The following is an excerpt from Servant of God, Father Isaac Hecker’s Notes on the Interior States (1874-75).

Servant of God Isaac Hecker wrote:

We live in God in two ways. For what constitutes Christian life is the union of the natural and the supernatural orders. We live in God in the natural order as his creatures. Man naturally seeks the truth and desires the good, but to find the truth and possess the good requires the aid of something greater than ourselves. This aid is revelation and grace. We live in God in the order of his divine love as made known and communicated to us in Christ, in the order of his divine justice, when we by our own fault, reject his divine love.

In the natural order we live in God as a consequence of the imminent relation existing essentially between creator and creature. This relation is so intimate that the creator is in reality more the cause of the action of the creature than the creature is itself. God is the primary actor in all things. The creature as secondary cause acts either directly with God or permissively against him. In the first cause he comes into the sphere of divine love. In the second, he falls into the sphere of divine justice.

We live in God substantially in the supernatural order, as the Holy Spirit lives substantially in us by baptism and becomes more the cause of our supernatural actions than we ourselves.

Response by Father Paul Robichaud, CSP

As Jesus the Redeemer reestablishes the connection between God and humanity that was lost by sin, so as Christians we have come to know that we live in two orders of life at the same time; human life and divine life. As creatures fashioned by God, we have an intimate relationship with God. God who created us is the great cause behind our actions. As spiritual children of God, we share divine life through the gift of the Holy Spirit which lives within us through baptism. If we can experience God as a creature so how much more can we experience God as a child of God and the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit.

Reflection questions

• As human beings we try to live an authentic and virtuous life. When you do this have you sensed God’s presence working behind your instincts and intentions?

•As children of the Father, how have you experienced the Holy Spirit living within you and encouraging you to be virtuous?

About this series

Father Paul Robichaud, CSP, is the 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 Father Robichaud at 202-269-2519 or write to [email protected] and tell him your story.