Book Reviews and More: Providence and Prayer - Father Francis Selman

Tuesday, 20 May 2025

Providence and Prayer - Father Francis Selman - CTS Deeper Christianity Series

Providence and Prayer

Deeper Christianity Series

Fr Francis Selman

Catholic Truth Society
ISBN 9781784690670

eISBN 9781784693275

ASIN B072XQ1YXD

CTS Booklet SP43

I have been focusing on this series lately. This is an excellent volume in a wonderful series. Over the last several years, I have read many books from the Catholic Truth Society, over 440 of them in fact, many read more than once; this all since the spring of 2018. Most were good reads; some were great reads; and a few are exceptional. This was the eighteenth in the Deeper Christianity Series that I have read; many of them have been read twice. This is the second I have read by Father Francis Selman, and I believe he only published 2 with the CTS, but he has about a half dozen other volumes. This series is one of my favourites. This booklet was originally published 2015 and the eBook was released in 2017. The description of this volume is:

“This booklet explores the providence of God and why prayer is not simply about petitioning God for what we want but a beautiful path to eternal happiness with Him.

If God is in control of the universe then why should we pray to him, do we pray to change God’s mind? Why does God want us to pray to him at all? Why do our prayers sometimes seem to go unanswered? This booklet explores the providence of God and why prayer is not simply about petitioning God for what we want but a beautiful path to eternal happiness with Him.”

The chapters in the book are:

Introduction

What is Providence?

The Existence and Nature of God

Three Difficulties for Providence

Petitionary Prayer

What if God Does Not Give Us the Answer We Expect?

Miracles

What We Should Specially Pray For

I highlighted a few passages while reading this volume, some of them are:

“In this pamphlet, however, I shall mainly be concerned with the prayer of petition, that is, praying for things.”

“And, third, to consider miracles, for petitionary prayer implies belief in God’s power to work miracles. We shall end by asking what we should ask God for most of all.”

“Boethius pointed to the planets and stars as a clear sign of God’s ordering of the heavens and hence of his providential rule of the world.”

“Boethius himself defined providence as “the divine plan (ratio), which disposes all things”.”

“The universe has an end because it is neither determined in all its movements (sometimes things fail to act through defects), nor is it purely random or irrational. It is neither the result of necessity nor of chance, because it has been made by free will. Free will always goes with mind and intelligence: one does not exist without the other either in God or human beings.”

“Mathematics is logical. The Greek word for a reason is logos, which is also the Greek word for a word. Thus we read in Scripture that the world was made by the Word, the divine Logos: “In the beginning was the Word, … all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made” (Jn 1: 1-3).”

“Ultimately, all things are ordered to an ultimate end, which is God, who is complete Goodness in himself.”

“Providence, then, is the plan existing in the mind of God, by which he directs all things to an end.”

“Every single thing in the universe comes within God’s providence, because it depends on God for its continued existence. God’s providence extends as far as his power, which is to all things, because he holds them in existence every moment.”

“God takes care of all things because he knows all things, including every individual.”

“God knows all things, because all things are present to him, for he is everywhere. If God takes care of the sparrows, how much more he has concern for each one of us!”

“This does not mean that he does not require the co-operation of our free response to his grace.”

“When Catholics pray to the saints, whose power of intercession is greater than of those on earth, they do not pray to someone else than God but only ask the saints to pray to God on their behalf.”

“Whenever we pray we exercise the supernatural virtues of faith, hope and charity. No activity can be a more valuable than this because these virtues unite us with God.”

“Prayer manifests our desire for what God wants to give, and may help to arouse or increase that desire.”

“Although we do not change God’s mind or let him know anything which he does not already know, by prayer we dispose ourselves better for what he has to give us, especially his gifts of grace.”

“Thus prayer helps us to realise that we depend on God, to desire his gifts more greatly, and to dispose ourselves better to receive them.”

“One reason why God does not always answer our prayer immediately is that he has something better in store for us than we thought of or because we ask for something which, with hindsight, we can see would not have been so good for us.”

“As we can see from the above six points, prayer is never pointless but brings us great benefits even when it appears to be unanswered.”

I hope those quotes give you a feel for this booklet. I highlighted less than I though and most of them were shorter sections. This surprised me when I went back through the book. It is likely a volume I will need to return to again. There is a lot of great material in this volume.

This book is an excellent read and one any Catholic would benefit from reading. The CTS Deeper Christianity Series of books is written in such a way that they can easily be read in any order. Pick and choose the ones that interest you, read them in order, or jump around. I have been blessed by the entire series that I have read and can highly recommend this book and the series.

Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2025 Catholic Reading Plan! For other reviews of books from the Catholic Truth Society click here.

For reviews of other books in the CTS Deeper Christianity Series click here.

Books by Father Francis Selman:

Aquinas 101: A Basic Introduction to the Thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas

The Catholic Faith in Twenty-Five Days

From Physics to Metaphysics

Aspects Of Aquinas

Providence & Prayer

The Sacraments and the Mystery of Christ

A Guide to the Eucharist: The Paschal Sacrament

St. Thomas Aquinas: Teacher of Truth

…

Books in the Deeper Christianity Series:
7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit
8 Deadly Sins Learning to Defend the Life of Grace