Unknown blessings
Cast your anchor deep
Keep up good courage. Evil thoughts have come? Then let them come and let them go. Be at peace; think no more about it, but turn your heart straight to God. Make no parley with your temptation, but just let it alone. By debating about it in your mind, you shall suffer more misery than the demon itself has caused you. All this trouble comes from excessive despondency, which may end by his suggesting despair, and saying: Everything you do is vain and useless–you are lost forever.
The thing to do in such a case is to cast “all care upon God” and rest in him. Turn to the eternal God with unshaken trust in his goodness and mercy. Do as mariners do when threatened with shipwreck -cast your anchor deep down to the bottom of God’s love and grace. Place your confidence firmly in God our Lord. If it comes even to the end of life, and a man in deep distress shall but anchor all his hopes in God and die in that mind, it is truly a happy and a holy death.
Children, be well assured that a really godly man must dwell in the practice of divine hope just as much as in any other of the divine virtues; and that is a great help to him when at last he comes to meet death. But this must not be a false and deceitful confidence in God, trusting in which a man presumes to lead a sinful life; for whosoever trusts in God and on the strength of that lives wickedly, sins against the Holy Spirit. The confidence in God that I mean springs from the depths of true humility and love. It is based on consciousness of one’s helplessness; it is a most reasonable recognition of the need of God’s help; it is part of a true and full and joyful conversion to God; for whosoever gives himself up to God loves and trusts God sincerely.
(John Tauler)
“Happy? In this valley of tears?”
One of the speakers at a conference I recently attended was Sr. Regina Marie Gorman, the current chair of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious in the United States. She is a delightful and inspiring speaker, and I thought I would treat you to a sampling of her ability to inspire and encourage. Go here for a ten minute clip of a talk she gave a couple of years ago: “Happy? In This Valley of Tears?”
A golden moment
Reblogged from 2010
There are so many artistic depictions of the Annunciation, but one of my all-time favorites is one that a good friend of mine gave me a few years ago. You can see it below. Not too long afterward I came across a poem by Luci Shaw that seemed to have been written for it. I share that with you as well. Thank you, Mary, for your earth-changing yes. . .
Virgin
As if until that moment
nothing real
had happened since CreationAs if outside the world were empty
so that she and he were all
there was–he mover, she moved uponAs if her submission were the most
dynamic of all works; as if
no one had ever said Yes like thatAs if that day the sun had no place
in all the universe to pour its gold
but her small room(Luci Shaw)
Mother Mary, pray in my heart
“Mother Mary, pray your Fiat and Magnificat in my heart.”
(Mother Teresa)
Burning hearts
“Were not our hearts burning within us?”
Absolutely beautiful . . .
Χριστός ανέστη εκ νεκρών, θανάτω θάνατον πατήσας,
και τοις εν τοις μνήμασι ζωήν χαρισάμενος
Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death,
and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.
This is the day when everything is silent. We can go about the day not giving much of a thought to it–just seeing it as the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Yet monumental things were happening in the spiritual realm. Christ descended to hell to set captives free.
This still has meaning for us. So often we think nothing is happening in our own spiritual lives, yet God is about monumental things. Have hope in the Unseen.
Christ descended into “Hell” and is therefore close to those cast into it, transforming their darkness into light. Suffering and torment is still terrible and well-nigh unbearable. Yet the star of hope has risen–the anchor of the heart reaches the very throne of God. Instead of evil becoming unleashed within man, the light shines victorious: suffering–without ceasing to be suffering–becomes, despite everything, a hymn of praise. (Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi
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Be near me
“Be near me when I’m dying, O show Thy cross to me.”
(from “O Sacred Head, Once Wounded”–you can listen to it here.)
Witnesses to Hope 