Daily Thought

Anger Does Not Fulfill God's Justice This poor life is only a journey to the happy life to come. We must not be angry with one another on the way, but rather we must march on as a band of brothers and sisters united in meekness, peace and love. I state absolutely and make no exception: do not be angry at all if that is possible. Do no accept any pretext whatever for opening your heart's door to anger. Saint James tells us positively and without reservation," ... a man's anger does not fulfill God's justice."  St. Francis de Sales

Love Doesn't Brood Over Injury God is not indifferent to our world; he so loves it that he gave his Son for our salvation. In the Incarnation, in the earthly life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, the gate between God and man, between heaven and earth, opens once for all. The Church is like the hand holding open this gate, thanks to her proclamation of God’s word, her celebration of the sacraments and her witness of the faith which works through love (cf. Gal 5:6). But the world tends to withdraw into itself and shut that door through which God comes into the world and the world comes to him. Hence the hand, which is the Church, must never be surprised if it is rejected, crushed and wounded. Pope Francis—Message For Lent 2015

Bringing Souls To Christ Strong love makes strong actions, and the measure of our zeal in bringing souls to the feet of Christ is the measure of our love of him.  Venerable Servant of God Fulton J. Sheen

Overcoming Long-Term Unforgiveness Luskin proposes a system for those who have struggled for a long time with unforgiveness.  1. The preliminary step is to take responsibility for how you feel. You cannot let the world dictate to you how you should feel. True, your feelings are often influenced by what takes place around you, but you need not be dominated by those feelings. You can choose to reject harmful feelings and pursue healthy ones.  2. Having done that, refocus your thoughts away from the things that have made you angry to some very positive thoughts. For example, thank God for the beautiful weather or for the ability to read or to buy things you need. Thank him for your spouse or your children or for  a wonderful day or a magnificent sunset. You might think of people you have forgiven or speak to others about their forgiveness experiences. Or read about those who have forgiven great injustices. Or think about times you were loved or when you loved someon...

Christians Are Not Doormats! St. Francis de Sales pursued the idea of not letting events of the world bother him when he was the bishop of Geneva. Once one of his priests became angry when he was turned down for a position that was beyond his capabilities. In response, the priest published a pamphlet ridiculing Francis and had the nerve to hand him a copy while Francis was leading a religious event at his cathedral. The bishop read it and did nothing about it. Later, instead of penalizing the priest, as his friends suggested, he treated him kindly and even granted him favors.  If we think of ourselves as a nothing, as a servant of all those we meet (as did St. Francis of Assisi and St. Therese of Lisieux), we will embrace the hurts and humiliations  we endure as splinters of the cross we must bear for Christ. These are sacrifices that we can joyfully accept as offerings to save souls, including our own.  This is not the same as being a doormat. A doormat is someon...

4 Stages of Forgiveness 1. Recognize the problem and be angry. (Easy enough! )  2. Do something to diminish your hurt. It may involve trying to see things from the other's perspective or just to assert that the matter was not a big deal.  3. Recall how good it felt to forgive in the past.  4. Make a serious effort not to let yourself be offended by things.   from Overcoming Sinful Anger—How to Master Your Emotions & Bring Peace to Your Life  by Reverend T.G. Morrow p.32

Omnia Fert Tempus ("Time will tell") TRADITIONAL The infant sees nothing beyond her own small fist. The child's vision expands slightly to take in the faces around him and the hills visible beyond his own backyard.  But even the adult can't see the whole picture at any given moment. How many times have we lived in anxiety and urgency for an event to occur, only to look back and wonder what the fuss could have been all about? How many times have we experienced pain that seemed to lead us to the edge of despair, then looked back and seen that same pain as a door to greater wisdom?  Here's a call to caution, then. Don't act too soon; don't judge too quickly, either yourself or others. Life is so rich and complex that it requires time to be understood.  But as far as time can take us, it can never take us to a complete understanding of all that is. God made that very clear to Job.  from Latin Sayings For Spiritual Growth  by Archabbot Lambert Reilly...

Simple Prayer From A Powerful Saint Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what You want me to be – and becoming that person. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux 

Building A Culture of Life The Gospel of life is for the whole of human society. To be actively pro-life is to contribute to the renewal of society through the promotion of the common good. It is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life, upon which all the other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from which they develop. A society lacks solid foundations when, on the one hand, it asserts values such as the dignity of the person, justice and peace, but then, on the other hand, radically acts to the contrary by allowing or tolerating a variety of ways in which human life is devalued and violated, especially where it is weak or marginalized. Only respect for life can be the foundation and guarantee of the most precious and essential goods of society, such as democracy and peace. St. Pope John Paul II Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) #101

Finding Our True Self "So if I have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.  For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you" (John 13:13-15).       In humility is the greatest freedom. As long as you have to defend the imaginary self that you think is important, you lose your peace of heart. As soon as you compare that shadow with the shadows of other people, you lose all joy, because you have begun to trade in unrealities, and there is no joy in things that do not exist. As soon as you begin to take yourself seriously and imagine that your virtues are important because they are yours, you become the prisoner of your own vanity, and even your best works will blind and deceive you. Then, in order to defend yourself, you will begin to see sins and faults everywhere in the actions of others. And the more unreasonable importance you attach to yourself and to your works, the more you will tend to build up your ...

Avoiding a False Peace Yes, the Prince of Peace brings war-war against a false peace, war against tranquillity without order. If there is anything in life of which we must beware it is the danger of a false peace. Our Lord could have made a false peace with the world.  Did not the very ones who put him to death ask him to make terms with them? Did they not shout up to the throne: "Come down from the cross and we will believe"; in other words, "Come down and make a false peace. You are too insistent in the rights of your heavenly Father. You are too uncompromising about sin. You are too intolerant about your divinity. Can you not see that your claim to be the Son of God and Redeemer of the world is upsetting the world? Did you not hear one of the judges say to you last night 'One man must die for the nation to keep peace'? Come down and we will have peace."  Yes, if he had come down, there would have been peace; but a false peace! Our Lord stayed on t...

The Holy Spirit Gives Us Joy!      The Holy Spirit gives us joy. And he is joy. Joy is the gift in which all the other gifts are included. It is the expression of happiness, of being in harmony with ourselves, that which can only come from being in harmony with God and with his creation. It belongs to the nature of joy to be radiant; it must communicate itself. The missionary spirit of the Church is none other than the impulse to communicate the joy which has been given.  Pope Benedict XVI, Christmas Address to the Roman Curia, 2008

The Challenge of Seeking God "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23).  This then is what it means to seek God perfectly: to withdraw from illusion and pleasure, from worldly anxieties and desires, from the works that God does not want, from a glory that is only human display; to keep my mind free from confusion in order that my liberty may be always at the disposal of his will; to entertain silence in my heart and listen for the voice of God; to cultivate an intellectual freedom from the images of created things in order to receive the secret contact of God in obscure love; to love all persons as myself. It is useless to try to make peace with ourselves by being pleased with everything we have done. In order to settle down in the quiet of our own being we must learn to be detached from the results of our own activity. We must withdraw ourselves, to some extent, from effects that are beyond...

Be Like Children Little children follow and obey their father. They love their mother. They know nothing of covetousness, ill-will, bad temper, arrogance and lying. This state of mind opens the road to heaven. To imitate our Lord’s own humility, we must return to the simplicity of God’s little ones.  St. Hillary of Poirtiers

Blessed Are The Socially Poor Blessed also are the poor in spirit socially. Blessed are they who know of only one aristocracy—the blue bloods  born at the baptismal font and the royalty of the King of Kings.  There is going to be a tremendous transformation of social position at the last day, for God is no respecter of persons. Our social position in the Kingdom of God will depend not upon our human popularity or the popularity of propagandists, but only upon those things we carry with us in the shipwreck of the world—a clear conscience and the love of God.  from The Cross & The Beatitudes —Lessons on Love and Forgiveness by Fulton J. Sheen pp.54-55

Hunger “Lord, give bread to the hungry, and hunger for you to those who have bread.” Venerable Servant of God Catherine Doherty

Peace & Cathedrals “Peace is not just the absence of war. Like a cathedral, peace must be constructed patiently and with unshakable faith.” St. Pope John Paul II

The Path of Humility True humility is the path to true love. Just as Christ humbled himself, taking the form of a slave, living his life in humble obedience to the Father, we are called to place the lives of others and the will of God above our own desire and will. We must inspect our lives in every detail, rooting out those elements that are prideful and afraid, those darker corners, and offering them up to God for purification. We seek to love and not to count the cost. For if it costs us our selfishness, what have we really lost?  from 15 Days of Prayer with Saint Benedict by André Gozier  p. 66

No True Rest While On Earth On our journey through life we do not wish to meet any difficulties or contradictions. We want constant consolations, no periods of dryness, no unpleasant times; health without sickness, repose without work, and peace without disturbance! But can't you see our folly when we want to have something we cannot have? Unallayed good is found only in paradise, as in hell is found nothing but evil. The great Chrysostom says: "O man, you who get all upset when things do not always go your way, are you not ashamed when you ponder that what you want was not to be found even in the family of Our Lord? ... Consider, I beg you, the events, the contradictions, and all the things that happened. The angel of the Lord said in a dream to Saint Joseph, 'Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you otherwise. Herod is searching for the child to destroy him.' [Mt. 2:13] This, indeed, was a moment of great sorrow for t...

Holiness − Doing Something Great For God It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal. St. Pope John Paul II

Security in Christ - Today's First Reading Beloved: We receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us. Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit whom he gave us. Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist who, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world. You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than t...

Offering Our Lives To God Without a doubt, the Magi were big spenders. The gifts they gave to Jesus were about the costliest items you could find in the ancient world. Not only that, they were exactly suited to their recipient: gold, a precious metal that was meant for royalty; frankincense, an oil used for worship; and myrrh, a perfume used in anointing the departed, pointing toward Jesus’ passion and death. But what about us? Can we even pretend to match these extravagant offerings? Yes, we can! In fact, we can offer Jesus something much more valuable: ourselves! Imagine how valuable we are to the Lord. He became a man for us. He devoted his life to spreading the good news for us. He died on the cross for us. Jesus did everything for us because he sees us as the “pearl of great price” (Matthew 13:46). Unfortunately, many of us have a hard time seeing how valuable we are. Instead of a shiny, gift-wrapped present, we see ourselves as a dull, brown-paper package of weakness and...

Praying For A Well-Trained Tongue Let there be a door to thy mouth, that it may be shut when need arises, and let it be carefully barred, that none may rouse thy voice to anger, and thou pay back abuse with abuse. St. Ambrose

On A Lighter Note My doctor asked if any members of our family suffered from insanity. I replied, "no, we all seem to enjoy it."

May God's Blessing Be With You In This New Year A young boy returning to school after the holidays was asked if he liked his new class. “No,” he answered. “There must be something you like,” his parents prodded. “Nothing.” “Can’t you think of one good thing?” “Leaving at the end of the day” was all he could muster. Sometimes we are like that young boy; we’d rather stay in the past than move forward to an unknown future, even if that future is full of potential. The Israelites acted no differently during their journey to the Promised Land. Scripture tells us that they complained often, even wanting to return to slavery in Egypt. So God sought to encourage them, as we see in this beautiful prayer of blessing. What did this blessing mean for God’s people? Well, it wasn’t a guarantee of automatic victory over all their enemies—but neither did it require them to be perfect. No, it was an indiscriminate blessing, meant to tell the people that God would be with them no matter what...