Wisdom

Love effects a likeness between the lover and the object loved...  He who loves a creature, then, is as low as that creature, and in some way even lower, because love not only equates, but even subjects the lover to the loved object.  By the mere fact, then, that a man loves something, his soul becomes incapable of pure union and transformation in God...  Until a man is purged of his attachments he will not be equipped to possess God, neither here below through the pure transformation of love, nor in heaven through the beatific vision...  Love causes equality and likeness and even brings the lover lower than the object of his love...  All of the world's wisdom and human ability contrasted with the infinite wisdom of God is pure and utter ignorance...  Anyone, therefore, who values his knowledge and ability as a means of reaching union with the wisdom of God is highly ignorant in God's sight and will be left behind, far away from this wisdom.  Ignorance does not grasp what wisdom is;  and in God's sight those who think they have some wisdom are very ignorant...  Only those who set aside their own knowledge and walk in God's service like unlearned children receive wisdom from God...  Accordingly, a man must advance to union with God's wisdom by unknowing rather than knowing.  

-Saint John of the Cross

Saint John of the Cross (1591) is called the Mystical Doctor.

The Greatness of John

The prayer for purity of mind, "Stir up our hearts, Lord, to make ready the paths of your only-begotten Son, so that by his coming we may be able to serve thee with minds now purified," has its meaning for the Church.

The answer to this petition comes to the Church in the Gospel in the figure of the Baptist, a renewed judgement in living form, speaking with the deeply moving force of example, perhaps more persuasively even than the prophesies and warnings to repent.  Before the entire selflessness of the precursor, Church and soul awaken to the glow of their first love, strip off vain pretensions, and lust.  In this way the precursor comes to play his role in the drama of redemption, his living, participating role.  "For the power of John the Baptist goes before us when we prepare to put our faith in Christ," and, we may add, when we prepare with a lively faith to celebrate his coming in the liturgy.  The more we submit ourselves to the judgement of John, the more the Church takes on the form of the precursor.  It too becomes the herald of Christ; because it comes to pass judgment on itself, Christ takes up presence in her, and she must make known what it is she sees.  Sin's shadows fall away, the joy of God's nearness rises:  "Deus manifeste veniet"...  God comes for men to see, the Church.  "I bear him in me; he is here, look at him!"

-Sister Aemiliana Lohr

Sister Aemiliana (1972) was a German Benedictine nun who wrote about the liturgy.

He Comes for the Lost Ones

"I did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."  Those were strong people who taunted Christ's disciples because their master entered the homes of the sick and ate with them.  Why, they asked, does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?  O you strong ones who do not need the doctor!  Yours is not the strength of health but of madness!  God grant that we may never imitate that kind of strength.  We should dread the possibility of anyone wanting to imitate it.

The teacher of humility, who shared our weakness and gave us a share in his own divinity, came to earth in order to teach us the way, even to be the Way himself.  It was his humility, above all else, that he impressed upon us.  He willingly submitted to baptism at the hands of one of his servants, so that we might learn to confess our own sins and to become weak in order to be truly strong, repeating with the apostle:  "When I am weak, then I am strong."

-Augustine of Hippo

Saint Augustine (430) is called the Doctor of Grace.

Acting on Christ's Words

I long to see you set afire, swallowed up and consumed in his blazing charity, for we know that those who are set afire and consumed in that true charity lose all self-consciousness.  That is what I want you to do.

I am inviting you, in this blazing charity, to plunge into a peaceful sea, a deep sea.  I have just rediscovered the sea - not that the sea is new, but it is new to me in the way my soul experiences it - in the words, "God is love."  And just as a mirror reflects a person's face and as the sun shines its light on the earth, so these words echo within me that everything that is done is simply love, because everything is made entirely of love.  This is why he says, "I am God, Love."

This sheds light on the priceless mystery of the incarnate Word, who, out of sheer love, was given in such humility that it confounds my pride.  It teaches us to look not just at what he did, but at the blazing love his Word has given us.  It says that we should do as a loving person does when a friend comes with a gift: not looking at the friends hands to see what the gift is, but looking with the eyes of love at the friend's loving heart.  And this is what God's supreme, eternal, more tender than tender goodness wants us to do when he visits our soul.  So when he comes to you with his incalculable blessings, let your memory open up at once to receive what your understanding has seen in his divine love, and let your will rise up in blazing desire to receive and gaze upon the burning heart of the giver, the good gentle Jesus.  In this way you will find yourself swallowed up and clothed in the fiery gift of the blood of God's Son.  And you will be freed from all suffering and grief.

-Saint Catherine of Siena

Saint Catherine of Siena (1380), Doctor of the Church, was a Dominican, a stigmatist, and papal advisor.  

Words and a Wisdom

The words that divine Wisdom communicates are not just ordinary, natural, human words; they are divine, "truly the words of God."  They are powerful, touching, piercing words, "sharper than a two-edged sword," words that go from the heart of the one through whom he speaks straight to the heart of the listener.  Solomon is referring to this gift of Wisdom he himself had received when he said that God gave him the grace to speak according to the feelings of his heart.  These are the words which our Lord promised to his apostles, "I will give you an eloquence and a wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist..."  Eternal Wisdom, besides being the object of the eternal Father's delight, and the joy of the angels, is also the source of purest joy and consolation for man who possesses him.  He give to man a relish for everything that comes from God and makes him lose his taste for things created.  He enlightens his mind with the brightness of his own light and pours into his heart an indescribable joy, sweetness, and peace even when he is in the midst of the most harrowing grief and suffering, as Saint Paul bears witness when he exclaims, "I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulations" (2 Cor 7:4).

-Saint Louis de Montfort

Saint Louis de Montfort (1716) was a great French missionary preacher especially renowned for fostering devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

What Kept the Widow's Heart Open

We know that even our nearest friends enter into us but partially, and hold intercourse with us only at times; whereas the consciousness of a perfect and enduring Presence, and it alone, keeps the heart open. Withdraw the Object on which it rests, and it will relapse again into its state of confinement and constraint; and in proportion as it is limited, either to certain seasons or to certain affections, the heart is straitened and distressed. If it be not overbold to say it, he who is infinite can alone be its measure; he alone can answer to the mysterious assemblage of feelings and thoughts which it has within it...

Life passes, riches fly away, popularity is fickle, the sense decay, the world changes, friends die. One alone is constant; One alone is true to us; One alone can be true; One alone can be all things to us; One alone can supply our needs; One alone can train us up to our full perfection; One alone can give a meaning to our complex and intricate nature; One alone can give us tune and harmony; One alone can form and possess us.

-Venerable John Henry Newman

Venerable John Henry Newman (1890) established the Oratory in Birmingham, England, and was a preacher of great eloquence.

Why Christ Cleansed the Temple

It is ordained by human and divine law, my brothers and sisters, that we should obey God rather than follow those braggarts who through their loathsome jealousy would plunge us into confusion. We shall incur no common harm, but great danger, if we recklessly deliver ourselves to the whims of people who by rushing into strife and discord try to seduce us from what is right. Let us rather be kind to one another, in harmony with the compassion and sweetness of him who is our Maker.
For Christ belongs to the lowly of heart, not to those who exalt themselves over his flock. He who is the scepter of God's majesty, Jesus Christ our Lord, came not in pompous ostentation or arrogance (though he might well have done so) but humbly even as the Holy Spirit had foretold of him...
You see, dear friends, what a model we have been given. For if the Lord was so humble of heart, what shall be our course, who thanks to him have come under the yoke of his grace?

-Saint Clement of Rome

Saint Clement of Rome (97) was the third successor of Saint Peter.

Saint Cecilia

The catacombs, too, left a deep impression on me. They were exactly as I had imagined them when reading the lives of the martyrs. After having spent part of the afternoon in them, it seemed to me we were there for only a few moments, so sacred did the atmosphere appear to me. We had to carry off some souvenir from the Catacombs; having allowed the precession to pass on a little, Celine and Therese slipped down together to the bottom of the ancient tomb of Saint Cecilia and took some earth which was sanctified by her presence. Before my trip to Rome I didn't have any special devotion to this saint, but when I visited her house transformed into a church, the site of her martyrdom, when learning that she was proclaimed patroness of music not because of her beautiful voice or her talent for music, but in memory of the virginal song she sang to her heavenly Spouse hidden in the depths of her heart, I felt more than devotion for her; it was the real tenderness of a friend. She became my saint of predilection, my intimate confidant. Everything in her thrilled me, especially her abandonment, her limitless confidence that made her capable of virginizing souls who had never desired any other joys but those of the present life. Saint Cecilia is like the bride in the Canticle; in her I see "a choir in an armed camp." Her life was nothing else but a melodious song in the midst of the greatest trials, and this does not surprise me because "the Gospel rested on her heart," and in her heart reposed the Spouse of Virgins!

-Saint Therese of Lisieux

Saint Therese (1897) was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1997.

How Mary Was Presented in the Temple

God inspired in the heart of the pure Virgin Mary his own intense love for humility, and abhorrence of pride. She possessed, even from her infancy, a far greater horror of pride and ambition, and a far deeper love for humility than did all the saints together. It was the first virtue that she practiced. She abased and humbled herself before all. She esteemed herself, and would have been happy to be treated by others, as the last of all creatures. By the marvelous radiance of her Immaculate Conception, she beheld herself susceptible to the guilt of the children of Adam, except that God miraculously preserved her, and she considered that she might have been capable of all the sins in the world, whose source is original sin. It was this humility which attracted to her the countless graces which rendered her worthy to be the Mother of God, Queen of heaven and earth. Give thanks to Almighty God who resists the proud and gives grace to the humble, and offer him all the glory that this Maiden accorded to his majesty by her practice of richest humility during her childhood and throughout the rest of her life.

Saint John Eudes

-Saint John Eudes (1680) is largely responsible for initiating and popularizing devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

"I shall give to the poor"

Entreaty for sins has the greatest efficacy when accompanied by alms and fasting. Prayer rises up quickly to the ears of God when lifted up by the recommendations of these. Since, as it has been written, "the merciful man benefits his own soul," nothing belongs to each individual more than what has been spent on one's neighbor. Part of those physical resources which are used to help the poor become transformed into eternal riches. Born from this generosity are funds which will not be able to be diminished through use nor damaged through decay. "Blessed are the merciful, for God will have mercy on them." He who constitutes the very exemplar of this precept will also be the sum of their reward...

Be steady then, Christian giver. Give what you receive, sow what you reap, scatter what you collect. Do not fear the cost, do not long after the dubious income. Your property increases by being well spent. Long for the lawful reward of mercy, and pursue the business of the eternal profit. Your benefactor wants you to be the beneficient, and he who gives so that you might have, entrusts it so that you might distribute it, saying: "Give and it will be given to you." You must embrace the condition of this promise and show your gratitude.

Saint Leo the Great

-Saint Leo the Great (461) reigned as pope from 440 to 461. He is a Doctor of the Church.

Why Our Faith Saves Us

Our faith is not founded upon empty words; nor are we carried away by mere caprice or beguiled by specious arguments. On the contrary, we put our faith in words spoken by hte power of God, spoken by the Word himself at God's command. God wished to win us back from disobedience, not by using force to reduce us to slavery, but by addressing to our free will a call to liberty.

The Word spoke first of all through the prophets, but because the message was couched in such obscure language that it could only dimly be apprehended, in the last days the Father sent the Word in person, commanding him to show himself openly so that the world could see him and be saved.

We know that by taking a body from the Virgin he refashioned our fallen nature. We know that his humanity was of the same clay as our own; if this were not so, he would hardly have been a teacher who could expect to be imitated. If he were of a different substance from me, he would surely not have ordered me to do as he did, when by my very nature I am so weak. Such a demand could not be reconciled with his goodness and justice.

Saint Hippolytus

-Saint Hippolytus (236) was a Roman priest who died as a martyr.

Perseverance

We find no pleasure except in Christ; we neither value nor want to know anything but Christ crucified.  We even say, "I find my pleasure and want to glory in my Lord Jesus Christ, for whose love the world despises me and I the world."

Up then!  Since this holy cross is so sweet that is relieves all bitterness, pick it up for your journey along this road.  For we pilgrim travelers need this holy wood for support until we have reached our destination, where our soul is at rest in our final home.  How sweet to us now are the burdens we have carried along the way!  What peace, what calm, what sweetness our soul receives and enjoys once we have come home to port and have found the slain Lamb whom we had sought on the cross and who is now our table, our food, and our servant!  And we find that the divine Being is a bed where we now rest and sleep - I mean we have finally put an end to the perverse law that had been in constant rebellion against our Creator while we were journeying.  So let's happily and joyfully, with flaming, blazing desire take up the true standard of the most holy cross, never fearing that we will not be able to persevere in the life we have begun.  Let us rather say, "Through Christ crucified I will be able to do and endure all things, even to the point of death."

Saint Catherine of Siena

-Saint Catherine of Siena (1380), Doctor of the Church, was a Dominican, a stigmatist, and a papal counselor.  

The Kingdom of God Among Us

In proportion as the mind is absorbed in the thought and care of the things of this world do we lose the fervor of our devotion, and drift away from the things of heaven.

The greater, on the other hand, our diligence in withdrawing our powers from the memory, love, and thought of that which is inferior in order to fix them upon that which is above, the more perfect will be our prayer, the purer our contemplation.  The soul cannot give itself perfectly at the same time to two objects as contrary on to another as light to darkness; for he who lives united to God dwells in the light, he who clings to this world lives in darkness.

The highest perfection, therefore, of man in this life lies in this:  that he is so united to God that his soul with all its powers and faculties becomes immersed in him and is on spirit with him.  Then it remembers nothing but God, nor does it relish or understand any thing but him.  Then all its affections, united in the delights of love, repose sweetly in the enjoyment of their Creator.

The image of God which is imprinted upon the soul is found in the three powers of the reason, memory, and will.  But since these do not perfectly bear the divine likeness, they have not the same resemblance to God as in the first days of man's creation.  

God is the "form" of the soul upon which he must impress his own image, as the seal on the wax or the stamp on the object it marks.

This can only be fully accomplished when the reason is wholly illuminated according to its capacity by the knowledge of God the Sovereign Truth; the will entirely devoted to the love of the Supreme Good; the memory absorbed in the contemplation and enjoyment of eternal happiness, and in the sweet repose of so great a state.  

As the perfect possession of this state constitutes the glory of the blessed in heaven, it is clear that in its commencement consists the perfection of this life.  

Saint Albert the Great

-Saint Albert the Great (1280) was a German Dominican priest and the teacher of Saint Thomas Aquinas.  He is the patron of scientists.  

God's Servants

Regardless of how difficult a project is, I place it in the adorable Heart of Jesus.  Then I can securely rest in peace, even when far away, knowing well that he knows what to do and brings to completion every work that I desire for his glory.  In the field, I shall work with all my might, but when obedience takes me away from one assignment to go to another where the harvest is ripe, I shall leave the first.  Loving my beloved Jesus, I shall trust him to give sufficient help and enthusiasm to our dear sisters to succeed in accomplishing everything.

Oh, the law of divine love is so excellent and amiable, and God himself has given it to his creatures.  Without Jesus, the world is mud and affliction of spirit; Jesus without the world is a precious treasure.  Blessed is the soul who trusts in Jesus because he is lavish in his promises and generous in giving his graces and treasures.  Oh, yes, my daughters, the precept to love Jesus is an inestimable privilege.  However, we cannot love him if we are not loved first by him.  In giving us this law, he also gives us the grace to love him.  

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini

-Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini (1917) was born in Lombardy, Italy, and worked in the United States caring for the Italian immigrants.  She was the first American citizen to be canonized.

Life in Heaven

After the resurrection, when our bodies will be reunited to our souls, they will be incorruptible; and the carnal passions which disturb us now will not be present in those bodies; we shall enjoy a peaceful equilibrium in which the prudence of the flesh will not make war upon the soul; and there will no longer be that internal warfare wherein sinful passions fight against the law of the mind, conquering the soul and taking it captive by sin.  Our nature then will be purified of all these tendencies, and one spirit will be in both, I mean in the flesh and in the spirit, and every corporeal affection will be banished from our natures.  In much the same way the Word in the Canticle bids us, even though we live in the flesh, not to turn our thoughts to it but to look merely to the spirit, and to turn all the expressions of love that we find here as pure and immaculate offerings to the good Lord who surpasses all understanding, in whom alone is all that is sweet, lovely, and desirable.  For any enjoyment of him only increases our desire for a greater share in his goodness.  Such was Moses' love, such was Isaias', and such was John's when he called him the bridegroom:  "He that has the bride is the bridegroom:  but the friend of the bridegroom rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom's voice" (Jn 3: 29).  So too Peter, when asked whether he loved the Lord, answered with all sincerity:  "You know that I love you" (Jn 21: 15).  It was the same with the other apostles.  So it was with Paul, who first persecuted Christ and then loved him, even though he had not seen him, and wrote:  "I have espoused you that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (2 Cor 2: 2).  

Saint Gregory of Nyssa

-Saint Gregory of Nyssa (395) is a Father of the Church who wrote many theological treatises against heresy.

Being Trustworthy in Small Matters

This ineffable restoration of our salvation, dearly beloved, leaves no place for pride or idleness.  We both have nothing beyond what we have received and are continuously warned against holding on to the gifts of God's grace without using them.  With all justice, then, the one who goes ahead of us with help also insists upon his conditions, and the one who leads us to glory urges us graciously to obedience.  As a result, the Lord rightly became the Way for us, since we cannot come to Christ except through Christ.

Whoever walks his path of patience and humility comes to Christ through Christ.  On this journey, the heat of labor is clearly not wanting, nor the gloom of sorrow, nor the tempest of fear.  On it are the treachery of wicked people, persecutions by the godless, threats from those in power, and insults from the proud.  Yet the Lord of Hosts and King of Glory endured all things in the form of our weakness and in the likeness of sinful flesh, so that, among the dangers of this life, we should not so much wish to flee by running away as to overcome by enduring.

Hence it is that our Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, transforming all the members of his body into himself, cried out amid the punishment of the cross (assuming the persona of those redeemed), saying what on one occasion he had uttered in the psalm:  "My God, my God, look at me.  Why have you abandoned me?"  This expression, dearly beloved, represents a teaching, not a complaint.  Since in Christ there is but one Person for God and man, he cannot be abandoned by someone from whom he cannot be separated.  He asks on our behalf...  The Redeemer's power would have brought nothing to humanity if our weakness had obtained what it sought.

Saint Leo the Great

-Saint Leo the Great (461) reigned as pope from 440 to 461.  He is a Doctor of the Church.

Search for the Lost Sheep

Seek me, Lord;  I need you.  Seek me, find me, lift me up, carry me.  You are expert at finding what you search for; and when you have found the stray you stoop down, lift him up, and place him on your own shoulders.  To you he is a burden of love, not an object of revulsion; it is no irksome task to you to bring justification to the human race.  Come then, Lord; I have gone astray, but I have not forgotten your commandments.  I still hold on to the hope of healing.  Come, Lord; none but you can bring back your erring sheep.  Those whom you leave behind will not be grieved, because the sinner's return will be a joy to them too.  Come, do your saving work on earth, and let there be joy in heaven.

Come in search of your sheep, not through the ministry of servants or hirelings, but in your own person.  Take my human nature, which fell in Adam.  Take my humanity, not from Sarah but from the spotless Virgin Mary, a Virgin preserved through your grace form many stains of sin.  Bear me on the cross where sinners find salvation, where alone there is rest for the weary, where alone there is life for the dying.  

Saint Ambrose

-Saint Ambrose (397) was one of the great figures of early Christianity.

The Kingdom and Christ's Humility

Jesus, whose greatness cannot be measured, is well compared to an apple tree, if we think only of his littleness, that is of his humility though that also never finds a measure.  The comparison holds because the apple tree, though very much inferior to the trees of the wood in height, is much more fruitful than they.  It is in this sense that the kingdom of heaven is compared to a grain of mustard seed, which is smaller than other seeds, but when sown, grows into a tree, "so that all the birds of the air come and sit in its branches."  Christ is the fruit-bearing tree and the mustard tree, since he refreshes us with life and pricks us with health, sweet to taste and pleasantly pungent.

"The apple tree" is "among the trees of the wood," for the trees even of paradise must draw life and nourishment from him, the one sole tree of life that was in the midst of paradise.  If it were not for him the trees of the wood would be parched trees.  From the countless multitude of angels and holy men, the Lord has planted a vast and very lovely paradise, a garden full of delight, but only for those who dwell there.  Yet if the tree of life that is Christ Jesus, were not to provide that multitude with the fruitfulness of his humility, then it would lose much of its loveliness and all of its fertility.

John of Ford

-John of Ford (1214) was the abbot of a Cistercian monastery in southwest England.

Christ's Mercy vs. Satan's Bondage

God's mercy must be loved and his justice feared by both the good and the wicked, lest either the good, loving the mercy of God, do not fear his justice and fall into the traps of the devil who seduces, or the wicked, considering only the severity of justice, do not seek the blessing of his mercy when they can find it in their life, and so hardened, not only reject the forgiveness of sins but also do not cease to multiply sins.  The devil frequently captures in this twofold trap those who are not careful so that, either dulled by the vain hope of a future forgiveness, they are unwilling to be converted by the fear of justice, or, in all ways despairing of forgiveness, they neglect their way of living and loosing the reins to wickedness, while they despair of forgiveness, they plunge headlong into hell.  And so that fervid enemy of the human race hurls some down because of reckless despair, but others he trips up with the deception of a false hope.  Wherefore blessed Paul in whom Christ spoke, writing to those who lived good lives, commends their obedience, so that he orders them to act cautiously, with fear and trembling, in their salutary acts.

Saint Fulgentius

-Saint Fulgentius (527) was the bishop of Ruspe and the founder of several monasteries in Africa.

The Barns of Our Soul

Let no one put his confidence in the vanity of this world.  That vanity, as you see, is something standing with insecure footing.  Devotion to it is short-lived and empty, and its beauty is like smoke in a wind.  The comeliness of its countenance is like that which you see when you look on the beauty of that vine which had its early summer blossoms in well-constituted abundance, yet cannot bring forth the actual fruit of the promised grape harvest.  While it brings forth too much, it incurs the reproach of perpetual sterility.  

A far different beauty, dearly beloved, is that which the time of eternal life promises to us, if only one makes his way as a poor person with regard to sins.  He who gathers the fruits of mercy and struggles against the urge to foolish covetousness, he goes as a rich person to Christ.  He makes his way with great wealth to heaven who wards off from himself the pomp of short-lived vanity.  He who by his zealous practice of religion is lightening his heart once burdened with vices carries with him great resources to paradise,  Finally, he has escaped all the penury of begging who has daily planted in his heart the commandments of our Christ, and with watchful faith has filled the barns of his soul with seeds heavenly in their origin.  

Saint Valerian of Cimiez

-Saint Valerian (460) was the bishop of Comelium, the present day Comiez in Nice, France.

The Spirit will teach you what to say

No matter how lofty the doctrine preached, or polished the rhetoric, or sublime the style in which the preaching is clothed, the profit does not ordinarily increase because of these means in themselves; it comes from the spirit of the preacher...  We frequently see, insofar as it is possible to judge here below, that the better the life of the preacher the more abundant the fruit, no matter how lowly his style, poor his rhetoric, and plain the doctrine.  For the living spirit enkindles fire.  But when this spirit is wanting, the gain is small, however sublime the style and doctrine.  Although it is true that good style, gestures, sublime doctrine, and well-chosen words are more moving and productive of effect when accompanied by this good spirit, yet, without it, even though delightful and pleasing to the senses and the intellect, the sermon imparts little or no devotion to the will.  For the will in this case will ordinarily be left as weak and remiss as before, even though wonderful things were admirably spoken; and the sermon merely delights the sense of hearing, like a musical concert or sounding bells.  But the spirit, as I said, will not leave its natural ties any more than previously, since the voice does not possess the power to raise a dead man from his sepulcher.  

Saint John of the Cross

-Saint John of the Cross (1591) is called the Mystical Doctor.

How to Avoid the Hypocrisy of the Pharisees

Like the stones of a temple, cut for a building of God the Father, you have been lifted up to the top by the crane of Jesus Christ, which is the cross, and the rope of the Holy Spirit.  For your faith has drawn you up and charity has been the road leading to God.  You are all fellow pilgrims, carrying with you God and his temple; you are bearers of Christ and of holy offerings, decked out in the commandments of Jesus Christ.

And so do not cease to pray for all other people, for there is hope of their conversion and of their finding God.  Give them the chance to be instructed, at least by the way you behave.  When they are angry with you, be meek; answer their words of pride by your humility, their blasphemies by your prayers, their error by your steadfastness in faith, their bullying by your gentleness.  Let us not be in a hurry to give them tit for tat, but, by our sweet reasonableness, show that we are their brothers and sisters.  Let us rather be eager to imitate the Lord, striving to be the first in bearing wrongs, in suffering loss, in being despised, so that no weed of the evil one may be found among you; but abide in Jesus Christ in perfect purity and temperance of body and soul.

Saint Ignatius of Antioch

-Saint Ignatius of Antioch (107) was from Syria and was a bishop and a martyr.  

How to Make Everything Clean for Us

On awaking, enter in the Sacred Heart of Jesus and consecrate to it your body, your soul, your heart, and your whole being, so as to live but for its love and glory alone.  Our heart is too small to contain two loves, being made only for divine love, it finds no rest in any other.  Divine love suffices to prevent us from willfully doing anything which could displease the Beloved of our souls.  Indeed, I cannot understand how a heart that belongs to God and truly wishes to love him, can deliberately offend him.  I see more clearly than the day that a life without the love of Jesus Christ is the greatest of all miseries.  Let us apply ourselves only to love and to suffer while loving.  When we have acquired the perfect knowledge thereof, then we shall know and do all that God wishes for us.  Never forget him who died for love of you.  You will only love him insofar as you know how to suffer in silence, preferring him to creatures and eternity to time.  If we wish to have the love of the divine Heart as our guest, we must empty and detach our heart from its affection for creatures and for ourselves.  As it is love alone which produces in us desire of conformity with out Sovereign Master, we can only attain to this conformity by loving him supremely...  I love my Sovereign Master and think more of him than of his gifts and benefits, which I esteem only in him and as coming from him.  My heart can neither love nor be attached to aught but to him alone.  All else is nothing and serves but to hinder the purity of love, and to raise a barrier between the soul and her Beloved.  Grant, O my God, that throughout my life, I may love you with true, ardent, and persevering love.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

-Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1690) was a Visitandine nun to whom the Lord made many revelations of his Sacred Heart.  

Only One Thing is Required

Even when the devotion of good people wishes that the evil be corrected and obtains the conversion of many by the grace of our merciful God, the plots of evil spirits against the saints are not diminished.  Whether by secret schemes or in open battle, they trouble the resolution of good will among all the faithful.  Everything honorable, everything holy, they find repugnant.  Although nothing would be allowed beyond what divine justice permits, what serves the good of correcting God's people through discipline or the teaching of patience, these spirits treat with the craft art of deceit, that they might seem to harm or to spare through their own free will.  

Sad to say, they make such a mockery of many with the wickedness of pretense that some people both are afraid to deal with these spirits when enraged and want to keep them placated.  Yet the benefits of demons are more harmful than all wounds, because it is safer for mankind to deserve the hatred of the devil than his peace.  Wise souls, who have learned to fear only one, to love only one, and hope in only one, when their desires have been regulated and their bodily sense crucified, are not moved to any fear of or awe before the enemy.  

Saint Leo the Great

-Saint Leo the Great (461) reigned as pope from 440 to 461.  He is a Doctor of the Church.

Jesus, the Good Samaritan

Lord Jesus, I pray that you may be moved to pity and come to me.  I have gone down from Jerusalem to Jericho, descended from the heights to the depths, from health to sickness.  I have fallen into the hands of the angels of darkness who have not only stripped me of my garment of spiritual grace but have also wounded me and left me half-dead.  Bind up the wounds of my sins by making me believe that they can be healed, for if I despair of healing they will become worse.  Apply the oil of forgiveness to them and pour in the wine of compunction.  If you place me on your beast, you will be raising the poor from the dust, the needy from the rubbish heap.  For it is you who have carried our sins, who have paid back what you did not take.  If you lead me to the inn of your Church you will nourish me with your Body and Blood.  If you take care of me I shall not transgress your commandments nor fall prey to the rage of wild beasts.  I need your protection as long as I bear this corruptible flesh.  So listen to me, Samaritan, listen to me who am stripped and wounded, weeping and groaning, as I call upon you and cry out with David:  "Have mercy on me, O God, in your great kindness."

Saint Gregory the Great

-Saint Gregory the Great (604) was one of the most important popes and influential writers of the Middle Ages.

Power over Demons

I long to see you a true knight, strong in your fight against the devil's every trick as long as we are on this battlefield, surrounded by enemies who are constantly fighting against us.  Like a true and courageous knight, a new plant, rise with fresh desire to go out against them.  Don't retreat, lest we be left dead or taken prisoner.  People are said to be in prison when they are somewhere they cannot leave as they please.  So if we were to turn aside the head of our will, abandon our holy resolve, and turn our efforts to carrying out the machinations of the devil, we would be in the very worst prison possible; we would have forfeited our freedom and become servants and slaves of sin.

If you say to me, "I am weak in the face of so many enemies," I answer you that of ourselves we are all so weak and frail that we fall at the slightest obstacle.  But divine providence is at work within our soul, strengthening us and relieving us of all weakness.  So be trustful, firmly believing that God always provides for souls who trust in him.  Then the devil is powerless, because the power of the most gracious holy cross deprives him of all his power over us.  But that same cross, by God's boundless goodness, makes us wholly strong, freed from all weakness and instability.  When we remember the holy cross we come to love virtue and hate vice.  Since we are the very rock in which that holy standard was implanted, we cannot say we have no access to it; it is firmly fixed in our very selves.  You know that neither nails nor cross nor rock could have held the God-Man on the cross had not his love for us held him there.  We are the ones for whom his blood was given as ransom.  When we remember that, honor is despicable, and mockery, torture, and insults are attractive.  

Saint Catherine of Siena

-Saint Catherine of Siena (1380), Doctor of the Church, was a Dominican, stigmatist, and papal counselor.

Avoiding the Sin of the Rich Man

Give us understanding, my God, of what it is that's given to those who fight valiantly in the dream of this miserable life.  Obtain for us, O loving souls, understanding of the joy it gives you to see the eternal character of your fruition, and how it is so delightful to see certainly that it will have no end.  Oh, how fortunate we are, my Lord!  For we believe in everlasting joy and known the truth well; but with so pronounced a habit of failing to reflect on these truths, they have already become so foreign to our souls that these souls neither know about them nor desire to know about them.  O selfish people, greedy for your pleasures and delights; not waiting a short time in order to enjoy them in such abundance, not waiting a year, not waiting a day, not waiting an hour - and perhaps it will take no more than a moment - you lose everything, because of the joy of that misery you see present.

Oh, how little we trust you, Lord!  How much greater the riches and treasures you entrusted to us, since after his thirty-three years of great trials and so unbearable and pitiable a death, you have given us your Son; and so many years before we were born!  Even knowing that we wouldn't repay you, you didn't want to cease trusting us with such an inestimable treasure, so that it wouldn't be your fault, merciful Father, if we fail to acquire what through him we can obtain from you.

O blessed souls who with this precious price knew so well how to profit and buy an inheritance so delightful and permanent, tell us how you gained such an unending good!  Help us, since you are so near the fount; draw water for those here below who are perishing of thirst.

Saint Teresa of Avila

-Saint Teresa of Avila (1582), Doctor of the Church, reformed the Carmelite Order.

Must Suffer Greatly

O my God, you who do not refuse me suffering.  For some time you have accustomed me to love you in the deprivation of all sensible joys, in a suffering heart, and often enough, in an exhausted body.  I accept all from your hand and unite myself to your will.  Is it not just that having received all from you I should give you something in return, and that I should offer you the trials, prayers, sacrifices, and humble activity that is your daily design for me?  Through it all I want to try, by your grace, to maintain joy of spirit.  

O God, for some time you have given me the grace of suffering:  spiritual trials, the renunciation of my desires and tastes, deeply felt spiritual isolation.  How well you know how to choose the most appropriate suffering, the one that crucifies us and allows the least possibility of selfishness.  In my illness there were still subtle temptations for me, and satisfactions that were legitimate and yet too worldly.  In leaving me this physical misery, with its inconveniences and helplessness, you have again hidden this from others and sent me other trials that are very painful and known only to you.

From the bottom of my heart, I say to you, "Thank you."  Blessed are you, O God, for all this pain, through which you allow me to atone for my faults, draw near to your heart, and also to obtain, I hope, many spiritual graces for many people, as well as for those I love.

My God, help me to carry the cross you have offered me, and let none of this precious grace of suffering be lost.

Elisabeth Leseur

-Elisabeth Leseur (1914) was a French married laywoman whose cause for canonization is underway.

Proclaiming God's Reign

Supposing two men come to a city without food, money, or a change of clothes.  Who do you think would welcome them, where would they find an open door?  Who would want to know them?  What sort of lodging would they find and where would they start to look for it?  One must surely marvel at the power of one who could send his disciples out in such a way, and at the faith of those whom he sent.

What had these men to offer?  What was their message?  "He was crucified," they said.  The preachers were Jews, men of lowly station, ignorant, illiterate, poor.  Their teaching was about a cross:  hence the need for faith.  But power triumphs through difficulties.  The cross was proclaimed and temples were destroyed; the cross was proclaimed and kings were conquered; the cross was proclaimed and the worldly-wise were put to shame, pagan festivals were abolished, pagan deities destroyed.  Why be so amazed that the apostles were believed, or that they themselves could believe, and then they returned home safely after being welcomed everywhere?  But these are truly great marvels and we should not fail to realize this.  Unknown strangers, poorly dressed, and without contacts, traveled all over the world proclaiming someone who had been crucified, and offering a life of fasting in place of drunkenness, and irksome self-restraint in place of sensuality.  It can hardly have been easy for those addicted to such vices to receive these exhortation to renounce them and live upright lives.  And yet whole peoples seized upon this teaching, whole nations embraced it.

Eusebius of Emesa

Eusebius (359) was a bishop, a prolific author, and a courageous opponent of heresy.

Trustworthy in Small Matters

Our good Jesus has placed my soul in extreme desolation and I find it difficult to think that I am living the life of God's children.  I am in a wilderness where my soul knows no comfort in these moments of trepidation and hope.

Now and again a most feeble light penetrates from above, just enough to reassure my poor soul that all is being directed by divine Providence and that through joy and tears the heavenly Father is leading me by inscrutable secret ways to the end he has in view.  This is nothing else than the perfection of my soul and its union with God.  But then, alas, a little later my poor soul is plunged into a more tragic desolation than before.

I cannot understand how one can live when our blessed God places the soul in such straits.  All I can say is that my soul in this state seems to glimpse a concealed hand which can be none other than the hand of God.  Moreover, at the apex of my spirit I feel, like the stirring of a gentle spring breeze, the divine Master's most beautiful assurance that not a hair of our heads will perish without the permission of our heavenly Father, that he watches over the soul with fatherly love, and that when he tries it by similar desolation he invariably does so out of love and for the soul's perfection.

Hence it is that the bitterness of the trial is sweetened by the balm of God's goodness and mercy.  Praise be to God who can so marvelously alternate joy and tears so as to lead the soul by unknown paths to the attainment of perfection, a flower which the merciful God causes to bloom amid the thorns of suffering, watered by the tears of the soul that suffers patiently, that humbly conforms to the divine will and prays with warmth and fervor.

Let us always trust in God, and may our lively faith and the comfort of Christian hope assist us in this.

Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

-Saint Pio of Pietrelcina (1968) was an Italian Capuchin priest who during his lifetime enjoyed a vast reputation for sanctity.

Great Faith

The psalmist refers to the words, "I will please the Lord in the land of the living"; and, as if a person asked, how do you know of the existence of such a place at all? he replies, that he knows it through faith.  "I have believed" that such a place exists, though unseen by mortal eye, and, by reason of such faith, I said, "I will please the Lord in the land of the living."  Saint Paul quotes this passage where he says, "But having the same spirit of faith, as it is written, I have believed; therefore I have spoken.  We also believe, and, therefore, we speak, knowing that he who raised up Jesus will raise us up also with Jesus, and place us with you"; where he teaches that the resurrection of the body, and the true country of the living in which we are to be located with the Lord Jesus, is to be learned in the spirit of faith, and not by any human demonstration.  And, as such faith requires a soul truly humble, that it may be subject to the obedience required by faith, he therefore adds, "but I have been humbled exceedingly."  I have believed, because I have not relied on my own abilities, but I have exhibited the greatest humility and docility to the Holy Spirit, as the Lord says in Matthew 11, "I give thanks to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to the little ones"; and in another place, John 5, "How can you believe who receive glory one from another?"

Saint Robert Bellarmine

Saint Robert (1621) was a brilliant Jesuit preacher and theologian noted for his rational argumentation.

Exaltation of the Cross

If you wish to have the light of divine grace, and a heart free from all care, if you wish to curb all harmful temptations, and to be made perfect in the ways of God, do not tarry in running to the cross of Christ.  Truly there is no other way for the sons of Christ to manage to find God, and having found him, to hold on to him, but in the life and the way of the suffering God and man which... is the Book of Life, the reading of which no one can have access to except through continual prayer.  Continual prayer elevates, illumines, and transforms the soul.  Illumined by the light perceived in prayer, the soul sees clearly the way of Christ prepared and trodden by the feet of the Crucified; running along this way with an expanded heart, it not only distances itself from the weighty cares of the world but rises above itself to taste divine sweetness.  Then it is set ablaze by divine fire.  Thus illumined, elevated, and set ablaze, it is transformed into the God-man.  All this is achieved by gazing on the cross in continual prayer.

Hence, my dearest son, fling yourself upon this cross, ask him who died on it for you to enlighten you to know fully, so that plunged deep in knowledge of your own defects, you can be uplifted to know fully the sweetness of divine goodness which seemed incomprehensible to you when, so full of defects as you were, God lifted you up to divine sonship, and promised to be your Father.  Do not, therefore, be ungrateful toward him, but strive to accomplish in everything the will of so great and so lovable a Father.  For if legitimate sons cannot accomplish what pleases the Father, how will the adulterous ones be able to do so?  Adulterous sons are the ones who stray from the discipline of the cross through concupiscence of the flesh.  Legitimate sons, on the other hand, are the ones who strive to conform themselves in every way to their teacher and Father who suffered for them.  They do so by following him in poverty, suffering, and contempt.  For certainly, my dear son, these three things are the basis and the fulfillment of all perfection.  For in these three, the soul is truly enlightened, perfected, purged, and most fittingly prepared for divine transformation.  

Blessed Angela of Foligno

-Blessed Angela (1309) was a wife and mother who later became a Franciscan tertiary and an esteemed mystical writer.

Being Merciful

A third time the girl repeated:  "You too were with that man yesterday," but a third time he denied it.  Finally Jesus looked at him, reminding him of his previous assertion.  Peter understood, repented of his sin, and began to weep.  Mercifully, however, Jesus forgave him his sin, because he knew that Peter, being a man, was subject to human frailty.  Now, as I said before, the reason God's plan permitted Peter to sin was because he was to be entrusted with the whole people of God, and sinlessness added to his severity might have made him unforgiving toward his brothers and sisters.  He fell into sin so that, remembering his own fault and the Lord's forgiveness, he also might forgive others out of love for them.  This was God's providential dispensation.  He to whom the Church was to be entrusted, he, the pillar of the churches, the harbor of faith, was allowed to sin; Peter, the teacher of the world, was permitted to sin, so that having been forgiven himself he would be merciful to others.  

Saint John Chrysostom

-Saint John Chrysostom (407) was a formed preacher and commentator on Scripture.  

Christ's Compassion for the Suffering

Suffering has to come because if you look at the cross, he has got his head bending down - he wants to kiss you - and he has both hands wide open - he wants to embrace you.  He has his heart opened wide to receive you.  Then when you feel miserable inside, look at the cross and you will know what is happening.  Suffering, pain, sorrow, humiliation, feelings of loneliness, are nothing but the kiss of Jesus, a sign that you have come so close that he can kiss you.  Do you understand, brothers, sisters, or whoever you may be?  Suffering, pain, humiliation - this is the kiss of Jesus.  At times you come so close to Jesus that he may kiss you.  I once told this to a lady who was suffering very much.  She answered, "Tell Jesus not to kiss me - to stop kissing me."  That suffering has to come that came in the life of Our Lady, that came in the life of Jesus - it has to come in our life also.  Only never put on a long face.  Suffering is a gift from God.  It is between you and Jesus alone inside...  Our total surrender will come today by surrendering even our sins so that we will be poor.  "Unless you become a child, you cannot be lifted up.  We need humility to acknowledge our sin.  The knowledge of our sin helps us to rise.  "I will get up and go to my Father."

Blessed Theresa of Calcutta

-Blessed Theresa of Calcutta (1997) won the Nobel Peace Prize and founded the Missionaries of Charity.  

Welcoming Christ the Physician

Have mercy on me, O God, in your great kindness.

Let us imagine a man seriously injured and gasping for his last draughts of life-giving air.  Lying naked on a rubbish heap, he points to his still unbandaged wounds; he longs for a doctor to come, and in his distress begs for pity.  Sin is the soul's wound.  You who are wounded, recognize in your hearts who your physician is and uncover to him the wounds of your sins.  May he who knows every secret thought hear the groaning of your hearts.  Let your suffering reach him, so that to you also it may be said:  The Lord has taken away your sin.  Cry out with David - see how he speaks:  Have mercy on me, O God, in your great kindness.  It is as if he were saying:  I am in peril from a great wound which no physician can heal, unless the omnipotent physician comes to my aid.  No wound is beyond his power of healing; he heals without asking a fee, he restores health by a mere word.  I should despair of my wound did I not rely on the Almighty.  Have mercy on me, O God, in your great kindness.

Saint Gregory the Great

-Saint Gregory of the Great (604) was one of the most important popes and influential writers of the Middle Ages.

Humility

The first kind of humility:  This is the kind that is necessary for my eternal salvation, and consists in subjecting and humbling myself, as far as I can, so that I obey the law of God our Lord in everything; so much so that even if I were made the lord of all created things in this world, or even if my own life on this earth were at stake, I would not deliberately set about breaking any law, whether divine or human, that obliges me under the pain of mortal sin.

The second kind of humility:  The second is more perfect than the first.  I have it if I find myself at a point where I do not desire, nor even prefer, to be rich rather than poor, to seek fame rather than disgrace, to desire a long rather than a short life, provided it is the same for the service of God and the good of my soul; and along with this I would not deliberately set about committing a venial sin, even for the whole of creation or under threat to my own life.

The third kind of humility:  This is the most perfect humility.  It is present when - given that the first and second kinds are included, and supposing equal praise and glory of the divine majesty - in order to imitate Christ our Lord and to be actually more like him, I want and choose poverty with Christ poor rather than wealth, and ignominy with Christ in great ignominy rather than fame, and I desire more to be thought a fool and an idiot for Christ, who was taken to be such, rather than thought wise and prudent in this world.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola

-Saint Ignatius (1556) was the founder of the Society of Jesus.

The Meaning of the Parable of the Talents

Do human beings have anything to offer to God?  Yes, their faith and their love.  These are what God asks of them, as it is written:  "And now, O Israel, do you know what the Lord, your God, requires of you?  To fear the Lord, your God, to walk in his ways, to love him, to keep all his commandments, and to serve the Lord, your God, with all your heart and all your soul.

These are the offerings, these the gifts which we must present to the Lord.  And in order that we may offer him these gifts from the heart, we must first know him, we must have drunk the knowledge of his goodness from the waters of his deep well. 

But look more closely at these words of Moses the prophet:  "And now, O Israel, what does the Lord, your God, require of you?"  Those who deny that the salvation of human beings is within the power of their freedom ought to blush when they hear these words!  Would God require something of human beings if they were incapable of responding to God's demand and offering him what they owe him?  No:  there is indeed God's gift, but there is also a contribution they must make.  For example, it was indeed within the power of a human being to make a gold piece earn ten more or five more, but it was for God to see to it that this man should have the gold piece which he could use to earn ten more.  When the man presented to God the ten pieces he had earned, he received another gift, not money this time, but authority and rule over ten cities.

Origen

-Origen (254) of Alexandria, Egypt, was a great philosopher and theologian.

The Virtue of the Wise Virgins

Though the Christian ought to rejoice in the moral goods and works he performs temporally, insofar as they are the cause of temporal goods, he ought not do so as the Gentiles, who did not penetrate with the eyes of their soul beyond the things of this mortal life.  Since the Christian has the light of faith, in which he hopes for eternal life, and without which nothing from above or below will have any value, he ought to rejoice in the possession and exercise of these moral goods only and chiefly in the second manner: that insofar as he performs these works for the love of God, they produce eternal life for him.

Thus, through his good customs and virtues he should fix his eyes only upon the service and honor of God.  Without this aspect the virtues are worth nothing in God's sight.  This is evident in the Gospel in the case of the ten virgins; they had all preserved their virginity and done good works, yet because five of them had not rejoiced in this second way (by directing their joy in these works to God), but rather in the first, rejoicing vainly in the possession of these works, they were rejected from heaven and left without any gratitude or reward from their spouse (Mt. 25: 1-13).  Also many of the ancients possessed numerous virtues and engaged in good works, and many Christians have them today and accomplish wonderful deeds; but such works are of no profit for eternal life, because of failure to seek only the honor and glory of God.

The Christian, then, should not be joyful if he accomplishes good works and abides by good customs, but if he does them out of love for God alone, without any other motive.

Saint John of the Cross

-Saint John of the Cross (1591) is called the Mystical Doctor.

The Greatness of John the Baptist

The Lord's forerunner was a man, not a god; whereas the Lord whom he preceded was both man and God.  The forerunner was a man destined to be divinized by God's grace, whereas the one he preceded was God by nature, who, through his desire to save and redeem us, lowered himself in order to assume our human nature.

A man was sent.  By whom?  By the divine Word, whose forerunner he was.  To go before the Lord was his mission.  Lifting up his voice, this man called out:  "The voice of one crying in the wilderness!"

It was the herald preparing the way for the Lord's coming.  John was his name; John to whom was given the grace to go ahead of the King of kings, to point out to the world the Word made flesh, to baptize him with that baptism in which the Spirit would manifest his divine Sonship, to give witness through his teaching and martyrdom to the eternal light.

John Scotus Erigena

-John Scotus Erigena (877) was born in Ireland and was a great medieval theologian.

The Desire the Pharisees Lacked

In the felt experience wherein the soul finds the certitude that God is within it, the soul is given the grace of wanting God so perfectly that everything in it is in true and not false harmony.  False harmony exists when the soul says that it wants God but does not really mean it, because its desire for God is not true in everything, in every way, or in every respect.  Its desire for God is true when all the members of the body are in harmony with the soul, and the soul in turn is in harmony with the heart and with the entire body that it becomes one with them and responds as one for all of them.  Then the soul truly wants God, and this desire is granted to it through grace.

Hence when the soul is told:  "What do you want?"  it can respond:  "I want God."  God then tells it, "I am the one making you feel that desire."  Until it reaches this point, the soul's desire is not true or integral.  This form of desire is granted to the soul by a grace which it knows that God is within it, and that it is in companionship with God.  This gift is to have a desire, now a unified one, in which it feels that it loves God in a way analogous to the true love with which God has loved us.  The soul feels God merging with it and becoming its companion.

Blessed Angela of Foligno

-Blessed Angela of Foligno (1309) was a wife and mother who later became a Franciscan tertiary and an esteemed mystical writer.

We Will See Greater Things

Perhaps the thought might arise in our hearts:  "I can't pursue that sort of perfection; I feel that I am frail and weak and imperfect.  I am worn down by the devil's wiles, by the weakness of my flesh, by the world's allurements and deceit."  True, it can't be denied that if you follow the world you will grow weak, so fearful, and slavishly timid that like a child you will be afraid of your own shadow.  But if a child is sensible and runs to its mother, it feels secure and unafraid there...  Boundless Goodness has give us remedy for all our weakness in his wondrous charity.  Charity is that gentlest of mothers who has deep humility as her nurse, and she in turn nourishes all her children, the virtues.  None of them can have life unless it is conceived and brought forth by this mother, charity...

Follow, then, those true shepherds who followed Christ crucified...  They kept close to his footsteps.  For knowing their own weakness, they ran humbly to their mother, true charity, with their pride in honor and their self-centeredness struck down.  There they lost their fear.  They were not afraid to correct those in their care, because they kept in mind the words of Christ:  "Do not fear those who can kill the body; fear me."  This doesn't surprise me, because their eyes and their desire were fed not on earth but on God's honor and other people's salvation.

Saint Catherine of Siena

-Saint Catherine of Siena (1380), Doctor of the Church, was a Dominican, stigmatist, and papal counselor.

Experiencing the Hundredfold

Christian teaching reveals God and his infinite perfection with far greater clarity than is possible by human faculties alone.  Nor is that all.  This same Christian teaching also commands us to honor God by faith, which is of the mind, by hope, which is of the will, by love which is of the heart; and thus the whole man is subjected to the supreme maker and ruler of all things.  The truly remarkable dignity of man as the son of the heavenly Father, in whose image he is formed, and with whom he is destined to live eternal happiness, is also revealed only by the doctrine of Jesus Christ.  From this very dignity, and from man's knowledge of it, Christ showed that men should love one another as brothers, and should live here as children of light, "not of revelry and drunkenness, not in debauchery and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy."  He also bids us to place all our anxiety and care in the hands of God, for he will provide for us; he tells us to help the poor, to do good to those who hate us, and to prefer the eternal welfare of the soul to the temporal goods of this life.  Without wishing to touch on every detail, nevertheless is it not true that the proud man is urged and commanded by the teaching of Christ to strive for humility, the source of true glory?  "Whoever, therefore, humbles himself... he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."  From that same teaching we learn prudence of the spirit, and thereby we avoid prudence of the flesh; we learn justice, by which we give to every man his due; fortitude, which prepares us to endure all things and with steadfast heart suffer all things for the sake of God and eternal happiness; and, last of all, temperance through which we cherish even poverty borne out of love for God, nay, we even glory in the cross itself, unmindful of its shame.  In fine, Christian teaching not only bestows on the intellect the light by which it attains truth, but from it our will draws that ardor by which we are raised up to God and joined with him in the practice of virtue.

Saint Pius X

-Saint Pius X (1914) reigned from 1903 to 1914 and was canonized on May 29, 1954.

What the Young Man Refused

How precious is the wisdom by which we know God and despise the world!  The one who has found it is indeed blessed, if he holds fast to it.  What will he give to possess it?  Give obedience as its price, and you will receive wisdom in return.  If you want to be wise, be obedient.  Obedience has no will of its own:  it is at the service of another's will, subject to another's command.  Embrace, I repeat, the blessing of obedience, drawing near by obedience to the light of wisdom.  Draw near, that is, by means of obedience, for there is no approach more direct or secure, and be enlightened by wisdom.

The person who does not know God does not know where he is going, but walks in darkness and dashes his foot against a stone.  Wisdom is light, the true light that shines on every person coming against this world, not the one who is wise with the wisdom of this world, but the one who is not of the world though in the world.  This is the new self of one who has turned away from the sinful and slothful ways of his former self, and strives to walk in the newness of life, knowing that damnation is not for those who walk in the way of the Spirit, but in the way of sinful nature.

As long as you follow your own will, you cannot escape turmoil within you, even though at times you seem to escape turmoil outside you.  This turmoil of self-will cannot end until the desires of your sinful nature have changed, and God becomes for you a source of delight.  Sinners enlightened by wisdom are said to be freed from turmoil because, once they taste the goodness of the Lord, they are freed from their sin: from that time they worship the creator, not the creature, and when they leave self-will behind they are freed from their feverish turmoil.

While at last they get rid of the turmoil of desires and the discord of thoughts, they experience peace in their inmost heart, and God takes up his dwelling within them:  his dwelling-place is in peace.  Where God is, there is joy; where God is, there is calm; where God is, there is happiness.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

-Saint Bernard (1153) is considered the last of the Fathers of the Church and is a Doctor of the Church.

The Fire of Burning Love

I want you all to fill your hearts with great love.  Don't imagine that love, to be true and burning, must be extraordinary.  No; what we need in our love is the continuous desire to love the One we love.  To possess God we must allow him to possess our souls.  How poor we would be if God had not given us the power of giving ourselves to him; how rich we are now!  How easy it is to conquer God!  If we give ourselves to him, then God is ours, and there can be nothing more ours than God.  The money with which God repays our surrender is himself.  We become worthy of possessing him when we abandon ourselves completely to him.  Total surrender consists in giving ourselves completely to God.  We must give ourselves fully to God because God has given himself to us.  If God owes nothing to us and is ready to impart to us no less than himself, shall we answer with just a fraction of ourselves?  Should we not rather give ourselves fully to God as a means of receiving God himself?  I for God and God for me.  I live for God and give up my own self, and in this way God lives for me.  To surrender means to offer him my free will, my reason, my own life in pure faith.  My soul may be in darkness.  Trial and suffering are the surest test of my blind surrender.  Surrender is also true love.  The more we surrender, the more we love God and souls.  If we really love souls, we must be ready to take their place, to take their sins upon us and expiate them in us by penance and continual mortification.  We must be living holocausts, for the souls need us as such.  

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

-Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (1997) won the Nobel Peace Prize and founded the Missionaries of Charity.

Going to Jesus like Little Children

It is in a spiritual fashion that God gives himself, reaching to the deepest depths of the heart with his inspirations and uniting himself so gently with the soul that words cannot express what happens.  The net result is that whoever is thus joined to God becomes one spirit with him.  Let us drown ourselves then in this ocean of holiness, of infinite purity.  If we lose all, we shall thereby gain all.  The divine heart will never fail us, this I tell you for certain, if we do not fail him.  And even if we did, he would not fail us, because his fidelity is greater than our unfaithfulness.  He is not one of those who breaks faith with a person who has broken faith with him and we shall forever find him ready to call us back.  Let us humble ourselves before the grandeur of God.  Let us make ourselves nothing in the presence of this adorable Unknown.  Let us lose ourselves forever with never a thought of finding ourselves again.  Let us plunge into his divine abyss.  If only we could say in utter truth these words:  "My God is my all," we would never find our prayer long or boring.  When boredom descended upon us in prayer, that simple phrase said from the heart would act like a spell to drive away our weariness and disgust.  David declared that God hearkens to the desires of the poor.  This is why it is sufficient in order to make a good prayer, merely to tell God:  "All my desires are before you and my groanings are not hidden from your sight."

Saint Bonaventure offers us this advice for prayer.  "If you wish God to stoop down to reach you, carry the woes of Christ crucified in your heart."

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal

-Saint Jane Frances (1641) co-founded the original community of the Congregation of the Visitation.