Presence of God

O God, use Your almighty power to convert me entirely to Your love.

Meditation

I. "I am the Almighty God" (Gn. 17, 1). With these words God revealed Himself to Abraham. God is all- powerful because He can do all that He wills; and this He can do as He wills, when He wills, without any limitations. "Whatsoever the Lord pleased, He hath done, in heaven, in earth, in the sea, and in all the deeps" (Ps. 134, 6). Nothing can impede His action, nor oppose His will; nothing is difficult to Him. Our works, even the simplest, require time, fatigue, material adaptation, and collaboration; God’s works, even the greatest, are performed in one instant by a simple act of His will. God is so omnipotent that with a single word He has brought all things out of nothing : "fiat" and light, the heavens, the earth, the seas, and the whole universe were made. Our words are often empty sounds; they are dispersed in the air, producing no effect. God’s word, on the contrary, is omnipotent, creative, operative, and effective, so that it infallibly produces whatever it expresses. God is so mighty that, after creating man free, He rules and directs him according to His good pleasure, without prejudicing man’s liberty in any way. God is so omnipotent that He can change men, the children of sin, into His adopted sons, called to share His divine life. He is so omnipotent that He can draw good even from evil. The omnipotence of God is always active and working, without ever stopping; and this magnificent, infinite, eternal omnipotence is completely at the service of His infinite goodness, or better, is infinite goodness itself, which can do all the good it wishes. How much we need the help of this omnipotence, we who are so weak that, even seeing and willing the good, we are very often incapable of doing it!

II. God alone is omnipotent; He is the only One who possesses power by nature; we, on the contrary—like all other creatures—are without power, incapable of doing anything. Without the concurrence of divine omnipotence, the sun cannot shine, fire cannot burn nor can the flowers bloom; and man cannot perform even the slightest act. This is the great truth which Jesus taught us : "Without Me you can do nothing" (Jo. 15, 5).

Our power and ability do not have their principle in us, but in God alone : "Our sufficiency is from God" (2Co. 3, 5), says St. Paul. This is a thought which should keep us very humble : if there is something we can and know how to do, it is only because God has shared His divine power with us. Left to ourselves, we could not even formulate a thought or utter a word. On the other hand, this our radical impotence should not discourage us, because God, infinite goodness, has communicated being to us, as well as His goodness and His power, and He is disposed to communicate these to us in greater measure, the more humble He sees us to be, and the more convinced we are of our impotence. Thus God delights in choosing the humble, "the base things of the world, and the things that are contemptible. . . and the things that are not" (1Co. 1, 28), to accomplish the most magnificent works. St. Teresa of Avila could rightly say, "Teresa alone can do nothing but with Jesus she can do all things," and St. Paul adds : "I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth me" (Fp. 4, 13). The reason for so many of our failures in the works of the apostolate and in our progress in virtue is to be found in the fact that we do not rely sufficiently on the divine onmipotence. We count too much on human means and too little on the help of almighty God. Certainly, we are not to remain idle awaiting God’s help; we must do all that is in our power. Nevertheless, we must never hope for success from our own efforts and labors but only from the help of divine omnipotence.

Colloquy

"Your omnipotent hand, O God, created the angels in heaven, and on the earth the worms, and it was not superior in creating the former, nor inferior in creating the latter for no other hand but Yours could create an angel, and no other could create a worm either; as no other could create heaven, so no other could create the tiniest leaf of a tree, nor any substance. Only Your hand could do these things, Your hand, to which everything is possible. It is no easier for You to create a worm than an angel, but You have done all that You wished in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all the abysses.

"You created all things from nothing; this You did by Your will alone. You possess each one of Your creatures without difficulty; You govern them without labor; You rule them without tedium, and nothing either above or below can disturb the order of Your kingdom. You are not the author of evil; of this You are incapable, although there is nothing which You cannot do. You have never regretted what You have done; no storm or disturbance of soul can trouble You, nor the perils of the whole earth endanger You" (St. Augustine).

"I rejoice, O God, because Your omnipotence is in the hands ofYourjust and loving will; and everything that comes from that will and power, will be good and useful for me and will redound to the glory of Your Name. O God, One and Triune, who are as wise as You are powerful and as powerful as You are good, and in all things infinite, illumine my intellect by Your wisdom, make my will good by Your sovereign goodness, strengthen my faculties by Your wonderful power, so that I may know You, love You, and serve You with fortitude" (Yen. L. Du Pont).