“Y a esto se junta que estas pobres almas se ven a sí mismas como inferiores. Unidas simplemente a Dios por la fe y el amor, todo lo sensible que ven en sí mismas les parece un desorden. Y eso les previene aún más contra sí mismas, cuando se comparan con quien pasan por santos, personas bien capaces de sujetarse a reglas y métodos, que en toda su personas y sus acciones dan un testimonio de vida ordenada. Entonces, la vista de sí mismas les llena de confusión y les resulta insoportable. De ahí nacen así, del fondo de su corazón, suspiros y gemidos amargos, que no expresan sino ese exceso de dolor y de aflicción que les abruma. Acordémonos de que Jesús era Dios y hombre al mismo tiempo; él estaba aniquilado como hombre, y como Dios, lleno de gloria. Estas almas, sin participar de su gloria, sienten sólo esas aniquilaciones que en ellas producen sus tristes y dolorosas apariencias. A los ojos del mundo vienen a ser lo que era Jesús a los ojos de Herodes y de su corte.”
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Jean Pierre de Caussade S.J. was a French Catholic Jesuit writer known for his work Abandonment to Divine Providence (also translated as The Sacrament of the Present Moment) and his posthumously-published letters of instruction to the Nuns of the Visitation at Nancy, where he spiritual director from 1733-1740, although he continued to write the sisters after leaving Nancy.
While he is best known for his work with the sisters, he also spent years as preacher in southern and central France, as a college rector (at Perpignan and at Albi) and as the director of theological students at the Jesuit house in Toulouse. Caussade is remembered for, among other things, his belief that the present moment is a sacrament from God and that self-abandonment to it and its needs is a holy state - a belief which, at first glance, would appear to be heretical relative to Catholic dogma. In fact, because of this fear (especially with the Church's condemnation of the Quietiest movement), Caussade's instructions to the sisters were kept unpublished until 1861, and even then they were edited to protect them from charges of Quietism. A more authoritative version of these notes was published only in 1966. It is clear in his writings that he is aware of the Quietists and that he rejects their perspective.