I think of Blessed Margaret Pole, one of my patrons I have adopted when thinking of confidence. She had to face the fact that she was being persecuted by her godson.
Such hard times.
Garrigou-Lagrange again:
While fulfilling our daily duties, then,
we must abandon ourselves to almighty God in a spirit of deep faith, which must
also be accompanied by an absolutely childlike confidence in His fatherly
kindness. Confidence (fiducia or confidentia), says St. Thomas, [72] is a
steadfast or intensified hope arising from a deep faith in the goodness of God,
who, according to His promises, is ever at hand to help us—Deus auxilians. [73]
As the psalms declare: "Blessed are
they that trust in the Lord" (2: 12) ; "They that trust in the Lord
shall be as Mount Sion: he shall not be moved forever that dwelleth in
Jerusalem" (124: 1) ; "Preserve me, O Lord, for I have put my trust
in Thee" (15: 1) ; "In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped, let me not be
confounded" (30: 1).
St. Paul (Rom. 4: 18) reminds us how
Abraham, in spite of his advanced years, believed in the divine promise that he
would be the father of many nations, and adds: "Against hope, he believed
in hope.... In the promise also of God he staggered not by distrust: but was
strengthened in faith,, giving glory to God: most fully knowing that whatsoever
He has promised, He is able to perform."
Garrigou-Lagrange
also writes about Providence
The
great Dominican also notes that persistence in prayer is a sign of faith and
the correspondence of prayer and believing in Providence
If one
is in sanctifying grace, one is moving towards and in the will of God.
Prayer, indeed, is a
supernatural energy with an efficacy coming from God and the infinite merits of
Christ, and from actual grace that leads us on to pray. It is a spiritual energy
more potent than all the forces of nature together. It can obtain for us what
God alone can bestow, the grace of contrition and of perfect charity, the grace
also of eternal life, the very end and purpose of the divine governance, the
final manifestation of its goodness.
He also states:
At a time when so many
perils threaten the whole world, we need more to reflect on the necessity and
sublimity of true prayer, especially when it is united with the prayer of our
Lord and of our Lady. The present widespread disorder must by contrast
stimulate us constantly to reflect that we are subject not only to the often
unreasoning, imprudent government of men, but also to God's infinitely wise
governance. God never permits evil except in view of some greater good. He
wills that we co-operate in this good by a prayer that becomes daily more
sincere, more humble, more profound, more confident, more persevering, by a
prayer united with action, in order that each succeeding day shall see more
perfectly realized in us and in those about us that petition of the Our Father:
"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." At a time when
Bolshevism is putting forth every effort against God, it behooves us to repeat
it again and again with ever deepening sincerity, in action as well as in word,
so that as time goes on God's reign may supersede the reign of greed and pride.
Thus in a concrete, practical way we shall at once see that God permits these
present evils only because He has some higher purpose in view, which it will be
granted us to see, if not in this world. at any rate after our death