29 November 2022
The greatest part of my prayer here and for years now is thankgiving.
What else should I ask, when I have everything?
Gabriela Papayannis
Christ's Passion
28 November 2022
By Christ’s Passion our weakness was cured. By His Resurrection death was conquered. Still we have to be sorrowful for the world, as well as joyful in the Lord, sorrowful in penance, joyful in gratitude.
Saint Ambrose of Milan
By Christ’s Passion our weakness was cured. By His Resurrection death was conquered. Still we have to be sorrowful for the world, as well as joyful in the Lord, sorrowful in penance, joyful in gratitude.
Saint Ambrose of Milan
The story of Jesus
27 November 2022
The story of Jesus is to be proclaimed and celebrated. Some will hear and rejoice, some will remain indifferent, some will become hostile. The story will not always be accepted, but it must be told.
Henri Nouwen
The story of Jesus is to be proclaimed and celebrated. Some will hear and rejoice, some will remain indifferent, some will become hostile. The story will not always be accepted, but it must be told.
Henri Nouwen
On Gratitude
26 November 2022
I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
GK Chesterton
I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
GK Chesterton
Evil Inclinations
25 November 2022
There are two things to be aware of if the fight against evil inclinations is to have any chance of success. First, our efforts will never be sufficient on their own. Only the grace of Christ can win us the victory. Therefore our chief weapons are prayer, patience, and hope. Second, one passion can only be cured by another — a misplaced love by a greater love, wrong behavior by right behavior that makes provisions for the desire underlying the wrongdoing, recognizes the conscious or unconscious needs that seek fulfillment and either offers them legitimate satisfaction or transfers them to something compatible with the person’s calling.
Jacques Philippe
There are two things to be aware of if the fight against evil inclinations is to have any chance of success. First, our efforts will never be sufficient on their own. Only the grace of Christ can win us the victory. Therefore our chief weapons are prayer, patience, and hope. Second, one passion can only be cured by another — a misplaced love by a greater love, wrong behavior by right behavior that makes provisions for the desire underlying the wrongdoing, recognizes the conscious or unconscious needs that seek fulfillment and either offers them legitimate satisfaction or transfers them to something compatible with the person’s calling.
Jacques Philippe
Should We Fall, Not Not Despair
24 November 2022
For to sin, even in the case of those who are most
righteous, is easy, while repentance is not easy for everyone because death is
near; and even before death comes there is despair. It is good, then, not to
fall; or, if we fall, to rise again. And should we fall, we should not despair
and so estrange ourselves from the Lord’s love. For if He so chooses, He can
deal mercifully with our weakness. Only we should not cut ourselves off from
Him or feel oppressed when constrained by His commandments, nor should we lose
heart when we fall short of our goal. Rather, let us learn that a thousand
years in the sight of the Lord are but a single day, and a single day is as a
thousand years (cf. Ps. 90:4). Let us be neither hasty nor tardy, and let us be
always ready to make a new start. If you fall, rise up. If you fall again, rise
up again. Only do not abandon your Physician, lest you be condemned as worse
than a suicide because of your despair. Wait on Him, and He will be merciful,
either reforming you, or sending you trials, or through some other provision of
which you are ignorant.
Saint Peter of Damascus
The Kingdom of Heaven
22 November 2022
There is only one way leading upwards for all who see, lightened with heavenly light. But many and dark and contrary are the ways of those who see not. This way leads to the Kingdom of heaven, uniting man to God: but those ways bring down to death, separating man from God. Therefore it is necessary for you and for all who care for their own salvation to make your course unswerving, firm, and sure by means of faith.
Saint Irenaeus of Lyons
There is only one way leading upwards for all who see, lightened with heavenly light. But many and dark and contrary are the ways of those who see not. This way leads to the Kingdom of heaven, uniting man to God: but those ways bring down to death, separating man from God. Therefore it is necessary for you and for all who care for their own salvation to make your course unswerving, firm, and sure by means of faith.
Saint Irenaeus of Lyons
Thanksgiving
20 November 2022
For if God does not for a moment tire of giving us good things, how can we tire of thanking Him for these good things?
Saint Nicholas Velimirovic
For if God does not for a moment tire of giving us good things, how can we tire of thanking Him for these good things?
Saint Nicholas Velimirovic
On Temptations
19 November 2022
Conquer temptations by the patience and prayer. If you oppose them without these, you will fall all the more severely.
Saint Mark the Ascetic
Conquer temptations by the patience and prayer. If you oppose them without these, you will fall all the more severely.
Saint Mark the Ascetic
On Love
18 November 2022
Love is a great thing so long as it continually returns to its fountainhead, flows back to its source, always drawing from there the water which constantly replenishes it. Of all the movements, sensations and feelings of the soul, love is the only one in which the creature can respond to the Creator and make some sort of similar return however unequal though it be. For when God loves, all he desires is to be loved in return; the sole purpose of his love is to be loved, in the knowledge that those who love him are made happy by their love of him.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
Love is a great thing so long as it continually returns to its fountainhead, flows back to its source, always drawing from there the water which constantly replenishes it. Of all the movements, sensations and feelings of the soul, love is the only one in which the creature can respond to the Creator and make some sort of similar return however unequal though it be. For when God loves, all he desires is to be loved in return; the sole purpose of his love is to be loved, in the knowledge that those who love him are made happy by their love of him.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
Wondering
16 November 2022
Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.
Saint Augustine
Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.
Saint Augustine
On the Heart
15 November 2022
A heart that would contemplate must be bright as a mirror, shimmer like some still stretch of water crystal clear, so that in it and through it the mind may see itself, as in and through a mirror, an image in the image of God. The heart that covets the sight of God as in a mirror must keep itself free from cares, from harmful, unnecessary and even necessary ones. It must keep itself ever alert through reading, meditation and prayer. “Blessed are the pure of heart; they shall see God.” (Mt 5:8)
Isaac of Stella (12th Century)
A heart that would contemplate must be bright as a mirror, shimmer like some still stretch of water crystal clear, so that in it and through it the mind may see itself, as in and through a mirror, an image in the image of God. The heart that covets the sight of God as in a mirror must keep itself free from cares, from harmful, unnecessary and even necessary ones. It must keep itself ever alert through reading, meditation and prayer. “Blessed are the pure of heart; they shall see God.” (Mt 5:8)
Isaac of Stella (12th Century)
On Prayer
13 November 2022
Even though we may have had a powerful conversion experience, felt great fervor, and received immense graces, without fidelity to mental prayer our Christian life will soon reach a plateau and stall there.
Jacques Philippe
Even though we may have had a powerful conversion experience, felt great fervor, and received immense graces, without fidelity to mental prayer our Christian life will soon reach a plateau and stall there.
Jacques Philippe
Love and Self-Control
11 November 2022
Love and self-control liberate the soul from its obsessions. Reading and reflection deliver the intellect from ignorance. Regular prayer brings the soul into the very presence of God.
Saint Maximos the Confessor
Love and self-control liberate the soul from its obsessions. Reading and reflection deliver the intellect from ignorance. Regular prayer brings the soul into the very presence of God.
Saint Maximos the Confessor
On Love
9 November 2022
There is nothing in human life better than mutual love nor anything sweeter than holy fellowship. To love and be loved is a sweet exchange, the joy of one’s whole life, the recompense of blessedness. What can be lacking in the sweetness of this good and pleasant dwelling, this place where God dwells and where he rests? ‘God is in his holy place, God, who makes those of one mind to dwell in a house’.
Baldwin of Forde
There is nothing in human life better than mutual love nor anything sweeter than holy fellowship. To love and be loved is a sweet exchange, the joy of one’s whole life, the recompense of blessedness. What can be lacking in the sweetness of this good and pleasant dwelling, this place where God dwells and where he rests? ‘God is in his holy place, God, who makes those of one mind to dwell in a house’.
Baldwin of Forde
Our Journey
7 November 2022
Be always displeased with what you are if you wish to be what you are not. Keep on adding, keep on walking, keep on progressing: do not delay on the road, do not go back, do not deviate.
Saint Augustine
Be always displeased with what you are if you wish to be what you are not. Keep on adding, keep on walking, keep on progressing: do not delay on the road, do not go back, do not deviate.
Saint Augustine
True Fasting
6 November 2022
The essence and power of abstinence is not in refraining from food, but in expelling from the heart every remembrance of evil and other such things. That is true fasting, and what – above all else – the Lord demands.
Saint Leo of Optina
The essence and power of abstinence is not in refraining from food, but in expelling from the heart every remembrance of evil and other such things. That is true fasting, and what – above all else – the Lord demands.
Saint Leo of Optina
Virtues of the Saints
4 November 2022
Jesus does not want from me a mediocre virtue, but a high one: He is not happy with me until I become, or at least I am committed to becoming a saint.
Saint John XXIII
Jesus does not want from me a mediocre virtue, but a high one: He is not happy with me until I become, or at least I am committed to becoming a saint.
Saint John XXIII
Called to be Saints
2 November 2022
The active life to be productive must have contemplation. When it (contemplation) gets to a certain height it overflows to active life and gets help and strength from the heart of God. This is the way the saints produced so much fruit, and we’re all called to be saints.
Saint Katharine Drexel
The active life to be productive must have contemplation. When it (contemplation) gets to a certain height it overflows to active life and gets help and strength from the heart of God. This is the way the saints produced so much fruit, and we’re all called to be saints.
Saint Katharine Drexel
Good Thoughts
1 November 2022
Occupy your minds with good thoughts, or the enemy will fill them with bad ones. Unoccupied, they cannot be.
Saint Thomas More
Occupy your minds with good thoughts, or the enemy will fill them with bad ones. Unoccupied, they cannot be.
Saint Thomas More
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