This is the forty-first in a series of previously unpublished reflections from the 1854 spiritual notebook of Paulist Founder, Servant of God Father Isaac T. Hecker. The reflection series is being made public in conjunction with Father Hecker’s cause for canonization.

Psalm 127: A Hecker Reflection

We plan, we project, we speculate as if the world were on our shoulders and God was totally gone. Our misfortune is that in acting this way we lose instead of finding God.

Psalm 127 gives us a beautiful lesson on the interior life: “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it.” It is not from our doing that the Temple of the Lord is built in our souls but that of the Holy Spirit. Our actions must suffer and cooperate with the operations of divine grace; it is good for nothing else. “Unless the Lord guards the city, in vain does the watchman stand guard.” Do not put your trust in your acts of penance, in your (spiritual) exercises, in your resolutions, your meditations or your spiritual gifts. If God withdraws, if only for a moment, all will be in confusion.

All true greatness and great effectiveness has its source in waiting patiently and quietly for the action of divine providence. A man becomes truly great who knows how to follow the action of God’s spirit with the same equanimity of mind and the same peace of soul whether it leads through the valleys of humility or to the mountaintops of consolation and joy. “I have learned,” says St. Paul, “in whatever state I am in, to be content. I know what it is like to be brought low and I know what it is like to have plenty; to be full and to be hungry, to have plenty and to suffer need” (Philippians 4:12). Our actions, no matter how great they may appear to the world have no real value than to the degree they conform and participate in God’s will. Often divine providence requires from us, not our action but our quiet inaction in order for the execution of God’s designs. There is often more wisdom in knowing how to be patient than in knowing how to act.

A response from Father Paul Robichaud, CSP

It’s not all about us, it’s all about God. All too often we get caught up with the problems, decisions and relationships that are a part of living that our perspective shrinks. Psalm 127, as Servant of God, Isaac Hecker reminds us, serves as a corrective. It’s not all about us. It’s all about God at work in the world and our capacity to cooperate with God’s spirit. Even if we consider ourselves spiritual people, it is still not all about us. Father Hecker reminds us that just because we pray, fast, make spiritual resolutions and take part in spiritual exercises, our perspective can still be too small. If we don’t open our hearts to God’s presence and cooperate with God’s spirit, our spiritual activity does us no good. Prayer should cause us to widen not narrow our vision.

In the past God created us, and here we find meaning. In the present God cares for us, and here we find the grace. In the future God triumphs, and here we find generous hope and heroic courage. This is the providence of God. Father Hecker writes that this providence involves quiet inaction at times. As he writes, “There is often more wisdom in knowing how to be patient than in knowing how to act.” So be attentive and in prayer and listen. If it is the Spirit calling from within, it will happen and if it is not the Spirit, it will pass. Above all because God is present to us, we should be at peace. Father Hecker quotes St. Paul to the Philippians: following God’s will involves the ups and downs of life, so whether we are in plenty or in want, be patient and be at peace. This is what it means to trust in God’s providence.

Hecker’s 1854 Spiritual Notebook

Servant of God, Isaac Hecker wrote these spiritual notes as a young Redemptorist priest about 1854 and they have never been published. Hecker was 34 years old at the time and had been ordained a priest for five years. He loved his work as a Catholic evangelist. The Redemptorist mission band had expanded out of the New York state, and the missionaries’ national reputation continued to grow. Hecker had begun to focus his attention on Protestants who came out to the missions. To this purpose Hecker began to write in 1854 his invitation to Protestant America to consider the Catholic Church, “Questions of the Soul” which would make him a national figure in the American church.

Hecker collected and organized these notes that include writings and stories from St. Alphonsus Liguori, the Jesuit spiritual writer Louis Lallemant and his disciple Jean Surin, the German mystic John Tauler, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Theresa of Avila and St. Jane de Chantal among others. These notes were a resource for his retreat work and spiritual direction. These short thematic reflections demonstrate Hecker’s growing proficiency in traditional Catholic spirituality some ten years after his conversion to the Catholic faith.

Paulist Father Paul Robichaud, CSP, is historian of the Paulist Fathers and postulator of the Cause of Father Hecker. His office is located at the Hecker Center in Washington, D.C. If you have asked Father Hecker to pray for you or another person who is ill and you believe something miraculous has happened, please phone Fr. Paul at 202-269-2519 and tell him your story.