Theological Foundations new file

42 Theological Foundations holy, useful and praiseworthy thing that you do, do it all out of your love of God in such a way that a particular intention would always precede your actions or at least follow them.” 69 It is good to evoke such an inten- tion at every opportunity. God will then sanctify all our thoughts and actions, preserve them from sin and if we should fall, He will gracious- ly pardon us. He will also enable us to love Him with all our heart, our soul, our thoughts, our will and with all our strength as well as to become united with His Divinity in the tightest bond of faithful love. 70 One of the consequences of our surrender to God is a constant sense of His presence. A sinner tries to hide himself and his evil just as if God were not everywhere, as if He did not penetrate everything, as if He did not know man’s thoughts and actions. 71 Meanwhile, he might avoid many sins and imperfections if only he would remember God’s pres- ence. “For as long as the light from high above shines upon you, you can see very clearly what you must do and what you should avoid: you bear all bitterness with a sweetness of spirit, you enjoy all the sweetness with a readiness to give it up. Your conscience is clear and you can see your- self living in an earthly paradise which ( ... ) you have found, where you can take rest and enjoy every delight. When you pray, you feel as if you were in the presence of angels, so you say your prayers with great piety, humility and attention. I will not even mention the thousands of other benefits which the presence of God bestows upon you. On the other hand, when you are not mindful of God’s presence before you, when you have allowed Jesus to leave your soul, you are tormented by sad- ness, you fade, you have no sense of direction, you stumble and fall, you fall into various, even the worst kinds of sins and you watch yourself as if you were already in hell or at least close to it. Another author saw it, too, when he said: “To be without Jesus is a grievous hell; and to be with Jesus, a sweet paradise (Thomas a Kempis 2, chap. 8, 2).” 72 A further consequence of one’s total surrender to God in the forma- tion of Christian attitude is, in Father Papczynski’s opinion, the fulfill- ment of God’s will. A religious should frequently recall to mind the rea- son why he had entered the religious life. He should recall his youthful