30 May 2022
Now, if one will attain to true peace, he must yield himself up to this
spiritual destitution; he must make nothing of it; he must in all single
heartedness resign himself to the holy will of God, and suffer this oppression
of spirit in all patience; yes, even if it were to endure to the end of the
world.
Johannes Tauler (c. 1300-1361)
On Prayer
28 May 2022
As water extinguishes fire, so prayer extinguishes the heat of the passions.
Saint John Chrysostom
As water extinguishes fire, so prayer extinguishes the heat of the passions.
Saint John Chrysostom
Count Your Blessings
27 May 2022
The proud man counts his newspaper clippings; the humble, his blessings.
Blessed Fulton Sheen
The proud man counts his newspaper clippings; the humble, his blessings.
Blessed Fulton Sheen
On Gratitude
26 May 2022
Gratitude takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Gratitude takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
How to Die
25 May 2022
Everything seems to me to pass so quickly that we must concentrate on how to die rather than on how to live. How sweet it is to die if one has lived on the Cross with Christ.
Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
Everything seems to me to pass so quickly that we must concentrate on how to die rather than on how to live. How sweet it is to die if one has lived on the Cross with Christ.
Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
Our Great Responsibility
24 May 2022
Christians, have we understood the great responsibility that we have taken on before God through baptism? Have we come to know that we must conduct ourselves as children of God, that we must align our will with the will of God, that we must remain free from sin, that we must love God with all our hearts and always patiently await union with Him? Have we thought about the fact that our heart should be so filled with love that it should overflow to our neighbor? Do we have the feeling that we must become holy and perfect, children of God and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven? We must struggle for this, so that we may not be shown unworthy and rejected. Let none of us lose our boldness, nor neglect our duties, nor be afraid of the difficulties of spiritual struggle. For we have God as a helper, who strengthens us in the difficult path of virtue.
Saint Nectarius of Aegina
Christians, have we understood the great responsibility that we have taken on before God through baptism? Have we come to know that we must conduct ourselves as children of God, that we must align our will with the will of God, that we must remain free from sin, that we must love God with all our hearts and always patiently await union with Him? Have we thought about the fact that our heart should be so filled with love that it should overflow to our neighbor? Do we have the feeling that we must become holy and perfect, children of God and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven? We must struggle for this, so that we may not be shown unworthy and rejected. Let none of us lose our boldness, nor neglect our duties, nor be afraid of the difficulties of spiritual struggle. For we have God as a helper, who strengthens us in the difficult path of virtue.
Saint Nectarius of Aegina
Making A Good Confession
23 May 2022
If you would know whether you have made a good confession, ask yourself if you have resolved to abandon your sins.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
If you would know whether you have made a good confession, ask yourself if you have resolved to abandon your sins.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
On a Humble Heart
22 May 2022
We cannot last long travelling in the desert if we do not have a simple and humble heart and if we still expect from life something other than God alone.
RenΓ© Voillaume (1905–2003)
We cannot last long travelling in the desert if we do not have a simple and humble heart and if we still expect from life something other than God alone.
RenΓ© Voillaume (1905–2003)
On Our Worth
21 May 2022
God doesn’t love us because of our worth, we are of worth because God loves us.
Martin Luther
God doesn’t love us because of our worth, we are of worth because God loves us.
Martin Luther
On Marriage
19 May 2022
What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility.
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
What counts in making a happy marriage is not so much how compatible you are, but how you deal with incompatibility.
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
Being a Christian
17 May 2022
Many People today ππππ to know how to be a Christian. What they are really asking is how to live like Christ. The response: "Be like Christ who lives in you!" But they will ask: What does that mean?" The answer comes from Jesus' Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6): Love your enemies, be merciful and compassionate, forgive and do works of charity.”
Rev Dr Arthur Just, Heaven On Earth, p.14
Many People today ππππ to know how to be a Christian. What they are really asking is how to live like Christ. The response: "Be like Christ who lives in you!" But they will ask: What does that mean?" The answer comes from Jesus' Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6): Love your enemies, be merciful and compassionate, forgive and do works of charity.”
Rev Dr Arthur Just, Heaven On Earth, p.14
Giving Thanks
15 May 2022
Let us give thanks to God continually. For, it is outrageous that when we enjoy His benefaction to us in deed every single day, we do not acknowledge the favor with so much as a word; and this, when the acknowledgment confers great benefit on us. He does not need anything of ours, but we stand in need of all things from Him. In point of fact, thanksgiving adds nothing to Him, but it brings us closer to Him.
Saint John Chrysostom
Let us give thanks to God continually. For, it is outrageous that when we enjoy His benefaction to us in deed every single day, we do not acknowledge the favor with so much as a word; and this, when the acknowledgment confers great benefit on us. He does not need anything of ours, but we stand in need of all things from Him. In point of fact, thanksgiving adds nothing to Him, but it brings us closer to Him.
Saint John Chrysostom
On Truth
14 May 2022
It is easy to find truth, though it is hard to face it, and harder still to follow it.
Blessed Fulton Sheen
It is easy to find truth, though it is hard to face it, and harder still to follow it.
Blessed Fulton Sheen
Spiritual Life
13 May 2022
We must study ever to regard God and His Glory in all that we do, and say, and undertake. This is the end that we should set before ourselves, to offer to God a sacrifice of perfect worship in this life, as we hope to do through all eternity. We ought firmly to resolve to overcome, with the grace of God assisting us, the many difficulties which will meet us in the spiritual life.
Brother Lawrence (1614-1691)
We must study ever to regard God and His Glory in all that we do, and say, and undertake. This is the end that we should set before ourselves, to offer to God a sacrifice of perfect worship in this life, as we hope to do through all eternity. We ought firmly to resolve to overcome, with the grace of God assisting us, the many difficulties which will meet us in the spiritual life.
Brother Lawrence (1614-1691)
Repentance
11 May 2022
Do not be ashamed to enter again into the Church. Be ashamed when you sin. Do not be ashamed when you repent. Pay attention to what the devil did to you. These are two things: sin and repentance. Sin is a wound; repentance is a medicine. Just as there are for the body wounds and medicines, so for the soul are sins and repentance. However, sin has the shame and repentance possesses the courage.
Saint John Chrysostom
Do not be ashamed to enter again into the Church. Be ashamed when you sin. Do not be ashamed when you repent. Pay attention to what the devil did to you. These are two things: sin and repentance. Sin is a wound; repentance is a medicine. Just as there are for the body wounds and medicines, so for the soul are sins and repentance. However, sin has the shame and repentance possesses the courage.
Saint John Chrysostom
On Mercy
5 May 2022
Mercy is a compassion that seeks to unburden the sorrows of others as if they were our own. But if we have no such compassion, then how can compassion ever come back to us? Unless we throw something up, nothing will come down; unless there is an action, there can never be a reaction; unless we give, it shall not be given to us; unless we love, we shall not be loved; unless we pardon evil, our evil shall not be forgiven; unless we are merciful to others, God cannot be merciful to us.
Blessed Fulton Sheen
Mercy is a compassion that seeks to unburden the sorrows of others as if they were our own. But if we have no such compassion, then how can compassion ever come back to us? Unless we throw something up, nothing will come down; unless there is an action, there can never be a reaction; unless we give, it shall not be given to us; unless we love, we shall not be loved; unless we pardon evil, our evil shall not be forgiven; unless we are merciful to others, God cannot be merciful to us.
Blessed Fulton Sheen
The Holy Scriptures
3 May 2022
The Holy Scriptures lead us to God and open the path to the knowledge of God.
Saint John Chrysostom
The Holy Scriptures lead us to God and open the path to the knowledge of God.
Saint John Chrysostom
On Temptation
2 May 2022
Above all, we must be especially alert against the beginnings of temptation, for the enemy is more easily conquered if he is refused admittance to the mind and is met beyond the threshold when he knocks. Someone has said very aptly: “Resist the beginnings; remedies come too late, when by long delay the evil has gained strength.” First, a mere thought comes to mind, then strong imagination, followed by pleasure, evil delight, and consent. Thus, because he is not resisted in the beginning, Satan gains full entry. And the longer a man delays in resisting, so much the weaker does he become each day, while the strength of the enemy grows against him.
Thomas Γ Kempis
Above all, we must be especially alert against the beginnings of temptation, for the enemy is more easily conquered if he is refused admittance to the mind and is met beyond the threshold when he knocks. Someone has said very aptly: “Resist the beginnings; remedies come too late, when by long delay the evil has gained strength.” First, a mere thought comes to mind, then strong imagination, followed by pleasure, evil delight, and consent. Thus, because he is not resisted in the beginning, Satan gains full entry. And the longer a man delays in resisting, so much the weaker does he become each day, while the strength of the enemy grows against him.
Thomas Γ Kempis
Gratitude and Generosity
1 May 2022
Recognize to whom you owe the fact that you exist, that you breathe, that you understand, that you are wise, and, above all, that you know God and hope for the kingdom of heaven. You have been made a child of God, co-heir with Christ. Where did you get all this, and from whom? …. What benefactor has enabled you to look out upon the beauty of the sky, the sun in its course, the circle of the moon, the countless number of stars, with the harmony and order that are theirs, like the music of a harp? Who has blessed you with rain, with the art of husbandry, with different kinds of food, with the arts, with houses, with laws, with states, with a life of humanity and culture, with friendship and the easy familiarity of kinship? … Is it not God who asks you now in your turn to show yourself generous … Because we have received from him so many wonderful gifts, will we not be ashamed to refuse him this one thing only, our generosity?
Saint Gregory Nazianzen
Recognize to whom you owe the fact that you exist, that you breathe, that you understand, that you are wise, and, above all, that you know God and hope for the kingdom of heaven. You have been made a child of God, co-heir with Christ. Where did you get all this, and from whom? …. What benefactor has enabled you to look out upon the beauty of the sky, the sun in its course, the circle of the moon, the countless number of stars, with the harmony and order that are theirs, like the music of a harp? Who has blessed you with rain, with the art of husbandry, with different kinds of food, with the arts, with houses, with laws, with states, with a life of humanity and culture, with friendship and the easy familiarity of kinship? … Is it not God who asks you now in your turn to show yourself generous … Because we have received from him so many wonderful gifts, will we not be ashamed to refuse him this one thing only, our generosity?
Saint Gregory Nazianzen
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