What is it to be a saint? Does it mean that we must macerate this flesh of ours with cruel austerities, such as we read of in the life-story of some of God’s great heroes? Does it mean the bloody scourge, the painful vigil and sleepless night, that crucifying of the flesh in even its most innocent enjoyment? No, no, the hand of God does not lead us all by …
Virtues
April 29, 2023
I have long had the feeling that, since the world is growing so rapidly worse and worse and God has lost His hold, as it were, upon the hearts of men, He is looking all the more earnestly and anxiously for big things from those who are faithful to Him still. He cannot, perhaps, gather a large army round His standard, but He wants every one in it to be …
April 24, 2023
God sometimes seems to ask the impossible, a sorrow, a cross. Oh! it would crush me! How can this be? How? Lord, I do not know how, but You do. I will trust You always.
April 23, 2023
This morning I lay awake powerless to over come myself and to make my promised visit to the chapel. Then I felt prompted to pray; I said five aspirations and rose without difficulty. How many victories I could win by this easy and powerful weapon! COMMENT: Fr Willie was tough, so it’s a bit consoling to read about his difficulty getting out of bed. But in all of the things …
April 21, 2023
“They forgot God who saved them” (Psalm 105, 21). To how many may not these words be applied today! How many there are who come into this world and pass beyond its bounds and never know the loving God who died to save them. COMMENT: What Fr Willie wrote 100 years ago is even more apt for our world today. How many, even in traditionally Christian countries and even among …
April 20, 2023
If I were put in a dungeon, like the martyrs, with nothing to lie on but the bare stone floor, with no protection from intense cold, bread and water once a day for food, with no home comfort whatever, I could endure all that for years and gladly for the love of Jesus; yet I am unwilling to suffer a little inconvenience now, I must have every comfort, warm …
April 19, 2023
Sanctity is so precious, it is worth paying any price for it. God sanctified souls in many ways, the path of daily and hourly sacrifices in everything and always is mine. Will Jesus be content with only half-measures from me? I feel He will not; He asks for all. My Jesus, with your help I will give you all. COMMENT: Do we really believe that sanctity is worth paying any …
April 18, 2023
What more insignificant than the ordinary daily duties of religious life! Each succeeding hour brings with it some allotted task, yet in the faithful performance of these trifling acts of our everyday life lies the secret of true sanctity. Too often the constant repetition of the same acts, though in themselves they be of the holiest nature, makes us go through them in a mechanical way We meditate, we assist …
April 15, 2023
How sweet it is when our day is ended to find the body tired, the head heavy and jaded with work done for Jesus. The day has been a long one, bearing to us more than its share of disagreeable duties and unpleasant tasks; unexpected troubles have met us … but through it all we have unflinchingly plodded on, doing the Master’s work for love of Him.
April 13, 2023
Kneeling on the altar steps Jesus told me to devote one day of each week to the work of sanctification and reparation for His priests in each part of the world, e.g. Monday for the priests of Europe etc. COMMENT: Today’s quote was written in Fr Willie’s diary on this day in 1917. Fr Willie was something of a mystic. Again and again he reports in his diaries the messages …
April 12, 2023