The Sacrament of the Present Moment

Each moment is another opportunity to surrender your heart to God. The Holy Spirit is ever about and within us, and time is simply the unfolding of His grace. The Sacrament of the Present Moment.As another Jesuit, Fr. G.M. Hopkins, once wrote: "The world is charged with the Grandeur of God: it shines out like shining from shook foil, it gathers to a greatness like the ooze of oil crushed.."This book is a manifesto reminding us that it is God in whom we live & move and have our being. He is intimately with us always, unto all time. Peace, then. Cultivate awareness of His presence. You cannot be harmed. Neither death nor sin can separate us from the love of God. Only our eternal refusal to seek His mercy & embrace Him can do that.It's my theologumena that hell is simply the inescapable flame of that Love which the damned desperately wish to flee.Some might catch a whiff of quietism in this book. It's true that the Quietists were all the rage in France at the time, but it's unfair to tar Fr. Caussade with that brush. Because the essence of his teaching is cooperation with grace, infused action on behalf of Christ. Even if it is humble, even if you don't understand what the point of it is, even if it seems futile or inconsequential. If it is good, even the simplest things are sweet in the eyes of God.For it is not the act that makes us holy, but His grace. The act is is simply our little gift to God, proof of our love for Him. Like a child doing something simple & inconsequential for her parent, anything we can do is likewise pleasing to Him. This, as I'm sure you know, is also the teaching of our Little Flower, Dear St. Therese, one of the most luminous saints of Carmel, and Doctor of the Church.The key to holiness, which is to say happiness & peace, is to pay attention to Him and love Him. We will inevitably be moved to do what He would have us do, which usually is something quite simple. Like our chores, loving our enemies, caring for our neighbors, and adoring Him.When you love someone, you seek to please him. Love & you will be saved.There's another book from the same place & era (early 18th century France) that is very similar, which I love deeply as well: 'The Practice of the Presence of God' by Brother Lawrence, another French Carmelite. Both of these books are sublime. Only Frere Laurent is even simpler and more limpid than Fr. Caussade, if that is possible (Fr. Caussade, though saintly and so obviously influenced by Carmel and Holy Francis, was still a Jesuit after all..)I always picture Brother Lawrence enraptured, laying cruciform before the oven on the floor of his kitchen, slain by the mystery of the baking bread.. (Taste and see the LORD is good..) It's an arbitrary image, but I feel it catches what he was like. Blessed Sweetness, everywhere found, in my heart dwell most profound!Anyway, these books always make me tearfully glad. Just thinking about them, and the men who wrote them.. The God who let it all happen. We are so blessed to be alive. To be given such a faith. I pray for all of you who read this. Blessings. Read these books.Chers Pere Caussade, Frere Laurent et Ste. Therese, priez pour nous!

I purchased this book because Henri Nouwen quoted from it in his book, "Spiritual Formation" and required his Harvard and Yale students to read it.The author, Jesuit priest Jean Pierre de Caussade, did not mean to write this book. It is a compilation of letters and talks written to French nuns under his direction. They cherished his words until they were published a 100 years later.Having been raised Catholic and lived in a convent, de Caussade's style was not difficult for me to understand. Those experiences may help to be able to contextualize his words. But so many phrases and thoughts are universal, applying today as well as 1700 France. This thought amazed me: "We only truly learn when God Speaks directly to us". He was speaking of the kinds of education, even on spiritual matters, we can pursue which is often used for inflating our egos. With words like this he encouraged the sisters to see the Divine in everything, all circumstances, constantly listening for the direction of God in all their activities, prayers, silences, sufferings moment by moment, knowing, like the psalmists, that there is nowhere we can go where God is not..In post- modern Protestant Christianity, as well as much modern medicine, it seems that suffering is not dealt with well as millions seek either the miracle or a pill to take away their pain. We relentlessly pursue our physical well-being hoping for a pain free life. The thought that God works through suffering for the good of people may repulse many, despite the reality no one has been born or lived without pain. De Caussade's thoughts about how God uses both physical and spiritual suffering to mature faith, are what I enjoy the most....Truth be told, though I cannot explain the beauty and power of this little mystical book. I hope you read it.

One of the most important spiritual books I have ever read, and I have read many. Ultimately, all spiritual and religious training is helping us to bring the Divine into the Present Moment of ordinary life. Serve here, now, and with whomever and whatever has been placed with you at any given moment. We think we have to 'do something' to be of service. All that needs to be done is to 'Be In The Presence' (as opposed to the secular 'be in the present'). One is about human senses and one is about infusing any and all moments with God's Presence.Don't be discouraged if it seems hard to understand. This book was written for the heart, and can be beyond the limited human intellect. It is a greatservice to read it and allow the text to do the work of expanding the heart. Bewilderment is the hallmark of spiritual progress and a sign of opening past what was previously known, into the great unknown. The mind cannot understand that which transcends it.

Group Bible study material. would recommend for Kindle application.

I wasn't sure what to expect from "The Sacrament of the Present Moment", but was plesently surprised. Some of the sections of the chapters can be a bit cumbersome to read through. Let me encourage you to not give up. This book, along with Bro. Lawrence's Practicing the Presence of God is the answer to our perfection; our holiness. I read this as I was researching for my own book. The core of "Sacrament" tells us how Jesus lived - and how we can live a similar life. This is not a life of comfort and ease, but a life of surrender. This is the biblical defination of meekness: strength under control. Living in the present moment and practicing His presence requires that meekness. It takes much more strength to live this life than to live the life the rest of the world lives.Richard Foster wrote the introduction - his chapter alone is worth the price of the book.

I am sorry that I did not read this book earlier in my life---it would have saved me a lot of needless worry and would have given me a solid foundation for my life..It is not to difficult to read--each chapter is short and the book itself is a little over 100 pages

Well worth reading

As duas estrelas não se referem ao conteúdo do livro, cujo qual é excelente e digno de cinco estrelas, mas, sim, às avarias que a capa contém. O livro deveria ser novo, e não conter arranhões e falhas na capa como estas na imagem acima.

Thoroughly enjoyed it.ThanksBrian