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Discernment and Guidance

Some Definite Service

Also known as God has created me to do him some definite service, Newman meditation

Newman’s meditation on having a particular purpose that nobody else has. Written for people who cannot see what theirs is — and it says that not seeing it changes nothing.

Newman’s text

God has created me to do him some definite service.
He has committed some work to me
which he has not committed to another.
I have my mission.

I may never know it in this life,
but I shall be told it in the next.
I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons.
He has not created me for naught.
I shall do good — I shall do his work.

I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place,
while not intending it,
if I do but keep his commandments and serve him in my calling.

Therefore I will trust him.
Whatever, wherever I am,
I can never be thrown away.
If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve him;
in perplexity, my perplexity may serve him;
if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve him.
He does nothing in vain.
He knows what he is about.
He may take away my friends.
He may throw me among strangers.
He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink,
hide my future from me —
still, he knows what he is about.

Source

John Henry Newman, Meditations and Devotions (1893)

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