God Is In Us

God is in us, at the bottom of our soul,
always, always listening to us there,
and asking us to chat a little with him.
From time to time lower your eyes towards your chest,
recollect yourself a quarter of a minute, and say:
"You are there, my God, I love you."

Charles de Foucauld

Who Can Pray

Only the humble can pray, for prayer presumes we need someone and something.

Bishop Fulton Sheen

The Spiritual Journey

The journey does not consist in recreations, experiences and spiritual feelings, but in the living, sensory and spiritual, exterior and interior death of the cross.

St. John of the Cross (Ascent, II.vii.11)

More to Life.......

There is more to life than merely increasing its speed.

Gandhi

The Secret of Sanctity

Every day for some moments.....close your eyes to the things of sense and your ears to the noises of the world, in order to enter into yourself. There, in the sanctity of your baptized soul, the temple of the Holy Spirit, say: "O Holy Spirit, beloved of my soul, I adore you. Enlighten me, guide me, strengthen me, console me....Let me know your will." If you do this, your life will flow serenely, even in the midst of trials. This submission to the Holy Spirit is the secret of sanctity.

From "Called to be Holy" by Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan

A Refuge

"I am the Lord, a refuge on the day of distress."

Nahum 1:7

God's Wish

It is God's wish that we grow in our faith.

Mother Teresa

Realism

The optimist is a happy fool, whereas the pessimist is an unhappy one.

Both, unfortunately, are fools.

The realist, on the other hand, is no fool and can be a happy person.

G. K. Chesterton

The Happiness of God

The great solid foundation of the spiritual life is to give oneself to God....in such a way that the good pleasure of God makes all our joy, and his happiness, glory and being become our sole good.

Jean-Pierre de Caussade

Love Your Neighbor

For the person who does not show kindness and love towards his brother 'does no know God, for God is love' (1 John 4 :8), as John the son of thunder and beloved disciple of Christ proclaims; and he adds that if Christ, the Saviour of all, 'laid down His soul for us, then we ought to lay down our souls for our brethren' (1 john 3 : 16).

St. Theodoros the Great Ascetic

About Love

If 'love is long-suffering and kind' (1 Cor. 13 : 4), a man who is fainthearted in the face of his afflictions and who therefore behaves wickedly toward those who have offended him, and stops loving them, surely lapses from the purpose of divine providence.

St. Maximos the Confessor

Healing of the Soul

The soul is healed by being with children.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Nature and Grace - Lesson #18

Grace is a supernatural light and a special gift of God. It is the proper mark of the elect and a pledge of eternal salvation. It lifts a man above the things of earth to the love of heavenly things, making a spiritual man of a worldling.

The more nature is kept down and overcome, the more grace fills a man's soul, and through new daily visitations the soul is formed more and more to the image of God.

From "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas A. Kempis

This lesson concludes this series on Nature and Grace

Nature and Grace - Lesson #17

Nature wants to know secrets and is avid for news, wants to appear in public and to try out new things. She likes to be noticed and to do sensational things to win approval.

Grace cares nothing for the novel or curious, for she knows that all this springs fro our old corruption, since there is nothing new or lasting upon earth.

Grace teaches us to control our senses, to shun all vain pleasure and outward show, and humbly to hide anything that might win men's admiration. In all knowledge and in all actions, grace seeks not only spiritual profit, but, above all, the praise and honor of God, that He may be blessed in His gifts, which He freely bestows through His love.

From "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas A. Kempis

Nature and Grace - Lesson #16

Nature refers all things to herself and all her striving is for herself.

But grace refers all things back to God, who is their Source. Grace is not presumptuous and attributes no good to self; neither does grace argue or prefer her own opinions, but submits to Eternal Wisdom.

From "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas A. Kempis

Nature and Grace - Lesson #15

As soon as trouble and want appear, nature is quick to complain.

Grace gladly bears, poverty with constancy.

From "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas A. Kempis

Nature and Grace - Lesson #14

Nature enjoys having a crowd of relatives and friends, prides herself on the family tree and a distinguished background. Nature flatters the rich and caters to those in power and approves those who share the same opinions as herself.

But grace behaves differently, for she loves even her enemies, and does not boast of having a large circle of friends. She cares not for rank or birth unless joined with greater virtue. She favors the poor rather than the rich; and has more in common with the simple and the innocent than with the influential.

From "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas A. Kempis

Nature and Grace - Lesson #13

Nature does everything for personal profit, never doing any work for nothing, but always looking for repayment--at least in equal amount, if not better, or else for praise and favor--and longs to have her deeds and words highly valued.

On the other hand, grace seeks no temporal reward nor any other compensation in payment, but only God Himself. Grace will have no more of the necessities of life than that which serves to obtain everlasting life.