The Call of St Matthew by Caravaggio September 21: Feast of St Matthew We must love God with our whole heart. Can He be loved otherwise? Is it too much that a finite heart should love infinite Beauty? I fail in this wholehearted love if I keep back anything from Him, if I am determined not to pass certain limits as proof of my love, if I absolutely refuse to …
Saints
September 21, 2010
St John Houghton A devotion which does not consist in any special form of prayer nor in doing anything in particular more than to listen to inspirations, is devotion to the Holy Spirit of God. And does it not commend itself very specially to religious? For, as the work of Creation belongs preeminently to the Father and that of Redemption to the Son, so the work of our Sanctification and …
September 20, 2010
Blessed John Henry Newman Today we will make an exception and have some quotes from someone other than Fr Doyle. Today was a special day for our Holy Father as he beatified John Henry Newman, a priest and scholar to whom he has had devotion for many years. He is also important for Dublin and indeed for Dalkey, Fr Doyle’s home parish. Blessed John Henry Newman lived in Dublin for …
September 19, 2010
Without constant union with our Lord there cannot be any real holiness, one reason being that without recollection the inspirations of the Holy Spirit are missed and with them a host of opportunities of little sacrifices and a shower of graces. As a means of gaining greater recollection, each morning at Holy Communion invite Jesus to dwell in your heart during the day as in a Tabernacle. Try all day …
September 18, 2010
St Robert Bellarmine, Doctor of the Church A deadly pitfall lies hidden in the desire of some to pour themselves out in works of zeal for God s glory, to which the evil spirit not uncommonly urges those whom he sees full of zeal. It is evident even to one little versed in the way of the spiritual life that a multiplicity of external occupations, even though good and meritorious …
September 17, 2010
Hammer this into your little head, try and convince yourself of it: Our Blessed Lord loves me, with all my faults and failings, and has marked me out for the special graces which will make me a saint, a big one if I like. With this ideal before you, which you must reach if God’s plans are not to be spoiled, try and remember that sanctification means daily, hourly, hard …
September 16, 2010
I realise in a way I never did before that God created me for His service, that He has a strict right that I should serve Him perfectly, and that every moment of my life is His and given to me for the one end of praising and serving Him. I recall with horror how often I have wandered from this my end, what an appalling amount of time I …
September 13, 2010
St Teresa of Avila If I do not begin to serve God as I ought now, when shall I do so? Shall I ever? This retreat is a time of special grace, and if my cooperation is wanting, Jesus may pass by and not return. The devil has made me put off my thorough conversion for seventeen years, making me con tent myself with the resolution of “later on really …
September 12, 2010
Blessed Charles Spinola SJ My intense desire and longing is to make others love Jesus and to draw them to His Sacred Heart. Recently at Mass I have found myself at the Dominus Vobiscum opening my arms wide with the intention of embracing every soul present and drawing them in spite of themselves into that Heart which longs for their love. “Compel them to come in,” Jesus said. Yes, compel …
September 11, 2010
St Peter Claver SJ September 9 Feast of St Peter Claver St. Peter Claver was one of those generous heroic souls whom God sends upon this earth to serve as a stimulus to our zeal, to urge us on to dare and do great things for His glory. Alone he stood upon the beach of that reeking haunt of sin, Cartagena, and saw the galley-ship vomit forth its human living …
September 9, 2010