As a hard- headed child of God, I quite often have the tendency to try to understand Him and His ways on my own. It is amazing how many times I try to reinvent the "Catholic Wheel". In the course of trying to wrap my mind around the true meaning of divine providence, I finally wised up and decided to consult an underutilized source from my bookshelf: The Catechism of the Catholic Church. The following passages on divine providence are taken directly from the Catechism. There is no other source outside of Holy Scriptures that can explain it better.
GOD CARRIES OUT HIS PLAN: DIVINE PROVIDENCE
GOD CARRIES OUT HIS PLAN: DIVINE PROVIDENCE
302 Creation has its own goodness and proper perfection, but
it did not spring forth complete from the hands of the Creator. the universe was
created "in a state of journeying" (in statu viae) toward an ultimate perfection
yet to be attained, to which God has destined it. We call "divine providence"
the dispositions by which God guides his creation toward this perfection:
By his providence God protects
and governs all things which he has made, "reaching mightily from one end of the
earth to the other, and ordering all things well". For "all are open and laid
bare to his eyes", even those things which are yet to come into existence
through the free action of creatures.161
303 The witness of Scripture is unanimous that the solicitude
of divine providence is concrete and immediate; God cares for all, from the
least things to the great events of the world and its history. the sacred books
powerfully affirm God's absolute sovereignty over the course of events: "Our God
is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases."162 and so it is with
Christ, "who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens".163 As the
book of Proverbs states: "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the
purpose of the LORD that will be established."164
304 And so we see the Holy Spirit, the principal author of
Sacred Scripture, often attributing actions to God without mentioning any
secondary causes. This is not a "primitive mode of speech", but a profound way
of recalling God's primacy and absolute Lordship over history and the
world,165 and so of educating his people to trust in him.
The prayer of the Psalms is the great school of this trust.166
305 Jesus asks for childlike abandonment to the providence of
our heavenly Father who takes care of his children's smallest needs: "Therefore
do not be anxious, saying, "What shall we eat?" or "What shall we drink?". . .
Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom
and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well."167
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