Use your faults as stepping stones to better things. Don’t bemoan your faults and falls, but quietly take it out of yourself for having given in to nature, and then with a smiling face begin again. Try everyday to get a little closer to Jesus.
Virtues
December 2, 2016
Will it be any help to you to learn that I know many who suffer as you do? Hence I can perfectly understand what you are going through: the disgust for everything spiritual, the almost hatred of God, and the mad longing almost to leave it all behind and run away. However we know that such a step would not end the trouble or bring relief in any form; on …
November 30, 2016
It is scarcely necessary to state that deliberate sin in any shape or form utterly destroys the interior life and even gives a loathing and disgust for its practice. It is not so evident that deliberate imperfections, and for religious repeated violation of rule, have the same result. These are the “little foxes,” attractive and apparently harmless creatures, which must be hunted down and destroyed…if the vineyard is not …
November 29, 2016
Try to take your days one by one as they come to you. The hard things of yesterday are past, and you are not asked to bear what to-morrow may have in store; so that the cross is really light when you take it bit by bit. COMMENTS: What sane advice from a man who knew a thing or two about hardship! Often we multiply our hardship when we think …
November 28, 2016
The saints had ever a childlike confidence and trust in God. Upon Him they cast all their anxieties and cares, under His powerful protection they sheltered themselves, and with His almighty help they were ever strong. They lived in the present day alone, striving to bear with cheerful hearts the burden of the moment; the morrow’s work would bring its stream of graces to help them on their journey. COMMENT: …
November 27, 2016
St John Berchmans The chief thing God wants from me at present is an extraordinary and exquisite perfection in every little thing I do, even the odd Hail Marys of the day; that each day there must be some improvement in the fervour, the purity of intention, the exactness with which I do things, that in this will chiefly lie my sanctification as it sanctified St John Berchmans. I see …
November 26, 2016
Thanks a million times, dearest Jesus, for all Your goodness. I will love and serve You now till death. COMMENT: We sometimes refer in passing to events in Ireland on this blog. But there are many readers of this site from outside Ireland. Today in particular we think of our American friends who celebrate Thanksgiving today. Even those who face troubles and woes of various types have much to be thankful for. …
November 24, 2016
Meditating on the Particular Judgement, God gave me great light. I realised that I should have to give an exact account of every action of my life and for every instant of time. To take only my seventeen years of religious life, what account could I give of the 6,000 hours of meditation, 7,000 Masses, 12,000 examinations of conscience, etc.? Then my time: how have I spent every moment? …
November 17, 2016
Holiness and perfection depend on yourself, not on the actions of others. COMMENT: How easy it is for us to blame others, or the circumstances of our lives, for our own lack of holiness. Yes, we may live or work with annoying and frustrating people, but there is always a choice on our part to control our annoyance or frustration. We may have many distractions to our work and to …
November 16, 2016
Our Lord is displeased only when He sees no attempt made to get rid of imperfections which, when deliberate, clog the soul and chain it to the earth. But He often purposely does not give the victory over them in order to increase our opportunities of meriting. Make an act of humility and sorrow after failure, and then never a thought more about it. He sees what a “tiny …
November 9, 2016