Posted in QUOTES on LOVE of GOD, QUOTES on OBEDIENCE, QUOTES on SANCTITY, The WILL of GOD

Thought for the Day – 26 July – Good Inspirations

Thought for the Day – 26 July – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

Good Inspirations

“These good inspirations are a wonderful gift from God but, it can be disastrous to refuse to hear them
Are we being called to reform our lives?
Let us begin immediately the difficult task of changing ourselves.
Are we being called to Christian perfection?
Let us be generous!
Remember the words of Bossuet who said perfection is like a high mountain which must be conquered, step by step.
So begin the ascent right away in obedience to God’s wishes.
Remember that to ignore a holy inspiration, is an insult to God and a deviation from the straight and narrow path of perfection.
It is a proof that we do not love Jesus and are not prepared to be faithful to Him.
In fact, we are risking our own eternal salvation!
Remember, the case of the young man in the Gospel who was asked to leave everything and to follow Jesus along the way of perfection.
He did not do so and we cannot say with certainty whether or not, his soul was saved.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

PART ONE:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/02/19/thought-for-the-day-19-february-good-inspirations/
PART TWO:
https://anastpaul.com/2021/02/16/thought-for-the-day-19-february-good-inspirations-2/

Posted in CONFESSION/PENANCE, DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, QUOTES on ANGER, QUOTES on ENEMIES, QUOTES on FORGIVENESS, QUOTES on HEAVEN, QUOTES on HUMILITY, QUOTES on SANCTITY, The WORD

Quote/s of the Day – 17 September – ‘… … Never place yourself above anyone …’

Quote/s of the Day – 17 September – Ephesians 3:13-21, Luke 14:1-11 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

For everyone who exalts himself,
will be humbled and he
who humbles himself,
will be exalted.”

Luke 14:11

“I tell you, this man went back to his home justified,
rather than the other;
for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled
but he who humbles himself,
will be exalted

Luke 18:14

Be on your guard, therefore
and bear in mind, this example
of severe loss, sustained through arrogance.
… Never place yourself above anyone,
not even great sinners.
Humility often saves a sinner,
who has committed many terrible transgressions!”

No Christian should think of himself
as his own master
but each should rather so think and act,
as though given by God,
to be slave to his fellow brothers and sisters.

St Basil the Great (329-379)
Father and Doctor of the Church

What evil can your enemy do to you
which would be comparable to that,
which you do to yourself? …
If you let yourself go, in indignation and anger,
you will be wounded, not because of the injury
your enemy inflicted upon you
but, from the resentment you feel because of it.
So do not say: “He insulted me, he slandered me,
he did a great number of wretched things to me.”
The more you say he did evil things to you,
the more you show that he did you good,
since he gave you an opportunity
to purify yourself of your sins.
Thus, the more he offends you,
the more he places you in a state
of obtaining the forgiveness of your faults from God.
For if we want, no-one can damage us;
even our enemies are thus doing us a great service…
So consider how many advantages
you draw from an injury that is suffered humbly

and gently!

St John Chrysostom (347-407)
Father and Doctor of the Church

We must erect the mystical ladder of Jacob,
where Angels, ascending and descending,
appeared to him.
Ascent and descent means,
that we go downward when we exalt ourselves
and rise, when we are humbled.
The ladder represents our life in this world,
which our Lord erects to Heaven,
when our heart is humbled.
The sides of the ladder represent our soul and body,
sides between which,
God has placed several rungs of humility and, discipline,
whereby we are to ascend
if we would answer His call.

(Rule of Benedict #7)

St Benedict (480-547)
Father of the Church

Posted in GOD ALONE!, MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES on CREATION, QUOTES on ETERNAL LIFE, QUOTES on LOVE of GOD, QUOTES on THE WORLD

Thought for the Day – 5 July – A Ladder Ascending to God

Thought for the Day – 5 July – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

A Ladder Ascending to God

How often, nevertheless, is our mind led astray by the passing beauty of this world.
How often is our heart engrossed in a search for a happiness, which is purely illusory.
God has given us created things so that we may see in them, a reflection of His goodness and beauty and may use them as a ladder, which will lead us to Him.

We shall be lost if we look back and fall beneath the false spell of this earthly fairyland.
Our minds and hearts should look upwards towards Heaven.

God alone can satisfy the infinite desires of the soul.
Let us never lose sight of Him.
Everything else passes but God does not change.
He will be our sure guide in this life and our everlasting happiness in the next.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

PART ONE:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/07/06/thought-for-the-day-6-july-a-ladder-ascending-to-god/
PART TWO:
https://anastpaul.com/2021/07/06/thought-for-the-day-6-july-a-ladder-ascending-to-god-2/

Posted in GOD ALONE!, MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES on CREATION, QUOTES on THE WORLD

Thought for the Day – 10 July – A Ladder Ascending to God

Thought for the Day – 10 July – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

A Ladder Ascending to God

How often, nevertheless, is our mind led astray by the passing beauty of this world.
How often is our heart engrossed in a search for a happiness, which is purely illusory.
God has given us created things so that we may see in them, a reflection of His goodness and beauty and may use them as a ladder, which will lead us to Him.

We shall be lost if we look back and fall beneath the false spell of this earthly fairyland.
Our minds and hearts should look upwards towards Heaven.

God alone can satisfy the infinite desires of the soul.
Let us never lose sight of Him.
Everything else passes but God does not change.
He will be our sure guide in this life and our everlasting happiness in the next.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

PART ONE:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/07/06/thought-for-the-day-6-july-a-ladder-ascending-to-god/
PART TWO:
https://anastpaul.com/2021/07/06/thought-for-the-day-6-july-a-ladder-ascending-to-god-2/

Posted in "Follow Me", GOD ALONE!, MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES on LOVE of GOD, QUOTES on NATURE - GOD'S CREATION, QUOTES on The SOUL

Thought for the Day – 6 July – A Ladder Ascending to God

Thought for the Day – 6 July – “Month of the Most Precious Blood” – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

A Ladder Ascending to God

“Let us lower our eyes and observe the world around us.
Here again, everything speacks to us of God, for everything is a reflection of His power and goodness.
From the tiny flowers which opens its perfumed petals to the dawn and closes them again to the sunset, as if in an an act of self-effacement before its Creator, to the pines and cedars of the forest, all nature seems to send up a hymn of praise and thanksgiving to God.
We are surrounded by marvels but the greatest of them all is man, the lord of the universe.
The beauty and order which we admire in creatures are concentrated in him; the eye, the ear and the tongue are among the extraordinary gifts which his body has received from God.

But, when we pass from the body to the soul, that spiritual flame which God has kindled in us, we we have reached an object of wonder, far surpassing the splendour of material things.
A mind which is capable of thought and reasoning and a heart which is capable of love, belong, not merely to this world but are a living image of our Creator.
It is for Him, therefore, that the intellect should function; it is He, that the heart should love!”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

PART ONE HERE:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/07/06/thought-for-the-day-6-july-a-ladder-ascending-to-god/

Posted in GOD the FATHER, MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES on HUMILITY, QUOTES on NATURE - GOD'S CREATION

Thought for the Day – 6 July – A Ladder Ascending to God

Thought for the Day – 6 July – “Month of the Most Precious Blood” – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

A Ladder Ascending to God

a ladder ascending to god - bacci - 6 july 2020 (1)

“Nature shows forth the power and beauty of God.
When we gaze at the sky on a clear night, countless millions of stars seem to look back at us like so many shining eyes, wishing to remind us of God’s greatness.
These brilliant pin-points of light are really immense bodies, often much larger than our own globe.
God created them and flung them into space, where He fixed for them, the orbits which they must travel every year, throughout the ages.
They carry out their Creator’s plan at every moment, never deflecting, in the slightest, from their course.
If they were to do so, the result would be an universal catastrophe.

Everything in the firmament obeys God’s law.
“The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament proclaims his handiwork” (Ps 18:2).
The further science advances, the more wonderful appear God’s power and greatness.
Our ancestors wove legends about the bright belt of stars which ploughed it’s milky way through the firmament but, today we know, that this apparent conglomeration of gleaming dust, consists of other worlds and faraway systems of planets.
We should feel humble in the presence of so much beauty and harmony.
Let us adore and love the omnipotent Creator of such wonders!”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci