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Quote/s of the Day – 27 October – ‘ … Wholly united with Christ. … ‘

Quote/s of the Day – 27 October – Vigil of Saints Simon and Jude – 1 Corinthians 4:9-14, John 15:1-7 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

I am the vine, you the branches;
whoever remains in me and I in him,
the same bears much fruit;
for without Me
you can do nothing.

John 15:5

To magnify her Royal Lover still further,
the soul must have eyes only for Him,
in other words, with an ever-growing,
anxiously eager attentiveness.
the soul must study all the details of His Beauty,
His perfections, must keep on discovering motives
for finding ever-increasing gratification
in the ineffable Beauty with which it is in love.

St Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Doctor of the Church

Place all your trust in God,
let Him be your fear and your love.
He will answer for you,
He will do what is best for you.
You have here no lasting home.
You are a stranger and a pilgrim
wherever you may be
and you shall have no rest,
until you are wholly united with Christ.
Why do you look about here
when this is not the place of your repose?

Thomas à Kempis CRSA (1380-1471)

For the branch,” says St Augustine,
“there can be no half-measures.
Either it remains united with the vine,
or it is thrown into the fire.”
The same holds true for each one of us.
We must choose, either close union with Jesus,
or separation and spiritual death.
We must decide between a life of fervour in Christ,
or a life of tepidity and sin.

Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

Posted in "Follow Me", CHRIST the LIGHT, CHRIST, the WAY,TRUTH,LIFE, GOD ALONE!, MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES for CHRIST, QUOTES on DISCIPLESHIP, QUOTES on LOVE of GOD, QUOTES on SANCTITY, QUOTES on SELF-DENIAL, The HEART

Thought for the Day – 5 September – My Life is Christ

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

My Life is Christ

St Paul reached such a degree of union with Christ that he could exclaim” “To me to live is Christ” (Phil 1:21).
Elsewhere he says” “It is now no longer I that live but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20).
This is a characteristic of the Saints.
They live their own lives no longer, for they live the life of Christ.
That is to say, their minds and hearts are always fixed on Jesus.
They love the Lord, more than all things and, more than themselves.

God is the object of all their desires, affections and actions.
As a result, the soul is transfigured and is infused with divine life, so that it does nothing which is not activated by grace.
In the Saints, then, there is reflected something heavenly which attracts and stimulates one to virtue.

The Saints preached effectively in simple, unadorned language, as in the case of the Cure of Ars.
But, their most effective sermon was the example of their lives.
They could say with St Paul: “To me to live is Christ.”
They could repeat the thought of St Jerome: “Christ is the breath of my lips.”
Like St John Chrysostom, they could say: “My heart is the heart of Christ.”
They could say with St Augustine: “I am only an instrument in the service of Christ” and, with St Anselm: “My eyes are the eyes of Christ.”

When we meditate on these words, which signify the height of sanctity, we feel very small, shabby and far from the Christian perfection to which we should aspire.
Perhaps we are still immersed in sin, or perhaps, we are wavering between the things of this world and the things of God, or perhaps, as yet, we have not given up our egoism and complacent mediocrity in order to offer ourselves entirely to God.
Real Christianity demands that we renounce ourselves, live the life of Christ and, make every effort to acquire perfection.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Posted in "Follow Me", CHRIST, the WAY,TRUTH,LIFE, GOD ALONE!, MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES for CHRIST, QUOTES on GRACE, QUOTES on HELL, QUOTES on LOVE of GOD, QUOTES on PRAYER, QUOTES on SANCTITY, QUOTES on TRUST and complete CONFIDENCE in GOD

Thought for the Day – 26 April – My Life is Christ

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

My Life is Christ

“Am I determined to live the Life of Christ, by striving to be indissolubly united with Him, through divine grace?
Am I prepared to say, with St Paul “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? For I am sure, that neither death, or life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, or any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord” (Rom 8:35-39).

But, in order to bring this about, it is necessary for me to fly from every sin and to look for God in all things and in all actions.
I must love God with my whole heart and nurture the divine life within me, by prayer, recollection and frequent Communion.
If I fail to put these resolutions into practice, I shall become a barren branch, fit only for eternal fire!”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

PARTS ONE AND TWO HERE:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/09/14/thought-for-the-day-14-september-my-life-is-christ/
https://anastpaul.com/2021/03/07/thought-for-the-day-14-september-my-life-is-christ-2/

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Thought for the Day – 13 April – My Life is Christ

Thought for the Day – 13 April – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

My Life is Christ

“St Paul reached such a degree of union with Christ that he could exclaim” “To me to live is Christ” (Phil 1:21).
Elsewhere he says” “It is now no longer I that live but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20).
This is a characteristic of the Saints.
They live their own lives no longer, for they live the life of Christ.
That is to say, their minds and hearts are always fixed on Jesus.
They love the Lord, more than all things and, more than themselves.
God is the object of all their desires, affections and actions.
As a result, the soul is transfigured and is infused with divine life, so that it does nothing which is not activated by grace.
In the Saints, then, there is reflected something heavenly which attracts and stimulates one to virtue.

The Saints preached effectively in simple, unadorned language, as in the case of the Cure of Ars.
But, their most effective sermon was the example of their lives.
They could say with St Paul: “To me to live is Christ.”
They could repeat the thought of St Jerome: “Christ is the breath of my lips.”
Like St John Chrysostom, they could say: “My heart is the heart of Christ.”
They could say with St Augustine: “I am only an instrument in the service of Christ” and, with St Anselm: “My eyes are the eyes of Christ.”

When we meditate on these words, which signify the height of sanctity, we feel very small, shabby and far from the Christian perfection to which we should aspire.
Perhaps we are still immersed in sin, or perhaps, we are wavering between the things of this world and the things of God, or perhaps, as yet, we have not given up our egoism and complacent mediocrity in order to offer ourselves entirely to God.
Real Christianity demands that we renounce ourselves, live the life of Christ and, make every effort to acquire perfection.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

Posted in "Follow Me", CHRIST the LIGHT, CHRIST, the WAY,TRUTH,LIFE, MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, QUOTES for CHRIST, QUOTES on GRACE, QUOTES on Lukewarmness, QUOTES on SANCTITY, QUOTES on the CHURCH, QUOTES on THE MYSTICAL BODY, The INCARNATION, The REDEMPTION

Thought for the Day – 7 March– My Life is Christ

Thought for the Day – 7 March– Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

My Life is Christ

“Through the work of the Incarnation and Redemption, Jesus assumed, not only a human body and soul so that He might be loved more and so, that He might redeem us but, He also assumed a mystical body, which is composed of all men in the state of grace.
The mystical body is the Church, of which Christ is the head.
We should all desire to be members of this mystical body.
To do so, we must live the life of Christ, which is His grace.
If we are separated from the life of Christ, we are nolonger Christians.
We are merely dead and rotten limbs, to use the metaphor of the vine tree and the branches.
“I am the vine,” says Jesus, “you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him,” He continues, “he bears much fruit. If anyone does not abide in me,” He adds, “he shall be cast outside, as the branch and wither and they shall gather them up and cast them into fire and they shall burn” (Cf Jn 15:4-5).

“For the branch,” says St Augustine, “there can be no half-measures. Either it remains united with the vine, or it is thrown into the fire.”
The same holds true for each one of us.
We must choose, either close union with Jesus, or separation and spiritual death.
We must decide between a life of fervour in Christ, or a life of tepidity and sin.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

PART ONE HERE:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/09/14/thought-for-the-day-14-september-my-life-is-christ/

Posted in "Follow Me", CHRIST, the WAY,TRUTH,LIFE, GOD ALONE!, OPEN HOUSE...Conversations with..., QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES for CHRIST, QUOTES on CONVERSION, QUOTES on DISCIPLESHIP, QUOTES on LOVE of GOD, QUOTES on MISSION, QUOTES on SANCTITY, QUOTES on SELF-DENIAL

Thought for the Day – 14 September – My Life is Christ

Thought for the Day – 14 September – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

My Life is Christ

“St Paul reached such a degree of union with Christ that he could exclaim” “To me to live is Christ” (Phil 1:21).
Elsewhere he says” “It is now no longer I that live but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20).
This is a characteristic of the Saints.
They live their own lives no longer, for they live the life of Christ.
That is to say, their minds and hearts are always fixed on Jesus.
They love the Lord, more than all things and, more than themselves.
God is the object of all their desires, affections and actions.
As a result, the soul is transfigured and is infused with divine life, so that it does nothing which is not activated by grace.
In the Saints, then, there is reflected something heavenly which attracts and stimulates one to virtue.

The Saints preached effectively in simple, unadorned language, as in the case of the Cure of Ars.
But, their most effective sermon was the example of their lives.
They could say with St Paul: “To me to live is Christ.”
They could repeat the thought of St Jerome: “Christ is the breath of my lips.”
Like St John Chrysostom, they could say: “My heart is the heart of Christ.”
They could say with St Augustine: “I am only an instrument in the service of Christ” and, with St Anselm: “My eyes are the eyes of Christ.”

When we meditate on these words, which signify the height of sanctity, we feel very small, shabby and far from the Christian perfection to which we should aspire.
Perhaps we are still immersed in sin, or perhaps, we are wavering between the things of this world and the things of God, or perhaps, as yet, we have not given up our egoism and complacent mediocrity in order to offer ourselves entirely to God.
Real Christianity demands that we renounce ourselves, live the life of Christ and, make every effort to acquire perfection.”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci