Tuesday, February 28, 2017
"My hope is in Christ, who strengthens the weakest by His Divine help. I can do all in Him who strengthens me. His Power is infinite, and if I lean on him, it will be mine. His Wisdom is infinite, and if I look to Him for counsel, I shall not be deceived. His Goodness is infinite, and if my trust is stayed in Him, I shall not be abandoned." – Pope Saint Pius X
"Virtues are like treasures that will get stolen if they are not hidden from the eyes of the envious. The devil is always vigilant, and he is the worst of all those who envy, because he quickly tries to steal these treasures-our virtues-when he is presumably out of sight, and he does it by attacking us through the very formidable enemy of self-conceit.
Our Lord, who is always solicitous of our good, warns us about it in various places in the gospel in order to preserve us from this great enemy. Does he not tell us when we want to pray that we should withdraw to our room and close the door as we pray face-to-face with God, so that our prayers are not seen by others? That when fasting we should wash our faces so that others do not know we are fasting because of our pale faces? That in giving alms we should not let the right hand know what the left hand is doing?"
-St. Pio of Pietrelcina
"Because you do not feel My sufferings, it does not follow that they must all be in the state of grace. At times, I allow you to be aware of the condition of certain souls, and I give you the grace of suffering solely because I use you as the instrument of their conversion." WORDS OF JESUS TO ST. FAUSTINA (Diary 1357)
"I am absolutely unable to consider, in an indulgent manner, your negligence of Holy Communion, not to mention holy meditation. Remember that the only way to gain salvation is through prayer; you cannot win the battle without prayer. So the choice is yours." St. Pio of Pietrelcina (Letters III, p. 418)
“The supreme business of a foreign missionary society is to put itself out of business as soon as possible. Since the aim of the missions is the establishment of the Church through the native clergy, foreign missionaries should strive to be self-liquidating. In theory, a day ought to come when the whole world would have had Christ preached to it and Africa, India, Japan, and Mongolia should have their own hierarchy, their own clergy, and be as free from the need of missionary imports as is the United States today.” Archbishop Fulton Sheen (Missions and the World in Crisis)
Monday, February 27, 2017
"At three o'clock, implore My mercy, especially for sinners; and, if only for a brief moment, immerse yourself in My Passion, particularly in My abandonment at the moment of agony. This is the hour of great mercy for the whole world. I will allow you to enter into My mortal sorrow. In this hour, I will refuse nothing to the soul that makes a request of Me in virtue of My Passion...." WORDS OF JESUS TO ST. FAUSTINA (Diary 1320)
“Can. 1. ‘Following the examples of the Holy Fathers’ and renewing the duty of our office ‘we forbid in every way by the authority of the Apostolic See that anyone by means of money be ordained or promoted in the Church of God. But if anyone shall have acquired ordination or promotion in the Church in this way, let him be entirely deprived of his office.’” Pope Callistus II, Lateran Council I, 1123:
“Since, therefore, the days are evil, and Satan possesses the power of this world, we ought to give heed to ourselves, and diligently inquire into the ordinances of the Lord. Fear and patience, then, are helpers of our faith; and long-suffering and continence are things which fight on our side. While these remain pure in what respects the Lord, Wisdom, Understanding, Science, and Knowledge rejoice along with them. For He has revealed to us by all the prophets that He needs neither sacrifices, nor burnt-offerings, nor oblations, saying thus, What is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me, says the Lord? I am full of burnt-offerings, and desire not the fat of lambs, and the blood of bulls and goats, not when you come to appear before Me: for who has required these things at your hands? Tread no more My courts, not though you bring with you fine flour. Incense is a vain abomination unto Me, and your new moons and sabbaths I cannot endure. He has therefore abolished these things, that the new law of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is without the yoke of necessity, might have a human oblation.” St. Barnabus, Epistle of Barnabus, Chapter 2
"He who does not meditate is like a person who never looks in the mirror and therefore does not bother to be tidy when he goes out, since he can be dirty without knowing it. The person who meditates and thinks of God, who is the mirror of his soul, tries to discover his defects attempts to correct them, controls himself and straightens out his conscience." St. Pio of Pietrlcina
"Jesus Christ, after having given us all he could give, that is to say, the merit of his toils, his sufferings, and bitter death; after having given us his adorable body and blood to be the food of our souls, willed also to give us the most precious thing he had left, which was his holy Mother." - St. John Vianney
Sunday, February 26, 2017
"And just as He appeared before the holy Apostles in true flesh, so now He has us see Him in the Sacred Bread. Looking at Him with the eyes of their flesh, they saw only His Flesh, but regarding Him with the eyes of the spirit, they believed that He was God. In like manner, as we see bread and wine with our bodily eyes, let us see and believe firmly that it is His Most Holy Body and Blood, True and Living.
For in this way our Lord is ever present among those who believe in him, according to what He said: "Behold, I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world." (Mt. 28, 20) - St. Francis of Assisi
For in this way our Lord is ever present among those who believe in him, according to what He said: "Behold, I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world." (Mt. 28, 20) - St. Francis of Assisi
"When we go before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament we represent the one in the world who is in most need of God’s Mercy." We "Stand in behalf of the one in the world who does not know Christ and who is farthest away from God and we bring down upon their soul the Precious Blood of The Lamb."
- Pope John Paul II
"O Mary, my Mother and my Lady, I offer You my soul, my body, my life and my death, and all that will Follow it. I place everything in Your hands. O my Mother, cover my soul with Your virginal mantle and grant me the grace of purity of heart, soul and body. Defend me with Your power against all enemies, and especially against those who hide their malice behind the mask of virtue. O lovely lily! You are for me a mirror, O my Mother!"
(Saint Faustina's Diary 79)
(Saint Faustina's Diary 79)
"If it hadn't been for this small imperfection, you wouldn't have come to Me. Know that as often as you come to Me, humbling yourself and asking My forgiveness, I pour out a superabundance of graces on your soul, and your imperfection vanishes before My eyes, and I see only your love and your humility. You lose nothing but gain much..." WORDS OF JESUS TO ST. FAUSTINA (Diary1293)
“The Eucharist is so essential to our one-ness with Christ that as soon as Our Lord announced It in the Gospel, It began to be the test of the fidelity of His followers. First, He lost the masses, for it was too hard a saying and they no longer followed Him. Secondly, He lost some of His disciples: "They walked with Him no more." Third, it split His apostolic band, for Judas is here announced as the betrayer.” Archbishop Fulton Sheen (Treasure in Clay)
"But the true reason why you don’t succeed in meditating well is this, and I am not mistaken: you approach meditation with a certain, special alteration, coupled with the great anxiety to find some object which can console and content your spirit. And this is sufficient to see to it that you never find what you seek, and do not rest your mind on the truths you meditate upon, or empty your heart of affections. When one seeks something one has lost with great haste and avidity, one can even touch this object with one’s hand, and even see it a hundred times without realizing it” St. Pio of Pietrelcina (Letters III, p. 989).
"From all My wounds, like from streams, mercy flows for souls, but the wound in My Heart is the fountain of unfathomable mercy. From this fountain spring all graces for souls. The flames of compassion burn Me. I desire greatly to pour them out upon souls. Speak to the whole world about My mercy." WORDS OF JESUS TO ST. FAUSTINA (Diary 1190)
Saturday, February 25, 2017
"So your strength is failing you? Why don't you tell your mother about it? … Mother! Call her with a loud voice. She is listening to you; she sees you in danger, perhaps, and she—your holy mother Mary—offers you, along with the grace of her son, the refuge of her arms, the tenderness of her embrace… and you will find yourself with added strength for the new battle." - St. JosemarÃa Escrivá
"I cannot at all believe and therefore dispense you from meditation for the soul reason that you feel you gain nothing from it. The holy gift of prayer, my good daughter, is the right hand of the Savior, and to the degree to which you are emptied of yourself, that is, emptied of love of body and your own will and that you continually become more well-rooted in holy humility, the Lord will communicate this to your heart." St Pio of Pietrelcina
"Though there be such things as deathbed conversions, nevertheless as the tree falls, there it lies. One man who led an evil life always boasted of the fact that he needed never worry about his soul when time would end, for he could save it with three words which he quoted in Latin: "Miserere mei Deus" [-- God have mercy, on me]. He was right about saying three words at the moment of his death, but they were not the words he expected to say, for his life had not been lived as to pronounce them from his heart. As his horse threw him over the cliff he said: "Capiat omnia biabolus," which means, "I'll be damned." Archbishop Fulton Sheen (On Being Human)
Friday, February 24, 2017
"Be patient in persevering in this holy exercise of meditation and be content with taking small steps, until you have the legs to run, or better still, to fly. Be content with obedience which is never an easy matter for a soul which has chosen God as its portion, and resign yourself for now, to being a little bee in a hive, that will soon become a big bee capable of making honey. Always humble yourself lovingly before God and men, because God speaks to those who truly have a humble heart before Him, and He enriches it with his gifts." St. Pio of Pietrelcina
"What makes a thing bad? A pencil is a good pencil because it does what it was made to do. It writes. Is it a good can opener? It certainly is not! Suppose I use the pencil as a can opener. what happens? First of all, I do not open the can. Second, I destroy the pencil. Now if I decide to do certain things with my body which I ought not do, I do not attain the purpose for which I was created. For example, becoming an alcoholic does not make me happy. I destroy myself just as I destroyed the pencil in using it to open a can. When I disobey God, I do not make myself very happy on the inside, and I certainly destroy any peace of soul that I ought to have." Archbishop Fulton Sheen
"From all My wounds, like from streams, mercy flows for souls, but the wound in My Heart is the fountain of unfathomable mercy. From this fountain spring all graces for souls. The flames of compassion burn Me. I desire greatly to pour them out upon souls. Speak to the whole world about My mercy." WORDS OF JESUS TO ST. FAUSTINA (Diary 1190)
Thursday, February 23, 2017
"In Scripture not only teachings, but even each and every word pertains to faith. We believe no word in Scripture is in vain or not rightly placed, but in Councils the greater part of the acts does not pertain to faith. For disputations that are prefaced, or reasons which are added, or the things that are advanced to explain and illustrate are not on faith, rather only the bare decrees and not even all of these, but only those which are proposed as de fide. Sometimes Councils define something not as a decree but as probable, such as when the Council of Vienne decreed that it must be held as more probable that grace and the virtues are infused into infants at Baptism, as it is contained in Clem. uni. de Summa Trinitate et fide Catholica. But when a decree is proposed as de fide, it is easily discerned from the words of the Council because they usually say they explain the Catholic faith or they must be held as heretics who think the contrary; or what is most common, they say anathema and exclude them from the Church who think the contrary. But when they say none of these, the matter is not certain de fide. Next, in the very decrees on faith, not the words but only the sense pertains to faith, for it is not heretical to say that in canons of Councils some word is superfluous or not rightly placed, unless perhaps the decree were formed from the word itself, as when in the Council of Nicaea they decreed the word homoousion must be received, and in Ephesus the word Theotokon." St. Robert Bellarmine De Conciliis, lib. 2, ch. 12
“You threaten me with fire which burns for an hour, and after a little is extinguished, but are ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and of eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly. But why do you tarry? Bring forth what you will.” (St. Polycarp of Smyrna, Bishop and Martyr; The Martyrdom of Polycarp, Chapter XI; St. Polycarp responds to threats of the Roman proconsul)
“The rosary is the book of the blind, where souls see and there enact the greatest drama of love the world has ever known; it is the book of the simple, which initiates them into mysteries and knowledge more satisfying than the education of other men; it is the book of the aged, whose eyes close upon the shadow of this world, and open on the substance of the next. The power of the rosary is beyond description.” ~ Archbishop Fulton Sheen
“When you say your Rosary, the angels rejoice, the Blessed Trinity delights in it, my Son finds joy in it too, and I myself am happier than you can possibly guess. After the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, there is nothing in the Church that I love as much as the Rosary.”
- Our Lady to Blessed Alan de la Roche
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Pope Gregory XIII, Profession of Faith Prescribed for the Greeks, 1575: “I, N., in firm faith believe and profess each and every thing which is contained in the Creed of faith, which the holy Roman Church uses, namely: I believe in one God [as in the Nicean-Constantinopolitan Creed, n. 86, 994].
I also believe, and I accept and profess all the things which the holy ecumenical Synod of FLORENCE defined and declared concerning the union of the western and eastern Church, namely that the Holy Spirit is eternally from the Father and the Son; and that He has His essence and His subsistent being from the Father and from the Son together; and that He proceeds from both eternally, as from one principle and by a single procession, since what the holy Doctors and Fathers say comes to mean the same thing, that from the Father through the Son the Holy Spirit proceeds, and that the Son, according to the Greeks, is also the cause, and according to the Latins, indeed the principle of the subsistence of the Holy Spirit, as is the Father...
Besides, I profess and accept all the other things which the holy Roman and Apostolic Church, according to the decrees of the holy ecumenical general Synod of TRENT, proposed and prescribed should be professed and accepted, as well as the contents in the above mentioned creeds of faith, as follows: Apostolic . . . and all the rest, as in the profession of faith of TRENT”
“Through Peter, Christ has given the keys of the kingdom of heaven to the bishops.” St. Gregory of Nyssa (Quoted by Fr. Michael Müller, C.SS.R. in his work “The Beautiful Story of the Catholic Faith”, imprimatur January 16, 1902, Section “The Catholic Church, founded by Christ Himself, the Custodian of Our Faith and Morals”)
"I cannot at all believe and therefore dispense you from meditation for the soul reason that you feel you gain nothing from it. The holy gift of prayer, my good daughter, is the right hand of the Savior, and to the degree to which you are emptied of yourself, that is, emptied of love of body and your own will and that you continually become more well-rooted in holy humility, the Lord will communicate this to your heart." St Pio of Pietrelcina
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
"Put aside your hatred and animosity. Take pains to refrain from sharp words. If they escape your lips, do not be ashamed to let your lips produce the remedy, since they have caused the wounds. Pardon one another so that later on you will not remember the injury. The recollection of an injury is itself wrong. It adds to our anger, nurtures our sin and hates what is good. It is a rusty arrow and poison for the soul. It puts all virtue to flight."
— St. Francis of Paola
— St. Francis of Paola
“And since in this divine sacrifice, which is celebrated in the Mass, that same Christ is contained and immolated in an unbloody manner, who on the altar of the Cross ‘once offered Himself’ in a bloody manner [Heb. 9:27], the holy Synod teaches that this is truly propitiatory [can. 3], and has this effect, that if contrite and penitent we approach God with a sincere heart and right faith, with fear and reverence, ‘we obtain mercy and find grace in seasonable aid’ [ Heb. 4:16]. For, appeased by this oblation, the Lord, granting the grace and gift of penitence, pardons crimes and even great sins. For, it is one and the same Victim, the same one now offering by the ministry of the priests as He who then offered Himself on the Cross, the manner of offering alone being different. The fruits of that oblation (bloody, that is) are received most abundantly through this unbloody one; so far is the latter from being derogatory in any way to Him [can. 4]. Therefore, it is offered rightly according to the tradition of the apostles [can. 3], not only for the sins of the faithful living, for their punishments and other necessities, but also for the dead in Christ not yet fully purged.” Pope Pius IV, Council of Trent, Session 22, Sep. 17, 1562, Ch. 2 (Denz. 940)
During prayer I heard these words within me: ‘The two rays denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls…
“‘These two rays issued forth from the very depths of My tender mercy when My agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross.
“‘These rays shield souls from the wrath of My Father. Happy is the one who will dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him.’” WORDS OF JESUS TO ST. FAUSTINA (Diary, 299)
Monday, February 20, 2017
“But it is a very mournful thing, by which the ravings of human reason go to ruin when someone is eager for revolution and, against the advice of the Apostle, strives ‘to be more wise than it behooveth to be wise’ [cf. Rom. 12:3 ], and trusting too much in himself, affirms that truth must be sought outside of the Catholic Church in which truth itself is found far from even the slightest defilement of error, and which therefore, is called and is ‘the pillar and ground of the truth’ [1 Tim. 3 15 ].” Pope Gregory XVI, Singulari nos affecerant gaudio, 1834
St. Bernard (l. 2, de Consid.) saith to Pope Eugenius, “Who art thou? A great priest—the chief Pontiff. Thou art the prince of bishops, thou art the heir of the Apostles, thou art Abel in primacy, Noah in government, Abraham in the patriarchate; in order, thou art Melchisedeck, in dignity Aaron, in authority Moses, in judgeship Samuel, in power Peter, in unction a Christ. To thee the keys have been delivered, the sheep entrusted.” (as cited by Cornelius A Lapide, The Great Commentary)
“It took a Lincoln’s blood to write a nation; it has taken a Kennedy’s blood to prepare for the equality of men in that same nation…On a brighter Easter day, we shall see that our national brotherhood was purchased by the blood of a victim. Both were great, not by what was done by them, but what was done through them…these two Presidents of Sorrow stand forever near the Man of Sorrow saying: “I will stand here at Thy side; despise my nation not.” Archbishop Fulton Sheen
Sunday, February 19, 2017
“We ask if you have believed and now believe that there is a purgatory to which depart the souls of those dying in grace who have not yet made complete satisfaction for their sins. Also, if you have believed and now believe that they will be tortured by fire for a time and that as soon as they are cleansed, even before the day of judgment, they may come to the true and eternal beatitude which consists in the vision of God face to face and in love.” Pope Clement VI, “Super quibusdam”, Sept. 20, 1351: (Denz. 570s)
“The Souls in Purgatory, can pray for those, who address to them their petitions, and obtain from God help, forgiveness, assistance against temptations, and, all favors, both temporal and spiritual, which they may need.” St. Robert Bellarmine (Quoted by Rev. J. F. Durin, in his work “Novena for the Relief of the Poor Souls in Purgatory”, Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur Jan 1931)
“Moreover, ‘legitimate defence can be not only a right but a grave duty for someone responsible for another’s life, the common good of the family or of the State’ (CCC 2265). Unfortunately it happens that the need to render the aggressor incapable of causing harm sometimes involves taking his life. In this case, the fatal outcome is attributable to the aggressor whose action brought it about, even though he may not be morally responsible because of a lack of the use of reason.” (Pope Saint John Paul II; Evangelium Vitae #55; March 25, 1995)
Souls who spread the honor of My mercy I shield through their entire lives as a tender mother her infant, and at the hour of death I will not be a Judge for them, but the Merciful Savior. At that last hour, a soul has nothing with which to defend itself except My mercy. Happy is the soul that during its lifetime immersed itself in the Fountain of Mercy, because justice will have no hold on it. WORDS OF JESUS TO ST FAUSTINA (Diary 1075)
Write this: Everything that exists is enclosed in the bowels of My mercy, more deeply than an infant in its mother's womb. How painfully distrust of My goodness wounds Me! Sins of distrust wound Me most painfully. WORDS OF JESUS TO ST. FAUSTINA
(Diary 1076)Saturday, February 18, 2017
"Through baptism a Christian receives new life in Christ, becomes lifted up into a supernatural life, and acquires the wonderful hope of being seated on a heavenly throne in glory. What dignity! The Christian vocation involves a continual aspiration to the homeland of the blessed. The Christian vocation requires us, I tell you, not to set our hearts on the things of this vile world. All the concern and effort of a good Christian who is living out this vocation is focused on obtaining eternal benefits. The Christian needs to judge things here below by esteeming and valuing only those things that are helpful in obtaining eternal benefits and dismissing all the things that are not helpful in reaching that goal."
-St. Pio of Pietrelcina
“Mary showed complete trust in God by agreeing to be used as an instrument in His plan of salvation. She trusted Him in spite of Her nothingness because She knew He who is mighty could do great things in Her and through Her. Once She said ‘YES’ to Him, She never doubted. She was just a young woman, but She belonged to God and nothing nor anyone could separate Her from Him.” ST. TERESA of Calcutta
“The search for peace within the self is always doomed to fail; the two loneliest places in the world are a strange city and one’s own ego. When a man is alone with his thoughts, in false independence of the Love Who made him, he keeps bad company. No amount of psychoanalysis can heal the uneasiness that results, for its basis is metaphysical, its source the tension between the finite and infinite.” Archbishop Fulton Sheen (Lift Up Your Heart)
"One day Jesus told me that He would cause a chastisement to fall upon the most beautiful city in our country [probably Warsaw]. This chastisement would be that with which God had punished Sodom and Gomorrah. I saw the great wrath of God and a shudder pierced my heart. I prayed in silence.After a moment, Jesus said to me, My child, unite yourself closely to Me during the Sacrifice and offer My Blood and My Wounds to My Father in expiation for the sins of that city. Repeat this without interruption throughout the entire Holy Mass. Do this for seven days. On the seventh day I saw Jesus in a bright cloud and began to beg Him to look upon the city and upon our whole country. Jesus looked [down] graciously. When I saw the kindness of' Jesus, I began to beg His blessing. Immediately Jesus said, For your sake I bless the entire country. And He made a big sign of the cross over our country. Seeing the goodness of God, a great joy filled my soul." WORDS OF JESUS TO ST. FAUSTINA (Diary 39)
Friday, February 17, 2017
"Baptism is said to be a copy of the death of Jesus. St. Paul says we are baptized "into his death" [Romans 6:3], in imitations of the death of our Redeemer. What the cross was to Jesus, then, baptism is for us. Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross to die in his flesh. We are baptized to die to sin, to die to ourselves. On the cross Jesus Christ had all his senses put to death, so we through baptism should carry the death of Jesus in all our senses. This is precisely what St. Paul says in his second letter to the faithful in Corinth: "[We are] always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies" [2 Corinthians 4:10]." -St. Pio of Pietrelcina
"I urge you to unite with me and draw near to Jesus with me, to receive his embrace and a kiss that sanctifies and saves us. . .Let us not cease then to kiss this divine Son in this way, for if these are the kisses we give him now, he himself will come to take us in his arms and give us the kiss of peace in the last sacraments at the hour of death." St. Pio of Pietrelcina
“It seems to be a fact of human psychology that when death approaches, the human heart speaks its words of love to those whom it holds closest and dearest. There is no reason to suspect that it is otherwise in the case of the Heart of hearts. If He spoke in a graduated order to those whom He loved most, then we may expect to find in His first three words the order of His love and affection. His first words went out to enemies: “Father, forgive them,” His second to sinners: “This day you will be with Me in Paradise,” and His third to saints: “Woman, behold your son.” Enemies, sinners and saints – such is the order of Divine Love and Thoughtfulness.” Archbishop Fulton Sheen (The Seven Last Words)
Thursday, February 16, 2017
"The Heart of Jesus is an open heart. Spend your time there...It is not an ordinary school or a boarding school or a school for examinations, but it is a school of Jesus where you come to learn and to know the Heart of Jesus - where the teachers are His Mother and He. What have we to learn? To be meek and humble; if we are meek and humble, we will learn to pray. If we learn to pray we will belong to Jesus." -St. Teresa of Calcutta
“Democracy needs religion more than religion needs democracy. A religion can live without democracy; it can live under tyranny, persecution and dictatorship – not comfortably, it is true, but heroically and divinely. But democracy cannot live without religion, for without religion democracy will degenerate into demagogy by selling itself to the highest bidder.” Archbishop Fulton Sheen (Whence Come Wars)
”There is no one, O Most Holy Mary, who can know God except through thee; no one who can be saved or redeemed but through thee, O Mother of God; no one who can be delivered from dangers but through thee, O Virgin Mother; no one who obtains mercy but through thee, O Filled-With-All-Grace!” - St. Germanus
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
"Jesus tells me that when it comes to love, he is the one who delights in me; when it comes to sorrow, instead it is I who delight in him. For me to desire health right now would be seeking joy for myself and not seeking to comfort Jesus. Yes, I love the cross and only the cross. I love it because I always see it on Jesus' shoulders. By now Jesus knows full well that my whole life, my whole heart, is dedicated to him and to his sufferings.
Oh father! Forgive me for using such language. Only Jesus can comprehend the pain there is for me when I place myself before the sorrowful scene of Calvary. It is incomprehensible that Jesus is comforted not only by sharing his sorrows but also by finding a soul who, out of love for him, asks not for consolation but for participation in his very sufferings.
When Jesus wants me to know he loves me, he lets me experience his wounds, his thorns, his agonies."
-St. Pio of Pietrelcina
"Our noblest citizens are worried about America. They are not so much distracted by events from outside the country in the realm of international politics, but rather what is happening to the soul of America. Lincoln never feared that America would be conquered from the outside, but he dreaded decay from within. Of the two kinds of barbarism, external or invasion from without, and inner barbarism of spiritual dry rot, the second is the more subtle and dangerous. Snakes which attack put us on the defensive more quickly than cancer which unseen mines all within: "It is easy to slide to hell."" Archbishop Fulton Sheen
“Who could find fault with the saints in this, namely, that they should consider others to have the same feelings as themselves, and suppose no one would lie because truth was their own companion? They know not what deceit is, they gladly believe of others what they themselves are, while they cannot suspect others to be what they themselves are not. Hence Solomon says: ‘An innocent man believes every word.’ (Proverbs 14:15) We must not blame his readiness to believe, but should rather praise his goodness. To know nothing of anything that may injure another, this is to be innocent. And although he is cheated by another, still he thinks well of all, for he thinks there is good faith in all.” St. Ambrose, On the Duties of the Clergy (Book III), Ch. X, par. 68
Once the Lord said to me, Act like a beggar who does not back away when he gets more alms [than he asked for], but offers thanks the more fervently. You too should not back away and say that you are not worthy of receiving greater graces when I give them to you. I know you are unworthy, but rejoice all the more and take as many treasures from My Heart as you can carry, for then you will please Me more. And I will tell you one more thing: Take these graces not only for yourself, but also for others; that is, encourage the souls with whom you come in contact to trust in My infinite mercy. Oh, how I love those souls who have complete confidence in Me. I will do everything for them. WORDS OF JESUS TO ST. FAUSTINA (Diary 294)
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
“My God, in union with Jesus crucified, I offer myself as a victim. I desire the cross as my strength and support, and wish to live with it, that it may be my treasure since Jesus chose it for my sake. . . . My Savior, I desire to return Thee love for love, blood for blood. Thou didst die for me, therefore I will daily endure fresh sufferings for Thee; every day shall bring me some fresh martyrdom because of my deep love for Thee.”- The Praise of Glory - St. Elizabeth of the Trinity
"Present suffering, when it converts men, atones for past sin: but not producing this effect, it will be the beginning of future punishment. Hence, let us be careful not to pass from temporal into eternal pain." Pope St. Gregory the Great (Quoted by Fr. Francis Weninger, "Lives of the Saints" Vol. II, pg. 27)
“The human heart is not shaped like a valentine heart, perfect and regular in contour it is slightly irregular in shape as if a small piece of it were missing out of its side. The missing part may very well symbolize a piece that a spear tore out of the universal heart of humanity on the Cross, but it probably symbolizes something more. It may very well mean that when God created each human heart, he kept a small sample of it in heaven, and sent the rest of it into the world, where it would each day learn the lesson that it could never be really happy, that it could never be really wholly in love, that it could never be really whole-hearted until it rested with the Risen Christ in an eternal Easter.” Archbishop Fulton Sheen (Manifestations of Christ)
Monday, February 13, 2017
"You need to have great trust in Divine Providence even to be able in practice holy simplicity. My children, you need to imitate the people of God when they found themselves in the desert: They were expressly forbidden from gathering more manna than they needed for a day. Well, we too need the provisions of manna only for one day. Have no doubts, my children, that God will provide for tomorrow and for all the remaining days of our journey." Padre Pio
“Do not say: ‘I have sinned much, and therefore I am not bold enough to fall down before God.’ Do not despair. Simply do not increase your sins in despair and, with the help of the All-merciful One, you will not be put to shame. For He said, ‘he who comes to Me I will not cast out.’ (John. 6:37) And so, be bold and believe that He pure and cleanses those who draw near to Him. If you want to accomplish true repentance, show it with your deeds. If you have fallen into pride, show humility; if into drunkenness, show sobriety; if into defilement, show purity of life. For it is said, ‘Turn away from evil and do good’ (I Pet. 3:11).” — St. Gennadius of Constantinople
“The tragedy of the world is that so many are unloved. Roses always look beautiful and smell sweet, and hence they are a prize to be possessed. Sweetbriar, however, has fragrant leaves, and they are never so fragrant as when it rains. The common people of the world are like these leaves; they have something fragrant about them, particularly when the days are dark and clouded and rain falls in their lives. Anyone can love a rose; but it takes a great heart to love a leaf.” Archbishop Fulton Sheen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)