A New Vision for a New Year

Now it's one thing to question the value of the computer or the telephone, but it's another thing altogether to question the power of God to work in our lives.

So as we prepare to begin the year 2010, let's put aside any doubts we may have about the Lord. Let's believe that he does want to do a great work in our lives and that he really does want to open our eyes to the spiritual realities all around us.

From: "The Word Among Us"

Two Sides of Sympathy

What has happened to that double side of sympathy which is the basis of the Christian philosophy of life: "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep"?

It has been said that the wounded deer sheds tears, but it belongs only to man to weep with those who weep and by sympathy to divide another's sorrows and double another's joys.

Fulton J. Sheen

Bearing With the Defects of Other

There will always be defects in ourselves or others which we cannot correct. These we must simply tolerate until God in His goodness sees fit to change things. After all, this may be the best possible way to prove our patience, without which our good qualities are not worth much.

From the Imitation of Christ by Thomas A. Kempis

Hope

In the end, what counts is not how many times we have succeeded or failed, but how we have begun again after a failure. That take hope!

Archbishop Fulton Sheen reminds us that there are no plains in our spiritual life, only hills and valleys, and the key to growth in holiness is not to lose hope when in the valley.

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan