Icon of Christ as the Suffering Servant You need not fear whatever He may send you to bear, since His grace will come with it ; but you should always try to keep in mind your offering, living up to the spirit of it. Hence endeavour to see the hand of God in everything that happens to you now; e.g. if you rise in the morning with a headache, thank …
Self-conquest
June 20, 2010
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 the …
June 18, 2010
A typical WWI trench. It was faithfulness to the "narrow path" of ordinary duties that prepared Fr Doyle to adhere to the "narrow path" of the trenches I feel also a great longing to love Jesus very, very much, to draw very close to His Sacred Heart, and to be ever united to Him, always thinking of Him and praying. I long ardently to do something now to make up …
June 16, 2010
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 16, 2010
Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David, 1801. I feel that I could go through fire and water to serve such a man as Napoleon, that no sacrifice he could ask would be too hard. What would the army think of me if Napoleon said, “I want you to do so and so”, and I replied “But, your Majesty, I am very sensitive to cold, I want to have a …
June 14, 2010
The Third Degree of Humility. 1. Accepto. I will receive with joy all unpleasant things which I must bear : (a) pain, sickness, heat, cold, food ; (b) house, employment, rules, customs ; (c) trials of religious life, companions ; (d) reprimands, humiliations ; (e) anything which is a cross. 2. Volo et desidero. I will wish and desire that these things may happen to me, that so I …
June 12, 2010
THE FEAST OF THE SACRED HEART Father Doyle wrote out the following consecration to the Sacred Heart during one of his midnight vigils, lit only by the glimmer of the red tabernacle light, on 29 September 1910. “Most loving Jesus, kneeling before You in the Blessed Sacrament, I solemnly consecrate myself to Your Sacred Heart by vow. I vow always to be Your faithful lover and to strive every day …
June 10, 2010
“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: Fr Doyle, like a true Jesuit, shows us that the encounter with Christ in …
June 9, 2010
Feast of Mary, Mother of God A New Year! What visions of almost boundless good, hidden in the fair bosom of the new-born year, rise up before me. What treasures of grace, what innumerable opportunities of merit are within my grasp if only I seize them. COMMENT: Fr Doyle believed in using his time well. One very definite aspect of his personality was his efficiency and work ethic – he …
January 1, 2010