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We live in an age marked by haste, improvisation, and a constant sense of inner disorder. Many people feel that their life is a succession of events without a guiding thread: half-made decisions, suffering that is not understood, successes that do not fulfill, and failures that bewilder. In this context, traditional Catholic theology offers us a concept as ancient as it is current, as profound as it is liberating: the Voluntas Ordinata.
To speak of Voluntas Ordinata is not to speak of an abstract idea reserved for medieval theologians. It is to speak of how God wills, how He acts, and how He invites us to live. It is to speak of the way in which the divine will is not capricious, but wise; not arbitrary, but lovingly ordered toward the good.
This article seeks to educate, inspire, and serve as a spiritual guide, helping you discover how the Voluntas Ordinata can transform the way you understand God, suffering, freedom, and everyday life.
1. What is Voluntas Ordinata? A clear and accessible definition
In Catholic theology, especially within the scholastic tradition, a distinction is made between:
- Voluntas Dei absoluta: what God could do by virtue of His omnipotence.
- Voluntas Dei ordinata (Voluntas Ordinata): what God wills to do and in fact does, according to a wise and just order coherent with His nature.
👉 The Voluntas Ordinata is the will of God as He has freely disposed it, ordering all things toward their ultimate end: the good and salvation.
God does not act at random. He does not improvise. He does not contradict His justice with His mercy, nor His power with His love. Everything He permits or wills is integrated into a divine order, even though that order often remains mysterious to us.
As Scripture says:
“You have arranged all things by measure and number and weight”
(Wisdom 11:20)
2. Historical origins of the concept: the wisdom of tradition
The notion of Voluntas Ordinata is developed with particular clarity in medieval theology, especially in authors such as:
- Saint Augustine, who affirms that God permits evil only in order to draw a greater good from it.
- Saint Thomas Aquinas, who explains that God always acts in accordance with reason and the order He Himself has willed.
- Classical scholasticism, which carefully distinguishes between what God can do and what He has chosen to establish as the norm of the world.
For Saint Thomas, God is not subject to an external order, but freely chooses an order, and once chosen, He acts faithfully within it. This allows us to trust: God does not contradict Himself, He does not change moods, He does not play with our lives.
3. Voluntas Ordinata and Providence: God does not abandon His work
One of the great spiritual fruits of this concept is a deep understanding of divine Providence.
To believe in the Voluntas Ordinata means to believe that:
- Nothing occurs outside of God’s knowledge.
- Nothing escapes His loving governance.
- Even what He does not will directly (sin, evil), He permits within a greater plan.
Saint Paul expresses this with a phrase that has sustained generations of Christians:
“We know that in everything God works for good with those who love Him”
(Romans 8:28)
This is neither naïveté nor denial of suffering. It is mature faith, capable of looking at history—personal and collective—with supernatural hope.
4. Human freedom and Voluntas Ordinata: are we puppets?
A frequent objection is this: “If everything is ordered by God, where does my freedom remain?”
The answer of Catholic theology is clear and deeply human:
👉 The Voluntas Ordinata does not annul freedom; it makes it possible and fruitful.
God, in His order, has willed that the human being be truly free. Our freedom is not a threat to God, but part of His plan. He knows how to integrate our decisions—even mistaken ones—into His salvific design.
This frees us from two very modern errors:
- Fatalism (“everything is the same, it is already decided”).
- Absolute voluntarism (“I decide everything, God does not count”).
The Catholic faith proposes a higher path: real human freedom within a divine order full of meaning.
5. Contemporary relevance: Voluntas Ordinata in a disordered world
Today we live amid a profound crisis of order:
- Moral confusion.
- Relativism.
- Rejection of all authority.
- Fear of suffering and of the cross.
In this context, the Voluntas Ordinata is a spiritual antidote. It reminds us that:
- Order does not oppress, it liberates.
- Obedience to God does not humiliate, it ennobles.
- Accepting the divine will is not resignation, but active trust.
Christ Himself is the supreme model of the Voluntas Ordinata lived out:
“Not my will, but Yours be done”
(Luke 22:42)
On the cross, apparent chaos becomes the most perfect work of God’s salvific order.
6. Practical guide: living according to the Voluntas Ordinata today
1. Form your conscience
From a theological and pastoral point of view, one cannot live the will of God without knowing it.
- Study the Gospel.
- Learn the doctrine of the Church.
- Flee from a “God made to my measure.”
👉 The Voluntas Ordinata never contradicts the moral law.
2. Accept what you cannot control
Not everything that happens is directly willed by God, but everything can be offered and redeemed.
- Illness.
- Failures.
- Injustices suffered.
Pastorally, this does not mean telling someone that “God wanted their pain,” but helping them discover that God does not abandon them in it.
3. Discern before deciding
The will of God is not guessed; it is discerned:
- Sincere prayer.
- Spiritual counsel.
- Interior peace compatible with truth.
The Voluntas Ordinata does not usually shout; it gently orders the heart.
4. Unite will and cross
There is no Christian life without the cross. The difference lies in how it is lived.
- Resisting generates bitterness.
- Offering it generates spiritual fruitfulness.
Here the Voluntas Ordinata becomes a path of real sanctification, not an idealized one.
5. Trust even when you do not understand
Mature faith does not demand immediate explanations.
- Trust today.
- You will understand later.
- Or perhaps in eternity.
As tradition teaches: God sees the complete tapestry; we see only the reverse side.
7. Conclusion: the rest of the soul in the order of God
The Voluntas Ordinata is not a spiritual prison, but a refuge. In a world that glorifies improvisation and the ego, rediscovering God’s loving order is a true interior revolution.
To accept the Voluntas Ordinata is to say:
- “Not everything depends on me.”
- “My life has a greater meaning.”
- “God knows what He is doing, even when I do not understand it.”
And there, precisely there, the heart finds rest.
Because when the human will aligns itself with the ordered will of God, inner chaos is transformed into peace, and life—with all its lights and shadows—begins to taste of eternity.
