31
October 2021 On Patience
Have patience with all things, but chiefly have
patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own
imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them — every day begin the
task anew.
30
October 2021 Where there is…
Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither
fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility, there is neither
anger nor vexation. Where there is poverty and joy, there is neither greed nor
avarice. Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor
doubt.
29
October 2021 Going to Church
Further, one must go to church not inattentively.
For, it is always possible that one may go to church not in a way worthy of
praise but rather of condemnation, i.e., by going and not receiving any
spiritual benefit. Approaching the church, you must leave every care and worry
about your affairs at the threshold in order to enter with a serene mind.
Entering the church, you must put on reverence like a garment, remembering to
Whom we are coming and to Whom we intend to address our prayers. Having taken
your place in the church (best of all, the same place each time), you should
gather your thoughts and mentally stand before the face of the omnipresent God,
offering Him reverent worship in body and spirit, with a contrite heart and in
humble reverence. After this, you must follow, without wandering thoughts,
everything that is going on — what is being sung and read in the church — all
the way to the end of the service. That is all! In this way, we won’t be bored
in church, looking here and there and starting conversations, and we won’t be
wishing that the service be over soon. Instead, passing from one prayerful
feeling to another and from one reverent thought to the next, we will be like
those in a fragrant garden, moving from one group of flowers to another.
Saint Theophan the Recluse (1815-1894)
28
October 2021 On Prayer
Prayer opens the understanding to the brightness of
Divine Light, and the will to the warmth of Heavenly Love – nothing can so
effectually purify the mind from its many ignorances, or the will from its
perverse affections. It is as a healing water which causes the roots of our
good desires to send forth fresh shoots, which washes away the soul’s
imperfections, and allays the thirst of passion.
27
October 2021 Divine Image
Therefore, since each of us possesses God in his
heart and is being transformed into his divine image, we also should cry out
with joy: ‘It is good for us to be here‘ – here where all things shine with
divine radiance, where there is joy and gladness and exultation; where there is
nothing in our hearts but peace, serenity and stillness; where God is seen. For
here, in our hearts, Christ takes up his abode together with the Father, saying
as he enters: ‘Today salvation has come to this house.’ With Christ, our hearts
receive all the wealth of his eternal blessings, and there where they are
stored up for us in him, we see reflected as in a mirror both the first fruits
and the whole of the world to come.
26
October 2021 Perfect
Confidence
It is in Him alone that I have placed all my
confidence. Be brave always, prudent and confident in the omnipresence of God.
He will give you the strength and grace that you need. We must suffer, we must
humble ourselves, we must pray, we must hope and have perfect confidence in
God. If God wants it, He will do it all. It is in Him that I have placed all my
confidence and I have always experienced the effect of His help.
24 October 2021 On Belief
As soon as I believed there was a God, I understood
I could do nothing else but live for him, my religious vocation dates from the
same moment as my faith: God is so great. There is such a difference between
God and everything that is not.
23
October 2021 The Way
The ways of the Lord are many, though he is himself the way. When he speaks of himself he calls himself the way and shows us the reason why he called himself the way: ‘No one can come to the Father except through me.’ We must ask for these many ways, we must travel along these many ways, to find the one that is good. That is, we shall find the one way of eternal life through the guidance of many teachers. These ways are found in the law, in the prophets, in the gospels, in the writings of the apostles, in the different good works by which we fulfill the commandments. Blessed are those who walk these ways in the fear of the Lord.
Saint Hilary of Poitiers (c. 300-368)
20
October 2021 Our Hearts
Receive
Therefore, since each of us possesses God in his heart and is being transformed into his divine image, we also should cry out with joy: ‘It is good for us to be here‘ – here where all things shine with divine radiance, where there is joy and gladness and exultation; where there is nothing in our hearts but peace, serenity and stillness; where God is seen. For here, in our hearts, Christ takes up his abode together with the Father, saying as he enters: ‘Today salvation has come to this house.’ With Christ, our hearts receive all the wealth of his eternal blessings, and there where they are stored up for us in him, we see reflected as in a mirror both the first fruits and the whole of the world to come.
Anastasius of Sinai (Seventh Century)
19 October 2021 Fear of God
But of the fear of the Lord this is what is written: ‘Come, my children, listen to me, I shall teach you the fear of the Lord.’ The fear of the Lord has then to be learned because it can be taught. It does not lie in terror, but in something that can be taught. It does not arise from the fearfulness of our nature; it has to be acquired by obedience to the commandments, by holiness of life and by knowledge of the truth.
14
October 2021 Truth
Every morning you put on your clothes to cover your nakedness and protect your body from inclement weather. Why don’t you also clothe your soul with the garment of faith? Remember each morning the truths of your creed, and look at yourself in the mirror of your faith. Otherwise, your soul will soon be naked with the nakedness of oblivion.
13
October 2021 On Sanctification
12
October 2021 On Humility
10
October 2021 Mother of God
Anyone who would understand the nature of a tree should examine the earth that encloses its roots, the soil from which its sap climbs into branch, blossom, and fruit. Similarly to understand the person of Jesus Christ, one would do well to look to the soil that brought him forth: Mary, his mother.
9
October 2021 On Penance
When we are in sin, our soul is all diseased, all rotten; it is pitiful. The thought that the – good God sees it ought to make it enter into itself… Put yourself on good terms with God; have recourse to the Sacrament of Penance; you will sleep as quietly as an angel. You will be glad to waken in the night, to pray to God; you will have nothing but thanksgivings on your lips; you will rise towards Heaven with great facility, as an eagle soars through the air.
8 October 2021
Spiritual Progress
For though there are no seasons which are not full of Divine blessings, and though access is ever open to us to God’s mercy through His grace, yet now all men’s minds should be moved with greater zeal to spiritual progress, and animated by larger confidence, when the return of the day, on which we were redeemed, invites us to all the duties of godliness: that we may keep the super-excellent mystery of the Lord’s passion with bodies and hearts purified.
7 October 2021 Sacrament of Penance
My children, we cannot comprehend the goodness of God towards us in instituting this great Sacrament of Penance. If we had had a favor to ask of Our Lord, we should never have thought of asking Him that. But He foresaw our frailty and our inconstancy in well-doing, and His love induced Him to do what we should not have dared to ask. If one said to those poor lost souls that have been so long in Hell, “We are going to place a priest at the gate of Hell: all those who wish to confess have only to go out,” do you think, my children, that a single one would remain? The most guilty would not be afraid of telling their sins, nor even of telling them before all the world. Oh, how soon Hell would be a desert, and how Heaven would be peopled! Well, we have the time and the means, which those poor lost souls have not.
Saint John Vianney (1786-1859)
6 October 2021
G0d’s Love
For, says
Scripture, this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that
everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life. Nor did he
simply give him, but even to death, death on a cross. . . Have you seen the
mighty love of his strength? Have you seen the measureless mercy of his love
for humanity? How unsearchable are his mercies and inscrutable his acts of
compassion, which he has poured out on us through Jesus Christ our Savior! What
may we, poor wretches, say to all this? What may we think? Shall we willingly
return to sin? Shall we long for dishonor? Shall we choose corruption and
condemnation?
Saint Theodore the Studite (c. 759-826)
4 October 2021 Spiritual Dryness
I was far from getting any consolation. Instead, I suffered complete spiritual dryness, almost as if I were quite forsaken… But that doesn’t upset me. It fills me with great joy. It’s true that I am a long way from being a saint, and this attitude of mine proves it. Instead of the lighting in my spiritual aridity, I have to blame my lack of faith and fervor for it. I should be distressed that I drop off the sleep during my prayers and during my thanksgiving after Communion. But I don’t feel at all distressed. I know that children are just as dear to their parents whether they are asleep or awake and I know that doctors put their patients to sleep before they operate. So I just think that God “knows our frame; remembers that we are dust.”
Saint Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897)
3 October 2021 On Tomorrow
Who can assure us that we will be alive tomorrow? Let us listen to the voice of our conscience, to the voice of the royal prophet: “Today, if you hear God’s voice, harden not your heart.” Let us not put off from one moment to another (what we should do) because the (next moment) is not yet ours.
Saint Pio (1887-1968)
2 October 2021 Care of Our Children
Let everything take second place to our care of our children, our bringing them up to the discipline and instruction of the Lord. If from the beginning we teach them to love true wisdom, they will have great wealth and glory than riches can provide. If a child learns a trade, or is highly educated for a lucrative profession, all this is nothing compared to the art of detachment from riches; if you want to make your child rich, teach him this. He is truly rich who does not desire great possessions, or surround himself with wealth, but who requires nothing…Don’t think that only monks need to learn the Bible; Children about to go our into the world stand in greater need of Scriptural knowledge.
Saint John Chrysostom
Let everything take second place to our care of our children, our bringing them up to the discipline and instruction of the Lord. If from the beginning we teach them to love true wisdom, they will have great wealth and glory than riches can provide. If a child learns a trade, or is highly educated for a lucrative profession, all this is nothing compared to the art of detachment from riches; if you want to make your child rich, teach him this. He is truly rich who does not desire great possessions, or surround himself with wealth, but who requires nothing…Don’t think that only monks need to learn the Bible; Children about to go our into the world stand in greater need of Scriptural knowledge.
Saint John Chrysostom
1 October 2021 The Great Commission
The task of the apostles transcends all human possibilities. How could this little band carry out the Great Commission of Matt. 28:19 and 'make disciples of all nations', 'go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation,' as Mark 16:15 reads? How could they be his witnesses not only in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, but even 'to the ends of the earth' [Acts 1:8]. The impossible task, a commission that goes on without limitations in space and time, became impossible, like the task of the prophets, only through the 'I am with you' [Matt. 28:20]. So they obeyed the call, leaving it to him how he would see to it that the Great Commission was carried out, even after the last eyewitnesses of the Risen Christ would have died.
The task of the apostles transcends all human possibilities. How could this little band carry out the Great Commission of Matt. 28:19 and 'make disciples of all nations', 'go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation,' as Mark 16:15 reads? How could they be his witnesses not only in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, but even 'to the ends of the earth' [Acts 1:8]. The impossible task, a commission that goes on without limitations in space and time, became impossible, like the task of the prophets, only through the 'I am with you' [Matt. 28:20]. So they obeyed the call, leaving it to him how he would see to it that the Great Commission was carried out, even after the last eyewitnesses of the Risen Christ would have died.
Hermann Sasse
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)