A great desire to know our Lord better, His attractive character, His personal love for me, the resolve to read the life of Christ and study the Gospels. I feel also a longing to love Jesus passionately, to try my very best to please Him, and to do all I think will please Him. I see nothing will be dearer to Him than my sanctification, chiefly attained by …
Saints
June 18, 2021
One of the obstacles to my leading a fervent life is the thought of what others may think. I would often wish to do some act of mortification, but I am prevented because I know others will see it. Again, I desire to keep certain rules which I have broken (e.g. Latin conversation), but a false shame, a fear of what others may say, stops me. I know this is …
June 15, 2021
The Moment of Benediction. The priest turns and raises aloft the Sacred Host. In loving adoration, in reverent awe, the invisible angels fall prostrate. The bell tinkles softly, fragrant clouds of sweet-smelling incense ascend on high, and in the remotest corner of the vast church every head is bowed in adoration. It is a solemn moment, a moment when the silent streams of grace pour down upon our souls. God’s …
June 13, 2021
I will strive ever to perform each action as perfectly as possible, paying special attention to small duties e.g. saying grace, odd Hail Marys, etc. It seems to me God is asking this particularly from me, and by this means I am to find the chief road to sanctity. COMMENT: As Fr Doyle tells us today, the chief road to sanctity for all of us is found through the careful …
June 9, 2021
Venerable Matt Talbot I do not want, in fact I forbid you, to be imprudent in the matter of corporal penances. But, my dear child, if you let a whole fortnight go by without any self-inflicted pain, can you honestly look Jesus in the face and say, “I am like to Him”? COMMENT: The idea of self-inflicted pain is not popular in contemporary spirituality. Oddly enough though, it seems …
June 7, 2021
Real devotion to the Blessed Sacrament is only to be gained by hard, grinding work of dry adoration before the Hidden God. But such a treasure cannot be purchased at too great a cost, for once obtained, it makes of this life as near an approach to heaven as we can ever hope for. COMMENT: Corpus Christi is celebrated liturgically today, although traditionally it would have been celebrated …
June 6, 2021
I think it is evident that, in these days of awful sin and hatred of God, our Blessed Lord wants to gather round Him a legion of chosen souls who will be devoted, heart and soul, to Him and His interests, and upon whom He may always count for help and consolation. Souls who will not ask “How much must I do?” but rather “How much can I …
June 3, 2021
We must be intellectually pious, that is, our piety should rest on the bedrock of principle, and not on mood, on sentiment, on spiritual consolation. COMMENT: In the Gospel of St Matthew Jesus tells us that it is an unfaithful and wicked generation that looks for a sign. But despite this, how many of us continue along this path, seeking consolations and signs in all sorts of ways? There are …
May 30, 2021
You can test your love infallibly and find out how much you have by asking yourself this question: What am I willing to suffer for Him? It is the test of St Francis de Sales: \”Willingness to suffer is a certain proof of love\” St Francis de Sales
May 27, 2021
Dear Sir — One is often struck, on glancing over the papers, at the numerous appeals made to provide ‘comforts for our troops,’ but no one ever seems to think that the souls of those who have fallen in battle may possibly be in need of much greater comfort than the bodies of their comrades who survive. With all the spiritual help now at their disposal, even in the very …
May 26, 2021