is shown in the fact that He did
not spare His Only begotten Son, but delivered Him for our sakes unto
sufferings and death. Having strengthened our soul by the thought of the
boundless mercy, wisdom, omnipotence, and holiness of our Creator and
Provider, we can pass through the course of our earthly life without
fear and without disturbance, like a child in its mother's arms, like a
ship with trusty anchors. And therefore "Blessed is the man that
trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is."[1166] "The Lord is my
deliverer, in Whom I will trust."[1167] "I will not be afraid for ten
thousand of the people."[1168] However, while having trust, we must not
ourselves be careless and idle. The essence of Christian hope is a
lively, active, and constant aspiration after the Highest Blessing and
the Source of all blessings, God, with an insatiable longing to come
near or to Him and to receive from Him and in Him the kingdom of heaven,
prepared before the creation of the world. "Like as the hart desireth
the water-brooks, so longeth my soul after Thee, O God. My soul is
athirst for God, yea, even for the living God. When shall I come to
appear before the presence of God?"[1169]
Thy name, Lord, is
Almighty, because Thou holdest not only heaven and earth, but also all
mankind, the life of every man, the hearts of all in Thy Hand; and not
only the life of every man, but also of every beast, bird, fish, insect,
worm, reptile, and of every infusoria invisible to the eye. Glory to
Thine infinite Omnipotence, Lord! Glory to Thine All-merciful,
Most-wise, and All-powerful Providence! Lord of heaven and earth!
Almighty Sovereign! Thou likewise holdest in Thy Hand all hell, with
Satan and his innumerable hordes; and it is only by Thy permission, for
our instruction and punishment, that Satan and his angels can lay their
snares for us. As soon as we pray to Thee our Saviour, as soon as we
unfeignedly repent before Thee of our sins, Thou, having taught us,
sendest away our enemies from us, saying: "You have done enough evil to
My servants; they belong to Me again." Thus, Lord, if Thine unceasing
benefits and mercies to us do not teach us, what remains to be done? It
only remains for Thee to teach us by chastisement, by bitterness, by
oppression, by fire, and by our own wickedness — we sensual men, who
love space, freedom, vain carnal freshness; who are slothful, negligent,
and evil by nature.
How must we look upon the gifts of
intellect, feeling and freedom? With the intellect we must learn to know
God in the works of His creation, revelation, providence, and in the
destinies of men; with the heart we must feel God's love, His most
heavenly peace, the sweetness of His love, we must love our neighbour,
sympathise with him in joy and in sorrow, in health and in sickness, in
poverty and in wealth, in distinction and in low estate (humiliation);
we must use freedom, as a means, as an instrument for doing as much good
as possible, and for perfecting ourselves in every virtue, so as to
render unto God fruits a hundredfold.
Concerning praise. The soul
involuntarily longs to praise when we gaze upon the starry sky; but
still more when, in looking upon the sky and the stars, we represent to
ourselves God's providence towards men, how infinitely He loves men,
cares for their eternal beatitude, not having even spared His
only-begotten Son for our salvation and our repose in the Heavenly
Kingdom! It is impossible not to praise God when you remember that you
were created from nothing, that you were predestined from the foundation
of the world for eternal blessedness, quite without cause, not in
accordance with your merits — when you remember what grace God has
bestowed upon you for your salvation during all your life-time, what an
innumerable multitude of sins are forgiven you, and this not once or
twice but an incalculable number of times, what a multitude of natural
gifts are bestowed upon you, beginning with health down to the current
of air, down to the drop of water. We are involuntarily incited to
praise when we see with wonder the infinite variety of things created on
the earth, in the animal kingdom, in the vegetable kingdom, and in the
mineral kingdom. What wise order in all, both in great and small! We
involuntarily praise and exclaim: "O Lord! how manifold are Thy works!
in wisdom hast Thou made them all: Glory to Thee, Lord, Who hath created
everything!"[219]
Until now I have not become impoverished by
being merciful to others, and shall not become impoverished to the last,
for "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day."[696] It is not
said without reason: "He that giveth to the poor shall not lack."
Indeed, up till now the Lord has only increased my temporal blessings,
and has not taken them away. I praise the bountifulness of the Lord, His
rich Providence.
Maladies in our eyes only appear painful,
unpleasant, and terrible. It is seldom that any one of us during the
time of sickness represents to himself the profit which his illness
brings to his soul; but in God's all wise and most merciful Providence,
not a single malady remains without some profit to our soul. Sicknesses
in the hands of Providence are the same as bitter medicines for our
soul, curing its passions, its bad habits and inclinations. Not a single
malady sent to us shall return void. Therefore, we must keep in view
the utility of sicknesses, in order that we may bear them more easily
and more calmly. "He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from
sin,"[848] says the Holy Scripture.
Let heaven and earth, created
by the Lord, and existing, acting, and moving through Him, teach me —
I, who am one spirit with the Lord! What is there for me to grieve at,
when I am, and can ever be, one spirit with the Lord? I will cast all my
care upon Him. Heaven and earth exist for thousands of years through
the Lord, through His power and laws, though they are soulless, inert,
inactive, and powerless matter. And the grass, the flowers of the field,
the birds, fishes, and so forth. How all these teach us to entirely
trust in God's providence!
In the matter of God's providence for
men, and in accordance with the requirements of reason, there must be
mediators between men and God from the spiritual world (as men occupy
the medium between the spiritual and material worlds), who may guide us
to the heavenly kingdom — namely, the angels. There is an astonishing
gradation and order with the Lord in all His works. Everywhere in His
kingdom the lower are guided by the higher; hence the necessity of
guardian-angels for Christians redeemed by the blood of the Lord.
Besides this, the angels themselves are full of love for us, and rejoice
over the conversion of one sinner; but love is active, and the Lord has
given perfect freedom to their noble and useful activity, as we see
from the Holy Scripture. Guardian-angels are indispensable for men,
owing to the craftiness of the evil spirits. Men themselves do not see
them, for men are very infirm in the spiritual life. Therefore, besides
the grace of God, we require a person, or persons, full of this grace,
wise, firm by their nature: and such are the angels. Besides this, after
man departs this life, there must be witnesses of his deeds against the
demons.
A visible proof of the omnipresence and of the
providence of God is presented to us by vegetation. Where is it not to
be found upon the terrestrial globe? It covers the plains, it climbs up
the inaccessible heights of rocky mountains, it grows in the deserts,
spreads its roots in the waters and amongst the waters, upon desert
islands. And who is it that gives it growth and adorns it with beautiful
varieties of shapes, colours, and flowers? The Lord God. "God so
clothes it." But if God so carefully clothes the grass, then shall He
forsake and forget man, even for a minute? "Wherefore, if God so clothe
the grass of the field, which to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the
oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?"[1241] If
God at every instant vivifies the grass, and His life does not forsake
it, then shall He cease to give life to me? No; if He clothes and gives
life to the grass, then in me He dwells continually, as in His temple,
if I do not voluntarily drive Him away by my sins. "Know ye not that ye
are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in
you?"[1242] In reference to the temple, we may remark that the Apostle
calls a Christian the temple, because the Spirit of God dwells in him.
This signifies that God dwells continually in Christian temples. Hence
the holiness of the temple; hence the reverence due to it. And the
action of God dwelling in the temple is very perceptible upon the hearts
of those who turn to Him in prayer.
May my soul understand that
as everything proceeded from God and exists in God, therefore the Lord
God in the most perfect manner knows at every moment of the existence
and of the nature of every being, and that He supports its existence, at
every moment, by the laws of nature given by Him. If we, ourselves,
having written a book, know all about its disposition and contents,
about all the ideas to be found in it, so that when other people explain
us the idea, and especially the plan of our book, we say that it is our
plan, our idea; then why should we take from the Lord His omniscience
of all worlds, of all creatures, of all things contained in the world,
with all their qualities and conditions? Are they not, so to say, the
book of God? And thus, my soul, reverence thy Creator every moment of
thy life, and know that at every moment He knows thee wholly, that He
supports and gives thee life and everything necessary for thy existence
and welfare. "How could anything have endured if it had not been Thy
will?"[1131]
Concerning trust in God's providence. "Can a woman"
(a mother) " forget her sucking child, that she should not have
compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not
forget thee,"[1367] says the Lord. And who could be more tender and
careful than a mother of her children? What woman will forget to feed
the children of her womb? But let us even admit that mothers who forsake
their children may be found; "But I," says the Lord, "am not like such
carnal mothers, and will not forget nor forsake you." What trust, what
hope, the Lord Himself inspires in us by these words, in His Providence
con- tinually caring for us and never forsaking any one of us! You are
sometimes anxious about what you shall eat and drink, and how you shall
be clothed; you greatly afflict your heart if you part grudgingly,
sorrowfully with your money, when it is necessary to give to another,
although you have plenty left, and you thus show that you put your trust
and hope in earthly dross. But why are you anxious? Why do you cling to
dross? Cling to the heavenly Father; He will not forget you, and will
not forsake you. Let the dross forsake you; you will only feel easier
without it; for the more money you have, the greater the quantity of
this dross that adheres to your heart, the more will your heart which is
not earthly be afflicted. There is a saying amongst men that money is
no hindrance, however much of it we may have. This is untrue. It greatly
hinders our soul from rising upwards, or from meditating upon our
heavenly country, and the more we have of it the more it drags our soul
down to earth, inciting us to occupy ourselves with various earthly
devices, such as buildings, rich furniture in our houses, rich clothes,
luxurious viands and drinks, and thus depriving our soul of holy zeal
and precious time, during which it ought to be earning future bliss for
itself.
If you wish to be humble, consider yourself worthy of all
malice and hatred on the part of others, and of every calumny. Do not
grow irritated, and do not nourish malice against those who bear malice
against you, slander you, or falsely blame you. Say: "Holy Father, Thy
will be done! "Remember the words of the Lord: "The servant is not
greater than his Lord; if the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me
before it hated you."[1396] If the world hated Him, the Most-righteous,
the Most-merciful, then why should it be wonderful if other people hate
you, a sinful and evil man?
My God! to what have we come? In what
are we better than heathens in our mode of life? Where is our faith,
our trust in God, our love for our neighbour? O, pride of Satan! O, what
shame is ours! Heavenly Father! Thou who knowest what things we have
need of, and givest them to us before we ask Thee, [468] have mercy upon
us unfaithful, ungrateful, and evil-natured ones. Lord, we hear Thy
merciful words: "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee;"[469] but
being daily tempted by earthly blessings, we do not heed them, and
transgress Thy will.
Footnotes
[219] Psalm civ. 24.
[317] Isaiah lv. 8, 9.
[468] St. Matthew vi. 8.
[469] Hebrews xiii. 5.
[522] St. John xvii. 21.
[523] Malachi i. 6.
[574] Ephesians ii. 19.
[696] Hebrews xiii. 8.
[756] 1 Corinthians x. 31.[848] 1 Peter iv. 1.
[1131] Wisdom xi. 25.[1166] Jeremiah xvii. 7; Psalm ii. 12; Proverbs xvi. 20.
[1167] Psalm xviii. 1.
[1168] Psalm iii. 6.
[1169] Psalm xlii. 2, 3.
[1241] St. Matthew vi. 30; St. Luke xii. 28.
[1242] 1 Corinthians iii. 16.
[1295] Colossians iii. 2.
[1360] St. Matthew vi. 10; St. Luke xi. 2.[1367] Isaiah xlix. 15.
[1396] St. John xiii. 16; xv. 18.
Excerpts
compiled from: My Life in Christ or Moments of Spiritual Serenity and
Contemplation, of Reverent Feeling, of Earnest Self-Amendment, and of
Peace in God, St. John of Kronstadt.
