From Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence: The Secret of Peace and Happiness by Fr. Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure and St. Claude de la Colombière (pp. 45-7)
Fathers and Mothers of families ought to conform their wills to God’s plans with regard to the number of children God pleases to give.
When men were animated by the spirit of faith they regarded a large family as a gift of God and a blessing from Heaven, and considered God more than themselves as the father of their children. But now that faith has weakened and people live isolated from God, or if they think of Him at all it is mostly to fear Him and hardly ever to have trust in His providence, they are reduced to bearing the burden of their families alone. And as a man’s resources, however ample and assured they may seem, are always limited and uncertain, even those who are most favored by fortune view with dismay an increase in their family. They regard it as a kind of disaster which fills them with apprehension, an endless source of worry to poison their existence.
How different it would be if we realized God’s paternal treatment of those who submit to Him with filial trust! If we did so we should realize also what St. Paul meant when he said that “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work” (2 Cor 9:8).
To obtain the help of Providence it should be your aim to cooperate, as it were, with the Fatherhood of God and bring up your children as He would wish them brought up, especially by showing them good example. Have the courage to lay aside all other ambition and let this be the only object of your care and desire.
Then, whatever the number of your children, you can rest assured that their heavenly Father will provide for them. He will watch over them and dispose all things for their happiness and welfare, and the more unreservedly you entrust their future to His hands, the greater will be His loving care for them. Avoid worrying, then, about anything else for your children except whatever may contribute to bringing them up virtuously. For the rest, having entrusted them to God try to see what His will for them is, to help them along the path in life He has chosen for them.
Never be afraid of relying too much on Him, but rather seek always to increase your trust more and more, for this is the most pleasing homage you can pay Him and it will be the measure of the graces you will receive. Little or much will be given to you according to what you have expected.
In times of poverty and all the inconveniencies poverty brings in its train, we should surrender to the Fatherhood of God. He watches over His children.
Prodigal Catholic 