Ponder the benefits of God with Saint Peter of Alcantara, the spiritual director of St. Teresa of Ávila. Taken from Treatise On Prayer and Meditation, the following holy wisdom will stir your soul to deeper love and gratitude of God as you reflect upon His goodness.
Consider today the benefits of God. Render thanks for them to the Lord, and enkindle in yourself a deeper love for One who is so good to you. These benefits are innumerable, but you may at least consider the five principle ones—viz., creation, conservation, redemption, vocation, and finally, all personal and hidden favors.
The Benefit of Creation
First is the benefit of creation: Consider very attentively what you were before being created, what God has done for you, what He has given you prior to any merit on your part—namely, this body with all its members and senses; this soul so excellent, with its three notable faculties: the understanding, the memory and the will. Note well that in giving you this soul, all else is given you [besides], for there is no perfection at all in any creature which man, in his own measure, does not possess. To give us then this single gift was at the same time to bestow everything else on us as well.
The Benefit of Conservation
As for the benefit of conservation, see how utterly your whole being depends upon the providence of God. Not one instant would you live, not one step would you move, were it not for Him. Everything in the world He has created for your service: sea and land, birds and fishes and animals, the plants and even the very Angels in Heaven. See how He has given you health and strength, life and nourishment, and all other temporal assistance. Above all, think seriously of the miseries and disasters daily befalling other men, into which you also might easily fall, if God in His bounty did not preserve you.
The Benefit of Redemption
As for the benefit of redemption, consider these two points: firstly, the number and grandeur of the benefits He has given us by the grace of Redemption, and secondly, the number and greatness of the woes He suffered in His body and in His most holy soul in order to secure these blessings. In order to appreciate better what you owe to the Lord for all that He has suffered for you, consider these four principal points in the mystery of His Sacred Passion, namely: Who it is that suffers, what He suffers, for whom and why He suffers.
Who suffers? God. What does He suffer? The greatest torments and dishonor that any have ever endured. For whom does He suffer? For creatures, depraved, abominable and, by their actions, like to the very devils themselves. Why does He suffer? Not for His own advantage, nor for any merit in us, but on account of the depth of His own infinite love and mercy.
The Benefit of Vocation
As for the benefit of vocation, consider in the first place how great was the bounty of God in making you a Christian, in calling you through Baptism to the Faith, and allowing you to participate in the other Sacraments. And if despite this call you have lost your innocence, it is He who has drawn you out from sin, re-established you in grace, and set you anew on the path of salvation. How can you praise Him enough for this kindness? How great has been His mercy in thus guarding you so long, in putting up with so many sins, in giving you so many inspirations, instead of cutting short the thread of life, as He does for others in the same state. How mighty has been His grace in raising you from death to life and in opening your eyes to the light; and after your conversion, how great has been His mercy in giving you the grace to sink to sin no more, to overcome the enemy and to persevere in good.
Benefits Known Only to God
So much for the benefits open and recognized. Besides these, there are others, secret ones, known only to Him who has received them, and some indeed so hidden that even the recipient does not know them, but only He who bestows them. How many times in this life, by your pride or negligence or ingratitude, have you not deserved that God should abandon you, as He would have done to many another such, and yet He has not done so. From how many sins and occasions of sin has not the Lord, in His providence, preserved you by destroying the nets of the enemy, breaking up the way and bringing to nothing his schemes and devices. How often has He not treated us as He did St. Peter, saying, “Behold, Satan hath earnestly desired to have you, that he may sift you all as wheat, but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.” (Cf. Luke 22:31-32). Who but God alone knows these secrets? Man may at times recognize the positive benefits of God, but the negative ones—which consist not in bestowing favors upon us, but in delivering us from evils—who shall recognize such as these? For these, as well as for the others, it is right that we should always render thanks to the Lord. We should recognize ourselves as insolvent, so much does the total of our debts surpass that of our means of repayment as to be beyond all reckoning.
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This article is taken from a chapter in Treatise On Prayer and Meditation by Saint Peter of Alcantara which is available from TAN Books.
