Principles of Divine Providence—
One
You do not need to be afraid. Again, you do not need to be afraid. God is your Father. He is guiding all things for your greatest good if you cooperate with Him. We call this Divine Providence. Admit you are powerless to control all things. Accept your limitations. Trust in God your Father and rely on him. Living by Divine Providence sets you free from the paralysis of fear to accomplish the greatest good with the greatest ease and it is the key to Peace. Therefore I want to give you four principles of Divine Providence to live by in these times:
The first of these principles is that everything that happens has been foreseen by God from all eternity and has been willed or permitted by Him.
Providence comes from Pro-videre (to see things on our behalf)
1. From all eternity God saw what you are going through right now; You couldn’t see what was coming, but he did.
2. Even though you can’t understand what you are going through, God does, He is with you and He understands it on your behalf.
3. No matter what you are going through, God WILL work this in your favor if you cooperate with Him.
Two
What is divine providence
The second principle is that nothing can be willed or permitted by God that does not contribute to your good and the good of the whole world.
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."
(Rom. 8:28) God works all things for good for those who love him.
God guides all things to contribute to our spiritual welfare, not only the grace He gives us, not only those natural qualities He endows us with, but sickness, world events, the forces of nature, and apparent failures and defeats. St. Augustine tells us, even our sins, which God does not want us to commit but still He permits in order to lead us to humility, a greater reliance on God and a purer love for Him. For this reason God allowed Peter to deny Him three times to make Peter more humble, less self-reliant, and by this very means to become stronger and trust more in divine mercy.
Three
The third principle is to do your part; do what is in your power; then surrender the rest to God without anxiety or worry. Surrendering to God does not dispense us from taking responsibility for ourselves and others, doing everything in our power to fulfil God's will as made known in the commandments and virtues, in our duties, and in the events of life. But so long as we have the sincere desire to carry out His will made known from day to day, we can and indeed we must abandon ourselves for the rest to the divine will of good pleasure, no matter how mysterious it may be, avoid therefore, all useless anxiety and worry.
We must have a firm hope in God's assistance and put our trust in Him, being careful at the same time to fulfill our responsibilities and do His will. As the well-known proverb has it: "Do what you ought, come what may."
Four
The Fourth Principle: Mary has your back so entrust yourself to her
St Maximilian Kolbe said: I see Mary everywhere. I see difficulties nowhere…
When at times I am tempted to worry I immediately say to myself: silly one, why do you worry? Is this your work? If all belongs to the Immaculate, will she not attend to it? Then let her lead you.
Five
These Four principles may be summed up in this way:
1. Everything that happens has been foreseen by God from all eternity and has been willed or permitted by Him.
2. He wills nothing, He permits nothing, unless for the good of those that love Him.
3. Do what is in your power; abandon the rest to God in trust
4. Mary has your back; entrust yourself to her motherly care
In view of these four principles, it is evident that our trust in Providence cannot be too childlike, too great.
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."