A Joyful Heart

A joyful heart is more easily made perfect that one that is cast down. ~St. Philip Neri

Seeking Knowledge

"Some seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge: that is curiosity. Others seek knowledge that they may themselves be known: that is vanity. But there are still others who seek knowledge in order to serve and edify others, and that is charity." 

~St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Evangelism

Evangelism is not what we tell people, unless what we tell is totally consistent with who we are. It is who we are that is going to make the difference....If we do not have love in our hearts, our words of love will have little meaning. If we do not truly enjoy our faith, nobody is going to catch the fire of enjoyment from us. If our lives are not totally centered on Christ, we will not be Christ-bearers for others, no matter how pious our words. ~Madeleine L'Engle

Where Happiness Cannot Be Found

God is now showing men what a great mistake they make when they try to do without Him, when they regard earthly enjoyment as their highest good, and thus reverse the whole scale of values, or, as the ancient philosophers put it, the subordination of ends. As though in the hope of compensating for the poor quality of earthly goods, men are striving to increase their quantity; they are trying to produce as much as possible in the order of material enjoyment. They are constructing machinery with the object of increasing production at a greater profit. This is the ultimate objective. But what is the consequence ? The surplus cannot be disposed of; it is wasted, and unemployment is the result. The worker starves in enforced idleness while others die of surfeit. The present state of the world is called a crisis. But in fact it is more than a crisis; it is a condition of affairs which, if men only had eyes to see, ought to be revealing, it ought to show men that they have sought their last end where it is not to be found, in earthly enjoyment -- instead of God. They are seeking happiness in an abundance of material possessions which are incapable of giving it; possessions which sow discord among those that seek them, and a greater discord according as they are sought with greater avidity. ~ Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange

And Then God Said....

So, in light of all the fuss surrounding the recent fall from grace of a certain well-known Catholic evangelist and my sometimes rather uncharitable comments regarding his demise, the Lord directed me to the following few lines from St. Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church:

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Those in union with God, when aware of the sins of others, live in this gentle light... Therefore they are always peaceful and calm, and nothing can scandalize them because they have done away with what causes them to take scandal, their self-will... Even when they see something that is clearly sinful, they do not pass judgment, but rather feel a holy and genuine compassion, praying for the sinner. ~ St. Catherine of Siena

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And then God said unto me: "Please shut up!" 

"Cor Meum Est Templum Sacrum"
[My Heart Is a Holy Place]
by Patricia Van Ness

My heart is a holy place
Wiser and holier than I know it to be
Wiser than my lips can speak
A spring of mystery and grace.

You have created my heart
And have filled it with things of wonder.
You have sculpted it, shaped it with your hands
Touched it with Your breath.
In its own season it reveals itself to me.
It shows me rivers of gold
Flowing in elegance
And hidden paths of infinite beauty.

You touch me with Your stillness as
   I await its time.
You have made it a dwelling place
   of richness and intricacies
Of wisdom beyond my understanding
Of grace and mysteries, from your hands.

Praying in the Spirit

Do not imagine, my beloved, that prayer consists solely of words, or that it can be learned by means of words. Listen to the truth of the matter from our Lord! Spiritual prayer is not learned and does not reach fullness as a result of learning, for it is not to a person that you are praying, before whom you can repeat a well-composed speech. It is to him who is Spirit that you are directing the movements of prayer. You should pray, therefore, in spirit, seeing that God is Spirit. ~Abraham of Nathpar  (6th century)

No Cross, No Crown

You must be prepared for periods of darkness, anxiety, doubts, fears, of temptations that are sometimes very, very insistent, of sufferings of the body and, what is a hundredfold more painful, of the soul.... If there were no trials, there would be no struggle. Without a struggle, victory would be impossible, and without victory, there is no crown, no reward. ~St. Maximilian Kolbe

Surprises

I believe in the surprises of the Holy Spirit. The story of the Church is a long story, filled with the wonders of the Holy Spirit. Why should we think God's imagination and love might be exhausted? ~Leon Joseph Cardinal Suenens

The Holy Eucharist

The Holy Eucharist is my heaven on earth, and before it I will adore, as the angels and saints adore before the throne of the Lamb in heaven. ~St. Peter Julian Eymard

True Holiness

True holiness does not mean flight from the world; rather, it lies in the effort to incarnate the Gospel in life, in the family, at school and at work, and in social and political involvement. ~Bl. Pope John Paul II

Providence of God...

Providence of my God, I adore you in all your designs. I place my destiny in your hands, confiding to you all that I have, all that I am, and all that I am to become. ~Bl. John Martin Moye

Whatever We Have Comes From You

Whatever we have comes from you...Let us give with equally generous hands to those who are poor, breaking bread and sharing our bread with them. For you have told us that whatever we give to the poor we give to you.~Alcuin of York

But in our intention we wait for God, and trust faithfully to have mercy and grace; and this is how in goodness God opens the eye of our understanding, by which we have sight, sometimes more and sometimes less, according to the ability God gives us to receive.  ~Julian of Norwich

United With God

Unite your heart with God... Remember always that God is eternal, and work courageously in order one day to be united with God forever. ~St. Damien Joseph De Veuster

We Need Grace

How contrary to human nature are the divine teachings! Without the help of grace, it would be impossible not only to follow them but even to understand them. ~St. Therese of Lisieux

Swimming against the tide

Jesus enables you to know at first hand the love of God the Father; he helps you realize that your happiness comes from his friendship, from fellowship with him. Why? Because we have been created and saved by love, and it is only in love, the love which desires and seeks the good of others, that we truly experience the meaning of life and find happiness in living it, even amid difficulties, trials and disappointments, even when it means swimming against the tide. ~Pope Benedict XVI, June 4, 2011

Good Shepherd, seek me...

Good Shepherd, seek me, a lamb, and do not overlook me in my wanderings. ~from the Byzantine canon of St. Andrew of Crete

My Way, My Truth, My Life

Jesus, my Way,

lead me along the path of holiness

Jesus, my Truth,

enlighten my mind to your wisdom

Jesus, my Life,

give me the courage to live for you alone

Amen

A Great Task Awaits Us

To sense God near, to mediate, to pray, to gather our thoughts so as to reflect on them more deeply, that is to live the inner life, and this interior life is the greatest joy. Such inspiring thoughts and ardent desires and and generous resolutions, however, should be translated into action, for we are in the midst of life and a great task awaits us. This is the time for painful effort. We must tear ourselves apart, give up thought for reality, face action, know that we will either not be understood at all or completely misunderstood, and that we will perhaps suffer at human hands for having willed the good of humanity. We must already have drawn from God an incomparable strength, and armed our hearts with patience and love, in order to undertake day by day and hour by hour that work that belongs to all Christians: the moral and material salvation of our brothers and sisters.

The task that the world at present offers us, the moral renewal, the transformation and education of souls, is so immense that it may well confound us. What can be dine in the face of evil and indifference by someone as obscure as I? Nothing of myself, no doubt, but all through and with God. I believe that no humble, unknown act or thought, seen by God alone, is lost, and that all, in fact, contribute to the good of others. I believe according to the saying...that "when we do good we know not how much good we do." What we have to do is to work on ourselves, to accomplish our own inner transformation, to fulfill our obligations and do all the good that we can ,each day and each hour. Above all, we must ask God to fill us with an intense charity. Charity is the love of God that renews and transforms us and our lives, and becomes the hidden source of our actions, our love of all creatures, our powerful and vital love of souls, our love of all who suffer and grieve. Such love can save the world. Why complain hen we can act? Why hate, since hate destroys, when that divine love enlivens and transforms our hearts? ~ Elizabeth Leseur

Waiting Openhandedly

To wait openhandedly is an enormously radical attitude toward life. So is to trust that something will happen to us that is far beyond our imaginings. So, too, is giving up control over our future and letting God define our life, trusting that God molds us according to God's love and not according to our fear. The spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively present to the moment, trusting that new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our own imagination, fantasy, or prediction. That, indeed, is a very radical stance toward life in a world preoccupied with control. ~Henri J. M. Nouwen

Changing the World

"What we would like to do is change the world--make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended them to do. And, by fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, the poor, of the destitute--the rights of the worthy and the unworthy poor, in other words--we can, to a certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world. We repeat, there is nothing we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as our friend." ~Dorothy Day

Becoming Fully Ourselves

Through Baptism, our life is already hidden with Christ in God -- in our current existence we are already 'raised' with him at the Father's right hand (cf. Col 3:1-3). If we enter fully into the essence of our Christian life, then we really do touch the risen Lord, and then we really do become fully ourselves. ~Pope Benedict XVI

Here's Something To Think About

Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?