Lord, give me grace and strength of character to tear myself away promptly from what, if not bad, is less good, and to give myself earnestly, self-denyingly, perseveringly, to the better and the best. COMMENT: Fr Willie always wanted to choose the hard thing, he always wanted to do the best thing. Thus, his prayer doesn’t just refer to tearing himself promptly away from bad things, but even from things …
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July 8, 2024
I have often wondered what Jesus meant by the ‘work’, but I could never bring myself to ask you what you thought it was, for I knew if this message really came from Him, He would make clear what he wanted done in His own good time. Yesterday I was writing in my room a thought which had come to my mind: ‘Is there not something wrong with a priest …
July 7, 2024
As a boy He gave me something of the kind, so that a passing glance at an immodest picture used to make me shudder; and until I began my theology at 31 I was quite ignorant of most sexual matters. That was His goodness, not mine. COMMENT: Today is the feast of St Maria Goretti, the great champion of purity. She died at age 11 in defence of the virtue …
July 6, 2024
This morning at Mass, our Blessed Lord gave me grace to see what a fool I am to let my life slip from me without really doing what he has asked and implored so long – the complete sacrifice of everything. Forty one years of my life have gone, very little more may yet remain; and still I go on living a life of much self-indulgence, always promising myself to …
July 5, 2024
Today is the memorial of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati. Amongst other things, Blessed Pier Giorgio was renowned, as a very young man, for his heroic charity towards the poor of Turin. Reading the life of Fr Willie instantly reminds one of Blessed Pier Giorgio, for he too served the poor of Dalkey while he was himself was just a child. In both cases, very few knew of their hidden charity …
July 4, 2024
The conviction has been growing that nocturnal adoration will be established only if I spend much time myself before the Blessed Sacrament at night. I know well that Jesus not only wants me to sacrifice much of my sleep, but also to rise sometimes during the night to adore and console Him in the Tabernacle. The repugnance (and yet attraction) to this is extraordinary. COMMENT: Fr Willie wrote these words …
July 2, 2024
As a child I was convinced that one day God would give me the grace of martyrdom. When quite small I read and re-read every martyr’s life in the twelve volumes of Butler’s Lives of the Saints, and longed and prayed to be a martyr, and I have often done so ever since. As years went on, the desire grew in intensity, and even now the sufferings of the martyrs, …
July 1, 2024
Devotion to the Sacred Heart cannot exist without self-denial; the flames and thorns around that Heart, the cross that crowns It, point to a love of, and call for, suffering.
June 30, 2024
Peter, the favoured one, denies his Master and turns his back on Him who loved him so; and Peter’s heart is won, even in his sin, by one loving look of mercy and compassion from the Saviour whose mercy is without end. COMMENT: The denial of St Peter, and Christ’s subsequent forgiveness, was a frequent theme in Fr Willie’s notes. The image of a favoured apostle denying his Master seemed …
June 29, 2024
If an aspiration, on the authority of the Blessed Cure d’Ars, often saved a soul, what must you not do each day you suffer so bravely! This thought certainly will help you and make the pain almost nothing, and will add to its merit, since the motive for bearing it will be all the higher. COMMENT: Today’s quotation comes from a letter of spiritual direction Fr Willie wrote to somebody …
June 28, 2024