Christ the Vine

29 July 2025

 

The Lord calls himself the vine and those united to him branches in order to teach us how much we shall benefit from our union with him, and how important it is for us to remain in his love. By receiving the Holy Spirit, who is the bond of union between us and Christ our Savior, those who are joined to him, as branches are to a vine, share in his own nature.

 

         Saint Cyril of Alexandria

Nourishing the Heart

28 July 2025

 

Every day you provide your bodies with good to keep them from failing. In the same way your good works should be the daily nourishment of your hearts. Your bodies are fed with food and your spirits with good works. You aren’t to deny your soul, which is going to live forever, what you grant to your body, which is going to die.

 

        Saint Gregory the Great

The Holy Spirit

25 July 2025

Be ready for the Spirit’s filling. This happens only when we have cleansed our souls of falsehood, anger, bitterness, sexual impurity, uncleanness and covetousness. It happens only when we have become compassionate, meek and forgiving to one another, only when facetiousness is absent, only when we have made ourselves worthy. Only then does the Spirit come to settle within our hearts, only when nothing is there to prevent it. Then he will not only enter but also fill us.

        Saint John Chrysostom

inextinguishable Light of Christ

23 July 2025

  

In spite of our sinfulness, in spite of the darkness surrounding our souls, the Grace of the Holy Spirit, conferred by baptism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, still shines in our hearts with the inextinguishable light of Christ … and when the sinner turns to the way of repentance the light smooths away every trace of the sins committed, clothing the former sinner in the garments of incorruption, spun of the Grace of the Holy Spirit.

    

        Saint Seraphim of Sarov

Loving Conversation

21 July 2025

Ask those who love Him with a sincere love, and they will tell you that they find no greater or prompter relief amid the troubles of their life than in loving conversation with their Divine Friend.

        Saint Alphonsus Liguori

The Sanctified Heart

20 July 2025

  

The question arises: But what then does the sanctified heart pray for? I answer that when truly sanctified, it prays for nothing, for whosoever prays asks God to give him some good, or to take some evil from him. But the sanctified heart desires nothing, and contains nothing that it wishes to be freed from. Therefore it is free of all want except that it wants to be like God.

 

        Meister Eckhart

Kind Actions

17 July 2025

When the painful problems of the heart are endured, humbly and patiently, they give the soul a splendid luster, the nearer and better and closer they touch it. But remember that kind actions – more than anything else – cause the soul to shine with brilliance.

        Saint Gertrude

Devout and Determined Prayer

16 July 2025

The soul cannot have true knowledge of God through its own efforts or by means of any created thing, but only by divine light and by a special gift of divine grace. I believe there is no quicker or easier way for the soul to obtain this divine grace from God, supreme Good and supreme Love, than by a devout, pure, humble, continual, and determined prayer.

        Blessed Angela of Foligno

Treasures Given in Trials

15 July 2025

I pray God may open your eyes and let you see what hidden treasures he bestows on us in the trials from which the world thinks only to flee. Shame turns into honor when we seek God’s glory. Present affliction becomes the source of heavenly glory. To those who suffer wounds in fighting his battles God opens his arms in loving, tender friendship, which is more delightful by far than anything our earthly efforts might produce. If we have any sense, we shall yearn for these open arms of God.

        Saint John of Ávila

On Repentance

14 July 2025

The mystery of repentance is the greatest and most blessed mystery, which prepares us perfectly beforehand for Heaven…There is no sin on earth which is unforgivable for the person who will repent, and for the God of love Who receives him.

        Elder Ephraim of Philotheou

On Prayer

13 July 2025

If through old-established, evil custom, your thoughts wander so that you cannot direct them, turn to God, tell him your weakness, and ask his help with faith.

        Francisco de Osuna

On Holy Scripture

12 July 2025

When we allowed Your Word to depart from our hearts through disobedience, we made ourselves incapable of this goal of creation. But You turned Your Word and heart toward us anew, even shared it with us, or rather gave it to us completely, and have given Yourself in the same, when Your only-begotten Son was born a man, that we might become children of God. A thousand times a thousand tongues of seraphim cannot express this wondrous grace and gracious wonder.

        Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg

On Prayer

11 July 2025

Our Lord bade us not to speak much in our prayer, for he knows what we need before we ask for it, since he is the God of all knowledge.

        Francisco de Osuna

Remember God

10 July 2025

Make the habit to remember God, not only during your prayers, but at every hour and minute of the day, for He is everywhere present.

        Saint Theophan the Recluse

Continue to Walk

9 July 2025

Don’t philosophize about your trouble – don’t argue with it. Quite simply, continue to walk straight on. God would not allow you to be lost while you live according to your resolutions so as not to lose him. If the whole world turns topsy-turvy, if all around is darkness and smoke and din, yet God is still with us. So, if we know that God lives in the darkness and on Mount Sinai which is full of smoke and surrounded with the roar of thunder and lightning, shall not all be well with us as long as we remain close to him? So, live wholly in God, and do not fear. Jesus in his goodness is all ours; let us be all his. Let us cling to him with courage.

          Saint Francis de Sales

Our Days are Numbered

8 July 2025

Our days are numbered. Every stroke of the clock reminds us to seek Him Who created time and Himself stands above the measure of time. He alone is able to pluck us out from the ravaging torrent of time… Every stroke of the clock tells us: Be watchful! You now have one hour less until you must cross the threshold into life after death which knows neither days nor hours. Do not be seduced by the momentary sweetness of sin which vanishes like a dream, leaving the soul empty, ailing, anguishing; it steals away precious time and ruins it forever. Do not waste time in useless occupations or idleness. Every one of you has a God-given talent to put to use.

        Saint John of Kronstadt

Pilgrim in this World

7 July 2025

Keep yourself as a pilgrim and a stranger here in this world, as one to whom the world’s business counts by little. Keep your heart free, and always lift it up to God.

        Thomas à Kempis

Praise God

6 July 2025

Our thoughts in this present life should turn on the praise of God, because it is in praising God that we shall rejoice for ever in the life to come; and no one can be ready for the next life unless he trains himself for it now. So we praise God during our earthly life, and at the same time we make our petitions to him. Our praise is expressed with joy, our petitions with yearning. We have been promised something we do not yet possess, and because the promise was made by one who keeps his word, we trust him and are glad; but insofar as possession is delayed, we can only long and yearn for it. It is good for us to persevere in longing until we receive what was promised, and yearning is over; then praise alone will remain.

        Saint Augustine

God’s Generosity

5 July 2025

Someone filled with resentment and unhappiness, bitter that life is not as it should be, will be deeply disillusioned. On the other hand, people who are glad for what they have received, and thank God for what befalls them will receive still more, until finally being overwhelmed by God’s generosity.

        Jacques Philippe 

On Reality

4 July 2025

Let us take things as we find them: let us not attempt to distort them into what they are not… We cannot make facts. All our wishing cannot change them. We must use them.

        Blessed John Henry Newman

A Prayer for the Feast of the Visitation of Mary

3 July 2025

O almighty, eternal God, we rightly marvel at the great grace which You have always bestowed upon Your elect and saints, on hearts called and sanctified by You, especially that Mary earnestly hastened over the hill country to her cousin Elizabeth upon the angelic annunciation, and that the baby leaped in Elizabeth's womb at the greeting of Mary. Let Your holy Word also work in and among us, that we may always remain earnestly, vigorously, and willingly obedient and subject to You in matters of faith. Defend us against and steer away, through Your Holy Spirit, all sloth, unwillingness, doubt, and impatience, by which we are so often tarried and hindered in what is good. Make us meek to handle and comprehend Your Word with joy, that what You have fatherly promised to us may be brought to completion. Amen.

        Esaias Heidenreich

The Graces and Benefits of Prayer

2 July 2025

Remind yourself that the graces and benefits of prayer are not like water welling up from the earth, but more like water coming down from heaven; therefore, all our efforts cannot produce them, though it is true that we must ready ourselves to receive them with great care, yet humbly and peacefully. We must keep our hearts open and wait for the heavenly dew to fall.

        Saint Francis de Sales

Imitate Christ’s Life

1 July 2025

We must imitate Christ’s life and his ways if we are to be truly enlightened and set free from the darkness of our own hearts. Let it be the most important thing we do, then, to reflect on the life of Jesus Christ.

        Thomas à Kempis