Thursday, December 27, 2012

Love Jesus Trustfully Without Looking Back

Believe in Jesus - trust Him with blind and absolute confidence because He is Jesus. Believe that Jesus and Jesus alone is life - and sanctity is nothing but that same Jesus intimately living in you - the same life we received at Baptism grown up and made perfect. That is why it is so beautiful that the Holy Father has asked us to go more deeply into the riches of our Baptism this year. Love Jesus trustfully without looking back, without fear. Give yourself fully to Jesus. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love, than in your weakness. We must not be afraid to proclaim Jesus' love and to love as he loved. In the work we have to do, no matter how small, we must make it Christ's love in action. Do not be afraid to be poor and so proclaim His poverty. Be not afraid to keep a pure and undivided heart and so to radiate the joy of belonging to Jesus. Do not be afraid to go down with Christ and be subject to those who have authority from above - His Church - and so declare Christ's obedience unto death.

Serve Jesus with joy and gladness of spirit - casting aside all that troubles and worries you. In each of our lives Jesus comes as Bread of Life - to be eaten, to be consumed by us. This is how He loves us. And then Jesus comes in our human life as the Hungry One, the Poor One, hoping to be fed with the bread of our life, our hearts by loving, our hands by serving. As He said, "What ever you did to the least of my brothers, you did it to me". In so doing we prove that we have been created in the likeness of God - for God is Love and when we love we are like God. This is what Jesus meant when He said, "Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect."

Jesus wants us to be holy as His Father is holy. Holiness is not the luxury of the few, but a simple duty for you and for me. Holiness - very great holiness - becomes very simple if we belong fully to Our Lady. In 1997, the Year of Jesus Christ, may the Immaculate Heart of our Queen and Mother be more and more our way to Jesus and may she obtain the light of Jesus, the love of Jesus and the life of Jesus for each one of us. Then, when the Jubilee of the Year 2000 comes, we will be able to rejoice that once more Christ is walking through the world in us and through us going about doing good. Let us pray. God bless you! - Mother Teresa

Friday, December 14, 2012

Faith Is Illuminative, Not Operative: It Does Not Force Obedience

Faith is illuminative, not operative; it does not force obedience, though it increases responsibility; it heightens guilt, but it does not prevent sin. The will is the source of action. - Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman

Friday, November 9, 2012

Without Friends Even The Most Agreeable Pursuits Become Tedious

Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious. - Saint Thomas Aquinas

Thursday, November 8, 2012

There Is Joy Before The Angels Of God Over One Sinner Who Repents


    [1] Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.
    [2] And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them."
    [3] So he told them this parable:
    [4] "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?
    [5] And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
    [6] And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.'
    [7] Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
    [8] "Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?
    [9] And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, `Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost.'
    [10] Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents." 
Luke 15:1-10

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Most Potent And Acceptable Prayer

The most potent and acceptable prayer is the prayer that leaves the best effects. I don't mean it must immediately fill the soul with desire...The best effects [are] those that are followed up by actions - when the soul not only desires the honor of God, but really strives for it. - Saint Teresa of Avila

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Urged On By Love Of Christ To Proclaim The Good News Everywhere In The World

Those who with God's help have welcomed Christ's call and freely responded to it are urged on by love of Christ to proclaim the Good News everywhere in the world. This treasure, received from the apostles, has been faithfully guarded by their successors. All Christ's faithful are called to hand it on from generation to generation, by professing the faith, by living it in fraternal sharing, and by celebrating it in liturgy and prayer. - CCC 3

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Spiritual Littleness

"Unless you go back and become like little children you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven." This was another way of saying that no old people ever enter heaven; by "old" people is meant those who lack the simplicity of the child which prepares for faith.

Childlike simplicity, or spiritual littleness and humility, is the condition of discovering anything great. - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Servant of God

Sunday, September 23, 2012

I desire to love you, O my God, with a love that is patient, with a love that abandons itself wholly to you, with a love that acts, and most important of all, with a love that perseveres. - Saint Theresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart

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Thursday, September 20, 2012

There will be no defense left to you on the day of judgement, when you will be judged according to the sentence you passed on others and you will be dealt with as you have dealt with others. - Saint Cyprian

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Monday, September 17, 2012

Come here, then, my soul, and tell me – in God’s name, I ask you – what hinders you from following wholly after God with all your strength? What do you love if not God, your spouse? Why don’t you have great love for him who has so greatly loved you? Had he nothing else to do on earth except to give himself up for you? And seek your benefit even to his own hurt? What is there for you to do on earth except to love the King of heaven? Don’t you see that all these things must come to an end? What do you see? What do you hear? What do you touch? Taste? Handle? Don’t you see that all these things are but a spider’s web that can never clothe you or keep you from the cold? Where are you when you are not in Jesus Christ? What do you think about? What do you value? What do you seek beyond the one perfect good? Let us rise, my soul, and put an end to this evil dream. Let us awaken, for it is day, and Jesus Christ, who is the light, has come. - St. John of Avila

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Friday, September 14, 2012

It Is Through The Flesh That Man Turns Away From God; It Is In Becoming Flesh That God Delivers Man

Sin which destroyed the divine life within us demands a satisfaction, an expiation without which it would be impossible for divine life to be restored to us. Being a mere creature, man cannot give this satisfaction for an offense of infinite malice, and, on the other hand, divinity can neither suffer nor expiate. How is this problem to be solved? The Incarnation gives us the answer. Consider the babe of Bethlehem. He is the Word-made-Flesh. The Word asks of us a human nature to find in it wherewith to suffer, to expiate, to merit, to heap graces upon us. It is through the flesh that man turns away from God; it is in becoming flesh that God delivers man. The flesh that the Word of God takes upon himself, is to become the instrument of salvation for all men. - Blessed Columba Marmion



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Monday, September 10, 2012

Thursday, September 6, 2012

As the tree is known by its fruits, so they who claim to belong to Christ are known by their actions; for this work of ours does not consist in just making professions, but in a faith that is both practical and lasting. - Saint Ignatius of Antioch

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Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Taste And See

Jesus Christ finds means to console a soul that remains with a recollected spirit before the Most Blessed Sacrament, far beyond what the world can do with all its feasts and pastimes. Oh, how sweet a joy it is to remain with faith and tender devotion before an altar, and converse familiarly with Jesus Christ, who is there for the express purpose of listening to and graciously hearing those who pray to him; to ask his pardon for the displeasures which we have caused him; to represent our wants to him, as a friend does to a friend in whom he places all his confidence; to ask him for his graces, for his love, and for his kingdom; but above all, oh, what a heaven it is there to remain making acts of love towards that Lord who is on the very altar praying to the Eternal Father for us, and is there burning with love for us. Indeed that love it is which detains him there, thus hidden and unknown, and where he is even despised by ungrateful souls! But why should we say more? 'Taste and see.' - Saint Alphonsus De Liguori

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

A World Soaked Through With Oceans Of Mercy

With eyes of faith, we do not wonder why God allows so much suffering, but rather why He doesn't allow more. We're not looking at a world full of innocent people suffering unjustly. We're looking at a world soaked through with oceans of mercy, because all of us are sinners, and none of us deserves even the next breath we're going to take. - Dr. Scott Hahn
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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Dictatorship Of Relativism

‎We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as for certain and has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires as the final measure. - Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, pre-conclave homily

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Asking A Christian To Keep His Religion Out Of The Public Square...

‎Asking a Christian to keep his religion out of the public square is like asking a married man to act single in public. — Archbishop Charles J. Chaput

Lay A Successful Siege Against The World's Many Barricaded Hearts - Breaching Their Walls With Love

The Pharisees were unbelieving. They didn’t want to believe in a Messiah that didn’t fit their pre-conceived ideas, and so they found ways to justify their resistance – if Jesus drives out demons, he must be possessed by a stronger demon, that’s all. Imagine how Christ’s heart reacted to those accusations, such stubborn resistance to his grace. Imagine how it reacts to the disbelief of so many people who refuse to see the signs of his love and truth in the world today.

When a friend is in pain, you do whatever you can to comfort him. Christians can comfort Christ by keeping their own faith fresh and, above all, by living a real, practical, and universal Christian charity. That’s the only way to lay a successful siege against the world’s many barricaded hearts – breaching their walls with love, so the gift of faith can come streaming in. - Fr. Bartunek

Whatever Is True, Whatever Is Noble, Whatever Is Pure, Whatever Is Lovely...

"...whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." - Philippians 4:8

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

The Relationship Between Eros And Agape Is Deeply Rooted In The Mystery Of The Incarnation

What Pope Benedict teaches about the proper relationship between eros (human love) and agape (divine love) is deeply rooted in the mystery of the Incarnation and, in turn, the Trinity. Eros is distinct from agape, just as the human nature in Christ is distinct from the divine. Furthermore, just as the human and divine natures in Christ are profoundly and indissolubly united, so are erotic and divine love (or at least, they should be). Indeed, the proper unity of eros and agape flows precisely from the mystery of the Incarnation, in which the human and divine meet in an embrace that never ends. - Christopher West

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Drawn By A Superior Force

My heart feels as if it were being drawn by a superior force each morning just before uniting with Him in the Blessed Sacrament. I have such a thirst and hunger before receiving Him that it's a wonder I don't die of anxiety. I was hardly able to reach the Divine Prisoner in order to celebrate Mass. When Mass ended I remained with Jesus to render Him thanks. My thirst and hunger do not diminish after I have received Him in the Blessed Sacrament, but rather, increase steadily. Oh, how sweet was the conversation I held with Paradise this morning. The Heart of Jesus and my own, if you will pardon my expression, fused. They were no longer two hearts beating but only one. My heart disappeared as if it were a drop in the ocean. - Saint Padre Pio

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Let Anyone Who Thinks That He Stands Take Heed Lest He Fall

Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. - 1 Corinthians 10:12-13

Monday, June 18, 2012

All-Purpose "Thens"

All purpose "thens" to use in "if-thens" (ex. "Polly, this discussion is over. Don't say another word, or you'll cool down in your room." or "Nielson, please turn off the TV and come to supper. If I turn it off, I decide when it comes back on."
  • half an hour in their room
  • sitting at the table with their head down
  • fifteen minutes worth of chores

Weak Discipline Invites Relentless Challenge; Resolute Discipline Makes For A Better Relationship

While kids initially may resist stronger discipline, with time they become more amenable to it. Both their demeanor and their mood settle. The explanation is pretty straightforward. Weak discipline invites relentless challenge, causing ill will for all. Resolute discipline, on the other, lays down a stable line. When consequences are clear and sure, kids learn the terms. They cease the battle, and accept what is. Put simply, better discipline makes for a better relationship. - Dr. Ray Guarendi

A Distinction Must Be Made Between The False Notion That Discipline Is "Mean" And The Reality Of Truly Mean Discipline

A critical distinction must be made between the false notion, on the one hand, that discipline in and of itself is mean, and the reality, on the other, of truly mean discipline. Certainly we can be mean as we discipline. We can verbally pummel, demean, and fling all kinds of unnecessary and hurtful words and emotions. By virtue of our human weakness, all parents are prone to some mean discipline. Good parents work hard for years to reduce its presence. Yet setting firm limits and holding children accountable for their actions is not mean at all. It is love in action. It is love that is hard for children to comprehend. Nonetheless, it is love that will endure long beyond our lifetimes in the character of the next generation we leave behind on this earth. - Dr. Ray Guarendi

You Are The Most Kind, Gentle Teacher That Your Children Will Ever Have

A prime motive for discipline is this: You are the most kind, gentle teacher that your children will ever have. Never again will they be taught how to get along in life by anyone who has so much love for them. If you don't discipline now, for whatever reason - because you feel guilty or too strict, or are afraid of doing something "wrong," or you think it's just easier to let them go - then who will ultimately discipline your children? The world. And the world is not a kind or gentle place to learn lessons. If a parent doesn't teach qualities such as self-control, respect for others, consideration, and ability to follow rules, then the teaching task is thrust upon others: a teacher, employer, landlord, army sergeant, police officer, judge. Who of these has the emotional attachment to your child that you do? Who will forgive and forget as many times as you will? - Dr. Ray Guarendi

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Staying Still In Silence Before Jesus In The Blessed Sacrament Let's Us Perceive What He Wants From Us

It is by staying still, in silence, and possibly for long periods, before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, that we perceive what He wants from us, put aside our own plans to make way for His, and let God's light gradually penetrate the heart and heal it. - Fr. Cantalemessa

Sunday, June 10, 2012

What On The Outside Is Simply Brutal Violence Becomes An Act Of Total Self-Giving Love

By making bread into His Body and the wine into His Blood, He anticipates His death, He accepts it in His heart, and He transforms it into an action of love. What on the outside is simply brutal violence - the Crucifixion - from within becomes an act of total self-giving love. This is the substantial transformation which was accomplished at the Last Supper and was destined to set in motion a series of transformations leading ultimately to the transformation of the world when God will be all in all (cf. 1 Cor 15:28). - Pope Benedict XVI, Heart of the Christian Life

External Action Is Fruitless Unless It Is Born From A Deep Inner Communion With Christ

Activism by itself can be heroic, but in the end external action is fruitless and loses its effectiveness unless it is born from a deep inner communion with Christ. - Pope Benedict XVI

Faith In The God Who Became Man Is Believing In A God With A Body...This Faith Is Real And Fulfilled; It Brings Full Union Only If It Is Corporeal, If It Is A Sacramental Event In Which The Corporeal Lord Seizes Hold Of Our Bodily Existence

We have just heard the dramatic and incomparably explicit words of Jesus from John's Gospel: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you...My flesh is food indeed" (6:53, 55). When the murmuring of the Jews arose, the controversy could easily have been quieted by the assurance: Friends, do not be disturbed; this was only metaphorical language; the flesh only signifies food, it isn't actually that! - But there is nothing of that in the Gospel. Jesus renounces any such toning down.; he just says with renewed emphasis that this bread has to be literally, physically eaten. He says that faith in the God who became man is believing in a God with a body and that this faith is real and fulfilled; it brings full union only if it is corporeal, if it is a sacramental event in which the corporeal Lord seizes hold of our bodily existence. In order to express fully the intensity and reality of this fusion, Paul compares what happens in Holy Communion with the physical union between man and woman. To help us understand the Eucharist, he refers us to the words in the creation story: "The two [= man and wife] shall become one" (Gen 2:24). And he adds: "He who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit [that is, shares a single new existence in the Holy Spirit] with him" (1 Cor 6:17)


When we hear this, we at once have some notion of how the presence of Jesus Christ is to be understood. It is not something at rest but is a power that catches us up and works to draw us within itself. Augustine had a profound grasp of this in his teaching on Communion. In the period before his conversion, when he was struggling with the incarnational aspect of Christian belief, which he found impossible to approach from the point of view of Platonic idealism, he had a sort of vision, in which he heard a voice saying to him: "I am the bread of the strong, eat me! But you will not transform me and make me part of you; rather, I will transform you and make you part of me." In the normal process of eating. He takes things in, and they are assimilated into him, so that they become part of his own substance. They are transformed within him and go to build up his bodily life. But in the mutual relation with Christ it is the other way around; he is the heart, the truly existent being. When we truly communicate, this means that we are taken out of ourselves, that we are assimilated into him, that we become one with him and, through him, with the fellowship of our brethren. - Pope Benedict XVI, God Is Near Us

There May Be Legitimate Diversity Of Opinion Among Catholics About Waging War And The Death Penalty, But Not With Regard To Abortion And Euthanasia

‘Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.’ - Pope Benedict XVI

Friday, June 8, 2012

A God Who Weeps With So Many Tears At The Loss Of One Soul...

Ah, who would not be touched? ... A God who weeps with so many tears at the loss of one soul and Who cries unceasingly: My friend, my friend, why proceedest thou thus to lose thy soul and thy God? Stop! Stop! Ah! Look at my tears, my Blood which flows yet. Must I die a second time to save thee? Look at me. Ah! Angels from Heaven descend upon earth, come and weep with me for the loss of this soul! Oh, that a Christian should be so unfortunate as to persevere still in running towards the abyss despite the voice which his God causes him to hear continually! But, you may say to me, no one says these things to us. Oh my friends, unless you want to stop up your ears, you will hear the voice of God, which follows you unceasingly. Tell me, my friends, then, what is this remorse of conscience which overwhelms you in the midst of sin? Why do these anxieties and storms agitate you? Why this fear, this dread that you are in, when you seem to be forever expecting to be crushed by the thunders of Heaven? How many times, even when you were sinning, have you not experienced the touch of an invisible hand which seemed to push you away, as if someone were saying: Unhappy man, what are you doing? Unhappy man, where are you going? Ah my son, why do you wish to damn yourself?

Would you not agree with me that a Christian who despises so many graces deserves to be abandoned and rejected because he has not listened to the voice of God or profited by His graces? On the contrary, my dear brethren, it is God Himself Who is scorned by this ungrateful soul who would seem to wish to put Him to death again. All creation demands vengeance, and it is, in fact, God alone Who wishes to save this soul and Who is opposed to all that could be prejudicial to it.

He watches over its salvation as if it were the only soul in the world. - Saint Jean Marie Vianney

Unless You Want To Stop Up Your Ears, You Will Hear The Voice Of God

Oh my friends, unless you want to stop up your ears, you will hear the voice of God, which follows you unceasingly. - Saint Jean Marie Vianney

God From God And Light From Light, Entered Into Human History Through The Family

The only-begotten Son, of one substance with the Father, "God from God and Light from Light", entered into human history through the family: "For by his incarnation the Son of God united himself in a certain way with every man. He laboured with human hands... and loved with a human heart. Born of Mary the Virgin, he truly became one of us and, except for sin, was like us in every respect". If in fact Christ "fully discloses man to himself", he does so beginning with the family in which he chose to be born and to grow up. We know that the Redeemer spent most of his life in the obscurity of Nazareth, "obedient" (Lk 2:51) as the "Son of Man" to Mary his Mother, and to Joseph the carpenter. Is this filial "obedience" of Christ not already the first expression of that obedience to the Father "unto death" (Phil 2:8), whereby he redeemed the world? - Blessed Pope John Paul II, Letter to families, 1994

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Christian Wives And Mothers Owe Gratitude To The Catholic Church

Christian wives and mothers, what gratitude you owe to the Catholic Church for the honorable position you now hold in society! If you are no longer regarded as the slave, but the equal of your husband; if you are no longer the toy of his caprice and liable to be discarded at any moment, like the women of Turkey and the Mormon wives of Utah; but if you are recognized as the mistress and queen of your household, you owe your emancipation to the Church. You are especially indebted for your liberty to the Popes who rose up in all the majesty of their spiritual power to vindicate the rights of injured wives against the lustful tyranny of their husbands.

How opposite is the conduct of the fathers of the so-called Reformation, who, with the cry of religious reform on their lips, deformed religion and society by sanctioning divorce. - Cardinal Gibbons

The Fellowship Of A Christian Husband And Wife Is Cemented By The Grace Of God

Matrimony is not only a natural contract between husband and wife, but it has been elevated for Christians, by Jesus Christ, to the dignity of a Sacrament: “Husbands,” says the Apostle, “love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church and delivered Himself up for it, ... so also ought men to love their wives as their own bodies.... For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall adhere to his wife and they shall be one flesh. This is a great sacrament: but I speak in Christ and in the Church.”

In these words the Apostle declares that the union of Christ with His Church is the type or model of the bond subsisting between man and wife. Now the union between Christ and His Church is supernatural and sealed by Divine grace. Hence, also, is the fellowship of a Christian husband and wife cemented by the grace of God. - Cardinal Gibbons

The Holy Eucharist: Superior To The Manna

When our Savior says to the Jews: “Your fathers did eat manna and died, ... but he that eateth this (Eucharistic) bread shall live forever,” He evidently wishes to affirm the superiority of the food which He would give, over the manna by which the children of Israel were nourished.

Now, if the Eucharist were merely commemorative bread and wine, instead of being superior, it would be really inferior to the manna; for the manna was supernatural, heavenly, miraculous food, while bread and wine are a natural, earthly food. - Cardinal Gibbons

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Jesus Actively Permits Himself To Be Pierced, Ceaselessly Pouring Forth From Himself A Perfect Merciful Love

As God, Jesus actively permits Himself to be pierced, ceaselessly pouring forth from Himself a perfect merciful Love that has its source in the Father and invites man’s heart to enter into interpersonal communion with the Heart of God. - Rev. Gregory Gresko

When The Heart Of Man In His Entire Person Authentically Meets The Pierced Heart Of Jesus

When the heart of man in his entire person – body and soul – authentically meets the pierced Heart of Jesus, this encounter is the sacred place of our salvation where we ask Jesus to be the Lord of our hardened hearts, exchanging them for His Heart so completely full of love and life, as the Holy Spirit pours forth into us as a living spring of the Father’s Divine Mercy (cf. Ezekiel 36.26-28). - Rev. Gregory Gresko

Friday, May 25, 2012

When Spouses Speak The Truth With Their Bodies

http://catholicparents.org/oxcart/spousesspeaktruth.html

Marriage: More Than Just Two People Living Together

The Church teaches us that marriage is more than just two people living together who share common likes or because of convenience. It is a sacramental covenant that bonds two people together in an indissoluble union by which the couple makes God present in their marriage. It is the only sacrament that is not administered by a priest. The priest is present at the wedding to witness the validity ofthe marriage. But the sacrament itself is administered by the husband and wife to each other. The sacrament begins at the moment they commit themselves in marriage with the exchange of vows to freely, faithfully and fruitfully love each other. But the sacrament is perfected when they consummate the marriage in the marital embrace. It is in the sexual union that the couple makes manifest the sacrament and shares in the divine grace that God wishes to give them as man and wife. The vows said with their mouths at the altar are perfected and renewed through their bodies each and every time in the conjugal act. - Kenneth Henderson

The Desire For God Is Written In The Human Heart

The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for. - CCC #27

Sunday, May 6, 2012

The Taste Of God In Contemplation Is More Precious Than Everything Else

The taste of God in contemplation is more precious than everything else; for, no matter what a man might wish for, it is nothing when compared to this. For when the spirit of a man stands before God and sees his happiness and tastes his delights, then in truth he as attained to paradise. — Saint Anthony of Padua

Take Away The Supernatural And What Remains Is The Unnatural


Take away the supernatural, and what remains is the unnatural. – G. K. Chesterton

Saturday, May 5, 2012

For A General Rule You May Be Sure That Complaining Is Sin

Complain as little as possible of your wrongs, for as a general rule you may be sure that complaining is sin; the rather that self-love always magnifies our injuries: above all, do not complain to people who are easily angered and excited. If it is needful to complain to someone, either as seeking a remedy for your injury, or in order to soothe your mind, let it be to some calm, gentle spirit, greatly filled with the Love of God; for otherwise, instead of relieving your heart, your confidants will only provoke it to still greater disturbance; instead of taking out the thorn which pricks you, they will drive it further into your foot. – Saint Francis de Sales

Thursday, May 3, 2012

It Is Suffering Which Clears The Way For The Grace Which Transforms Human Souls


It is suffering, more than anything else, which clears the way for the grace which transforms human souls. Suffering, more than anything else makes present in the history of humanity the powers of the Redemption. – Blessed Pope John Paul II

Saturday, April 21, 2012

From The Moment Of Her Fiat Mary Began To Carry All Of Us In Her Womb


From the moment of her fiat Mary began to carry all of us in her womb. – Saint Anselm of Canterbury

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The More I Find, The More I Seek

Eternal Trinity, you are like a deep sea, in which the more I seek, the more I find; and the more I find, the more I seek you. - Saint Catherine of Siena
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Wednesday, April 4, 2012

On Being 'Moderate'


“The only time being ‘moderate’ is a good thing is when one is exercising liberties to do the things some call ‘vices’ in moderation (drink, etc). We should never be moderate in guarding our Natural Rights and in doing what is good, just, and Godly.” – David Persyn

Monday, March 5, 2012

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

The Principle Cause Of Delinquent Children Is Delinquent Parents


The principle cause of delinquent children is delinquent parents. Almighty God has given children to the parents as so much clay to be molded according to the Divine Image. When a child is born, a crown is made for it in heaven; woe to those parents if that crown is eternally unused. – Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Servant of God

If We Wish To Keep Our Rights, Then We Must Keep Our God

If we wish to have the light, we must keep the sun; if we wish to keep our forests we must keep our trees; if we wish to keep our perfumes, we must keep our flowers – and if we wish to keep our rights, then we must keep our God. – Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Servant of God

Saturday, January 14, 2012

After Confession: He May Be Grey And Gouty; But He Is Only Five Minutes Old


...when a Catholic comes from Confession, he does truly, by definition, step out again into that dawn of his own beginning and look with new eyes across the world to a Crystal Palace that is really of crystal. He believes that in that dim corner, and in that brief ritual, God has really remade him in His own image. He is now a new experiment of the Creator. He is as much a new experiment as he was when he was really only five years old. He stands, as I said, in the white light at the worthy beginning of the life of a man. The accumulations of time can no longer terrify. He may be grey and gouty; but he is only five minutes old. – G. K. Chesterton

Friday, January 13, 2012

I'm Not Religious, But I'm Spiritual; I'm Not Honest, But You're Interesting!

You ever hear girls say that? "I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual." I like to reply with "I'm not honestbut you're interesting!"- Daniel Tosh

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Only The Humble Find God

Only two classes of people found the Babe; the shepherds and the Wise Men; the simple and the learned; those who knew that they knew nothing, and those who knew that they did not know everything. He is never seen by the man of one book; never by the man who thinks he knows. Not even God can tell the proud anything! Only the humble can find God! - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

St. Thomas From His Prison Cell

I will not mistrust Him, Meg, although I shall feel myself weakening and on the verge of being overcome with fear. I shall remember how St. Peter at a blast of wind began to sink because of his lack of faith, and I shall do as he did: call upon Christ and pray to Him for help. And then I trust He shall place His holy hand on me and in the stormy seas hold me up from drowning. - Saint Thomas More, from his prison cell