I cannot say i am quite in love with camp life, which in many respects is quite repellent. But even in these disagreeable things there is a joy and secret pleasure, since it means all the more merit, and let us hope, a richer harvest if souls. My eyes have been opened still more to the awful godlessness of the world and the need, the immense need, there is for …
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December 15, 2022
On this day in 1917, Major General Hickie paid another tribute to Fr Doyle. Writing to his father, Hugh Doyle, General Hickie said: I could not say too much about your son. He was loved and reverenced by us all; his gallantry, self-sacrifice, and devotion to duty were all so well known and recognised. I think that he was the most wonderful character that I have ever known.
December 15, 2022
God has many gifts to bestow upon us, but none more precious than time. Yet how we abuse this royal gift! How little we think of it! How we despise these golden moments, moments whose true value we shall not really prize till alas! too late – when time shall be no more to us. COMMENT: Time is a precious gift. When it comes to time, every one is, in …
December 15, 2022
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 affection. Give Him all you …
December 14, 2022
Since I became chaplain I’ve grown very lazy and on mortified, the cause of much unhappiness and remorse to me. My excuse is that my present life is so hard and repugnant that I need these little indulgences. Then I think of Blessed Charles Spinola, for example, amid the horrors of his prison, practicing great austerities, fasting, etc which make me ashamed of my cowardice. The Holy Spirit is constantly …
December 13, 2022
It is scarcely necessary to state that deliberate sin in any shape or form utterly destroys the interior life. COMMENT: It is a well accepted principle of Catholic spirituality that we must fight against sin. Naturally we must exert all of our will in the battle against deliberate mortal sin, which destroys the life of grace in our soul and puts our salvation in jeopardy. But we must also exert …
December 13, 2022
I am sorry to see you suffer and yet glad that the cross is your portion. If I had at this moment the gift of miracles, I would not cure you, I should be afraid – the cross is far too precious to take away from anyone. Do not seek to rid yourself of it, rather love it, embrace it, and will to have it, because God wills it for …
December 12, 2022
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: While this year we celebrate the third Sunday of Advent, December 11 is also the feast of St Maria Maravillas of Jesus, a Discalced Carmelite who died in 1974 and was canonised in 2003. She is unfortunately little known, and this is …
December 11, 2022
Let us love silence and recollection. When we are at home with silence we are at home with God. Silence seems impossible to busy people. But “silence of the heart”, interior silence, is always possible. COMMENT: We live in a noisy world. And that “noise” is made all the louder by the ever present reality of smartphones and social media. This is especially problematic for young people whose concentration spans …
December 10, 2022
He has been tugging at my heart for so many years, urging me in so many ways to give myself wholly to Him, to give all and refuse Him nothing. I dread lest now I shall again refuse Him – perhaps it is the last time He will ask me to do what He wants. COMMENT: Perhaps this will be our last Advent. Perhaps some of us will not even …
December 9, 2022