Be Not Troubled ― A 6-day Personal Retreat With Fr. Jean-pierre De Caussade

For more than 250 years, Abandonment to Divine Providence by Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade has offered inspiration and spiritual balm for those plagued with doubt, anxiety, and fear. Motivated by his own life-changing encounter with this spiritual classic and the popular resurgence in practicing Christian mindfulness, bestselling author and retreat leader Rev. Jeffrey Kirby serves up six meditations, rooted in Caussade’s work, for today’s reader and presents them as a personal retreat. Perfect for anyone looking to renew their trust in God and live freely in the present moment, Be Not Troubled invites you to let go of what you can’t control and discover a place of deep serenity in God.

How does the contemporary person who is constantly forced to multitask, is fragmented and torn in different directions, and feels more connection through technology than through face-to-face interaction come to know and experience God’s presence?

In Be Not Troubled, Kirby draws on his decades of experience as a popular retreat leader and speaker to offer you the wisdom of Caussade distilled into a six-day personal retreat that equips you to embrace the present moment and shake fear from your mind—all by recognizing the power of God.

This process begins with time-tested tools drawn from the renowned spiritual classic Abandonment to Divine Providence, which presents a series of influential spiritual reflections from Caussade, a beloved eighteenth-century French Jesuit.

In popularizing this classic for today’s readers, Be Not Troubled

• rejects a spirituality of fear and shame by introducing you to God as a loving provider who knows you and wills your happiness;
• guides you in personally surrendering your will to God—an essential step in developing deep faith;
• helps you see God in the details as you recognize ordinary moments as opportunities to experience God and his love for you; and
• instructs you in embracing the sacrament of the present moment, dispelling doubt and anxiety from your life.

Practical steps, invitations to practice presence, and reflective prayers guide you through these spiritual habits, which are broken out into six days of brief, accessible meditations that can be completed in the midst of your daily life.

Rather than the future or the past, and rather than in cyberspace or somewhere else, God is found in this moment and in this place. The present moment can be lived and cherished as a sacrament, a visible sign of invisible graces. And it’s in this sacrament that we can most know ourselves and encounter the living God.

Fr. Jeffrey Kirby is pastor at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in the Diocese of Charleston in Indian Land, South Carolina. He is the author of several books, including Kingdom of Happiness: Living the Beatitudes in Everyday Life; Doors of Mercy: Exploring God's Covenant with You; and Lord, Teach Us to Pray. He has appeared on EWTN, Salt + Light television, and the BBC, as well as on Catholic radio.

In 2016, in recognition of his widespread service to young adults, he received the Order of the Palmetto, South Carolina’s highest civilian honor.

Kirby is an adjunct professor of theology at Belmont Abbey College and Pontifex University/Holy Spirit College. He is also a spirituality contributor to Crux and a guest columnist for The Catholic Thing. He served in a number of parish and Catholic school positions in South Carolina. He is a veteran of the Army National Guard, for which he received several ribbons and medals. Kirby also has led retreats for various monasteries and schools of the Visitation Sisters throughout the world.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in philosophy from Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he also was given the 2017 John King Mussio Award for Faithful Service to the Church. Kirby also earned a bachelor’s degree in sacred theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University. He has a master’s degree in bioethics from the Pontifical Athenaeum Queen of the Apostles in Rome and a licentiate in moral theology from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, where he also earned a doctorate in sacred theology.