I find the temptation growing stronger every day to leave aside all work that is not absolutely necessary and to spend the time with Jesus. Why does He make me realise so much His loneliness in the Tabernacle and His longing for ‘one to console Him’ and at the same time fill my hands with so many things to do? My room here is opposite the little oratory, only a …
Virtues
May 12, 2020
The world is living through an extraordinary crisis due to the Covid-19 viral infection. Quite apart from the morbidity and mortality that will flow from the virus itself, the lockdown mechanisms introduced to curb the virus will also take their toll in potentially far reaching ways. Catholics face a particular pain during all of this. Our inability to avail of the sacraments is a real suffering. While in principle there …
May 10, 2020
St Damien of Molokai O eternal Lord . . . provided it be for Thy greater service and praise . . . and if Thy most Holy Majesty be pleased to choose and receive me for such a life and state, I offer myself to Thee for the Congo Mission. Thy will be done. Amen. COMMENT: Fr Doyle had long felt a call become a missionary in the Congo. …
May 10, 2020
We love our life, cling to it, hug it, study how to prolong it, rebel if God thinks fit to shorten its span, nay, when we have run our scriptural appointed course – “three score and ten and what is more of them is labour and sorrow” (Psalm 89) – we hunger for more. But do we ever seriously ask ourselves: “Does this life carry any responsibility with it?” …
May 9, 2020
My way is sure. I think I can say now without a shade of doubt or hesitation that the path by which Jesus wants me to walk is that of absolute abandonment of all human comfort and pleasure and the embracing as far as I can of every discomfort and pain. Every time I see a picture of the crucifixion or a cross, I feel strangely affected and …
May 8, 2020
The past few weeks have been weeks of extraordinary grace and light and strength. I see clearly what He wants from me as clearly and as certainly, I think, as if I had received a written message from His own hand. For years I was groping in the dark; there was ever a want in my life which I could never satisfy. I know He asked the striving for sanctity, …
May 7, 2020
Sometimes God seems to leave me to my weakness and I tremble with fear. At other times I have so much trust and confidence in his loving protection that I could almost sit down on a bursting shell feeling I could come to no harm. You would laugh, or perhaps cry, if you saw me at this moment sitting on a pile of bricks and rubbish. Shells are bursting some …
May 6, 2020
The more this generous spirit springs up in your heart, the nearer and dearer will you be to Jesus. Love for Love. Blood for Blood. Life for Life. Will you give Him all? COMMENT: God has given us everything we have. The saints were profoundly grateful people – they knew the debt they owed to God. But more than this, they repaid that debt through their love, through their action, …
May 4, 2020
I feel drawn still more to the life of “interior union.” To acquire this I must practise the following: 1 . Constant and profound recollection. 2. To keep my thoughts always, if possible, centred on Jesus in my heart. 3. To avoid worry or anxiety about future things. 4. To avoid useless conversation. 5. Great guard over my eyes, not reading or looking at useless things. COMMENT: Fr Doyle’s programme …
May 2, 2020
As you know I am very anxious to see these retreats started in Ireland, for I believe they would do a world of good and be the means of checking the dreadful irreligious spirit which is beginning to creep in even here in holy Ireland, especially among our uneducated men. … I am very grateful to you all for your good prayers; you must ask St. Joseph to find …
May 1, 2020