When I reflect on how our business is going forward, I am filled with admiration for the goodness of God and feel carried away with feelings of great gratitude. Up to this moment, it all bears the mark of a special protection.
Once again, the doors had successfully opened for Eugene, and the Pope had agreed to shorten the seemingly-interminable process for approbation
Who could have disposed the Head of the Church to decide to make a unique exception for us? Who inspires him to perceive that all I propose to him is good? Again yesterday, to whom are we indebted for his having consented without the slightest difficulty to dispense me from the interminable examination of eight Cardinals, whom it would perhaps have been difficult to induce to abandon for our sake a system adopted for all the others, and authorize Cardinal Pacca to hold in his house a small congregation of three Cardinals, that is to say, to take on another Cardinal who, with Cardinal Pedicini and the secretary Archbishop of the Congregation, will give their judgment on the Oblate Rule and report on it directly to the Holy Father?
Eugene tried to live in a spirit of being as closely united to God as possible, and he thus recognized the hand of God in all these events
It is God, master of all hearts, moved by the powerful mediation of his Son, Our Lord.
Thus the matter now stands, dear friend, whence you will understand how much it has been simplified. Now it is up to Cardinal Pacca to convoke at his house, whenever he wishes, his little congregation. Although he is rather slow, it cannot drag on much longer.
Letter to Henri Tempier, 20 January 1826, EO VII n 219
“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” Corrie Ten Boom
This morning I find myself reflecting most strongly on Frank’s thoughts of what has been going on with Eugene, rather than the words of Eugene himself. “Eugene tried to live in a spirit of being as closely united to God as possible, and he thus recognized the hand of God in all these events.” This is what strikes a cord within me. If I am to look at my life and the events that have transpired I am awed and filled with gratitude at how God has intervened, guided and blessed me. It has hever been simply a matter of coincidences, or luck or chance that things have worked out as they have, it is not due to any great goodness or ability on my own part. It is rather the steadfast, unending and limitlessness of God’s love. And although I try to be one with God, it is imperfect at best, for I wander back and forth. God, the beginning and the end. The in-between is where I am, with so many others, but alone or not it is where I am. Indeed it is not chance or luck that has brought me to where I am, but the steadfast magnificent love of God which has carried me to where I am. It is in moments like this I find myself singing and remembering the Magnificat. “my soul proclaims the greatness of the lord, and my spirit exalts in God my savior…”
As I have been reading these reflection I am see a man who knows himself. That is if it were up to him he would have pushed his will and way with great force. But during these days he was able to know that and also be mindful of the hand of God in all things. This balance of Trust/Will is what kept the process moving and the prayers flowing.