Divine Providence In Catholic theology, Divine Providence is God's loving presence and care for all of creation. A distinction is usually made between general providence, which refers to God's continuous upholding of the existence and natural order of the Universe, and special providence, which refers to God's extraordinary intervention in the life of individual people. Christian teaching on providence in the High Middle Ages was most fully developed by St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica. The concept of providence as care exercised by God over the universe, God’s foresight and care for its future, is extensively developed and explained both by Aquinas himself and modern Thomists. In our modern world, the concept of Divine Providence calls us to a creation-centered theology which sees the sacred in all created things and reveres each person as created in the image and likeness of God. Divine Providence also reflects the seeking after wisdom that is a part of the tradition of the Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch. One of the foremost modern Thomists, Dominican Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, wrote extensively on the concept of Divine Providence. Among his quotes are the following:
“As the bee knows how to find honey in flowers, the gift of wisdom draws lessons of divine goodness from everything.” ― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life
“No one can know the true meaning of the language of spiritual writers if he is unable to explain it theologically; and, on the other hand, no one can know the sublimity of theology if he is ignorant of its relations to mysticism.” ― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life
"It has been said that if a little learning withdraws a person from religion, great learning brings him back to it.” ― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life