Our moments are made fruitful by our fulfilment of the will of God. Should the divine will withdraw the soul from contemplation for the hearing of confessions, etc., and that even for some considerable time, this duty becomes the means of uniting the soul with Jesus Christ and all the sweetness of contemplation would only serve to destroy this union. If it is the divine will that reading be relinquished for contemplation, then this will perform the work of God in the soul and reading would become useless and prejudicial. If, by the divine will, it is a present duty to read, then reading will produce the destined effect in the soul. It is this duty under whatever guise it presents itself which is precisely that which is the most sanctifying for the soul. What was best for the moment that has passed is so no longer because it is no longer the will of God which, becoming apparent through other circumstances, brings to light the duty of the present moment. It is neither one thing nor another which produces these happy effects, but what God has willed for each moment.

Whatever connexion the divine will has with the mind, it nourishes the soul, and continually enlarges it by giving it what is best for it at every moment. The order established by God and His divine will are the life of the soul no matter in what way they work, or are obeyed. This divine will, working in the soul of a simple ignorant girl by means of sufferings and actions of a very ordinary nature, produces a state of supernatural life without the mind being filled with self-exalting ideas whereas the proud man who studies spiritual books merely out of curiosity receives no more than the dead letter into his mind, and the will of God having no connexion with his reading his heart becomes ever harder and more withered. Apart from God reading is empty and vain and, being deprived for us of the life-giving power of the action of God, only succeeds in emptying the heart by the very fullness it gives to the mind.

It is by doing the will of God and obeying His holy inspirations that we obtain grace, and this grace works in our hearts through our reading or any other employment. All reading not intended for us by God is dangerous. Our whole science consists in recognising the designs of God for the present moment.

Abandonment to Divine Providence - Jean-Pierre de Caussade No reading, nor any other exercise can sanctify us except in so far as they are the channels of the divine influence.

Abandonment to divine providence