Category: Stinissen, Wilfrid

And I did not know it.

Sr. Dorcee2 Comments

In Genesis 28, Jacob, after his dream of the ladder, says a very profound thing: “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I did not know it.”  How many of us do not recognize that the Lord is in the very places of our lives.  We wonder: “Where are You?”  Or we shout: “Where are You?”  And like Jacob, we fail to see that He is surely in this place.

In a marvelous little book, Into Your Hands, Father, Fr. Wilfrid Stinissen writes:

“There is not a single moment when God is not communicating himself to us.  Most of what occurs in our lives seems to happen accidentally and at random.  Now and then God reveals his presence. At times we see the thread and we thank him, but he is always there; everything speaks of him.” There is an unbroken continuity in God’s action.  ‘He who keeps you will not slumber.  Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep’ (Ps 121.3-4).  We sleep for the most part.  Yes, our faith sleeps.  We do not notice anything extraordinary.  In reality, everything is extraordinary.”

May God bless each of you as you go about your extraordinary days!

105 pages worth reading

Sr. DorceeLeave a comment

I have just begun a new book from Ignatius Press: Into Your Hands, Father.  Abandoning Ourselves to the God Who Loves Us by Fr. Wilfrid Stinissen. I think the title tells all.  I’ll tease you with the first paragraph:

A problem many people have today is that they no longer recognize God’s will in everything that happens.  They no longer believe in a Providence that allows all that takes place to work for the good of those who love God (Rom 8.28).  They say all too easily and superficially: “But it is not God’s will that there are wars or that people starve or are persecuted . . . .”  No, it is not God’s will that human beings fight with each other.  He wills that we love one another.  But when evil people who are opposed to his will hate and murder others, he allows this to become part of his plan for them. We must distinguish between the actual deed of someone who, for example, slanders us and the situation that comes to us as a result of the deed, which was not God’s will.  God did not will the sinful act, but from all eternity he has taken into account the consequences of it in our lives.  He wills that we grow through those very things that others do to us that are difficult and painful.

I think this will be 105 pages that will be well worth reading.