All my existence, I have loved one woman. But she was never meant to be mine. I loved her when she was the intended bride for another. I betrayed him too. I loved her after they married. I took what wasn’t mine. I paid my penance by dying in his stead. But it wasn’t enough to restore the Balance. When the Goddess gave me a chance to make things right, to serve as a soldier of the Pure Ones, I embraced that offer. Even though what I really wanted to do was stay dead and numb. Never to be reawakened in this world. Never to feel again. To yearn and desire and seethe with jealousy and despair at my own helplessness. The Goddess warned me at the moment of my death and rebirth not to want her again. For our paths would cross in the future, though I wouldn’t know the time and place. Nor would I recognize her physical incarnation. For she was never meant to be mine. Will never be mine. But the moment I realized who she was—the Pure Queen I’d been assigned to protect as the Paladin—the moment I recognized her soul, I Fell again. I wanted. I craved. I yearned. I seethed. I resisted. I pushed her away over and over again. Made her angry and confused. Made her hate me. But Goddess above! I cannot change how I feel. I cannot stop wanting her. Cannot stop loving her. All my existence, my body, heart and soul have belonged to one woman. Even though she can never be mine. I love her still. I love her forever. This is the beginning of the end of our story. Judge me if you dare.

This classic work of Christian spirituality emboldens modern readers to see God’s care and concern for them in the joys and challenges of everyday life. Jean-Pierre de Caussade, a French Jesuit spiritual director and writer born in the late seventeenth century, is best known for his belief in the sacredness of the present moment, or the "eternal now." His masterpiece, Abandonment to Divine Providence, has been celebrated by spiritual writers as diverse as Richard Foster and Alan Watts for its ability to invoke the mystery of eternity in the now--a tenet of spirituality that resonates across faith traditions. Accompanied by the probing, expert commentary of Dennis Billy, CSsR, this exemplary edition of de Caussade's Abandonment offers newcomers to mysticism and spiritual direction a clear, compelling path to entering into God's presence.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1840.

In Divine Providence, Swedish scientist-turned-seer Emanuel Swedenborg undertakes the difficult task of bridging his transcendent vision of a perfectly loving God with the sometimes unloving world where we all live.

Providence and Science in a World of Contingency offers a novel assessment of the contemporary debate over divine providential action and the natural sciences, suggesting a re-consideration of Thomas Aquinas’ metaphysical doctrine of providence coupled with his account of natural contingency. By looking at the history of debates over providence and nature, the volume provides a set of criteria to evaluate providential divine action models, challenging the underlying, theologically contentious assumptions of current discussions on divine providential action. Such assumptions include that God needs causally open spaces in the created world in order to act in it providentially, and the unfitting conclusion that, if this is the case, then God is assumed to act as another cause among causes. In response to these shortcomings, the book presents a comprehensive account of Aquinas’ metaphysics of natural causation, contingency, and their relation to divine providence. It offers a fresh and bold metaphysical narrative, based on the thought of Thomas Aquinas, which appreciates the relation between divine providence and natural contingency.