In Thanksgiving, Give Praise to the Lord

Hallelujah!

Praise God in his holy sanctuary; give praise in the mighty dome of heaven.

Give praise for his mighty deeds, praise him for his great majesty.

Give praise with blasts upon the horn, praise him with harp and lyre.

Give praise with tambourines and dance, praise him with flutes and strings.

Give praise with crashing cymbals, praise him with sounding cymbals.

Let everything that has breath give praise to the LORD! Hallelujah!

Psalm 150

About Ourselves

The greatest untapped reservoir of energy in the universe is the depths of our own souls. Though we live with self for a lifetime, we seem to know other persons better, at any rate, we judge them more often than we do ourselves, and we analyze them better than ourselves.

Fulton J. Sheen

Reverence at Prayer

..........It is far more important that we present our pleas to God with the utmost humility and purity of devotion. We realize that we will be heard for our pure and sorrowful hearts, not for the numbers of our spoken words. Our prayer must be heartfelt and to the point. Only divine inspiration should lengthen it............

From "The Rule of St. Benedict"

In God Alone Is Rest for My Soul

We may not perhaps quite realise what trusting to God on the human journey means.

This trust is in fact the most radical leap of all.
The Psalm says:
'Whoever trusts in the Lord is like Mount Zion, unshakable, firm-set for ever' (Ps. 125:1).
And that's true, absolutely true.
Trust casts out fear, makes faith easier, gives a thrust to hope.
Trust in God helps you to feel near him, to see him as the solution to all problems, even the most abstruse.
Trust is the greatest joy in our relationship with God.
Whoever, trusts in God has already covered the hardest part of the journey.
He is now in sight of Jericho; victory is at hand.
A victory filled with delight and boundless love.
God, you are my God, I can count on you.

From Journey Without End by Carlo Carretto

Insight Into Holy Living

How true it is that the more holy the life, the more mysterious it becomes by its apparent simplicity and lowliness.

From The Joy of Full Surrender by Jean-Pierre de Caussade

The Lord Upholds Me

R. The Lord upholds me.
O LORD, how many are my adversaries!
Many rise up against me!
Many are saying of me,
“There is no salvation for him in God.”

R. The Lord upholds me.
But you, O LORD, are my shield;
my glory, you lift up my head!
When I call out to the LORD,
he answers me from his holy mountain.

R. The Lord upholds me.
When I lie down in sleep,
I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.
I fear not the myriads of people
arrayed against me on every side.

R. The Lord upholds me.

Ps 3:2-3, 4-5, 6-7

How God Communicates

God speaks to souls through words uttered by pious people, by sermons or good books, and in many other such ways.

Sometimes He calls souls by means of sickness or troubles, or by some truth He teaches them during prayer, for tepid as they may be in seeking Him, yet God holds them very dear.

St. Teresa of Avila

A Prayer for Today

Lord, help us to answer your call to bring your light into the world in the ways you choose for us.

Amen.

What Is Sunday for You

God of love, you remind us that we are not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath is made for us.

I seek rest to be renewed in the joy of those words.

Rev. Paul G. Mast

Do I Love My Neighbor

Christ does not want you to feel the least hatred, resentment, anger or rancour towards anyone in any way or on account of any transitory thing whatsoever.

This is proclaimed throughout the four Gospels.

St. Maximo the Confessor

How To Love

"Let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth."

1 John 3: 18

What Is The Will Of God

The basic principle is that each should recognize both his need of all the others and his obligation to serve all the others.

The will of God will begin to come clear once this fundamental truth has been accepted and understood.

But unless we recognize that we are members of one body and that we have vital obligations and responsibilities toward other members who live by the same life-principle, we will never understand the love of God.

Thomas Merton

True Charity

True charity consists in putting up with all one's neighbor's faults, never being surprised by his weakness, and being inspired by the least of his virtues.

St. Therse of Lisieux

Proper Mourning Is A Blessing

Perhaps the greatest spiritual and psychological challenge for us once we reach mid-life is to mourn our deaths and losses. Unless we mourn properly our hurts, our losses, life's unfairness, our shattered dreams, our radical inconsummation, and all the life that we once had but that has now passed us by, we will live either in an unhealthy fantasy or an ever-intensifying bitterness.

Fr. Ronald Rolheiser

Show Your Love Now

We save our best compliments and flowers for the funeral.

However, Jesus challenges us to anoint each other while we are still alive: Shower those you love with affection and flowers while they are alive, not at their funerals.

Fr. Ronald Rolheiser

Can We Know/Do God's Will Without Prayer?

The process of discovering God's will is called discernment, and it is a noble and sacred enterprise. One phenomenon essential to discerning God's will and then obeying it is prayer. If obedience is predicated upon listening to God, then we had better listen hard, and that comes in prayer.

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan

To Be A Good Counselor

One of the wisest of sayings is that of one of the most learned men who ever lived. Thomas Aquinas: "Contemplata aliis tradere" --"We deliver to others those things upon which we have mediated."

Fulton J. Sheen