Peace and blessings this holy Advent season. May this holy season of silence, solitude, and simplicity prepare you for the coming of Christ. 

If we set out along the road that leads to God, and to the loving union of our will with the will of God, we cannot get far without meeting a dragon. ~Fr. Gerald Vann, OP

At Heaven’s gate our entrance ticket, according to Scripture and Church dogma, is not our good works or our sincerity, but our faith, which glues us to Jesus. He saves us; we do not save ourselves. But I find, incredibly, that 9 out of 10 Catholics do not know this, the absolutely central, core, essential dogma of Christianity. Protestants are right: most Catholics do in fact believe a whole other religion. Well over 90% of students I have polled who have had 12 years of catechism classes, even Catholic high schools, say they expect to go to Heaven because they tried, or did their best, or had compassionate feelings to everyone, or were sincere. They hardly ever mention Jesus. Asked why they hope to be saved, they mention almost anything except the Savior. Who taught them? Who wrote their textbooks? These teachers have stolen from our precious children the most valuable thing in the world, the "pearl of great price;" their faith. Jesus had some rather terrifying warnings about such things something about millstones. ~ Peter Kreeft, Convert, Professor of Philosophy @ Boston College

“Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament... There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth, and more than that: Death: by the divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the taste (or foretaste) of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, which every man's heart desires.” ~ J. R.R. Tolkien

I used to think that God's gifts were on shelves one above the other and that the taller we grow in Christian character the more easily we could reach them. I now find that God's gifts are on shelves one beneath the other and that it is not a question of growing taller but of stooping lower. ~F. B. Meyer

Too many people who claim to be Christian simply don’t know Jesus Christ. They don’t really believe in the Gospels. They feel embarrassed by their religion and vaguely out of step with the times. They may keep their religion for comfort value. Or they may adjust it to fit their doubts. But it doesn’t reshape their lives because it isn’t real. And because it isn’t real, it has no transforming effect on their personal behavior, no social force and few public consequences. ~Archbishop Charles Chaput, Assumption College, Nov. 10, 2011

I want to invite you to "dare to love." Do not desire anything less for your life than love that is strong and beautiful and that is capable of making the whole of your existence a joyful undertaking of giving yourselves as a gift to God and your brothers and sisters, in imitation of the One who vanquished hatred and death forever through love. ~Pope Benedict XVI

We do not have a personal Gospel and a social Gospel. There is one Gospel, and one Gospel only, and that Gospel is the Gospel of Jesus Christ; this indivisible message from God has its individual application and its social application. It has the power to redeem the individual and also the power to redeem social order. ~Jesse  Bader

Your theology is what you are when the talking stops and the action starts. ~Colin Morris

Christians should never let adversity get them down except on their knees. ~ John Vance Cheney

Teach me dear Lord frequently and attentively to consider this truth: that if I gain the whole world and lose thee, in the end I have lost everything: whereas if I lose the whole world and gain thee, in the end I have lost nothing. ~ Bl. John Henry Cardinal Newman

In order to realize the worth of the anchor, we need to feel the stress of the storm. ~ Anonymous 

The best form of contemplative prayer is adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. As we behold the face of Christ in his sacramental presence, we behold the source of light, healing and peace. Through silent contemplation, we enter into the wordless realm.

In a way beyond our explanation, we experience the powerful presence of Christ at the very deepest level of our existence; and as our roots receive this rain from heaven, the rest of our being will flourish, and we will grow into the abundant life that Christ promises. ~ Father Dwight Longenecker