St Michael the Archangel Today is the feast of St Michael, St Gabriel and St Raphael, the archangels. This feast was significant in Fr Doyle’s spiritual life, for he made a vow to the Sacred Heart on this very day 104 years ago. He made the vow during one of his late night vigils, and signed the vow in his blood (this was not uncommon at the time; St Therese …
Virtues
September 29, 2014
Don’t let the devil spoil the work by making you fret and worry. COMMENT: This line from Fr Doyle is taken from a much longer letter of spiritual direction, the specifics of which are unlikely to be relevant to many of the readers of this website. But this line, about the father of lies, and his capacity to make us worry, is relevant for us all… One of the characteristics …
September 28, 2014
You may make the most complete and absolute offering of yourself to God to bear every pain He may wish to send. Renew this frequently and place yourself in His hands as His willing victim to be immolated on the altar of sacrifice. But it is better not to ask directly for great sufferings; few of the saints did so. COMMENT: Today’s quote from Fr Doyle may perhaps be difficult …
September 24, 2014
St Pio of Pietrelcina It is indeed easy to condemn oneself to death, to make a generous offering of self-immolation; but to carry out the execution daily is more than most can do. . . . Go on bravely, don’t expect too much from yourself, for God often leaves one powerless in acts of self-conquest in order to make one humble and to have more recourse to Him. Remember above …
September 23, 2014
You know well that even the smallest cross and happening of your life is part of our Blessed Lord’s plan for your sanctification. It is not easy, I know, to look at things in this light. But one can train the will to look upon the act of others, even their sinful acts in as much as they concern ourselves, as coming from the hand of God. There is so …
September 22, 2014
St John Houghton A devotion which does not consist in any special form of prayer nor in doing anything in particular more than to listen to inspirations, is devotion to the Holy Spirit of God. And does it not commend itself very specially to religious? For, as the work of Creation belongs preeminently to the Father and that of Redemption to the Son, so the work of our Sanctification and …
September 20, 2014
St Joseph the Worker Try and remember that sanctification means daily, hourly, hard work, and this unflinchingly, when weariness comes. COMMENT: Fr Doyle engaged in this daily, hourly hard work in his ceaseless quest for sanctity, always knowing, however, that God loved him and supplied him with the grace he needed. Fr Doyle’s quote today brings to mind the famous prayer that St Pius X wrote to honour St Joseph. …
September 19, 2014
St Robert Bellarmine, Doctor of the Church A deadly pitfall lies hidden in the desire of some to pour themselves out in works of zeal for God’s glory, to which the evil spirit not uncommonly urges those whom he sees full of zeal. It is evident even to one little versed in the way of the spiritual life that a multiplicity of external occupations, even though good and meritorious in …
September 17, 2014
Our Blessed Lord loves me, with all my faults and failings, and has marked me out for the special graces which will make me a saint, a big one if I like. COMMENT: “If I like”…What telling words from Fr Doyle today. God loves us, and He wants us to imitate Him more closely. But he will not force us. We are called to be saints and to co-operate with …
September 16, 2014
I realise in a way I never did before that God created me for His service, that He has a strict right that I should serve Him perfectly, and that every moment of my life is His and given to me for the one end of praising and serving Him. I recall with horror how often I have wandered from this my end, what an appalling amount of time I …
September 13, 2014