Daily Thought

 We Are Infinitely Loved! There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter. I realize of course that joy is not expressed the same way at all times in life, especially at moments of great difficulty. Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved. Pope Francis. Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) #6

  Tranquility of Heart Saint Jane speaks to her Daughters on prayer, and on signs of true inspiration and holy indifference: Do what the Lord counsels you. The souls who are prompt in following the divine inspirations are those whom the Eternal Father has prepared to be the spouses of his Beloved Son. We must go where inspiration urges us, without flinching. Having found the will of God in our vocation we remain lovingly in its practice. A good sign of a true inspiration, and more especially of an extraordinary inspiration, is tranquility of heart. Peace is inseparable from most holy humility. I speak of a humility that is noble, real, that reaches to the very marrow, is solid, supple to correction, pliable, and prompt to obedience. In a word, the three best marks of a legitimate inspiration are: perseverance against inconstancy and levity, a tranquil heart against anxiety and overeagerness, humble obedience against obstinacy and capriciousness. In order to find out what is sound in a

  Great Insights On The Conversion of St. Paul Dear Brothers and Sisters, Today's Catechesis is dedicated to the experience that Paul had on his way to Damascus, and therefore on what is commonly known as his conversion. It was precisely on the road to Damascus, at the beginning of the 30s in the first century and after a period in which he had persecuted the Church that the decisive moment in Paul's life occurred. Much has been written about it and naturally from different points of view. It is certain that he reached a turning point there, indeed a reversal of perspective. And so he began, unexpectedly, to consider as "loss" and "refuse" all that had earlier constituted his greatest ideal, as it were the raison d'être of his life (cf. Phil 3: 7-8). What had happened? In this regard we have two types of source. The first kind, the best known, consists of the accounts we owe to the pen of Luke, who tells of the event at least three times in the Acts of t

  Faith Faith brings into our lives such freedom, such love, such peace, and such joy that there are no words in any language that can explain it. You have to have it in order to know it. You have to experience it in order to understand it. Faith liberates. It liberates love and hope. If I am free to love and free to hope, what more do I want of life? Catherine Doherty

 Put Everything in God's Hands And when night comes, and you look back over the day and see how fragmentary everything has been, and how much you planned that has gone undone, and all the reasons you have to be embarrassed and ashamed: just take everything exactly as it is, put it in God's hands and leave it with Him. St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

  Have No Anxiety ⏤ Just Trust in God It is not possible to gain control over your soul all at once and have it immediately in your power. Be satisfied, therefore, with gaining control of it little by little, and so learn how to conquer your dominant passion. If you have to put up with others, begin by putting up with yourself. Be patient at finding that you are not perfect. Do you want to enjoy interior peace without having to suffer the day-to-day contradictions and setbacks? Every morning prepare your soul to face the day without getting upset, and throughout the day be careful to return to this resolution. St. Francis de Sales (Letters 444; O. XIV, p. 2) 

 The Tenderness of God The Gospels attest that Jesus always used the word "father" to speak of God and his love. Many parables have as their protagonist the figure of a father. One of the most famous is certainly that of the merciful Father, recounted by Luke the Evangelist (cf.  Lk  15:11-32). This parable emphasizes not only the experience of sin and forgiveness, but also the way in which forgiveness reaches the person who has done wrong. The text says: “While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him” (v. 20). The son was expecting a punishment, a justice that at most could have given him the place of one of the servants, but he finds himself wrapped in his father's embrace. Tenderness is something greater than the logic of the world. It is an unexpected way of doing  justice. That is why we must never forget that God is not frightened by our sins: let us fix this clearly

  The Grace of God Although temptations are strong, a whole wave of doubts beats against my soul, and discouragement stands by, ready to act. The Lord, however, strengthens my will, against which all attempts of the enemy are shattered as if against a rock. I see how many actual graces God grants me; these support me ceaselessly. I am very weak, and I attribute everything to the grace of God. St. Faustina - Divine Mercy in My Soul #1086

  Beautiful Prayer O my God, my whole life has been a course of mercies and blessings shown to one who has been most unworthy of them.   I require no faith, for I have had long experience, as to   Thy providence toward me.   Year after year Thou hast carried me on—   removed dangers from my path—   recovered me, recruited me, refreshed me,   borne with me, directed me, sustained me.   O forsake me not when my strength faileth me.   And Thou never wilt forsake me.   I may securely repose upon Thee.   Sinner as I am, nevertheless, while I am true   to Thee, Thou wilt still and to the end,   be superabundantly true to me.   I may rest upon Thy arm; I may go to sleep in Thy bosom.   Only give me, and increase in me,   that true loyalty to Thee, which is the bond   of the covenant between Thee and me,   and the pledge in my own heart and conscience that   Thou, the Supreme God, wilt not forsake me, the most   miserable of Thy children. —Excerpt from: Meditations and Devotions, Part III, Med

  The Joy of Consolation In 1941, the then forty-one-year-old Julien Green recounted in his diary a spiritual experience of his fifteenth year:  The memory of a winter evening has stuck in my mind more clearly than any other instance. It happened in the pension I tried to describe in The Strange River. My father and I shared the same bedroom. I was in bed; my father was saying his prayers. All of a sudden, I was seized with an unutterable happiness, a happiness of spirit that tore me free from myself. For a few minutes my soul was completely absorbed in God. I could not have said what was taking place in me, but my thoughts, instead of wandering here and there, as they usually did, came to a standstill in a sort of rapture that I have never experienced before. And the very words I use in trying to describe the indescribable only serve to confuse my memories. And yet, this is not so. What lives in my memory is the feeling of deep security — a little of which still remains — the inexpres

  Great Reflection from The Word Among Us John’s arrest was big news. Bad news. Heartbreaking and lamentable news. Yet though it heralded the end of John the Baptist’s ministry, it wasn’t the end of the story. Herod’s malice could not halt the plans of God. John came preaching the good news of repentance and forgiveness, and when Herod had him imprisoned, Jesus continued John’s preaching. He even added to it. He continued John’s call to repentance, but he also announced, “The Kingdom of God is at hand” and called everyone to “believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15). In the face of bad news, which we all face at one time or another, Jesus urges all of us, Believe the good news. Believe it despite the bad or heartbreaking or lamentable news. Choose to focus your thoughts and emotions on the truth of the kingdom of God. Remind yourself of all of the promises and proclamations Jesus has given us: • “I am with you always, until the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) • “I will never forget you.” (I

  The Great Encounter! We are not heading for an eternal void and an eternal silence but we are on our way to an encounter, an encounter with Him who created us and loves us more than mother and father. Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa

  The Quest For True Freedom Man must leave himself behind if he hopes to have even a glimpse of his true potentialities. But the surrender of the self is the thing we find most difficult to accomplish and so rarely succeed. To the modern mind it makes no sense because we have lost any concept of the boundless glory, the shimmering, unlimited wonder of the divine to which we gain access by yielding up our own limited personality. Only when we trim our sails to the eternal winds do we begin to understand the sort of journey we are capable of undertaking. Only by voluntary, unreserved surrender to God can we find our home. Any other sort of refuge is only a temporary shelter, a poor hovel on shifting sand destined eventually to fall in ruins. Adoration in a stable is preferable to terror before a throne. There is much wisdom in the ancient teaching about the passing of the soul 10425695-outstretched-empty-hands-over-a-grundge-concrete-backgoundbecause it embodies the idea that man can on

  From Our Humble Saint of the Day “Do not seek to have your trials removed, ask rather for the grace to bear them well.” St. Andre Bessette

  Saint of the Day - John Neumann Perhaps because the United States got a later start in the history of the world, it has relatively few canonized saints, but their number is increasing. John Neumann was born in what is now the Czech Republic. After studying in Prague, he came to New York at 25 and was ordained a priest. He did missionary work in New York until he was 29, when he joined the Redemptorists and became its first member to profess vows in the United States. He continued missionary work in Maryland, Virginia and Ohio, where he became popular with the Germans. At 41, as bishop of Philadelphia, he organized the parochial school system into a diocesan one, increasing the number of pupils almost twentyfold within a short time. Gifted with outstanding organizing ability, he drew into the city many teaching communities of sisters and the Christian Brothers. During his brief assignment as vice provincial for the Redemptorists, he placed them in the forefront of the parochial moveme

  Learning To Recognize God's Voice John the Baptist recognized Jesus immediately as the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). He had not known Jesus in this way previously, but God told him what to look for: “On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit” (1:33). John faced the same perplexity any of us might: did that thought really come from God? Was that dove really the Holy Spirit? And he used the same means to answer his questions that we can use as well: he spoke to God and listened for him to answer. John probably told God what was on his heart, and listened for God to share what was on his. And he did this not once, not only in a moment of need, but regularly. John also was careful to test those “words” he heard from God—the senses he got as he prayed and listened. He tried responding to these words, which is one of the best ways to distinguish between what comes from God and what comes fr

  The Desire To See God Face To Face The desire to know God truly, that is, to see God’s face, is innate in every human being, even in atheists. And perhaps we unconsciously have this wish simply to see who he is, what he is, who he is for us. However this desire is fulfilled in following Christ, in this way we see his back and, in the end, we see God too as a friend, in Christ’s face we see his face. The important thing is that we not only follow Christ in our needy moments or when we find a slot in our daily occupations, but in our life as such. The whole of our life must be oriented to meeting Jesus Christ, to loving him; and, in our life we must allocate a central place to loving our neighbour, that love which, in the light of the Crucified One, enables us to recognize the face of Jesus in the poor, in the weak and in the suffering. This is only possible if the true face of Jesus has become familiar to us through listening to his word, in an inner conversation with him, in entering

  A New Year & Words of Encouragement Dear brothers and sisters, buongiorno! Happy New Year! Let us begin the new year entrusting it to Mary, the Mother of God. The Gospel of today’s Liturgy speaks of her, taking us back once again to the wonder of the crib. The shepherds hasten toward the stable and what do they find? The text says they find, “Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger” (Lk 2:16). Let us pause on this scene and let us imagine Mary who, like a tender and caring mamma, has just laid Jesus in the manger. We can see a gift given to us in that act of laying him down: the Madonna does not keep her Son to herself, but presents him to us. She not only holds him in her arms, but puts him down to invite us to look at him, welcome him, adore him. Behold Mary’s maternity: she offers the Son who is born to all of us. Always by giving her Son, showing her Son, never treating her Son as something of her own, no. And so throughout Jesus’ life. And in laying him before ou