St Peter Canisius, Doctor of the Church Jesus is very gentle but very firm with me. He has shown me that I must not shrink from what He wants. He is ever near, urging me in the same direction; you know where His divine face was turned so constantly during life and at its close. I am not afraid of sacrifice; He has given me a most intense love for …
Jesus
December 21, 2011
Jesus heals the lame “I have called upon Thee in the day of my trouble” (Psalm 85. 7). Jesus is our comforter. What burden is there which He cannot lighten? What cross that He cannot make sweet? Be our troubles what they may, if only we will call on Jesus and implore His aid, we shall find our sufferings lessened and the rough ways smoothed for our bleeding feet. COMMENT: …
December 18, 2011
St John of the Cross Surely you are not right in trying to keep our Lord away from you, or in thinking that He looks upon you with displeasure. When sin in the past is repented for, the poor soul who once strayed from Him has a strange attraction for His gentle Heart. You pain Him intensely if you think He does not love you now, nor wish for your …
December 14, 2011
St Maravillas I want to be generous with God and to refuse Him nothing. I do not want to say, “I will go just so far and no farther.” COMMENT: Today we celebrate the Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, a joyful celebration in the midst of our Advent penances. Of course, this joy will not mean much to us if we have skipped Advent penance altogether. Perhaps there is …
December 11, 2011
What must have been Mary’s thoughts when first she felt the infant child within her womb, and realised that from her pure blood He had fashioned to Himself a human form? She His Mother, He her Son! What sweet converse between the two, what words of love, of ardent, tender love, the promptings of a heart so pure and good and holy. COMMENT: We are exactly three weeks from …
December 4, 2011
Try to take your days one by one as they come to you. The hard things of yesterday are past, and you are not asked to bear what to-morrow may have in store; so that the cross is really light when you take it bit by bit. COMMENTS: What sane advice from a man who knew a thing or two about hardship! Often we multiply our hardship when we think …
November 25, 2011
The life of Jesus was a continual prayer. Even during His public life He began, continued and ended everything He did by prayer, besides devoting whole nights and days to communing with His Father. If we want our work for souls to be fruitful, we must bring prayer into it. If our children are not all that they ought to be, the cause may not be far to seek. …
November 22, 2011
"I am with you always, even to the end of the world." Remember the devil is a bad spiritual director, and you may always recognise his apparently good suggestions by the disturbances they cause in the soul. Our Lord would never urge you to turn away from a path which is leading you nearer to Himself, nor frighten you with the prospect of future unbearable trials. If they do come, …
November 21, 2011
I have long had the feeling that, since the world is growing so rapidly worse and worse and God has lost His hold, as it were, upon the hearts of men, He is looking all the more earnestly and anxiously for big things from those who are faithful to Him still. He cannot, perhaps, gather a large army round His standard, but He wants every one in it to …
November 20, 2011
We can never sufficiently thank Him for so completely showing us in the Garden that He was a man by praying to escape the storm. COMMENT: Jesus showed us His humanity on many different occasions, but nowhere more movingly than during the Agony in the Garden. As Fr Doyle tells us in today’s quote, there is nothing wrong with asking God to relieve our sufferings and to spare us …
November 19, 2011