Saints' Discussion Forums

Nothing in our lives is due to chance but whatever happens contrary to our wills, be assured that it is in accordance with the will of God, with His Providence, with the order He has instituted, with the consent He has given and the laws He has established.

- St. Augustine

God things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches, are from God.

- Eccli. xi, 14.

Somebody once posted in response to a post that they thought that the evil we experience is a chance thing or something that happens randomly.  I didn't refute the person then, but thought I should do so now.

God is the First Cause of any evil we experience.  Let none of us think that when evil things happen to us they happen merely randomly or by chance.  God's Providence is surely at work in these situations.  If God Himself forms the designs that effect us, He entrusts to secondary causes/agents, at least as a rule, the execution of these designs.  An excelllent book that gets into this is Holy Abandonment by Rt. Rev. Dom Vitalis Lehodey, O.C.R..


"I am the Lord and there is none other", God says by the mouth of Issais.  "I form the light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil."

- Is.xlv, 5-7.

"Shall there be any evil in the city that the Lord has not done?" asks the Prophet Amos (Am. iii, 6).

Nothing happens independently of God's will.  When my neighbor speaks ill of me, robs me, strikes me, persecutes me: all this does not happen independently of God's will.    To try the just, God employs the malice of the demons and the perversity of sinners. (from Holy Abandonment.)

Out losses, our afflictions, our humiliations we must never attribute either to the demon or to men, but exclusively to God as their true source.  Men may be their immediate cause, and that by an inexusable fault on thier part.  God hates the fault, but He wills the trial resulting to us therefrom.

- taken from Holy Abandonment, by Rt. Rev. Dom Vitalis Hehodey, OCR..  This book has an Imprumatur and Nihil Obstat.

How about if I committed an evil act and then repented about it?  Didn't I go against God's will in the first place?  It is a little confusing.  Or does He permit the evil to happen as He has given me free will to choose between good and evil?

Yes you're right, Patricia, if you committed an evil act you went against God's will, but He permits the evil to happen as He has given you free will to choose between good and evil.

i really do not get this.  evil is from God???  i thought He allowed it, that good things could come from it because He can cause results that are not evil, but to tell me evil is from God...this is shaking me.

Yes, it's strange to hear but I read it in the book called Holy Abandonment which quoted that evil is from God right out of the Scriptures...the book even has an Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat:  the Nihil Obstat means nothing in the book contradicts Church teaching.

I learned from the book Holy Abandonment that the only thing that does not come from God is sin and that sin is the only thing that he does not will.  That is not to say that God does not will that we suffer the occasion of suffering that is brought about by another persons sin though.

Holy Abandonment sounds like Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence, one of my favorite books. I hope I get a chance to read it someday!

So then, what is the evil if all we suffer is due to sin via original sin?

I think we might be able to provide 'Trustful Surrender' for download. I'd love to hear more quotes from 'Holy Abandonment' Therese.

I think Job is a good example of how this all works.

But the way you said it Therese, quoting.. it's helping me clarify things from 'Trustful Surrender' a little more. It's a book I have kept coming back to and thinking about and turning over and over. It's becoming simpler now.

I've absolutely loved every book I've read about Divine Providence.  Each one has become one of my all time favorites!  I've read Abandonment to Divine Providence by De Caussade and Uniformity to God's Will by St. Alphonsus.  I've even read Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence.  I've never been helped so much as when I have read these books on Divine Providence. 

Shin, I just returned Holy Abandonment to the Church library from where I borrowed it and now my friend is reading it.  I'll get the book again though, and will quote from it.  It may be a while from now because my friend will have the book for a month.  I highly, highly recommend the book!

I've found some excerpts of it online, and another book by Dom Vitalis Lehoday so I'm not completely deprived. :) I feel it likely that the original English is out of copyright so it may entirely be online someday too.

I wish I had the book to quote.  The author breaks down a sinful act into two parts. 
1. the sin
2. the occasion the sinful act brings for suffering - willed by God.  (I think that's how he puts the second part.) 

The first aspect of the act (sin) isn't willed by God, the second aspect is.

I'm glad you're not deprived - this is fantastic reading!  It would be excellent if you could provide Trustful Surrender for download like you mentioned in your other post!

Well that makes sense: sin brings on suffering.  Even Yoda said that!   :D  And that would fit with free will.  God wills free will, free will can bring sin, sin brings suffering.  By default, God wills suffering so as not to contradict free will.

I condensed 2 sentences into one, so this is not taken verbatum from Holy Abandonment.  It is what the author was saying though.

is this the right book?

Holy Abandonment [Paperback]
Dom Vitalis Lehodey (Author)

Product Description
A profound and soul-stirring restatement of the theology of self-abandonment to Divine Providence. Discusses the role of prudence on our part, how our desires and petitions and efforts fit into the picture, the nature of detachment, faith and confidence in Divine Providence, abandonment in temporal things, joy and a number of other topics. Impr.

i see it for $17.90 on Amazon?

Yes, though you can find it cheaper elsewhere. :)

Rachel this might explain things further. It was posted here some time ago and I saved this extract on my computer.

                                Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence
                    by Father Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure and St. Claude de la Colombiere

                      GOD CONTROLS ALL EVENTS, WHETHER GOOD OR BAD

Nothing happens in the the universe without God willing and allowing it. This statement must he taken absolutely of everything with the exception of sin. 'Nothing occurs by chance in the whole course of our lives' is the unanimous teaching of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, 'and God intervenes everywhere.'

I am the Lord, He tells us Himself by the mouth of the prophet Isaias, and there is none else. I form light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. 1  It is I who bring both death and life, I who inflict wounds and heal them, He said to Moses.   'The Lord killeth and maketh alive, it is written in the Canticle of Anna, the mother of Samuel, He bringeth down to the tomb and He bringeth back again; the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, he humbleth and he exalteth.  Shall there be evil (disaster, affliction) in a city which the Lord hath not done?  asks the prophet Amos:  Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches are from God Solomon proclaims.  And so on in numerous other passages of Scripture.

Perhaps you will say that while this is true of certain necessary effects, like sickness, death, cold and heat, and other accidents due to natural causes which have no liberty of action, the same cannot be said in the case of things that result from the free will of man. For if, you will object, someone slanders me, robs me, strikes me, persecutes me, how can I attribute his conduct to the will of God who far from wishing me to be treated in such a manner, expressly forbids it? So the blame, you will conclude, can only be laid on the will of man, on his ignorance or malice. This is the defense behind which we try to shelter from God and excuse our lack of courage and submission.

It is quite useless for us to try and take advantage of this way of reasoning as an excuse for not surrendering to Providence. God Himself has refuted it and we must believe on His word that in events of this kind as in all others, nothing occurs except by His order and permission.

Let us see what the Scriptures say. He wishes to punish the murder and adultery committed by David and He expresses Himself as follows by the mouth of the prophet Nathan:  Why therefore hast thou despised the word of the Lord, to do evil in my sight? Thou hast killed Urias the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Therefore the sword shall never depart from thy house, because thou hast despised me, and host taken the wife of Urias the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord:  Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thy own house, and I will take thy wives before thy eyes and give them to thy neighbor and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing in the sight of all all Israel, and in the sight of the sun.

Later when the Jews by their iniquities had grievously offended Him and provoked His wrath, He says:  The Assyrian is the rod and the staff of my anger, and my indignation is in his hands. I will send him to the deceitful nation, and I will give him charge against the people of my wrath, to take away the spoils, and to lay hold on the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

Could God more openly declare Himself to be responsible for the evils that Absalom caused his father and the King of Assyria the Jews? It would be easy to find other instances but these are enough. Let us conclude then with St. Augustine:  "All that happens to us in this world against our will (whether due to men or to other causes) happens to us only by the will of God, by the disposal of Providence, by His orders and under His guidance; and if from the frailty of our understanding we cannot grasp the reason for some event, let us attribute it to divine Providence, show Him respect by accepting it from His hand, believe firmly that He does not send it us without cause."

Replying to the murmurs and complaints of the Jews who attributed their captivity and sufferings to misfortune and causes other than the will of God, the prophet Jeremias says to them:  Who is he that hath commanded a thing to be done, when the Lord commandeth it not? Do not both evil and good proceed out of the mouth of the Highest? Why doth a living man murmur, a man suffering for his sins? Let us search our ways, and seek, and return to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to the Lord in the heavens, saying, We have done wickedly and provoked thee to wrath; therefore thou art inexorable. 8

Are not these words clear enough? We should take them to heart for our own good. Let us be careful to attribute everything to the will of God and believe that all is guided by His paternal hand.

    HOW CAN GOD WILL OR ALLOW EVIL?

However, you will perhaps now say, there is sinfulness in all these actions. How then can God will them and take part in them if He is all-holy and can have nothing in common with sin?

God indeed is not and cannot he the author of sin. But it must he remembered that in every sin there are two parts to be distinguished, one natural and the other moral. Thus, in the action of the man you think you have a grievance against there is, for example, the movement of the arm that strikes you or the tongue that offends you, and the movement of the will that turns aside from right reason and the law of God. The physical action of the arm or the tongue, like all natural things, is quite good in itself and there is nothing to prevent its being produced with and by God's cooperation. What is evil, what God could not cooperate with, is the sinful intention which the will of man contributes to the act.

When a man walks with a crippled leg the movement he makes comes both from the soul and the leg, but the defect which causes him to walk badly is only in the leg. In the same way all evil actions must be attributed to God and to man in so far as they are natural, physical acts, but they can be attributed only to the will of man in so far as they are sinful and blameworthy.

If then someone strikes you or slanders you, as the movement of the arm or tongue is in no way a sin, God can very well be, and actually is, the author of it; for existence and movement in man not less than in any other creature proceed not from himself but from God, who acts in him and by him. For in Him says St. Paul, we live and move and have our being.   As for the malice of the intention, it proceeds entirely from man and in it alone is the sinfulness in which God has no share but which He yet permits in order not to interfere with our freedom of will.

Moreover, when God cooperates with the person who attacks or robs you, He doubtless intends to deprive you of health or goods because you are making a wrong use of them and they will be harmful to your soul. But He does not intend that the attacker or robber should take them from you by a sin. That is the part of human malice, not God's design.

An example may make the matter clearer. A criminal is condemned to death by fair trial. But the executioner happens to be a personal enemy of his, and instead of carrying out the judge's sentence as a duty, he does so in a spirit of hate and revenge. Obviously the judge has no share in the executioner's sin. The will and intention of the judge is not that this sin should he committed, but that justice should take its course and the criminal be punished.

In the same way God has no share at all in the wickedness of the man who strikes or robs you. That is something particular to the man himself. God, as we have said, wishes to make you see your own faults, to humble you, deprive you of what you possess, in order to free you from vice and lead you to virtue; but this good and merciful design, which He could carry out in numerous other ways without any sin being involved, has nothing in common with the sin of the man who acts as His instrument. And in fact it is not this man's evil intention or sin that causes you to suffer, humiliates or impoverishes you, but the loss of your well being, your good name or you possessions. The sin harms only the person who is guilty of it. This is the way we ought to separate the good from the evil in events of this kind, and distinguish what God operates through men from what men add to the act by their own will.

    PRACTICAL EXAMPLES

St. Gregory sets the same truth before us in another light. A doctor, he says orders leeches to be applied. While these small creatures are drawing blood from the patient their only aim is to gorge themselves and suck up as much of it as they can. The doctor's only intention is to have the impure blood drawn from the patient and to cure him in this manner. There is therefore no relation between the insatiable greed of the leeches and the intelligent purpose of the doctor in using them. The patient himself does not protest at their use. He does not regard the leeches as evildoers. Rather he tries to overcome the repugnance the sight of their ugliness causes and help them in their action, in the knowledge that the doctor has judged it useful for his health.

God makes use of men as the doctor does of leeches. Neither should we then stop to consider the evilness of those to whom God gives power to act on us or be grieved at their wicked intentions, and we should keep ourselves from feelings of aversion towards them. Whatever their particular views may be, in regard to us they are only instruments of wellbeing, guided by the hand of an all-good, all-wise, all-powerful God who will allow them to act on us only in so far as is of use to us. It is in our interest to welcome instead of trying to repel their assaults, as in very truth they come from God. And it is the same with all creatures of whatever kind. Not one of them could act upon us unless the power were given it from above.

This truth has always been familiar to the minds of those truly enlightened by God. We have a celebrated example in Job. He loses his children and his possessions; he falls from the height of fortune to the depths of poverty. And he says The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. As it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done. Blessed be the name of the Lord. 10  "Note" observes St. Augustine "Job does not say 'The Lord gave and the devil hath taken away' but says, wise that he is, 'The Lord gave me my children and my possessions, and it is He who has taken them away; it has been done as it has pleased the Lord.'"

The example of Joseph is no less instructive. His brothers had sold him into slavery from malice and for a wicked purpose, and nevertheless the holy patriarch insists on attributing all to God's providence. God sent me, he says, before you into Egypt to save life. . . . God sent me before you to preserve a remnant for you in the land, and to deliver you in striking way. Not you but God sent me here, and made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house, and ruler over the land of Egypt.

Let us now listen to Our Savior himself who came down from heaven to teach us by His word and example. In an excess of zeal Peter tries to turn him aside from His purpose of submitting to His passion and prevent the soldiers laying their hands on Him. But Jesus said to him:  Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?12  In fact He attributed the suffering and ignominy of His passion not to the Jews who accused him, not to Judas who betrayed Him, nor to Pilate who condemned Him, nor to the soldiers who ill-treated and crucified Him, nor to the devil who incited them all, though they were the immediate causes of His sufferings, but to God, and to God not considered as a strict judge but as a loving and beloved Father.

Let us never then attribute our losses, our disappointments, our afflictions, our humiliations to the devil or to men, but to God as their real source. "To act otherwise" says St. Dorothy, "would be to do the same as a dog who vents his anger on the stone instead of putting the blame on the hand that threw it at him." So let us be careful not to say 'So-and-so is the cause of my misfortune.'  Your misfortunes are the work not of this or that person but of God. And what should give you reassurance is that God, the sovereign good, is guided in all His actions by His most profound wisdom for holy and supernatural purposes.

so...bad things happen to good people because God wants us to grow through them?  God causes bad to happen to us even when we are trying our best to do good because He wants us to learn and grow and be more than we are?  He sent me my husband to cause such pain into my life?  He felt this would be good?  Is He asking me to take him back?  Is He telling me that although I feel he is not who he pretended to be, is possibly a danger to our daughters, is careless of my heart in all ways, I am to not stop loving him?  If this is why I was given a faithless husband, to be humiliated, to fear for my children, to live unloved, then I cannot do it.  I thought God loved me and would help me escape from this fake marriage, even if I must live lonely the rest of my life, I never thought He would want me to continue in this pain with a totally unrepentant man.  I know I am asking for more than many saints received, but I can't accept this.  I want death rather than this life.

Dear Rachel, I don't think the saints are saying that you must stop acting in accordance with prudence in protecting your children or likewise to take back a husband if he be a danger to your' children.

What I take from that extract is that vengence belongs to the Lord and all non repentant evil doers will not go unpunished. It is our lot to follow His commandments and act always in accordance with justice, even when others are not. All our own trials, from whatever source they may come can be occassions for drawing us closer to God. The Lord knows them all and feels everyone of our pains and the help and consolation we so much need will not be witheld if we trust Him who is in control of everything.

Martin, so very nice..... your post... comforting.
In my language: stuff happens and it counts what we do with it when it does.   ::)

You made me less weary today Martin and I hope you did so for Rachel also!   :D

'If you would be convinced that in all He allows and in all that happens to you God has no other end in view but your real advantage and your eternal happiness, reflect a moment on all He has done for you; you are now suffering, but remember that the author of this suffering is He who chose to spend His life suffering to save you from everlasting suffering, whose angel is always at your side guarding your body and soul by His order, who sacrifices Himself daily on the altar to expiate your sins and appease His Father's anger, who comes lovingly to you in the Holy Eucharist and whose greatest pleasure is to be united to you. We must be very ungrateful to mistrust Him after He has shown such proofs of His love and to imagine that He can intend us harm. But, you will say, this blow is a cruel one, He strikes too hard. What have you to fear from a hand that was pierced and nailed to the cross for you? -- The path I have to tread is full of thorns. If there is no other to reach heaven by, do you prefer to perish forever rather than to suffer for a time? Is it not the same path He trod before you out of love for you? Is there a thorn in it that He has not reddened with His own blood? -- The chalice He offers you is a bitter one. But remember that it is your Redeemer who offers it. Loving you as He does, could He bring Himself to treat you so severely if the need were not urgent, the gain not worthwhile? Can we dare to refuse the chalice He has prepared for us Himself?

Reflect well on this. It should be enough to make us accept and love whatever trials He intends we should suffer. Moreover it is the certain means of securing our happiness in this life quite apart from the next.'

St. Claude de la Colombiere

'All that God gives us and all that He permits in this world have no other end than to sanctify us in Him.'

St. Catherine of Siena

'There is no other remedy for your ills but patience and submission to the Will of God.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Thank you so much -- these words are pure balm.  Less shaky, more 'on the Rock' again.  

I'm printing these out so I can read them often.   :)

I'd put up that new lovey smiley, but it still hasn't been added.  How do I sponsor it??

Oh you can just post on the thread about it. :D I hope AutumnRose comes back from her siesta soon and we'll do a grand opening for new smilies at some point.

You can use it already, because anything in the gallery can be posted to a thread.

All you have to do is copy/paste the 'BBC embed code' listed under the picture to have it appear in a thread. :D So you can have sponsored smilies not yet in the main group whenever you want.

[moderator's note: tech support messages pruned as off topic] :D

Here's a quote that just came up on Saints' Quotes (http://www.saintsquotes.net)..  :D

'It is God's love for us whence flows all the bitterness as well as all the sweets of this life.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

I now fully understand this, praise the Lord!

I don't understand.  St. Jerome in the Douay-Reims Bible says that God is not the author of evil which I know is true because the Church teaches this.  Yet in Issaiah we read that God creates evil.

Ludwig Ott's 'Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma':

3. The Relationship of the Divine Will to Evil

a) Physical Evil

God does not (per se) desire physical evil, for example, suffering, illness, death, that is not for the sake of the evil or as an aim. Wis. I, 13 et seq.: "For God has not made death: neither hath He pleasure in the destruction of the living For He created all things that they might be." However, God wills physical evil, natural evil as well as punitive evil, per accidens, that is, as a means to a higher end of the physical order (for example, for the acquisition of a higher enlightenment). Ecclus. 11, 14: "Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches are from God." Cf. Ecclus. 39, 35 et seq.; Am. 3, 6.

b) Moral Evil

Moral evil, that is, sin, which according to its nature is a revolt against God, is willed by God neither per se nor per accidens, that is, neither as an end nor as a means to an end. The Council of Trent has condemned as heretical, the contrary doctrine of Calvin D 816, cf. Ps. 5, 5: "Thou art not a God that willest iniquity." God simply permits sin (permissive solum ; D 816), because He has consideration for man's freedom (Ecclus. 15, 15et seq.), and because He possesses the wisdom and the power to cause good to arise from evil. Gn. 50, 20 : "Ye thought evil against me, but God turned it into good." Cf. St. Augustine, Enchiridion II. In the final end, moral evil will serve the supreme aim of the world, the glorification of God, in as much as it reveals His mercy in forgiving and His justice in punishing.

When Holy Writ says that God hardens man in evil (Ex. 4, 21 ; Rom. 9, 18) the intention is not to represent God as the proper originator of sin. The hardening is a punishment which consists in the withdrawal of grace. Cf. St. Augustine, In Ioan. tr. 53, 6 : "God blinds and hardens in such a fashion, that He deems and does not help" (deserendo et non adiuvando).

Here, I have also posted another thread with extracts from the Heliotropium. (http://saintsworks.net/forums/index.php?topic=1309.0)

It reads like Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence.

Thanks, Shin!  The Heliotropium helped a whole lot!  I just didn't understand when St. Jerome said that God is not the Author of evil given what I have read in the books we have already discussed in this thread.  St. Jerome must have been talking about God not being the Author of our sin or guilt.  I can find no other reason why he would say that God is not the Author of evil.  I guess the Church doesn't even teach that God is not the Author of evil.

This is a subject that takes a good deal of thought on doesn't it?

Thanks be to Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, from whom all blessings flow. :D

The Fr. Furniss extracts in the Book Study forum are starting to get into the section on the Divine Will as well. This is something I think it can take reading a number of times from more than one source to help souls adjust to.

The longer title of Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence is 'Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence: The Secret to Peace and Happiness'. The title is the message..

I love this subject, Shin!  I'd be interested in reading the Book Study forum when it gets into the subject of Divine Providence.

It's a popular one isn't it!

:D

Thanks be to God for the saints!

Shin, it's the most comforting topic for me.  To think that everything that God sends our way is for our own good!

Yes, it changes everything. Completely.

Hmm... If we could only understand that everything God permits is for our own good. All these trouble endured and offered to console the most sorrowful hearts of Jesus and Mary help us get to heaven whether we know it or not. I pray much for this realization to sink in.

Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself.

Absolutely.

We're there. :D

Fr. Furniss will go into a familiar story next too.

Great!

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church we read:

"311 ...God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral evil." And there is a reference to St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas.

In the Epistle of St. James the Apostle (Douay Rheims version) St. Jerome introduces a chapter saying that God is not the author or evil.

I realize that St. James must be talking about moral evil.  Moral evil is sin, right?

Yes, just so, sin in the interior sense in this case we would have to hold.

I tend to prefer the other catechisms. :D

Thanks Shin! :)

Here's another story of surrender to Providence. (http://saintsworks.net/forums/index.php?topic=689.0) From the Gesta Romanorum.

Speaking of God allowing evil to happen to us reminds me of a favorite quote from Imitation of Christ, Book 3 Ch 13:

"...thou who hast so often offended God and so very many times deserved hell? 

But Mine eye hath spared thee, because thy soul was precious in My sight; that thou mightest know My love, and mightest always live thankful for My benefits; and that thou mightest give thyself altogether to true subjection and humility, and patiently bear the contempt which thou meritest." 
 :crucifix:

A very reassuring quote.  God is so good!

I love the quote from the Imitation Susanna!

'The beginner, moved by fear, patiently bears the Cross of Christ; the one who has already made some progress on the road to perfection, inspired by hope, carries it cheerfully; the perfect soul; consumed by love, embraces it ardently.'

St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1 Serm. S. Andreae, 5)

[three degrees of conformity, of submission to God's will]

Yes, I've heard of these three degrees.  Thanks for mentioning them.  I should be reminded of them.

It's interesting to think that in many ways the last degree is easier than the first and second. Though the sufferings increase, because one has love. . .

"My yoke is easy, my burden light."

Yes, it reminds me of what St. John of the Cross says about souls with perfect union with God.

The last degree is the one we all fear the most even though it's so easy to see the truth of it  :-\

Sorry I still haven't been able to get a hold of the book Holy Abandonment to provide us with more quotes.  (Shin, you had asked me if I could provide us with some more quotes from the book.)  It might be a while till I am able.

That's OK, patience is a great virtue.  :D

 I am still keeping my eyes open for a thing you asked me about quite awhile back. Still haven't quite found it, but when I do, I will know it!

Great! :)

'There is a story to this effect in the "Lives of the Fathers" about a farmer whose crops were more plentiful than those of his neighbors. On being asked how this happened with such unvarying regularity, he said he was not surprised because he always had the kind of weather he wanted. He was asked to explain. He said: "It is so because I want whatever kind of weather God wants, and because I do, he gives me the harvests I want." If souls resigned to God's will are humiliated, says Salvian, they want to be humiliated; if they are poor, they want to be poor; in short, whatever happens is acceptable to them, hence they are truly at peace in this life. In cold and heat, in rain and wind, the soul united to God says: "I want it to be warm, to be cold, windy, to rain, because God wills it."

This is the beautiful freedom of the sons of God, and it is worth vastly more than all the rank and distinction of blood and birth, more than all the kingdoms in the world. This is the abiding peace which, in the experience of the saints, "surpasseth all understanding." It surpasses all pleasures rising from gratification of the senses, from social gatherings, banquets and other worldly amusements; vain and deceiving as they are, they captivate the senses for the time being, but bring no lasting contentment; rather they afflict man in the depth of his soul where alone true peace can reside.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Doctor of the Church

I am familiar with this story of the farmer.  St. Therese had the very same spirit as the farmer: she just wanted whatever God gave her, whatever he willed.  I try to be like this.

Let's all do our best!  :D

Yes! :D

I am in temporary possession of the book, "Holy Abandonment".  Here's more from the book.

"Follow likewise," continues St. Alphonsus, "this most important counsel given by the masters of the spiritual life: Whenever any great adversity befalls, nothing is more profitable than to make this very misfortune the subject of our prayer, and consequently the object of repeated acts of resignation.  The saints esteemed no exercise more highly than continual union with the will of God.  St. Peter Alcantara practiced it even in his sleep.  And St. Gertrude repeated three hundred times a day: 'My Jesus, let not my will but Thine be done.'"

"See our poor little Jesus in His crib.  He accepts the poverty, the nakedness, the company of the dumb animals, the inclemency of the weather, the cold of the stable, and everything that His Father permits to befall Him.  We do not find it written that He ever sought His Mother's breast, but neither does He refuse the little services she rendered Him.  He accepted likewise the services of St. Joseph, the adoration of the kings and the shepherds, and all with equal indifference.  Thus we should neither desire anything nor refuse anything, but be willing to suffer and receive whatsoever the Providence of God may decide to send us."

Catechism
Providence and the scandal of evil.

309 If God the Father almighty, the Creator of the ordered and good world, cares for all his creatures, why does evil exist? To this question, as pressing as it is unavoidable and as painful as it is mysterious, no quick answer will suffice. Only Christian faith as a whole constitutes the answer to this question: the goodness of creation, the drama of sin and the patient love of God who comes to meet man by his covenants, the redemptive Incarnation of his Son, his gift of the Spirit, his gathering of the Church, the power of the sacraments and his call to a blessed life to which free creatures are invited to consent in advance, but from which, by a terrible mystery, they can also turn away in advance. There is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the question of evil.

310 But why did God not create a world so perfect that no evil could exist in it? With infinite power God could always create something better. But with infinite wisdom and goodness God freely willed to create a world "in a state of journeying" towards its ultimate perfection. In God's plan this process of becoming involves the appearance of certain beings and the disappearance of others, the existence of the more perfect alongside the less perfect, both constructive and destructive forces of nature. With physical good there exists also physical evil as long as creation has not reached perfection.

311 Angels and men, as intelligent and free creatures, have to journey toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential love. They can therefore go astray. Indeed, they have sinned. Thus has moral evil, incommensurably more harmful than physical evil, entered the world. God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral evil. He permits it, however, because he respects the freedom of his creatures and, mysteriously, knows how to derive good from it:

For almighty God. . ., because he is supremely good, would never allow any evil whatsoever to exist in his works if he were not so all-powerful and good as to cause good to emerge from evil itself.
312 In time we can discover that God in his almighty providence can bring a good from the consequences of an evil, even a moral evil, caused by his creatures: "It was not you", said Joseph to his brothers, "who sent me here, but God. . . You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive." From the greatest moral evil ever committed - the rejection and murder of God's only Son, caused by the sins of all men - God, by his grace that "abounded all the more", brought the greatest of goods: the glorification of Christ and our redemption. But for all that, evil never becomes a good.

313 "We know that in everything God works for good for those who love him." The constant witness of the saints confirms this truth:

St. Catherine of Siena said to "those who are scandalized and rebel against what happens to them": "Everything comes from love, all is ordained for the salvation of man, God does nothing without this goal in mind."
St. Thomas More, shortly before his martyrdom, consoled his daughter: "Nothing can come but that that God wills. And I make me very sure that whatsoever that be, seem it never so bad in sight, it shall indeed be the best."

Dame Julian of Norwich: "Here I was taught by the grace of God that I should steadfastly keep me in the faith. . . and that at the same time I should take my stand on and earnestly believe in what our Lord shewed in this time - that 'all manner [of] thing shall be well.'

314 We firmly believe that God is master of the world and of its history. But the ways of his providence are often unknown to us. Only at the end, when our partial knowledge ceases, when we see God "face to face", will we fully know the ways by which - even through the dramas of evil and sin - God has guided his creation to that definitive sabbath rest for which he created heaven and earth.