Hold Fast to Your Faith

Our faith is a gift. It needs to be protected. How many instances I have seen where there was once faith, but because it was taken for granted and not valued as something to nurture and keep in tact….it is now gone. Such a tragedy….and one that can be avoided if only the steps are taken to treat it as the precious pearl that it is!

My Prayer-Book (Happiness in Goodness)

A father who was totally destitute of faith sent his children to be educated in Catholic establishments.

A friend, having remarked to him upon the inconsistency of his conduct, he replied: “I know only too well, by my own experience, the misery of unbelief, and I am not so cruel a parent as to permit my dear children to feel the same.”

So great then is the wretchedness of unbelief! Listen to these words, and mark them well, proceeding as they do from the lips of an unbeliever.

Therefore guard against the dangers which may threaten your faith. Let me point out these dangers to you.

In the first place, doubts of the faith. If such doubts occur to you, do not dwell upon them, do not strive to solve them, but in all simplicity and humility say: “O my God, I believe this, because Thou hast said it, and because Thou art eternal Truth.”

If doubts which you cannot answer are brought before you by others, simply say: “I cannot explain this, but one thing I know:
God and His holy Church can never err. You had better consult a priest; he will be able to answer you.”

And if you should yourself be troubled with doubts of the faith, tell them simply and frankly to your director or confessor and he will advise you as to the best method of setting them at rest.

Avoid, as far as possible (and this is the second point), the society of those who deny the truths of religion and scoff at faith, the sacraments, and so on.

If they are your equals and among the number of your acquaintances to whom you can speak plainly, cut them short with some such words as these: “May I ask you not to talk in this way, for, if you persist in doing so, this must be the last time I shall have anything to do with you.”

Do not argue with such persons, but say quite simply: “Are you wiser than the Catholic Church and almighty God Himself?”

If they are persons to whom you cannot speak in this way, observe an expressive silence, and thus show your displeasure; or adroitly turn the conversation to a different subject.

Under such circumstances it is a great advantage to possess a ready tongue, for those who have this gift can often, by some appropriate speech, silence the scoffer at once and forever.

I formerly knew a witty Capuchin monk who frequently employed this method, as the following amusing incident may serve to show:

Upon one occasion a remarkably corpulent gentleman who was traveling in the same railway coach as the good Father, tried to make him angry by mocking at religion.

Among other things he said: “How can there be a hell? Where could the
Lord get the immense masses of fuel which would be required in order to heat it?”

The Capuchin, who was very quick at repartee, instantly retorted:
“My dear sir, pray set your mind at rest on this point, for as long as the Almighty has a store of such fat fellows, such ‘blocks,’ as you, He will be at no loss to find what he wants.”

In the third place, beware of reading books and pamphlets hostile to the faith or which attack the Church.

Above all things guard against an inordinate craving in the matter of reading, and do not fancy that you must read everything which comes in your way.

There are unfortunately many books, periodicals, newspapers, etc., in which the teachings of the Catholic Church, or faith in general, are more or less openly attacked, and in which shameless falsehoods, calumnies, and misrepresentations in regard to her ministers are given to the public.

If once you harbor the thought that if there were no truth at all in such articles they would never have been printed, the most bewildering doubts of the faith might arise in your mind.

Such doubts might be like poisonous seed, from which the accursed weeds of unbelief might spring up.

In conclusion, pay no heed to the false and foolish assertion that every religion is good, every system of beliefs can lead to heaven.

A pious mistress had a servant who very often talked in this way. The first time her wages were due the lady paid her in base coin or money which had been withdrawn from circulation.

The girl objected, but her mistress replied: “But it’s money just the same, and don’t you think all money is equally good?”

She then counted out genuine coins, saying as she did so: “Just as false money will not serve your purpose, so a false creed will never take you to heaven.”

Therefore hold fast to your faith, as being the only true one and the only one which can take you to heaven. Christ established but one Church.

“What a majestic figure is that of the mother in the home as she fulfills her destiny at the cradle side, the nurse and teacher of her little ones! Hers is truly a task full of labor, and we should be tempted to deem her unequal to it were it not for the grace of God which is ever at hand to enlighten, direct, and sustain her in her daily anxieties and toil.” – Pope Pius XII

 

A book of your favorite litanies….

Chosen by God for the incomparable vocation of spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and foster father of Our Lord Jesus Christ; St. Joseph received magnificent divine graces and favors not granted even to the Old Testament Patriarchs. Known as the most humble of men; St. Joseph received from Almighty God the authority to command both Our Lady and the Son of God Himself; and in Heaven he continues to have great intercessory power with God.
The Divine Favors Granted to St. Joseph shows how this greatest of the Patriarchs is the patron of all Christians and how wonderfully he answers prayers; plus; it gives many of the ways of honoring him and many prayers to request his intercession. One of the finest books on St. Joseph; it will surely inspire the reader with a profound devotion to this great “Patron of the Universal Church.” Impr. 176 pgs;

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The Age of Lay Sanctity

This was written in the 1950’s…how much more it is relevant now. As laity, we have to speak up and step up! 

The Age of Lay Sanctity by Richard Cardinal Cushing

The vast majority of Catholics work out their careers and their salvation as laity at work in the world. To one charged, as am I, with preaching sanctity and the spread of the Church that thought would be discouraging did I not recognize that this is the age of lay sanctity.

We cannot say, as some do, that men are getting better and better with each succeeding age; history doesn’t support that. Nor can we say that men are getting progressively worse.

What can be discerned is a pendulum movement. Temporal society moves toward Christ or away from Him. When it is moving toward Christ, men’s minds and institutions tend to focus more and more on Him; —the best artists take to painting themes involving Him; and even the minor events of family life are marked by sacramental remembrances of Him. Such was the time of the Ages of Faith.

The Renaissance brought about a sharp change and the pendulum started swinging in the other direction, away from Christ. Men didn’t say so;—they merely said they were going after the humanly wholesome, the healthy, the well-ordered, the just, the naturally good. But that is impossible for fallen and redeemed man. We must either look above the natural order to the supernatural order (and when we do so the natural order is rectified and preserved), or we speedily fall below nature.

When the pendulum swings away from the supernatural order, it leads not toward the secular, but toward the profane. That’s where we appear to be now, at the bad natural because we thought we could have the good natural without Christ.

It is because we have reached the end of the pendulum swing away from Christ that our problems today are basically theological.

It was not a priest, by the way, but a general who so described our problem; it was not Maritain, the Christian philosopher, but MacArthur, famous leader of our military forces.

It is folly to think that we can go from wars to peace without reference to our theology, without reference to Christ, or from no housing to adequate housing, or from economic disorder to economic order. We cannot hold to good, except through our redemption in Christ.

The most realistic program today is, therefore, the program “to restore all things in Christ.”

The idle dreamers and wishful thinkers are those who place their full confidence in natural remedies, more laws, mere leaders, science or sociology alone.

Since the world is sick for Christ, wise men will look to the Church of Christ for the remedy.

What does the Church propose? She seems to be telling us that God is using this occasion for His Church to explore the means of sanctification appointed for the lay state. The laity are caught between religion and life; God, by perfecting them in sanctity, uses them for the sanctification of the temporal order.

The evidence of recent history points to the sanctification of the laity as the major ferment going on today in the worldwide Church. There is evidence at every hand: the surprising number of lay people who clearly desire a more than ordinarily holy life, the increase of interest in religion among Catholics and non-Catholics alike, the number of devoted lay people who do not find their place in the religious life, and yet desire an intense Christianity.

The evidence of the Specialized Catholic Action movements is particularly impressive. They have held out the highest ideals of sanctity to their members and have begun to produce even contemplatives within the lay state.

There is also the evidence of the ordinary Catholic layman, especially many young intellectuals. They may not yearn for martyrdom or mystical prayer. They may even long for a routine, humble life in the suburbs, with only conventional religious practices. But they are deeply committed to parish life and parish schools, and they are the strength of the new revivals of liturgy and discussion.

Unless they are blind, they are beginning to see the handwriting on the wall: It is no longer possible to be mediocre. Are you for Me or against Me?” They are open to the call to lay sanctity.

Religious life has always been regarded as higher in itself than the lay life, and rightly so. Religious orders have set up integral conditions which directly conduce to sanctity: community life, the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, observation of silence, the Office and so forth.

The laity are called to perfection, too, but they are necessarily busy about temporal affairs and subject to numerous distractions. Lay saints do not besprinkle the missal as do religious saints, and many of the most promising laity of the history of canonized sanctity ended by repudiating their lay state—mothers going off to found convents over the prostrate bodies of their children, or widowed queens retiring to the cloister.

So there has grown up the feeling often expressed by the remark, “If you want to be holy, why don’t you go into the convent or monastery?”

And, indeed, a lot of lay people who sincerely wish to be holy often behave like religious out of a cloister. They try to keep religious practices in the lay state, sometimes saying the Divine Office or forming into semi-religious communities under a modified rule.

Especially in Europe there are groups of people who are sort of half-religious and half-lay. They probably represent a temporary phenomenon in the Church, one which will disappear as they themselves develop into real religious communities or as the principles of sanctity in lay life are more clearly worked out.

But even if these institutes find a permanent place, they will not satisfy the demand for a path of perfection in the lay life, because they are not susceptible of general application in the lives of Christian career people.

It is precisely the spiritual and apostolic potential of marriage itself which is the keynote to lay sanctity. This is because the devout lay life offers a magnificent opportunity for referring all one’s actions to Christ.

Holiness is not achieved by being pulled two directions at once; if your life is divided between two things which cannot be related to the same end, if you are a business man during the week and a practicing Catholic on Sundays, if you are building a railroad days and doing spiritual reading evenings, if you are on the assembly line most of the time and taking the parish census on Saturdays.

To advance in holiness you have to get the “single eye” the Gospel talks about. The religious does it by leaving aside worldly activities and substituting sacred activities. The devout laity do it by transcending temporal activities by means of the lay apostolate.

The intellectual, professional man or craftsman intent on lay sanctity does all the things his world-bound co-worker does in the way of excellence, but adds the dimension of eternity to his life and work by the supernatural motivation that dominates all that he is and does.

The devout laity, particularly the intellectuals, set up supernatural charity as the guiding principle of their life. They work for the love of God in the love of their neighbor. They choose their associates for the love of God, singling out those who need them rather than always seeking those whom they can use.

They are disposed cheerfully to give up their sleep or their lunch or their leisure or their money for the same reason. They do not think always of the sanctification of their own souls. They think of others; even their desire to grow in God’s grace is because “they cannot give what they do not have.”

And so indirectly they become holy, whereas the pious but unapostolic lay person is apt to turn in upon himself and fail to get holy despite hours spent in church and a grim determination to be a saint.

The religious renounces all except a bare minimum of the things of this world for the sake of God. By doing so he helps detach himself from the love of these things.

If the layman is to become holy he must also become detached, but he must ordinarily do it in the opposite way, by using the things of this world for God. It so happens that in our time this is an especially good channel to sanctity.

Take the matter of marriage. The religious foregoes the pleasure of marriage for God’s sake. The layman who undertakes the full responsibilities of marriage today for God’s sake is hardly in danger of forgetting God.

Quite the contrary: the couple who deliberately set out to keep God’s law in marriage are apt to discover that God is almost the only one on their side!

Our society doesn’t go in for family wages, or provide family houses any more, or even give verbal encouragement to parenthood. Married people today have to practice heroic trust in God, heroic indifference to public opinion, heroic fortitude in respect to living arrangements.

Many are their trials even when they are happily married. The unhappily married who refrain from divorce, and that with a cheerful countenance, are the modern martyrs.

Consider also the matter of talents, including great intellectual talent. The religious often gives up the use of his talents for the sake of prayer or penance, or else he makes the use of his talents subject to the will of his superior. It is an antidote to pride.

Here, too, the lay apostle is faced with the opposite action to achieve the same effect. He has to use his talents, plus. Lay apostles have to show a willingness to be used as God’s instruments, and that usually means they will be used to do great things, greater things than they are able, thanks to God’s grace.

In short, life in the world today is a heavy cross by its very nature. Most people are busy running madly away, jumping from one escapist pleasure to another. Anyone who turns around and picks up the cross, as every Christian must, has a built-in set-up for sanctity.

Religious often take a vow of stability, which helps keep them from being attached to a particular place. Today’s laity are visited with chronic instability, which is an opposite cross producing the same general effect. The family that moves around after seasonal work or searching for decent housing has but to remember the Son of Man Who had nowhere to lay His head, in order to have a certain peace without permanency.

Religious have their convent or monastery chapel as the center of their liturgical lives. His parish church or any church where he hears Mass and receives Communion is the sacramental center of the devout layman’s day.

It is significant that Daily Communion is easily available today, because the lay apostle has to have this Daily Bread if he is to live by faith in an atmosphere which speaks of God only by His absence.

Next to the Mass, spiritual direction is of primary importance to the truly modern devout layman. Religious have the rule of their order and the counsel of their superiors to guide their lives, but the laity have neither a rule nor a Christian order in society, and it has ever been true that a man is not trustworthy as his own guide.

It is hard to find a good spiritual director, especially one who understands the lay apostolate, but the laity have at least the advantage of being free to search far and wide in order to find one.

Once found, a good spiritual director will give the devout layman a spiritual anchor and orientation. Christopher Dawson recently commented on the decline in the art and availability of spiritual direction for intellectuals just at the moment when most needed.

Hence the great importance of the Retreat in the life of the layman. Now that retreat houses are fairly widespread, and whole religious orders have dedicated themselves to the task of making retreats available, there is a growing demand for retreats of greater spiritual intensity.

Those who are to be truly Christian la-men need solid and advanced doctrine. They want Saint Thomas, Saint John of the Cross, St. Benedict and St. Ignatius rather than watered-down, minimum Christianity and pious exhortations. But they are beginning to get it here and there, even if they have to arrange for their own retreats and retreat masters.

One frequently hears laity speak of the Church as though it did not include them, as though nuns and priests were somehow more surely Catholics than they. Indeed it has been a fairly widespread opinion among the laity that they were somehow outside the doors looking in.

One unhappy consequence has been that they haven’t felt any particular responsibility within the Church. Theirs to save their own souls (with minimum effort) and contribute money.

Theirs not to know doctrine, beyond a catechetical level. Theirs not to apply Christian principles in daily life. Theirs not to talk religion or defend the Faith. This age is over.

The work of the laity is not to usurp or intrude upon the proper work of the religious, but to reorient the temporal affairs of society toward Christ, to concentrate on marriage, business, housing, politics and the rest.

They will need the direction of the clergy in varying degrees according to the nature of the projects, and some work will be shared necessarily by religious and laity, but once it is quite clear that the laity have their own proper work to do in the Church the relations between religious and laity will become closer and more harmonious.

We shall all begin to see that the eye has need of the hand . . . that there are many members, but also many functions within the same body.

That body is Christ Himself. He is the source of the sanctity of religious. He is not less the source of the lay sanctity which must more and more characterize the present period of the layman in the life of the Church.

A year ago, speaking at the graduation at the F.B.I. Training School, I repudiated the idea that this is “the century of the common man” in the life of America. I made a plea for uncommon men, men of uncommon patriotism and integrity, to be the strength of America.

Today I make a like plea in behalf of the Church. Common sanctity, average piety, routine religious interests are no longer enough in our laity.

We need uncommon sanctity in our intellectuals, extraordinary piety in our professional people, heroic devotion to Christ and His Church if Christian civilization is to survive.

In this age of lay sanctity, I pray that Christian laymen will prove appropriate to the needs of America and the hopes of the Church.

As Mary, beautiful and perfect, is the sublime model for every Catholic wife, so Joseph, “the just man,”‘ gentle, kind, and chaste, is a model for every Catholic husband. When God blesses your home with human life, the fruit of love, your family becomes like the Holy Family. In the family life of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are exemplified the proper relations that should exist between husband and wife, parents and children. By practicing the domestic virtues of charity, obedience, and mutual help, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph sanctified family life. -Lawrence G. Lovasik. The Catholic Family Handbook

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A wonderful book showing how the angels have visited people innumerable times in the past, how they do so today, and would do even more if we asked them. Also, how they prevent accidents, comfort us, help us, and protect us from the devils. Contains many beautiful stories about St. Michael, St. Raphael and St. Gabriel; plus, angel stories from St. Gemma Galgani, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. John Bosco, etc.

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A very optimistic book showing how an “ordinary” Catholic can become a great saint without ever doing anything “extraordinary”–just by using the many opportunities for holiness that to most people lie hidden in each day. Written with an assurance of success that is totally convincing and infectious. Many easy but infallible means of reaching great sanctity.

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The Mass – Active and Fruitful Participation

From Jesus, Our Eucharistic Love

The infinite greatness of the Holy Mass should enable us to understand the need of attentively and devoutly taking part in this Sacrifice of Jesus. Adoration, love and sorrow ought to have undisputed predominance among our sentiments.

In a very moving reflection, Ven. Pope Pius XII described the state of mind with which one should take part in the Holy Mass: it should be “the state of mind that the Divine Redeemer had when He sacrificed Himself—the same humble spirit of submission—that is, of adoration, love, praise and thanksgiving to the great majesty of God, so that we reproduce in ourselves the condition of victimhood, the self-denial that follows the Gospel’s teaching, by which of our own accord we make a willing sacrifice of penance, sorrow and expiation for our sins.”

Let us ask ourselves seriously: is this the state of mind with which we participate at Holy Mass?

The Crucifix and the Candles

True and active participation at Holy Mass is what makes us into sacrificial victims like Jesus. Such participation succeeds in “reproducing in us the pain-shared features of Jesus” (Pius XII), bestowing upon us “a companionship with Christ in His sufferings” and rendering us “conformable to His Death” (Phil. 3:10). All the rest is mere liturgical ceremony, external dress.

St. Gregory the Great taught: “The Sacrifice of the Altar will be truly acceptable as a Victim offered in our behalf to God when we make ourselves into the Victim.”

As a reflection of this doctrine, in early Christian communities, the faithful, wearing penitential garbs and chanting the litany of the saints, went in procession to the altar for the celebration of Holy Mass, with the Pope presiding. If we would go to Mass in this spirit, we should want to make our own the sentiment St. Thomas the Apostle expressed when he said, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him” (Jn. 11:16).

When St. Margaret Mary Alacoque attended Holy Mass and would gaze at the altar, she would never fail to glance at the Crucifix and the lighted candles. Why? It was to impress on her mind and heart two things: that the Crucifix should remind her of what Jesus had done for her; that the lighted candles recall what she must do for Jesus—that is, sacrifice herself and be consumed for Him and for souls.

Every day the King of France, St. Louis IX, would assist at Holy Mass on his knees, on the bare floor. One time a valet offered him a kneeler, but the king told him, “At Mass God offers Himself as a sacrifice, and when God sacrifices Himself, kings should kneel on the floor.”

St. John Bosco recommended that young people participate at Holy Mass by following the method of St. Leonard of Port Maurice, who divided the sacrificial part of the Mass into three parts, whereby one meditates, first upon the Passion of Jesus (from the Offertory to the Elevation); second, upon our sins, the cause of the Passion and Death of Jesus (until Communion); and third, upon the resolution to live a pure and fervent life (from Communion to the end of Mass).

To be able to do this in the simplest and most fruitful way, it is enough to commit oneself to follow attentively the priest at the altar. In this way one overcomes more easily the distractions and boredom. (And on Sundays one should not go in search for—as some do—the shortest Mass, simply because they can hardly wait for Mass to end!)

One day the father of Guido of Fontgalland asked his son how one should occupy himself during Mass. “During Holy Mass,” the holy youth replied, “our single occupation is to follow it. It is enough to read with the priest the prayers that he recites at the altar….”

It is the same reply that Pope St. Pius X gave to whomever wanted to know what prayers to recite during Holy Mass: “Follow the Mass, say the prayers of the Mass!”

Be like Our Lady on Calvary

The best example of participation at the Holy Sacrifice is given us at the foot of the Cross by the most Blessed Virgin Mary, St. John the Evangelist and St. Mary Magdalene with the pious women (Jn. 19:25).

To assist at Mass is very much like being at Calvary. A meeting of love and sorrow with Jesus Crucified—this is participation at Holy Mass.

St. Andrew of Avellino used to be moved to tears as he said, “One cannot separate the most Holy Eucharist from the Passion of Jesus.” One day a spiritual son asked St. Pio of Pietrelcina, “Father, how should we take part at Holy Mass?” St. Pio replied, “As Our Lady, St. John and the pious women did on Calvary—with love and compassion.”

In a missal of one of his spiritual children St. Pio wrote: “In assisting at Holy Mass, concentrate intently on the tremendous Mystery which is taking place before your eyes, which is the Redemption and reconciliation of your soul with God.”

At another time he was asked, “Father, why is it that you weep so much during Mass?”

“My daughter,” replied St. Pio, “what are those few tears compared to what takes place at the altar? There should be torrents of tears!”

Don’t insist on perfection. Expecting perfection from yourself and others is a setup for disappointment. Things won’t go as planned and you won’t be perfectly organized. Let it go. This, too, shall pass. -Charlotte Siems

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Holy Communion – The Loftiest Point of Love

Continued from “To the Eucharist, Then, We Must Go!”

From Jesus, Our Eucharistic Love

An exercise of the heart

Second, to explore the riches of the Eucharist, we use the heart. If every Christian must love Jesus Christ: “If any man love not Our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.” (1 Cor. 16: 22), love for the Eucharist must spring from the heart and be ever alive in us all.

Among all the saints, perhaps one of the greatest models is St. Peter Julian Eymard, in whom love for the Eucharist reached such an intensity as to transform itself into a love of madness. It is for this reason that he was called “the fool of the Blessed Sacrament.”

Now even love needs exercise. The heart needs to be exercised to love the true God, to long for “The Author of Life” (Acts 3: 15).

Holy Communion represents the loftiest point of this exercise of love, whose consuming flames unite the heart of a creature and Jesus.

St. Gemma Galgani could exclaim in this regard, “I can no longer avoid thinking of how, in the wonderful greatness of His Love, Jesus makes Himself perceptible and shows Himself to His lowliest creature in all the splendors of His Heart.”

And what may we say about the exercises of the heart of St. Gemma, who desired to be a “tent of love” in which she would keep Jesus always with her? She longed to have a “little place in the ciborium” to be able to stay always with Jesus. She asked to become “a flaming ball afire with love” for Jesus.

When St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus had become quite ill, she dragged herself with great effort to Church to receive Jesus. One morning, after Holy Communion, she was in her cell, exhausted. One of the sisters remarked that she should not exert herself so much. The Saint replied, “Oh, what are these sufferings to me in comparison with one daily Holy Communion!”— Something not permitted everywhere in her times.

She ardently pleaded with Jesus: “Remain within me, as You do in the tabernacle. Do not ever withdraw Your presence from Your little host.”

When St. Margaret Mary Alacoque left the world and consecrated herself to God in the cloister, she made a private vow: “All for the Eucharist; nothing for me.”

It is useless to attempt to describe the Saint’s burning love for the Eucharist. When she was not able to receive Holy Communion, she broke out in ardent expressions of love like these: “I have such a desire for Holy Communion that if I had to walk barefoot along a path of fire to obtain It, I would do so with unspeakable joy.”

St. Catherine of Siena often said to her confessor: “Father, I am hungry. For the love of God give this soul her Food, her Lord in the Eucharist.” She also confided: “When I am not able to receive my Lord, I go into the Church, and there I look at Him… I look at Him again… and this satisfies me.”

During her long and painful illness, St. Bernadette one time expressed the happiness that she felt in times of sleeplessness, because then she was able to unite herself to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

Referring to a little golden monstrance that was depicted on the curtain about her bed, she said, “His visit gives me the desire and strength to offer myself as a sacrifice, when I feel all alone and in pain.” This is called the “exercise of the heart.”

The exercise of the will

Third, to find the riches of the Eucharist, one should exercise the will. One must do this by bringing the divine lessons of the Eucharist into his life.

What good would it be to discover the infinite worth of the Eucharist as we ponder It and seek to love It at Communion time, if we do not proceed to live It?

The Eucharist teaches a love that goes beyond telling. It teaches total self-sacrifice, and an unequalled lesson in humility and self-effacement. It teaches patience and unrestricted dedication.

But what do we draw from all this? We surely ought to achieve something, if we but reflect how Jesus has loved us and still loves us with such great generosity “even to the end” (Jn. 13: 1).

If we feel frail, we need to turn to Him, to speak to Him and not tarry about asking His help and support, for He is the very One who said, “Without Me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15: 5), while with the Eucharist not only are we capable of everything, but we also obtain what should amaze and move us, that is, our identification with Jesus, as St. Augustine tells us: “It is not a case of us transforming Christ into ourselves, as we commonly do with food; but it is Jesus who transforms us into Himself.”

First of all, let us go before Him: “Come to Me… and I will refresh you” (Mt. 11: 28). Let us often visit Him, entering a Church every time we can and pausing a little while before the tabernacle, and put both our heart and body before Him!

The saints were constantly eager to make visits to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, to make Holy Hours of adoration, spiritual Communions, ejaculatory prayers and earnest acts of love that come from the heart. How much profit they gained from this and how much good they passed on!

One day in Turin a friend, who was his companion from the university, asked Bl. Peter George Frassati, “Let us go and take an appetizer.” Peter George took advantage of the occasion and replied, indicating to his friend the nearby Church of St. Dominic, “Of course. Let us go and take it in that cafe.”

Entering the Church, they prayed for a little while near the tabernacle; when they approached the offering box, Peter George said, “Here is the appetizer.” And from the pockets of the two youths came alms for the poor!

Thinking of the Eucharist during his sermon, St. John Chrysostom once asked, “How can we make of our bodies a host?” and gave this answer: “Let your eyes look at nothing evil, and you have offered a sacrifice; let not your tongue speak unbecoming words, and you have made an offering; let not your hand commit a sin, and you have offered a holocaust.”

Just recall the eyes of St. Colette, which were always lowered and recollected in sweet modesty. Why? She once gave the answer: “I have filled my eyes with Jesus, upon whom I have gazed at the elevation of the Host at Holy Mass, and I do not wish to replace Him with another image.”

Let us think of the edifying reserve of the saints in speaking, controlling well the tongue which had been consecrated by contact with the Body of Jesus.

Recall the good works which souls, filled with a love imparted by the Eucharist, have accomplished because Jesus communicated to them His own sentiments of love for all of our fellow men, especially those most in need.

Thus St. Francis de Sales exhorted every soul to approach the Eucharist as much as possible, because “by adoring and partaking of His beauty, His goodness and His purity in this Divine Sacrament, you will become all beautiful, good and pure.”

Can we not also exercise our wills thus? Let us learn from the saints and start imitating their good works.

 

Undertake all of your duties with a calm mind and try to do them one at a time. If you try to do them all at once, or without order, your spirits will be so overcharged and depressed that they will likely sink under the burden and nothing will be done. In all of your affairs, rely on the Providence of God through which alone you much look for success. Strive quietly to cooperate with its designs. – Saint Francis de Sales, from Introduction to the Devout Life http://amzn.to/2umoGsQ (afflink)

Coloring pages for your children….

Beautiful and inspiring books!
“There are nine books in the Eymard Library, each of which focuses attention to a particular aspect of the ineffable mystery which is the Holy Eucharist – Ideal for Eucharistic Adoration …”

Available here.

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How To Profit From Our Defects

from the Catholic Family Magazine, Australia

– Hello Father. Sorry for being so late but I had to wait for the babysitter to come so that I could leave the house. I am glad to be able to come tonight for our little talk.

– Well, the subject I want to talk to you about is one of the most important in the spiritual life. It is how we can and even should profit from our faults. I believe that a good understanding of this question is a tremendous help in order to maintain peace of soul and make progress in union with God.

– But, Father I thought that our faults were an obstacle on the way to perfection. What kind of profit can I draw from my weakness which causes me to fall everyday into so many sins of impatience? What sort of advantage can I obtain from my negligence which causes me to miss so many opportunities of little sacrifices?

Let me ask you one question: Have you made up your mind never to offend God deliberately? Are you sincerely seeking to obey His will in fulfilling your vocation of wife and mother?

If the answer is yes, then your faults should not be a source of sadness but an occasion to practice humility. St Theresa of the Child Jesus used to say: “I do not grieve in seeing that I am weakness itself. On the contrary, it is in this that I glory, and I expect each day to discover in myself new imperfections.”

She also wrote ” What does it matter to me to fall each moment? By that I feel my weakness and therein I find great profit.  My God, you see what I can do if You do not carry me in your arms!”

We have to realize that everything is either willed or permitted by God. In the designs of His providence, even our faults ought to serve for our sanctification. Alas, many good souls do not know how to cope with their defects. They are quickly discouraged at the sight of their misery, instead of making an act of humility.

St Paul says: “All things work together for the good of them that love God,” Yes, everything and St Augustine adds “even our sins”.

– I must admit, Father, that I often get frustrated at myself. I make good resolutions, and I cannot seem to be able to keep them! The other day I was pretty happy because I had found the time for a little bit of spiritual reading. I had also succeeded in remaining in the presence of God for most of the day.

And then in the evening, the twins started to fight in their room and I completely lost my temper with them. I yelled and screamed so loud that the neighbors next door must have heard me!

After this I felt so ashamed and angry with myself that I got depressed. When my husband came home, I am afraid he did not feel like talking to me since he saw that I was in a bad mood.

– Yes this is a good example of how the bad use we make of our faults does more damage to us than our faults themselves. Alas, it is our self-love which causes us to act this way.

I have myself the same problem. We priests also have to overcome our pride. You see, we should not get upset when we fall! I think we should rather be surprised that we do not fall more often.

We should also thank God for all the faults from which He preserves us. Let us not become troubled and agitated when we see ourselves so imperfect. We should always keep our peace of soul.

When we happen to commit a fault we should turn to God with humility and ask His forgiveness. And then we must never think about the fault again, until the time comes to mention it in confession.

– So you think it may be pride, Father, when I get discouraged at the sight of how little progress I make in the spiritual life?

– Yes, it is possible that your self-love causes you to desire to be exempt from imperfections and so you get upset when you realize that you are still committing many little faults every day.

God wants us to be humble. He needs this disposition in our souls in order to communicate to us His grace. This is why He often allows us to plagued with defects.

I think that, if we were to become perfect all of a sudden, it would make us very proud and it would cause our ruin.

God is a great and wise Master. Let Him do as He likes. He will not fail in His work of the sanctification of your soul. We should resolve never to willfully do anything that displeases Him.

But if, despite our goodwill, we fall into faults, let us rejoice in the humiliation into which these faults throw us. Once again, we should profit from our faults in order to destroy our self-complacency and give glory to our dear God.

– So Father, you think that my defects do not offend Our Lord? It really bothers me sometimes when I come to confession and I have the same faults to confess every month!

– I know your soul and I think that many of your faults are not deliberate. Let me take two examples. First Mrs. So-and-So is a real gossip and in the past when both of you were on the phone, you talked about your neighbors in an unkind way. So you perfectly know that she is an occasion of sin.

If one day you go ahead and call her on the phone and indulge in an uncharitable conversation, there is no doubt that you have committed a venial sin and hurt the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Second, Mrs. Such-and-Such is your good friend and one day she comes to visit you. During the conversation you both tell bits of news that you have learned about people (without previous malicious intention).

After she has left you realize that some of the things you revealed to her were unnecessary and may have caused such a person to decrease in her esteem. Well, it was not a deliberate sin on your part, but a fault of weakness.

Tell God that you are sorry and your act of humility will make up for whatever negligence there may have been and give glory to Him.

– Well, Father, I will follow your advice and ask Our Lord to give me humility of heart. if I see some good in me, I know it is from God and I will thank Him for it. If I see some evil, I know it is from me. I will not get discouraged but I will profit by it so as to humble myself.

– Good! And always remember what I told you before about the way of spiritual childhood. St Theresa teaches us to make ourselves as small as we can in our own eyes.

Look at little children. They often fall on the ground. But they do not hurt themselves because, so to speak, they never fall from any great height.

So also little souls. Their wounds are never very serious and they are healed as soon as they are wounded. Far from being a hindrance in the way of perfection, the experience of their faults makes them humble and is therefore an advantage.

St. Paul said “It is my weakness that makes all my strength.” Let us pray to God so that we may receive the grace of being like little children in His sight, humble and confident.

God bless you.

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“The desired wife has developed her personality before marriage and continues that development during marriage. By personality here I mean beauty of soul and all those qualities and accomplishments which go to make a person interesting and sought after. Personality will carry a girl a great deal further in life than physical beauty. In fact, without personality, beauty often tires one in married life. Some girls are born with physical beauty. None are born with personality. They must develop and cultivate it all the days of their lives.” – Fr. Leo Kinsella, The Wife Desired, 1950’s https://amzn.to/2w4nX08 (afflink)

Review: Catholic Mother Goose is a ‘one of a kind’ treasure for young and old alike! Little minds will be captivated by the beautifully colored and illustrated pages. Throughout the nursery rhymes, children will learn the lessons of kindness, unselfishness, the efficacy of suffering and the value of prayer! They will become more familiar with the lives of the Saints, St. Therese, St. Francis, etc. and their great love for Jesus and Mary. These beautifully written poems will plant the seed for good literature and a love for reading for years to come. This is how we make our Catholic faith and culture come alive for our children! This book is a must!

Catholic mothers everywhere are looking for innovative ways to teach their children the basic truths of our Faith. There is so much out there to offer to those mothers on this journey…..so much in the way of the latest software, latest videos, etc.

Maybe we need to get back to basics!? …The basics of forming those young minds with tools that our grandmothers and those before them used.

Here is a book that fulfills that need…The Catholic Mother Goose, Volume Two! It is a 140 page fun-packed book, vibrantly full-color, filled with brand-new nursery rhymes that have a touch of our Catholic Faith peeking through the rhythmic lines.

My Catholic Mother Goose Volume One has touched many lives and now you can purchase Volume Two that will have a new and lasting impact! Available here.

Catholic Mother Goose Volumes One and Two available here.

 

A book of your favorite litanies….

Chosen by God for the incomparable vocation of spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and foster father of Our Lord Jesus Christ; St. Joseph received magnificent divine graces and favors not granted even to the Old Testament Patriarchs. Known as the most humble of men; St. Joseph received from Almighty God the authority to command both Our Lady and the Son of God Himself; and in Heaven he continues to have great intercessory power with God.
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To the Eucharist, Then, We Should Go!

From Jesus, Our Eucharistic Love

To the Eucharist, then, we should go. To Jesus we should turn— to Jesus, who wishes to make Himself ours in order to make us His by rendering us “Godlike.”

“O Jesus, Food of strong souls,” St. Gemma Galgani used to say, “strengthen me, purify me, make me godlike.”

Let us receive the Eucharist with a pure and ardent heart. That is what the saints have done. It should never be too much trouble for us to grow familiar with this unspeakable Mystery.

Meditation, study and reflection on the Eucharist should have an important place each day on our timetable. It will be the time of our day richest in blessings. It will do good to our soul and body.

One reads in the life of St. Pius X that one day, when he was the parish priest of Salzano, he went on a visit to a sick altar boy. At that very moment the doctor also arrived and asked the sick boy how he was.

The boy answered that on that day he was feeling better because he had been able to give a little instruction on the Eucharist to a few other boys.

At this response the doctor exclaimed with overtones of ridicule, “Oh! That’s nice. During my medical studies I never heard that a little Christian teaching could have such effects.”

At this sour remark, the priest immediately intervened in defense of the youth and said to the doctor, “Oh, we see very well the effects of your science, doctor, and even a nearsighted person would see them well, too, because the cemetery is full of them…. But Christian doctrine fills up a place which only those who are intellectually shortsighted would not be able to see: Heaven!”

The Eucharist is the heavenly “leaven” (Mt. 13: 33) which is capable of fermenting, in the human nature of every person, all spiritual and temporal goods.

It is so great a good Itself that one cannot desire anything else greater. What, in fact, could one desire more, when within himself he has Jesus, living and real, the God-made-man, the Word made flesh and blood for our salvation and happiness?

On his deathbed St. Peter Julian Eymard gave this excellent reply to a religious who requested a final point for reflection: “I have nothing more to tell you. You already have the Eucharist. What more do you want?”

Knowing, Loving, Living The Eucharist

St. Peter Julian Eymard rightly said that “when a spark of the Eucharist is placed in a soul, a divine germ of life and of all the virtues is cast into that heart. This germ is sufficient of itself, so to say [to do much].”

In order to explore at least some of the immense riches stored up in the Mystery of the Eucharist, let us engage in a constant, unified exercise employing mind, heart and will.

An Exercise of the Mind

First, with the mind one meditates in an attentive, orderly way on the Eucharist. This may be done with books which lead us to personally uncover and deeply ponder this Mystery of Love.

A simple little work rich in content is St. Alphonsus M. de’ Liguori’s Visits to the Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In addition, there are the two precious little works by St. Peter Julian Eymard entitled, The Real Presence and Holy Communion.

We should, above all, turn to the school of St. Peter Julian Eymard, who was unequalled as an Apostle of the Eucharist. His vocation and mission was to lead all Christians to the Eucharist, to such an extent that people finally called him “the Priest of the Blessed Sacrament!”

When he founded the Congregation of Priests of the Blessed Sacrament, he offered his life for the Eucharistic reign of Jesus. At that time he wrote these ardent words: “Here, dear Jesus, is my life. Behold me ready to eat stones and to die abandoned, just so that I may succeed in erecting a throne for Thee and giving Thee a family of friends, a nation of adorers.”

If we but knew the gift of a God who is Love and who gives Himself to us as a Gift full of Love!

“The Eucharist,” said St. Bernard, “is that Love which surpasses all loves in Heaven and on earth.”

And St. Thomas Aquinas wrote: “The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Love: It signifies Love, It produces love.”

A concrete instance which rivets our attention on this Love is the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano (in the province of Abruzzi, Italy). There one venerates a consecrated Host which was transformed into living Flesh and which has been preserved in this state for more than a thousand years.

The most recent chemical analyses of a particle of this Host verified the fact: it is indeed a piece of flesh which is still living and which is a part of a human heart.

The Eucharist is indeed all one Heart!

One day an Arabian prince, Abd-ed-Kader, while passing through a street of Marseille with a French official, saw a priest who was carrying Holy Viaticum to a dying man. The French official stopped, uncovered his head, and knelt.

His friend asked him the reason for this gesture. “I adore my God, whom the priest is carrying to a sick person,” replied the good official.

“How is it possible,” the prince said, “for you to believe that God who is so great, makes Himself so little and lets Himself go even to the homes of the poor? We Mohammedans have a much higher idea of God.”

The official answered, “It is because you have only an idea of the greatness of God; but you do not know His Love.”

That is the answer. In confirmation of this, St. Peter Eymard declares: “The Eucharist is the supreme proof of the love of Jesus. After this, there is nothing more but Heaven itself.”

Yet, how many of us Christians do not know the vast extent of the love contained in the Eucharist!

“Simplicity of soul is one of the prerequisites of sanctity, and it’s one of the things our children already possess. We must be very careful not to contribute to the great cluttering up. Our obligation as parents is heavy: we must raise children who are in love with God.” -Mary Reed Newland, How to Raise Good Catholic Children http://amzn.to/2t1mabR (afflink)

BOOK REVIEW!

If you have trouble reading saint books and find the story lines boring, you need to try these!

We love these books and have had them on our book shelves for years! They are very well-written and make the saints come alive!

Louis de Wohl has the amazing capacity to take historic Catholic figures and breathe life into them by creating a novel around what their life might have been like.

They are meant for high school and adult level. Some of the books could have a bit of adult content, for instance, St. Augustine’s life before conversion.You can look for his books here and read more reviews:

The Quiet Light: A Novel About Saint Thomas Aquinas
The Joyful Beggar: St. Francis of Assisi
Lay Siege to Heaven
The Spear: A Novel of the Crucifixion
Citadel of God: A Novel About Saint Benedict
The Living Wood: Saint Helena and the Emperor Constantine

A review:

Louis de Wohl’s books are all spellbinding and captivating! He creates real-life, everyday events that could very well have happened in the lives of the actual historical figures he portrays. You get a biography that is painted in everyday, real-life events rather than just a chronology of facts, making the story all that easier to relate to for the reader.

Here is a peek into the author’s life. Louis de Wohl

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The Value of Small Things – Fr. Paul O’Sullivan

A solemn reminder of the consequences of our thoughts, words and deeds. But, on the flip side, to realize that every, even seemingly little, effort we make for the love of God, is used for our eternal welfare.

The widow’s mite

by Father Paul O’Sullivan, How to Be Happy, How to Be Holy

THE VALUE OF SMALL THINGS

Many people are afraid of doing what is hard and difficult, but surely no one is so foolish and weak as to refuse to do what is easy and pleasant, when by doing so he can reap great and lasting benefits. No one hesitates to give a penny if in exchange he gets a pound; no one will refuse to dig a little in his garden if he is sure of finding there a great treasure.

Yet all of us have treasures within easy reach if only we know how and where to find them…

Few Christians know the extraordinary value of small things. Our Lord told St. Bridget and many others of His saints that our holiness and happiness consist in small things, even as the vast ocean consists of many little drops of water.

God may never ask us to do what is hard and heroic, but He does ask us every day to do countless simple and easy things. If we do these well—and nothing is easier—we shall soon attain to great holiness and also great happiness.

We shall now see: First, the malice of one bad thought or act and what awful chastisements it deserves.

Secondly, the value of one good act—great, or small—and the eternal rewards it merits.

Thirdly, we shall point out a hundred little acts that we can perform every day with the greatest ease and pleasure, which will obtain for us unspeakably great rewards if only we do them as we ought to.

The Malice of One Bad Act

It was one act that plunged millions and millions of God’s glorious angels into Hell for all eternity! One act! It was one act, apparently very small, viz., eating an apple, that has filled the world with sorrow and suffering for all these thousands of years and sent millions of men to Hell.

Had Adam and Eve not eaten that apple, they and we—that is, all the human race—would never have suffered the smallest pain!

Remark well, dear reader, that the punishment with which God visited these sins was not in any way excessive. God could never punish sin too much, never more than the sin by its awful malice fully deserved.

The punishment is what the malice of the sin demanded. Therefore, we see what awful malice one small act can have in itself and what terrible chastisements it brings with it.

Someone may be inclined to think that these two cases are exceptional. They are nothing of the kind. Millions of men and women are every day committing mortal sins, and millions of men and women like ourselves are falling into Hell, just as the fallen angels did.

A mortal sin may be a bad thought, a word, or an act done in a moment. Yet it has in itself dreadful malice. Venial sins, too, may be very grave, and because of their malice may be punished by long years in the fires of Purgatory. Yet people commit so many venial sins every day.

They shall have to give an account in the fires of Purgatory for each and every idle thought, word or act they may have committed, and they shall not leave these fires until they shall have paid the last farthing. These are the words of Our Lord Himself.

THE VALUE OF GOOD ACTS

On the other hand, let us clearly understand that as every evil act, great or small, is in itself vicious and brings us such dire chastisement, so every good act has in itself an immense value and will bring with it a corresponding weight of glory in Heaven.

The Good Thief on the cross had led a life of great crime and wickedness, and confessed that he richly deserved the awful death of crucifixion, yet by one short act of sorrow: “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom,” he obtained full pardon for all his sins and merited to hear from Our Lord these wondrous words: “This day wilt thou be with Me in Paradise.” Moreover, he became a saint and is known as St. Dismas.

The Poor Publican, weighed down with the heavy burden of many and grievous sins, was so conscious of his guilt that he dared not approach the holy part of the Temple, but fell on his knees, struck his breast, bowed his head and said these few words: “God, have pity on me, a sinner.” By this simple act he received complete pardon for all his sins!

The Widow’s Mite

One day Our Blessed Lord was in the Temple on a feast day, and the princes of the people and the great and wealthy Jews came and cast rich alms into the treasury of the Temple. At last a poor widow came and cast her mite, all she could afford, into the alms-box.

Our Lord, who observed all that had passed, turned to His Apostles and said: “That poor woman has given more than all the rest.”

It is not the act—it is the intention of the giver that gives value to the action. Again, one may say that these are exceptional cases, but we answer, by no means. Similar rewards are being given every day for like small acts.

Any alms we give, no matter how small, and no matter to whom it is given, for love of God, will have a reward just as if we gave it to God Himself!

This He makes most abundantly clear, for He says: “When the good shall appear before Me, I will say to them: Come, ye blessed of My Father, take possession of the Kingdom prepared for you, for when I was hungry you gave Me to eat, when I was thirsty you gave Me to drink, when I was naked you clothed Me. “

And they will answer: “But Lord, we never had the happiness of seeing You, of giving You to eat, or to drink, or of clothing You.”

I will reply: “Every time you gave it to the least of My little ones, you gave it to Me.

I will say to the wicked: Begone, ye accursed of My Father, for when I was hungry you gave Me not to eat, when thirsty you gave Me not to drink, when naked you did not clothe Me.”

And they will say: But Lord, we never saw You on earth, we never refused to give You to eat, to give You to drink, to clothe You. And I will say: Each time you refused it to the least of My poor, you refused it to Me. Begone from Me forever.”

Even if we give a cup of cold water to a poor man in God’s name, we shall have an eternal reward. That, too, is Christ’s promise.

These promises are amply verified in the lives of the Saints, for many times when they gave alms to the poor, Our Lord revealed to them that He considered the alms as given to Himself.

St. Martin, when a soldier and not yet a Christian, once gave half his military cloak to a poor man, as he had nothing else with him at the moment to give. That night Our Lord appeared to him clad in the cloak and said: “Martin the Catechumen gave Me this cloak.”

Bl. Jordan of Saxony, a student in the University of Bologne, was once accosted by a beggar who asked him to give him something for the love of God. Jordan, who had nothing else at the moment to give, took off a most valuable girdle encrusted with precious stones which he wore, and gave it to the mendicant.

A few moments after he entered a church, and to his amazement, saw his girdle buckled around the waist of the figure of Christ on the Cross! Jordan became a great saint, the successor of St. Dominic as General of the Dominican Order, and one of the most zealous apostles of his time.

John Gualbert, a Florentine nobleman, pardoned a man who had murdered his brother because the murderer asked him to do so for the love of Jesus. Entering a church immediately afterwards, he knelt at the feet of the crucifix.

Our Lord looked at him with infinite sweetness and bowed His head most lovingly toward him. John, filled with divine grace, became a saint and a founder of a religious Order.

St. Anthony of the desert, when still a rich young man in the world, once heard a sermon with great attention. As a result of that sermon he became not only a saint, but the father and model of saints.

St. Ignatius became a saint by reading one good book.

Blessed Imelda became a saint by one Holy Communion.

Peter Damian, a poor boy, once found a silver coin, and not being able to discover its owner, asked the parish priest to say Mass for his intention. This was indeed, a brave act, the poor boy needed many things. So pleased was God with this act that Peter became a bishop, a cardinal, a saint and Doctor of the Church.

So we, too, can gain immense rewards by doing small things.

“Many times God allows it to be hard to pray, simply to school us in applying our wills, to teach us that the value of prayer does not depend on the amount of emotion we can whip up. So when ‘Time for prayers’ is greeted with moans and groans, it’s time to explain that saying prayers when you least want to, simply because you love God and have a kind of dry respect and a sense of obedience, is to gain the greatest merit for them. Many times the saints had trouble getting excited about prayers, but they said them, because prayers were due and their value had nothing to do with how eagerly they went about saying them.” -Mary Reed Newland, How to Raise Good Catholic Children http://amzn.to/2snNxN7 (afflink)

On this Feast of Pentecost: “I consecrate myself entirely to You; invade me, take me, possess me wholly. Be the penetrating light which illumines my intellect, the gentle motion which attracts and directs my will, the supernatural energy which gives energy to my body. Complete in me Your work of sanctification and love. Make me pure, transparent, simple, true, free, peaceful, gentle, calm, serene even in suffering, and burning with charity toward God and my neighbor.” – Divine Intimacy

Coloring pages for your children….

Do you need some good book suggestions? Visit…

My Book List

Book List for Catholic Men

Book List for the Youth

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The Faults and Shortcomings of Others that Threaten to Rob Our Peace

This is from the small, but excellent book Searching for and Maintaining Peace: A Small Treatise on Peace of Heart by Father Jacques Phillipe. Our priest made this book available to all of us a few years ago and I am very grateful as it is an excellent meditation on how important peace of heart is in the spiritual life. It is full of practical advice on how to avoid the pitfalls and work toward keeping that most necessary quality of peace in our hearts!

From Father Philippe:

I stated that disquietude, in the face of some evil that threatens or overcomes our own person or those who are dear to us, is the most frequent reason why we lose our interior peace.

And the response: confident abandonment into the Hands of God, Who delivers us from all evil, or Who, if He allows it, gives us the strength to endure it and makes it turn to our advantage.

This response will remain valid for all the other causes for losing our peace, with which we will now interest ourselves and which are specific cases.

Nevertheless, it is good to speak of it because though abandonment may be the sole rule, the practice of abandonment takes diverse forms according to what is at the origin of our troubles and our anxieties.

It often happens that we lose our peace not because suffering affects us or threatens to affect us personally, but rather because of the behavior of an individual person or group of persons who hurt us or preoccupy us.

It is thus something that is not directly ours – but which, nonetheless, concerns us – that is in question: for example, the good of our community, of the church or the salvation of a particular person.

A woman is perhaps distressed because she does not see a much desired conversion of her husband being realized. A superior of a community may lose his sense of peace, because one of his brothers or sisters does the contrary of that which he expects. Or, more simply, in every day life, one becomes irritated, because one close to him behaves in a way that he imagines he should not behave.

How many nervous tensions are due to this type of situation! The response is the same as previously indicated: confidence and abandonment. I must do what occurs to me relative to aiding others to improve themselves, peacefully and tenderly, and put everything else in the Hands of the Lord, Who knows how to draw benefit from all things.

But, relative to this, we would like to express a general principle that is very important in our daily spiritual life which is the point at which we usually stumble in the cases cited above. In addition, its area of application is much larger than the question of patience when confronted with the faults of others.
Here is the principle: not only must we be careful to want and desire good things for their own sake, but also to want and desire them in a way that is good. To be attentive not only to that which we want, but also to the way in which we want them.

In effect, we very frequently sin in this fashion: we want something which is good, and even very good, but we want it in a way that is bad. In order to understand, let us take one of the examples mentioned above.

It is normal that the superior of the community should watch over the sanctity of those in his care. It’s an excellent thing and conforms to the will of God. But if the superior gets angry, irritated or loses his peace over the imperfections or the lack of fervor of his brothers, this is certainly not the Holy Spirit that is animating him.

And we often have this tendency. Because the thing that we want is good, even seeing as desired by God, we feel justified in wanting it with that much more impatience and displeasure if it is not realized. The more a thing seems good to us, the more we are agitated and preoccupied to realize it!

We should, therefore, as I have said, not only verify that the things we want are good in themselves, but also that the manner in which we want them, the disposition of heart in which we want them, are good. That is to say that our wanting must always be caring, peaceful, patient, detached and abandoned to God. It should not be an impatient wanting, hurried, restless, irritated, etc.

In the spiritual life it is often there that our attitude is defective. We are no longer among those who want bad things that are contrary to God. Instead, from now on we want only those things that are good, in conformity with the will of God. But, we want them in a manner that is still not “God’s Way,” that is to say the way of the Holy Spirit, which is caring, peaceful and patient.

We want them in the human way, tense, hurried and discouraged if we do not immediately achieve the desired goal.

All of the Saints insist on telling us that we must moderate our desires, even the best of them. Because, if we desire in the human way that we have described, that will trouble the soul, make it uneasy, destroy its peace and thereby disturb God’s actions in it and in others.

This applies to all things, even to our own sanctification.

How many times do we lose our peace because we find that our sanctification is not progressing rapidly enough, that we still have too many faults. But this does nothing but delay things!

St. Francis de Sales goes so far as to say that “Nothing retards progress in a virtue so much as wanting to acquire it with too much haste!”

To conclude, let us keep this in mind: as far as all our desires and our wishes are concerned, the sign that we are in accordance with truth, that our desire is in accord with the Holy Spirit, is not only that the thing desired is good, it is also that we are at peace.

A desire that causes us to lose peace, even if the thing desired is excellent in itself, is not of God. It is necessary to want and desire, but in a free and detached way in abandoning to God the realization of these desires, as He desires and when He wishes.

To educate our own heart in this sense is of great importance for our spiritual progress. It is God who converts us and causes us to grow, not our nervousness, our impetuosity and our impatience.

“It is difficult for a child to be better than his home environment or for a nation to be superior to the level of its home life. In fulfilling its double purpose – the generation and formation of children – the home becomes a little world in itself, self-sufficient even in its youngest years. It is vital that you, as a mother or father, make of your home a training ground in character-building for your children, who will inherit the world’s problems. Home is a place in which the young grow in harmony with all that is good and noble, where hardship, happiness, and work are shared.” – Father Lawrence G. Lovasik, Catholic Family Handbook http://amzn.to/2sDb6hw (afflink)

Time is something that we do not have a lot of and is gone right when we use it. Many waste time, which is not a virtuous thing to do. What is our goal?

Do you need some inspiration? For some great book suggestions visit My Book List…

 

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Month of May, Month of Mary!

Happy Month of May! What an incredible blessing to have a Mother like Mary…a powerful advocate for our needs! Let’s remember throughout the day to think of her, to take her hand and have her lead us through each seemingly unimportant happening….she cares very much!

Divine Intimacy: Meditations on the Interior Life for Every Day of the Liturgical Year

The heart of every Christian turns spontaneously toward his heavenly Mother, with a desire to live in closer intimacy with her and to strengthen the sweet ties which bind him to her. It is a great comfort on our spiritual way, which is often fatiguing and bristling with difficulties, to meet the gentle presence of a mother.

One is so at ease near one’s mother. With her, everything becomes easier; the weary, discouraged heart, disturbed by storms, finds new hope and strength, and continues the journey with fresh courage.

“If the winds of temptation arise,” sings St. Bernard, “if you run into the reefs of trials, look to the star, call upon Mary. In danger, sorrow or perplexity, think of Mary, call upon Mary.”

There are times when the hard road of the “nothing” frightens us, miserable as we are; and then, more then ever, we need her help, the help of our Mother. The Blessed Virgin Mary has, before us, trodden the straight and narrow path which leads to sanctity; before us she has carried the cross, before us she has known the ascents of the spirit through suffering.

Sometimes, perhaps, we do not dare to look at Jesus the God-Man, who because of His divinity seems too far above us; but near Him is Mary, His Mother and our Mother, a privileged creature surely, yet a creature like ourselves, and therefore a model more accessible for our weakness.

Mary comes to meet us during this month, to take us by the hand, to initiate us into the secret of her interior life, which must become the model and norm of our own.

We must consider Mary in the concrete picture of her earthly life. It is a simple, humble picture, which never leaves the framework of the ordinary life common to all mothers; under this aspect, Mary is truly imitable.

Our program for the month of May, then, will be to contemplate the grandeurs of Mary, that we may be stimulated to imitate her virtues.

The mother who holds the Blessed Virgin as her model develops the love and patience which nurture the spiritual and emotional growth of her children. – Fr. George Kelly, The Catholic Family Handbook

The month of May is a great month of devotion to the Blessed Mother. In this Fr.  goes over the Motherhood of God & examines the heresy of Nestorianism that attacked this truth….

Visit My Book List for some great reading suggestions!

Book List for Catholic Men

Book List for the Youth

 

 

 

Christ and Women (Part Two) – Fr. Daniel A. Lord

A beautiful meditation on Christ’s love for His mother and for all womankind….

Christ and Women (1)

All Through His Life

Writers have sometimes stated that women had little place in the life of Christ. This is a strange, unintelligible statement utterly without foundation.

Once, the writers argue, when He sat by a well and talked with a Samaritan woman, the Apostles were surprised. The writers forget that the disciples would have been equally surprised had they found Him talking with a Samaritan man. Samaritans were the hated enemies of the of Jews, and with them the Jews had no sort of voluntary communication.

Certainly the Apostles who had accompanied Him so intimately could hardly have been surprised that He showed this needy woman interest and sympathy. They had never seen Him show any woman anything else.

Later on they were to hear Him speak sternly to a pagan woman; but this was to make the faith of an outcast woman shame unbelieving Jewish men. Women walk through the pages of Christ’s life with calm frequency. They are often close to Him, in His company, playing dramatic roles in His life’s story.

They are consistently the recipients of His kindness and His gracious favors. To talk or write as if Christ ignored or avoided or had little dealing with women is simply to leave out or pass over whole sections of the Gospel story. It is utterly to misunderstand Christ.

For women were His loyal followers, His devoted friends, who saw in Him their tactful advocate and courageous protector. Christ’s attitude toward women is just one of the beautiful and consoling things in His character.

We falsify our picture of Christ by talking or writing as if He shunned or positively disliked women.

A World Cruel to Women

What makes His attitude the more notable is its contrast with the attitude toward women that prevailed when He came into the world. The world had been a sad place for women. Pagan slave markets were full of them, and their price was graded to their physical charm or the breadth of their backs for carrying burdens.

They got their value from their ability to please the eye or serve the whim of man, the master. Rome and Greece talked much about their respect for good women, but they saw to it that the life of a good woman was almost that of a slave.

Woman was barred the larger life of her times unless, as was the case especially in the golden age of Greece, she bought liberty at the price of shame.

Courtesans made great places for themselves in public life; good women were almost prisoners in their homes. The lot of a Jewish woman was, of course, immeasurably higher; but even she was the servant, the inferior, whose fate was so completely in the hands of her master that custom had come to permit a husband to divorce her for the crime of an unsatisfactory breakfast.

A lower place in the temple, an inferior seat at table, the task of waiting hand and foot even on her own sons, was regarded as her unquestioned lot. If she fell by some sad fate a victim to man’s pursuing instincts and lost the innocence with which she might purchase dull respectability, there was not the slightest chance of her rising from the mud.

Pagan and Jew alike kept the fallen woman in the gutter. For her there was neither hope nor opportunity for repentance. Men made sin easy for her, but they were unforgiving once she had gratified their cruel passion.

Christ Comes to Womankind

Into this world so hard and merciless to women walked Jesus, with pity in His eyes for all womankind. Was it strange, when we come to think of it, that women should mean so much to Him?

There was only one person in the world to whom He, the God-Man, could properly be said to owe anything. That was the woman Mary, His mother. No human father had given Him what fathers give to the rest of mankind.

His whole body was given Him by His mother. We may be sure that His features were hers; if her hair curled back from her forehead, so, in all probability, did His; even His eyes took their color from hers.

She was His only human parent, and whatever resemblance He bore to any human being was the resemblance He bore to Mary.

During the formative years when He advanced in age, wisdom, and grace, it was intimacy with a woman which shaped His human characteristics. Her voice was the first He heard, and from it He caught, as children always do, her little tricks of speech.

She taught Him all the dear things that Only a mother can teach a son and that put
upon a boy the seal of a mother’s personality. By her side He experienced sorrow, exile, joy, peace, every human emotion.

Naturally His human heart, feeling the burden of His debt to Mary, must have been tender to the whole race of women.

His Debt to a Woman

If Jesus may be said to owe anything to anyone, then surely he owes all to a woman. She paid dearly for the privilege of being his mother. Because she accepted that tremendous responsibility, she experienced the stable and exile in a foreign land.

She gave Him through the years of childhood the patient care with which a mother wraps round her little one. She trained the growing Boy, tasted the poverty that He chose for His lot, the long, tedious separation of His public life, the agony on Calvary.

No woman but can lift her head in proud joy when she remembers that one of her sex gave to the God-Man all that humanly went into the molding of His man’s nature.

And Jesus, who repaid all debts a hundredfold, seems to have repaid his debt to Mary in the kindness and gentleness He showed to all her sisters, the women of the human race.

Perhaps, in addition, Christ brought to earth something of that yearning, almost motherly, with which God regarded His chosen people.

“Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb?” Isaiah 19:15.

Certainly there was an exquisite tenderness in the tears which He shared over Jerusalem as he compared himself to the mother hen longing to gather her chickens under her wing, and there is a gentleness in His parable of the lost sheep, the prodigal son, and the Good Samaritan.

The son of Mary never forgot that the first and great influence in his life was the influence of His mother, and He brought to every woman that tenderness and gentleness which every good son of every good mother feels toward womankind.

His treatment of them is part payment of His debt to his mother.

“The bone-dry definitions in the catechism are as essential as the recipe for the cake, but if we put them together with imagination and enthusiasm, and add love and experience, then set them afire with the teaching of Christ, His stories, His life, the Old Testament as well as the New, and the lives of the saints, we can make the study of catechism a tremendous adventure.” -Mary Reed Newland, http://amzn.to/2wSJI3wBlessed Mother Graceful Religious Earring Sets…Handcrafted, Hypoallergenic. Available here.

Drawing on the experience of dozens of saints, Fr. Plus explains sure ways we can recollect ourselves before prayer so that once we begin to pray, our prayers will be richer and more productive; he teaches us how to practice interior silence habitually, even in the rush and noise of the world; and he explains each of the kinds of prayer and shows when we should and should not employ each.

We all pray, but few of us pray well. And although that’s troubling, few of us have found a spiritual director capable of leading us further along the path of prayer.

Fr. Raoul Plus, S.J., is such a director, and reading this little book about the four types of prayer will be for you like hearing the voice of the wise and gentle counsellor you long for but can’t find: one who knows your soul well and understands its needs.

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