Quote of the Day from Wilfrid Stinissen's Into Your Hands, Father

This much is clear to any wise and holy man or aspirant. We live in especially depraved times. Now perhaps our fathers who went before us thought the same about their generation. And yet comparatively speaking it seems that the state of affairs is severely evil. I'm sure some of us could harp on this all day long. For example all the sexual sins, and the young abandoning the Sacrament of Marriage. So what to think? Perhaps there is some overarching and all-embracing Divine Plan in all of this. Jesus died and is risen. There is a store of merits built up over the centuries via all the Saints. Mary seems to have some secret plans brewing from Heaven. So perhaps God will take this exceptionally depraved situation, this evil, and turn it into something good, even something unique, holy, grace filled, excelling times past, even eschatological. All of these singles committing sexual sins and lost in all sorts of sins. What if God had mercy and they repented, and by God's grace they became mystics, priests, religious, in short Saints like never before. They would have a renewed purpose, and they would enrich the Church and the world. Undeserved to be sure, but possible with Jesus and Mary. I leave this reflection with a quote that inspired it from a Carmelite, Wilfrid Stinissen's Into Your Hands, Father:

God makes use of evil in such a superb way and with such skill that the result is better than if there had never been evil. For those of us who find ourselves in the midst of evil, this is not easy to swallow. We think that the price to be paid for these good results is far too high. But Saint Paul rejoices when he ponders the "mystery", God's magnificent plan, "hidden for ages in God" (Eph 3:9), where evil and sin also have their place. "God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy on us all"(Rom 11:32). In this daring passage, which, strictly speaking, seems somewhat questionable, since it seems to place the initiative of sin on God, Saint Paul assures us that even the greatest catastrophe, namely, sin, contributes to the revelation of love. Nothing falls outside of God's plan. That is why the tragedy of the world, despite all its terror, has no definitive character. All the absurdity of which mankind's foolishness and blindness are capable is caught up in God's loving omnipotence. He is able to fit even the absurd into his plan of salvation and thereby give it meaning.
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"There is indeed much done against God's will by evil men," Augustine writes, "but his wisdom and power are so great that everything seemingly contrary to it, in reality, works toward the good outcome or end that he has preordained." In other words "God accomplishes his good will through the evil will of others. In this way the Father's loving plan was realized . . . and Jesus suffered death for our sake." (Enchiridion, no. 26)