Thursday, December 26, 2013

God Comes As A Baby - Defenseless And In Need Of Our Help

God’s sign is simplicity. God’s sign is the baby. God’s sign is that he makes himself small for us. This is how he reigns. He does not come with power and outward splendour. He comes as a baby – defenceless and in need of our help. He does not want to overwhelm us with his strength. He takes away our fear of his greatness. He asks for our love: so he makes himself a child. He wants nothing other from us than our love, through which we spontaneously learn to enter into his feelings, his thoughts and his will – we learn to live with him and to practise with him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love. God made himself small so that we could understand him, welcome him, and love him. - Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Monday, November 11, 2013

Prayer Is Helplessness Casting Itself On Power...

Prayer is helplessness casting itself on Power, infirmity leaning on Strength, misery reaching to Mercy, and a prisoner clamoring for Relief. - Venerable Fulton J. Sheen

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Inextinguishable Yearning For The Infinite

In man there is an inextinguishable yearning for the infinite. None of the answers attempted are sufficient. Only the God himself who became finite in order to open our finiteness and lead us to the breadth of his infiniteness responds to the question of our being. For this reason, the Christian faith finds man today too. Our task is to serve the faith with a humble spirit and the whole strength of our heart and understanding. - Pope Benedict XVI 

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

When Love Ceases To Act, It Ceases To Exist

The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when love ceases to act, it ceases to exist. - Saint Gregory the Great

Monday, August 26, 2013

In Times Of Aridity

In times of aridity arouse your spirit gently, by acts of love; then rest in the will of God. It is thus that the soul gives the strongest proof of her fidelity to God. Make a bouquet of the sufferings of Jesus, and place it on the bosom of your soul, as I have told you. You can from time to time call them to mind, and say sweetly to your Saviour: 'Oh good Jesus, how swollen, bruised, and defiledwith spittle do I behold Thy countenance! Oh my Love! why do I see Thee all covered with wounds? Oh Infinite Sweetness! why are Thy bones laid bare? Ah, what sufferings! what sorrows! O my God! for what are Thou all wounded! Ah, dear sufferings! dear wounds! I wish to keep you always in my heart'. - Saint Paul of the Cross

Monday, August 5, 2013

On Christian Marriage Excerpt

In 1930, Pope Pius XI wrote the encyclical Casti Connubii (On Christian Marriage), in which he restated the Church’s position on contraception: “We admonish, therefore, priests who hear confessions and others who have the care of souls ... not to allow the faithful entrusted to them to err regarding this most grave law of God. ... If any confessor or pastor of souls, which may, God forbid, lead the faithful entrusted to him into these errors or should at least confirm them by approval or by guilty silence, let him be mindful of the fact that he must render a strict account to God, the Supreme Judge, for the betrayal of his sacred trust”

Christianity Has Glorified Marriage More Than Any Other Religion

CS Lewis: "Christianity has glorified marriage more than any other religion: and nearly all the greatest love poetry in the world has been produced by Christians. If anyone says that sex, in itself, is bad, Christianity contradicts him at once."

Saturday, July 27, 2013



Allow me to remind you that among other evident signs of a lack of humility are:
Thinking that what you do or say is better than what others do or say
Always wanting to get your own way
Arguing when you are not right or — when you are — insisting stubbornly or with bad manners
Giving your opinion without being asked for it, when charity does not demand you to do so
Despising the point of view of others
Not being aware that all the gifts and qualities you have are on loan
Not acknowledging that you are unworthy of all honour or esteem, even the ground you are treading on or the things you own
Mentioning yourself as an example in conversation
Speaking badly about yourself, so that they may form a good opinion of you, or contradict you
Making excuses when rebuked
Hiding some humiliating faults from your director, so that he may not lose the good opinion he has of you
Hearing praise with satisfaction, or being glad that others have spoken well of you
Being hurt that others are held in greater esteem than you
Refusing to carry out menial tasks
Seeking or wanting to be singled out
Letting drop words of self-praise in conversation, or words that might show your honesty, your wit or skill, your professional prestige…
Being ashamed of not having certain possessions…


St. Josemaria, pray for us!

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Strive To The Point Of Heroism

Another thing I have never forgotten, though it took place a long time ago, was once when I had gone into the Cathedral in Valencia to pray and I passed by the tomb of the Venerable John Ridaura. I was told that whenever this priest, already very advanced in years, was asked how many years he had lived, he would reply with great conviction, in his Valencian dialect, Poquets, 'Very few! Only those I have spent serving God.' For many of you here, the fingers of one hand are still sufficient to count the years since you made up your minds to follow Our Lord closely, to serve him in the midst of the world, in your own environment and through your own profession or occupation. How long is not all that important. What does matter is that we engrave, that we burn upon our souls the conviction that Christ's invitation to sanctity, which he addresses to all men without exception, puts each one of us under an obligation to cultivate our interior life and to struggle daily to practise the Christian virtues; and not just in any way whatsoever, nor in a way which is above average or even excellent. No; we must strive to the point of heroism, in the strictest and most exacting sense of the word. - St. Josemaria Escriva

Monday, July 15, 2013

No Matter How You Try To Clean It Up...

No matter how you clean it up, try to call it something else, and sanitize it, abortion always ends up with a dead baby. - Father Casey

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Suffering? You Are God's Prized And Valued Stone.

Don’t complain if you suffer. It is the prized and valued stone that is polished. Does it hurt? - Allow yourself to be cut, gratefully, because God has taken you in His hands as if you were a diamond. An ordinary pebble is not worked on like that. - St. Josemaria Escriva (Furrow, 235)

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Be Bold

It is not those who commit the least faults who are most holy, but those who have the greatest courage, the greatest generosity, the greatest love, who make the boldest efforts to overcome themselves, and are not immoderately apprehensive of tripping. - Saint Francis de Sales

Monday, June 3, 2013

“Be sure to be warmly affable toward everyone. Speak to and answer everyone with very great gentleness and deference. Keep in mind the way the Lord spoke and replied to others even when he was most harshly treated. Never comment on the faults or the behavior of your neighbors. When others speak of them, put a good interpretation on their actions. If you cannot, say nothing at all. In short, decide never to speak of the failings of others nor to reprimand them no matter how serious they seem to you. When you see someone fall into some fault, call to mind the gospel saying, ‘You can see the splinter in your brother’s eye, but you cannot see the beam in your own’ (Mt 7:3)”.. St John Baptist de la Salle

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The Heart Of Man Is An Abyss

The heart of man is an abyss; there is room in it for infinity because in it there is an infinity of desire; and it cannot remain empty; the stark horror of an alien evil will inhabit it if it is not filled by the limitless ocean of the goodness of God. - Fr. Gerald Vann, O.P.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

...without the Way there is no going; without the Truth, there is no knowing; without the Life, there is no living.

...without the Way there is no going; without the Truth, there is no knowing; without the Life, there is no living. The Way becomes lovable, not when it is in abstract codes and commandments, but when it is Personal. As Plato once said, "The Father of the world is hard to discover, and when discovered cannot be communicated." Our Lord's answer to Plato would have been that the Father is hard to discover unless He is revealed through the Person of His Son. - Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Many Kinds Of Martyrdom

As there are many kinds of persecution, so there are many forms of martyrdom. You are a witness to Christ every day. - Saint Ambrose