29 February 2024
I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue
consists in being put back on the right road. A wrong sum can be put right: but
only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that
point, never by simply going on. Evil can be undone, but it cannot “develop”
into good. Time does not heal it. The spell must be unwound, bit by bit, “with
backward mutters of disserving power”—or else not. It is still “either or.” If
we insist on keeping Hell (or even earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept
Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate
souvenirs of Hell. I believe, to be sure, that any man who reaches Heaven will
find that what he abandoned (even in plucking out his right eye) has not been
lost: that the kernel of what he was really seeking even in his most depraved
wishes will be there, beyond expectation, waiting for him in “the High
Countries.” In that sense it will be true for those who have completed the
journey (and for no others) to anticipate that retrospective vision. If we do,
we are likely to embrace the false and disastrous converse and fancy that
everything is good and everywhere is Heaven.
C.S. Lewis
Silence of the Heart.
28 February 2024
Enter into yourself, leave behind all noise and confusion. God speaks to us in the great silence of the heart.
Saint Augustine
Enter into yourself, leave behind all noise and confusion. God speaks to us in the great silence of the heart.
Saint Augustine
Lenten Practices
27 February 2024
Lenten practices of giving up pleasures are good reminders that the purpose of life is not pleasure. The purpose of life is to attain to perfect life, all truth and undying ecstatic love – which is the definition of God. In pursuing that goal we find happiness. Pleasure is not the purpose of anything; pleasure is a by-product resulting from doing something that is good. One of the best ways to get happiness and pleasure out of life is to ask ourselves, ‘How can I please God?’ and, ‘Why am I not better?’ It is the pleasure-seeker who is bored, for all pleasures diminish with repetition.
Blessed Fulton Sheen
Lenten practices of giving up pleasures are good reminders that the purpose of life is not pleasure. The purpose of life is to attain to perfect life, all truth and undying ecstatic love – which is the definition of God. In pursuing that goal we find happiness. Pleasure is not the purpose of anything; pleasure is a by-product resulting from doing something that is good. One of the best ways to get happiness and pleasure out of life is to ask ourselves, ‘How can I please God?’ and, ‘Why am I not better?’ It is the pleasure-seeker who is bored, for all pleasures diminish with repetition.
Blessed Fulton Sheen
Lent
26 February 2024
Lent stimulates us to let the Word of God penetrate our life and in this way to know the fundamental truth: who we are, where we come from, where we must go, what path we must take in life.
Pope Benedict XVI
Lent stimulates us to let the Word of God penetrate our life and in this way to know the fundamental truth: who we are, where we come from, where we must go, what path we must take in life.
Pope Benedict XVI
Peace with God Through Faith
25 February 2024
"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation" (Romans 5:1-11).
"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation" (Romans 5:1-11).
Lent
24 February 2024
We can think of Lent as a time to eradicate evil or cultivate virtue, a time to pull up weeds or to plant good seeds. Which is better is clear, for the Christian ideal is always positive rather than negative. A person is great not by the ferocity of his hatred of evil, but by the intensity of his love for God. Asceticism and mortification are not the ends of a Christian life; they are only the means. The end is charity. Penance merely makes an opening in our ego in which the Light of God can pour. As we deflate ourselves, God fills us. And it is God’s arrival that is the important event.
Blessed Fulton Sheen
We can think of Lent as a time to eradicate evil or cultivate virtue, a time to pull up weeds or to plant good seeds. Which is better is clear, for the Christian ideal is always positive rather than negative. A person is great not by the ferocity of his hatred of evil, but by the intensity of his love for God. Asceticism and mortification are not the ends of a Christian life; they are only the means. The end is charity. Penance merely makes an opening in our ego in which the Light of God can pour. As we deflate ourselves, God fills us. And it is God’s arrival that is the important event.
Blessed Fulton Sheen
Obstacles
23
February 2024
Let us stir up our hearts, rekindle our faith, and long
eagerly for what heaven has in store for us. To love thus is to be already on
our way. No matter what obstacles we encounter, we must not allow them to turn
us aside from the joy of that heavenly feast. Anyone who is determined to reach
his destination, is not deterred by the roughness of the road that leads to it.
Saint
Gregory the Great
Reforming the World
22 February 2024
If a man wants to reform the world, either by reason of the authority of
his position or the duty of his office, he must begin with himself.
Saint Ignatius of Loyola
In God's Hand
21 February 2024
A rough and unshapen log has no idea that it can be made into a statue
that will be considered a masterpiece, but the carver sees what can be done
with it. So many seem to know scarcely anything of the Christian life and do
not understand that God can mould them into saints, until they put themselves
into the hands of that almighty Artisan.
Saint Ignatius of Loyola
The Sacred Scriptures
20 February 2024
The sacred Scriptures grow with the one who reads them.
Saint Gregory the Great
The sacred Scriptures grow with the one who reads them.
Saint Gregory the Great
The Primary Lesson
19 February 2024
The primary lesson for life must be implanted in the soul from the earliest age. The primary lesson for children is to know the eternal God, the One who gives everlasting life.
St. Clement of Alexandria
The primary lesson for life must be implanted in the soul from the earliest age. The primary lesson for children is to know the eternal God, the One who gives everlasting life.
St. Clement of Alexandria
Lenten Response
18 February 2024
How should we respond to the invitation to conversion that Jesus addresses to us in this time of Lent? How can there be a serious change in our life? First of all, we must open our hearts to the penetrating call that comes to us from the Liturgy. The time of preparation for Easter is a providential gift from the Lord and a precious opportunity to draw closer to him, turning inward to listen to his promptings deep within.
John Paul II
How should we respond to the invitation to conversion that Jesus addresses to us in this time of Lent? How can there be a serious change in our life? First of all, we must open our hearts to the penetrating call that comes to us from the Liturgy. The time of preparation for Easter is a providential gift from the Lord and a precious opportunity to draw closer to him, turning inward to listen to his promptings deep within.
John Paul II
Freedom and Peace
17 February 2024
True freedom is not advanced in the permissive society, which confuses freedom with license to do anything whatever and which in the name of freedom proclaims a kind of general amorality. It is a caricature of freedom to claim that people are free to organize their lives with no reference to moral values, and to say that society does not have to ensure the protection and advancement of ethical values. Such an attitude is destructive of freedom and peace.
St. John Paul II
True freedom is not advanced in the permissive society, which confuses freedom with license to do anything whatever and which in the name of freedom proclaims a kind of general amorality. It is a caricature of freedom to claim that people are free to organize their lives with no reference to moral values, and to say that society does not have to ensure the protection and advancement of ethical values. Such an attitude is destructive of freedom and peace.
St. John Paul II
On Prayer
16 February 2024
Grant that I may not pray alone with the mouth; help me that I may pray from the depths of my heart.
Martin Luther
Grant that I may not pray alone with the mouth; help me that I may pray from the depths of my heart.
Martin Luther
On Lent
15 February 2024
Lent must be kept not only by avoiding bodily impurity but also by avoiding errors of thought and faith. We know indeed, dearly-beloved, your devotion to be so warm that in the fasting, which is the forerunner of the Lord's Easter, many of you will have forestalled our exhortations. But because the right practice of abstinence is needful not only to the mortification of the flesh but also to the purification of the mind, we desire your observance to be so complete that, as you cut down the pleasures that belong to the lusts of the flesh, so you should banish the errors that proceed from the imaginations of the heart. For he whose heart is polluted with no misbelief prepares himself with true and reasonable purification for the Paschal Feast, in which all the mysteries of our religion meet together. For, as the Apostle says, that all that is not of faith is sin Romans 14:23, the fasting of those will be unprofitable and vain, whom the father of lying deceives with his delusions, and who are not fed by Christ's true flesh. As then we must with the whole heart obey the Divine commands and sound doctrine, so we must use all foresight in abstaining from wicked imaginations. For the mind then only keeps holy and spiritual fast when it rejects the food of error and the poison of falsehood, which our crafty and wily foe plies us with more treacherously now, when by the very return of the venerable Festival, the whole church generally is admonished to understand the mysteries of its salvation. For he is the true confessor and worshipper of Christ's resurrection, who is not confused about His passion, nor deceived about His bodily nativity. For some are so ashamed of the Gospel of the Cross of Christ, as to impudently nullify the punishment which He underwent for the world's redemption, and have denied the very nature of true flesh in the Lord, not understanding how the impassible and unchangeable Deity of God's Word could have so far condescended for man's salvation, as by His power not to lose His own properties, and in His mercy to take on Him ours. And so in Christ, there is a twofold form but one person, and the Son of God, who is at the same time Son of Man, is one Lord, accepting the condition of a slave by the design of loving-kindness, not by the law of necessity, because by His power He became humble, by His power passible, by His power mortal; that for the destruction of the tyranny of sin and death, the weak nature in Him might be capable of punishment, and the strong nature not lose anything of its glory.
St. Leo the Great
Lent must be kept not only by avoiding bodily impurity but also by avoiding errors of thought and faith. We know indeed, dearly-beloved, your devotion to be so warm that in the fasting, which is the forerunner of the Lord's Easter, many of you will have forestalled our exhortations. But because the right practice of abstinence is needful not only to the mortification of the flesh but also to the purification of the mind, we desire your observance to be so complete that, as you cut down the pleasures that belong to the lusts of the flesh, so you should banish the errors that proceed from the imaginations of the heart. For he whose heart is polluted with no misbelief prepares himself with true and reasonable purification for the Paschal Feast, in which all the mysteries of our religion meet together. For, as the Apostle says, that all that is not of faith is sin Romans 14:23, the fasting of those will be unprofitable and vain, whom the father of lying deceives with his delusions, and who are not fed by Christ's true flesh. As then we must with the whole heart obey the Divine commands and sound doctrine, so we must use all foresight in abstaining from wicked imaginations. For the mind then only keeps holy and spiritual fast when it rejects the food of error and the poison of falsehood, which our crafty and wily foe plies us with more treacherously now, when by the very return of the venerable Festival, the whole church generally is admonished to understand the mysteries of its salvation. For he is the true confessor and worshipper of Christ's resurrection, who is not confused about His passion, nor deceived about His bodily nativity. For some are so ashamed of the Gospel of the Cross of Christ, as to impudently nullify the punishment which He underwent for the world's redemption, and have denied the very nature of true flesh in the Lord, not understanding how the impassible and unchangeable Deity of God's Word could have so far condescended for man's salvation, as by His power not to lose His own properties, and in His mercy to take on Him ours. And so in Christ, there is a twofold form but one person, and the Son of God, who is at the same time Son of Man, is one Lord, accepting the condition of a slave by the design of loving-kindness, not by the law of necessity, because by His power He became humble, by His power passible, by His power mortal; that for the destruction of the tyranny of sin and death, the weak nature in Him might be capable of punishment, and the strong nature not lose anything of its glory.
St. Leo the Great
Gracious and Merciful
13 February 2024
For the Lord is gracious and merciful and prefers the conversion of a sinner rather than his death. Patient and generous in his mercy, he does not give in to human impatience but is willing to wait a long time for our repentance.
Saint Jerome
For the Lord is gracious and merciful and prefers the conversion of a sinner rather than his death. Patient and generous in his mercy, he does not give in to human impatience but is willing to wait a long time for our repentance.
Saint Jerome
On Holy Scripture
11 February 2024
Learn the heart of God from the word of God.
Saint Gregory the Great
Contemplation
10 February 2024
Contemplating ourselves brings fear and humility; contemplating God brings us hope and love.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
Contemplating ourselves brings fear and humility; contemplating God brings us hope and love.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
On the Eucharist
8 February 2024
It cannot be a matter of indifference to us who else is invited to this wedding feast. Here you must greet your neighbor and say, as it were: "How wonderful that you too have been invited to this holy table and that we may eat this holy food together!"
Balthazar Fischer
It cannot be a matter of indifference to us who else is invited to this wedding feast. Here you must greet your neighbor and say, as it were: "How wonderful that you too have been invited to this holy table and that we may eat this holy food together!"
Balthazar Fischer
On Absolution
4 February 2024
And to take the other side of the coin, absolution too becomes another matter. It is neither a response to a suitably worthy confession, nor the acceptance of a reasonable apology. “Absolvere” in Latin means not only to loosen, to free, to acquit; it also means to dispose of, to complete, to finish. When God pardons, therefore, He does not say He understands our weakness or makes allowances for our errors; rather He disposes of, He finishes with, the whole of our dead life and raises us up with a new one. He does not so much deal with our derelictions as He does drop them down the black hole of Jesus’ death. He forgets our sins in the darkness of the tomb. He remembers our iniquities no more in the oblivion of Jesus’ expiration. He finds us, in short, in the desert of death, not in the garden of improvement; and in the power of Jesus’ resurrection, He puts us on His shoulders rejoicing and brings us home.
Robert Farrar Capon
And to take the other side of the coin, absolution too becomes another matter. It is neither a response to a suitably worthy confession, nor the acceptance of a reasonable apology. “Absolvere” in Latin means not only to loosen, to free, to acquit; it also means to dispose of, to complete, to finish. When God pardons, therefore, He does not say He understands our weakness or makes allowances for our errors; rather He disposes of, He finishes with, the whole of our dead life and raises us up with a new one. He does not so much deal with our derelictions as He does drop them down the black hole of Jesus’ death. He forgets our sins in the darkness of the tomb. He remembers our iniquities no more in the oblivion of Jesus’ expiration. He finds us, in short, in the desert of death, not in the garden of improvement; and in the power of Jesus’ resurrection, He puts us on His shoulders rejoicing and brings us home.
Robert Farrar Capon
Christ Has Spoken
2 February 2024
After His circumcision, she next waits for the time of her purification. And when the days were fulfilled, and the fortieth was the full time, God the Word, who sits by the Father’s side, is carried up to Jerusalem and brought into the Father’s presence in human nature like ours and by the shadow of the law is numbered among the firstborn. For even before the incarnation the firstborn were holy and consecrated to God, being sacrificed to Him according to the law. O how great and wonderful is the plan of salvation! “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” He who is in the bosom of the Father, the Son who shares His throne and is coeternal with Him, by whom all things are divinely brought into existence, submitted nevertheless to the measure of human nature and even offered a sacrifice to His own Father, though adored by all and glorified with Him. And what did He offer? As the firstborn and a male a pair of turtles, or two young doves, according to what the law prescribed. But what do the turtle and the dove signify? Come, then, and let us examine this. The one, then, is the most noisy of the birds of the field, but the other is a mild and gentle creature. And such did the Savior of all become toward us, showing the most perfect gentleness, and like a turtle moreover soothing the world and filling His own vineyard, even us who believe in Him, with the sweet sound of His voice. For it is written in the Song of Songs, “The voice of the turtle has been heard in our land.” For Christ has spoken to us the divine message of the Gospel, which is for the salvation of the whole world.
Cyril of Alexandria
After His circumcision, she next waits for the time of her purification. And when the days were fulfilled, and the fortieth was the full time, God the Word, who sits by the Father’s side, is carried up to Jerusalem and brought into the Father’s presence in human nature like ours and by the shadow of the law is numbered among the firstborn. For even before the incarnation the firstborn were holy and consecrated to God, being sacrificed to Him according to the law. O how great and wonderful is the plan of salvation! “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” He who is in the bosom of the Father, the Son who shares His throne and is coeternal with Him, by whom all things are divinely brought into existence, submitted nevertheless to the measure of human nature and even offered a sacrifice to His own Father, though adored by all and glorified with Him. And what did He offer? As the firstborn and a male a pair of turtles, or two young doves, according to what the law prescribed. But what do the turtle and the dove signify? Come, then, and let us examine this. The one, then, is the most noisy of the birds of the field, but the other is a mild and gentle creature. And such did the Savior of all become toward us, showing the most perfect gentleness, and like a turtle moreover soothing the world and filling His own vineyard, even us who believe in Him, with the sweet sound of His voice. For it is written in the Song of Songs, “The voice of the turtle has been heard in our land.” For Christ has spoken to us the divine message of the Gospel, which is for the salvation of the whole world.
Cyril of Alexandria
The Spiritual Life
1 February 2024
Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the “Beloved”. Being the Beloved expresses the core truth of our existence.
Henri Nouwen
Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the “Beloved”. Being the Beloved expresses the core truth of our existence.
Henri Nouwen
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