“When you fail to measure up to your Christian privilege, be not discouraged for discouragement is a form of pride. The reason you are sad is because you looked to yourself and not to God; to your failings not to His love. You will shake off your faults more readily when you love God than when you criticize yourself. God is more lenient than you because he is perfectly good and therefore loves you more. Be bold enough then to believe that God is on your side, even when you forget to be on His.” ~ Archbishop Fulton Sheen (Preface to Religion)
Courage
Light and darkness
“God is both light and darkness to each one as he sees fit. If he is darkness to you, seek nothing else.” (Saint Jane Frances de Chantal)
Let your God love you
Let Your God Love You
Be silent.
Be still.
Alone.
Empty
Before your God.
Say nothing.
Ask nothing.
Be silent.
Be still.
Let your God look upon you.
That is all.
God knows.
God understands.
God loves you
With an enormous love,
And only wants
To look upon you
With that love.
Quiet.
Still.
Be.
Let your God—
Love you.
Edwina Gateley
Seeds need darkness
“The directions on the packet of flower seeds read: ‘Seeds need darkness to germinate.’ It makes me think of myself. I want to grow. I want to become more than I am. Yet, so often my self-guided efforts leave me feeling empty, looking for Something More. The ‘germination,’ the better life that I seek, must start in darkness. Lent is that darkness. It is not something dreadful or depressing. Rather, Lent takes us back to what really matters in life. We return to the beginning. You are here. Why? Did you bring yourself about? Is your life a reward from some accomplishment? No. You have been loved into existence by Someone. Why would that Someone want to bring you into being? The answer to all the dissatisfaction and unrest we experience every day is to be found in the love that acted (and acts) to give you life. In the darkness of Lent we meet again this Someone whose love whispers to us, ‘It is necessary that you exist.’ In that desire of the divine heart we discover our truest worth. Which sets us free. We belong to this One who constantly speaks to our wounded heart. . . who constantly calls us in our darkness to come out of our darkness. Lent is for leaving behind our distractions, our delusions. We go into the darkness of Christ’s tomb. What happens there to him will happen, too, to us.” (Father Peter John Cameron)
What to give up for Lent
I have been reblogging this post for the last couple of years. I still think it is important.
I realize that Lent is well underway and numbers of you have already pondered this question: “What should I give up for Lent?” and well on your way into Lent, giving that thing up as you decided. At the same time, there are probably some of you that are either behind in answering it . . . or perhaps you had an answer, but are not really doing what you set out to do. Any of those is a good excuse for me to share my favorite answer to that perennial question–and probably one of the most important answers. It comes from a Magnificat article written by Fr. Peter John Cameron a few years ago. I do not have time to quote the whole article (which is always dangerous because what you read will be edited), but I hope–especially those of you who despair of ever giving up what he…
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I am bending my knee
I Am Bending My Knee
Originally from the Carmina Gadelica I, 3
Taken from Esther de Waal, editor, The Celtic Vision (Liguori, MO: Liguori/Triumph, 1988, 2001), p. 7.
I am bending my knee
In the eye of the Father who created me,
In the eye of the Son who purchased me,
In the eye of the Spirit who cleansed me,
In friendship and affection.
Through Thine own Anointed One, O God,
Bestow upon us fullness in our need,
Love towards God,
The affection of God,
The smile of God,
The wisdom of God,
The grace of God,
The fear of God,
And the will of God
To do on the world of the Three,
As angels and saints
Do in heaven;
Each shade and light,
Each day and night,
Each time in kindness,
Give Thou us Thy Spirit.
You are a zero
One of the Lenten quotes hanging on the walls in our convent:
“Cast away that despair produced by the realization of your weakness. It’s true: financially you are a zero, and socially another zero, and another in virtue, and another in talent . . . But to the left of these zeros is Christ . . . and what an immeasurable figure it turns out to be.” (St. Josemaría Escrivá)
1,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo,ooo
“Blessing the darkness”?
We’re always questioning the darkness in our lives. What good is it? Why does God allow it? Here are Ann Spangler’s thoughts:
Larry Crabb says that we find God only when we need him. Simple words, but true. It’s like looking for the light switch in a dark room. No one goes searching for it until the sunlight has gone. Similarly, darkness can impel our search for God.
Several years ago I met the last survivor pulled from the wreckage after the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001. During our time together, Genelle Guzman-McMillan told me a story about flirting with faith but choosing to live without it. Then, on September 11, her world fell apart and she found herself in complete darkness, buried alive under a mountain of rubble
You can read the rest here.
Listening to Lent – Have Mercy
A poem and another song to minister to your soul today. (Click on “view original” in order to hear the song.)
Holy God
Holy and Mighty
Holy Immortal One
Have mercy, have mercy on us.
Holy God
Holy and mighty,
Holy Immortal One
Have mercy, have mercy on us.
Holy God
Holy and mighty
Holy Immortal One
Have mercy, have mercy, have mercy,
Have mercy, have mercy on us.
~Fernando Ortego “Trisagion”
On this day,
I begin the dusty journey
into the darkest ash heap
of my soul, confronting
my limitations,
my temptations,
my inability to think of myself second,
my acknowledgement that salvation
comes from no work of my own.
Have mercy on this head bowed low, listening.
Witnesses to Hope 