The choice

I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition.

Martha Washington

The economy of forgiveness

It saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.

Hannah Moore

Break

Sometimes the only way the Good Lord can get into some hearts is to break them.

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

Community

I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you therefore to lead a life worthy of the vocation to which you were called. With all humility and gentleness, and with patience, support each other in love. Take every care to preserve the unity fo the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. Ephesians 4:1-3

A sober and humble joy

“Good evening to you all and thank you for being here. On this day fifty years ago I was in the square looking up at this window where the Good Pope, Blessed John XXIII, appeared and addressed us with unforgettable words, words full of poetry and goodness, words from the heart.
We were happy, full of enthusiasm. The great Ecumenical Council had begun and we were certain that a new springtime for the Church was in the offing; a new Pentecost with a new and powerful presence of the liberating grace of the Gospel.
Today too we are happy. We have joy in our hearts but, I would say, it is perhaps a more sober and humble joy. Over these fifty years we have learned and experienced how original sin exists and is translated, ever and anew, into individual sins which can also become structures of sin. We have seen how weeds are also always present in the field of the Lord. We have seen how Peter’s net also beings in bad fish. We have seen how human fragility is also present in the Church, how the ship of the Church is also sailing against a counter wind and is threatened by storms; and at times we have thought that the Lord is sleeping and has forgotten us.
This is part of the experience of these last fifty years. But we have also had a new experience of the Lord’s presence, of His goodness and power. The fire of the Holy Spirit, the fire of Christ, does not devour and destroy, it is a silent fire, a small flame of goodness and truth which transforms, giving light and heat. We have seen how the Lord does not forget us. Even today, in His humble way, the Lord is present and brings warmth to hearts, He shows us life, He creates charisms of goodness and charity which illuminate the world and give us a guarantee of God’s goodness. Yes, Christ is alive and is with us today. And today too we can be happy because His goodness does not die, it remains strong even today!
I make bold to echo the unforgettable words of Pope John: ‘Go to your homes, give your children a kiss and say it is from the Pope’.
In this Year, from the bottom of my heart I impart my blessing upon you: ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord’”.

Pope Benedict XVI - message during the torchlight procession in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II

New evangelization

“Why is there a strong wave of secularization, a storm of antipathy or plain cold indifference towards the Church in some parts of the world necessitating a new wave of evangelization programs?”
The new evangelization calls for new humility. The Gospel cannot thrive in pride. When pride seeps into the heart of the Church, the Gospel proclamation is harmed. The task of new evangelization must begin with a deep sense of awe and reverence for humanity and her culture. Evangelization has been hurt and continues to be impeded by the arrogance of its messengers. The hierarchy must shun arrogance, hypocrisy and bigotry. We must punish the errant among us instead of covering up our own mistakes. We are humans among our human flock. All our beauty and holiness we owe to God. This humility will make us more credible new evangelizers. Our mission is to propose humbly not to impose proudly.
Secondly, the new evangelization must be done by new saints and we must be those saints. The great poverty of the world now is the poverty of saints. Whether we come from the first world or third world countries, everybody is looking for models to inspire and emulate. Our youth need models to inspire them. They need living heroes to ignite their hearts and excite them to know Jesus and love Him more. Our experience in the Third World tells me that the Gospel can be preached to empty stomachs but only if the stomach of the preacher is as empty as his parishioners.
Lastly, the new evangelization must be a call for new charity. We will be credible bringers of Gospel joy if the proclamation is accompanied by its twin messenger of charity. The charity of Jesus is the gift of Himself. The charity of the new evangelization must be the gift of Jesus.
The new evangelization needs a new humility; a renewal in holiness and a new face of charity for it to be credible and fruitful.

H. Exc. Rev. Mons. Socrates B. VILLEGAS, Archbishop of Lingayen-Dagupan (PHILIPPINES) - intervention at the Synod on the New Evangelization

Kindness

Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.

Eric Hoffer

Praying

When I am incapable of praying, I want to keep telling him that I love him. It's not difficult, and it keeps the fire going.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Forgiveness

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we would find in each person's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.

Remy Wadsworth Longfellow

Alone with God

When you pray gather up your whole self, enter with your Beloved into the chamber of your heart, and there remain alone with him, forgetting all exterior concerns; and there remain aloft with all your love and all your mind, your affections, your desires and devotion.

St. Bonaventure

Gratitude and blessings

An attitude of gratitude creates blessings.

Sir John Templeton

God in the world

We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent, and God is shining through it all the time.

Thomas Merton

True friends

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.

Elisabeth Foley

A friend

A friend hears the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails.

Pioneer Girls Leaders' Handbook

Prayer

Anything we do with a whole heart can be prayer.

David Steindl-Rast

Clinging

Clinging creates a shrinking within the soul, a shrinking of possibility and growth.

Sue Monk Kidd

Happiness

He is happiest who hath power to gather wisdom from a flower.

Mary Howitt

Lies

We tend to contradict ourselves when we do not tell the truth.

Rodolfo Fariñas

Pain

As long as we seek to escape from our various 'hells' into freedom from pain, we remain irremediably bound; we can emerge from the pains of Hell in one way only - by accepting another kind of suffering, the suffering which is purging.

Helen Luke

On immense grief

For the first time in my life, I understood how someone could consciously decide to commit suicide. Not because they were deranged, not because they were nuts, because they’d been to the top of the mountain and they just knew in their heart they’d never get there again, that it was … never going to be that way ever again. That’s how an awful lot of you feel. And just like you guys know by the tone of a phone call — you just knew, didn’t you? You knew when they walked up the path. You knew when the call came. You knew. You just felt it in your bones something bad happened. And I knew. I don’t know how I knew. But the call said my wife was dead, my daughter was dead, and I wasn’t sure how my sons were going to make it.
(I understand the) black hole you feel in your chest, like you’re being sucked back into it. (And while the ache never goes away, it) gets controllable.
Just remember two things, keep thinking what your husband or wife would want you to do. Keep thinking what it is, and keep remembering those kids of yours, or him or her the rest of their life, blood of my blood, bone of my bone, because, folks, it can and will get better.
There will come a day, I promise you, and your parents, as well, when the thought of your son or daughter or your husband or wife brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye. It will happen. My prayer for you is that day will come sooner or later. But the only thing I have more experience than you in is this: I’m telling you it will come.

Joe Biden

God is an existential option

Man cannot live without God. He can deny Him for some time or create an illusion of greatness and immortality, but in my opinion, God is an existential option.

Fr. Jacob Nampudakam

Alone

We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in dangers.

Maya Angelou

Surrender

I vividly remember how I had, at one time, become totally dependent on the affection and friendship of one person. The dependency threw me into a pit of great anguish and brought me to the verge of a very self-destructive depression. But from the moment I was helped to experience my interpersonal addiction as an expression of a need for total surrender to a loving God who would fulfill the deepest desires of my heart, I started to live my dependency in a radically new way. Instead of living it in shame and embarrassment, I was able to live it as an urgent invitation to claim God's unconditional love for myself, a love I can depend on without any fear.

Henri J.M. Nouwen, Live of the Beloved

Kind words

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.

Mother Teresa

Face the sun

Keep your face to the sunshine and you will not see the shadows.

Helen Keller

Destiny

It's choice, not chance, that determines your destiny.

Jean Nidetch

Little things

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.

Robert Brault

Laughter

Laughter is an instant vacation.

Milton Berle

Courage

Courage does not always roar. Sometimes it is a quiet voice at the end of the day saying ..., "I will try again tomorrow".

Mary Anne Radmacher

Stand up

If you don't stand for something you'll fall for anything.

The Second Mile

The Second Mile represents a much higher law, the law of kindness, generosity and love. Following the Lord means following His ways, which are much different than our own. He said, "My thoughts and my ways are not like yours. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, my thoughts and my ways are higher than yours" (Isaiah 55:8-9 CEV).
Going the Second Mile means living above the norm, treating people with kindness and respect regardless of whether they deserve. It is not enough to simply do what is required. In order to find joy and victory in our lives, we must give generously of ourselves beyond what is expected of us.

Paula J. Fox

Silence

Silence is the great master. It speaks to the human heart. Silence is not an empty void; God dwells therein.

P. Jacques

Using time wisely

If you avoid unnecessary talk and aimless visits, listening to news and gossip, you will find plenty of suitable time to spend in meditation on holy things.

Thomas A Kempis

Attraction to God

We are not drawn to God by iron chains, like bulls and wild oxen. We are drawn by enticements, sweet attractions, and holy inspirations.

St. Francis de Sales

Challenge me, O Lord

God of deep waters and infinite riches, challenge me to go where I fear, to do what is difficult and what I thought could never be done. Push me to go to the deep waters of life and cast my net wide, for I put all my hope, trust and faith in you. Amen.

From "Rediscover Lent"

Darkness

I need the shadows of Good Friday to appreciate the full possibilities of the Easter mystery. The most distant object I can see on a clear day is the sun. But on a dark night I can see the stars, millions of miles farther away.

from "The challenge of the cross"

Hunger

The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.

Mother Teresa

The road to holiness

Jesus shows us that there is one area where no compromise should be accepted: God's will. No matter what the cost, no matter what we may have to lose or give up, nothing should stand in the way of what the Father asks of us.

From "The Sacred Heart for Lent"

Faith

He does not believe, that does not live according to his belief.

Thomas Fuller

Time

Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons.

Blaise Pascal

Love of God

Let everyone understand that the real love of God does not consist in tear-shedding ... but in serving God by serving those around us, in justice, fortitude of soul, and humility.

Saint Teresa of Avila

Kindness

Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out.

Frank A. Clark

Doubts

Living with uncertainty does not mean that we have to live hesitant and uncommitted lives, either religiously or politically. It does mean that we will live with a certain lightness of being and bring a modest provisionality to our judgments – especially when we remember how many things we have been wrong about in the past.

Richard Holloway

Go for God

Perhaps what is wrong with our modern religion is not so much the forms themselves in which it finds expression, but rather the kind of value which we have come to give those forms, a value which is too absolute. Theology, liturgy, church hierarchy and pastoral works - these are ultimately only means and instruments; they are not God himself; they are not the ultimate goal of our striving; and they exert a deadening effect the moment we start to consider them as ultimate. That does not mean that we should cast them aside. It means that we need to learn to look through them; to remember that they are means, not ends; to keep our eyes fixed on the transcendent Goal.

Cyprian Smith OSB, from "The Way of Paradox. Spiritual life as taught by Meister Ekchart"

Saints

Saints are those who "spend their heaven" supporting us on our path to holiness.

YOUCAT

God's unconditional love

But God is whispering the words to our hearts we long to hear if only we can dare to believe them: "You are loved deeply, truly, always." That's the kind of crazy love that sets us free forever. God invites us to take His hand, trust His heart, and believe that the love we've been searching for all our lives is the love we've already found.

Holley Gerth

Fraternal correction

We must not remain silent before evil. I am thinking of all those Christians who, out of human regard or purely personal convenience, adapt to the prevailing mentality, rather than warning their brothers and sisters against ways of thinking and acting that are contrary to the truth and that do not follow the path of goodness. Christian admonishment, for its part, is never motivated by a spirit of accusation or recrimination. It is always moved by love and mercy, and springs from genuine concern for the good of the other.

Pope Benedict XVI

On paying attention

The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.

Henry Miller

Humility

Humility is a funny virtue because we love it in others but have a hard time practicing it ourselves. We like to be appreciated. We like to be right.

From The Sacred Heart for Lent

On having enemies

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

Winston Churchill

Obedience

I don't know who - or what - put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer yes to someone - or - something - and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.

Dag Hammarskjold

Forgiving

"Forgiving people who have hurt you is your gift to them.
Forgetting people who have hurt you is your gift to you."

Freer when we bend

We not only feel freer when we bend, we actually feel taller when we bow.

G. K. Chesterton