If you love the world you will be engulfed, for the world knows only how to shipwreck a soul, it knows not how to save it.
St Augustine
What are the miseries which worldlings have to endure? Alas! everything seems to conspire to make them groan without being allowed too complain.
Pere Croiset SJ
The world is that mass of wicked men and impious libertines who refuse to believe in the truths of the gospel, because they wage war with their vices, because they confute the Saviour’s maxims, despise His mysteries, ignore His precepts, and profane His sacraments. In short, the world is the majority who follow its maxims. It is this world which you have to hate in your baptism, and which you are taught to confute, condemn, and wage war against.
Massillion
All the land is infected through the wickedness of those who dwell on it. Blood has tasted blood, the father scandalise his child, the brother lays snares for his brother, and the husband seeks for a divorce.
Massillion
The chains that bind us to the world, are pleasing to look at but hard to bear, the harm they inflict is certain, the pleasure they promise very doubtful, Those who wear them are ever busy, but never exempt from dread. Those who follow the maxims of the world experience nothing but misery.
St Augustine
There are still some amongst us, who keep themselves unspotted from the world, who imitate the early Christians.
S. Vincent Ferrer observes, that the riches of this world are external, they enter not into the heart. “They are waters which do not enter space, where there is thirst.” The sinner may wear a beautiful embroidered robe, he may have a costly diamond on his finger, he may feast according to his desire, but his poor heart will remain filled with bitterness ; and therefore he will be, notwithstanding all his riches, pleasures, and amusements, ever restless ; and when anything opposes his will, he will become furious and angry like a dog that is mad.
St Alphonsus Liguori
When things go wrong with him who loves God, he resigns himself to the will of God, and therefore there is no need for him to quiet himself. The unhappy sinner, serves the devil serves a tyrant who repays him with sorrow and bitterness. What does not that revengeful man suffer, after he is revenged? that dishonest one, after he has fulfilled his design ? that ambitious one ? that avaricious one? Oh how many there are, who, if they suffered for God that which they suffered to bring themselves to condemnation, would become great saints.
St Alphonsus Liguori
Scripture speaks of a converted man as a new man, because, in fact, it produces a wonderful renewal in a regenerated creature. He is no longer himself, he is another man, another being, everything is changed. He cannot recognise the past, on whatever side you look, you find a new man.
Pere Vincent Houdry
I called and you rejected Me, I also in My turn, will laugh you to scorn. This is, at the same time, a reproach and a threat, which God makes to sinners.
Massillon
Woe to me! if I am so badly advised as to use my soul thus, woe to me! if I delay to the last moment of my life, that which should have been the occupation of my life.
De la Colombiere, SJ
Do not, I implore you, delay your conversion to God, for you know not the day appointed to carry you off. You tell me that God has given His grace to be converted, to some when they have reached to extreme old age. Does it follow from this that He will grant you the same favour? Perhaps He will grant it to me. Why add, perhaps? Because it has sometimes happened. What! does the question of your salvation depend on a perhaps?
Hail, O Mother! By St John Chrysostom (347-407) Father and Doctor of the Church
Hail, O Mother! Virgin, heaven, throne, glory of our Church, it’s foundation and ornament. Earnestly pray for us to Jesus, your Son and Our Lord, that through your intercession, we may have mercy on the day of judgement. Pray that we may receive, all those good things which are reserved for those who love God. Through the grace and favour of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, to Whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be power, honour and glory, now and forever. Amen
And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias; that he may turn the hearts of the fathers unto the children, and the incredulous to the wisdom of the just, to prepare unto the Lord a perfect people.
Luke 1:17
If we willfully neglect to seek the road that leads to God, we shall find that we are as far off as earth is to heaven. But if we sincerely try to reach that blessed city, we shall soon find ourselves at its gate.
St John Chrysostom
In seeing and possessing God in heaven, we shall become like to God: holy, pure, wise, powerful and happy, sharing the happiness of God Himself, a pure, constant, universal and eternal happiness. We shall be transformed into Him; our wills, our affections, our desires, will be like God’s.
Fr François Nepveu
God and the soul become one in participant transformation, and the soul appears to be God more than a soul. Indeed, in the Transforming Union it is God by participation.
The Fire Within
Had you worked to gain heaven, every moment of pain would produce an additional lustre to your crown of glory. But because you work for this world, you labour incessantly and gain nothing. All that you have done, all that you have suffered, will be to no avail, all your ridiculous projects will end in smoke, all your works are dead, and with them, you will die.
Pere Crasset
Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is his name. And his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he finds a single pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it. So will it be at the end of the world. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from among the just, and will cast them into the furnace of fire, where there will be the weeping, and the gnashing of teeth.
Matt 13:44-52
REFLECTION – And if you be willing to produce in the midst a miser’s soul; like a garment eaten by innumerable worms, and not having any sound part, even so will you find it, perforated on all sides by cares; rotted, cankered by sins.
But not such the poor man’s soul, the soul of him, I mean, that is voluntarily poor; but it is resplendent as gold, it shines like a pearl, and it blooms like a rose. For no moth is there, no thief is there, no worldly care, but as angels converse, so do they.
Would you see the beauty of this soul? Would you acquaint yourself with the riches of poverty? He commands not men, but he commands evil spirits. He stands not at a king’s side, but he has taken his stand near to God. He is the comrade, not of men, but of angels. He has not chests, two, or three, or twenty, but such an abundance as to account the whole world as nothing. He has not a treasure, but heaven. He needs not slaves, or rather has his passions for slaves, has for slaves the motives that rule over kings. For that which commands him who wears the purple, that motive shrinks before him. And royalty, and gold, and all such things, he laughs at, as at children’s toys; and like hoops, and dice, and heads, and balls, so does he count all these to be contemptible. For he has an adorning, which they who play with these things cannot even see.
What then can be superior to this poor man? He has at least heaven for his pavement; but if the pavement be like this, imagine the roof!
St John Chrysostom
PRAYER – All-powerful, eternal God, grant us the grace of Your Spirit and fill us with the light of understanding and love. Grant that by the prayers of your Saints we may be strengthened and depend only on You. Holy Queen of the Holy Rosary, our Mother Mary and St Hedwig, pray for us. We make our prayer through Jesus, our Lord with the Holy Spirit, God forever, amen.
I cannot concieve a man being spiritual who does not habitually say the rosary. It may be called the queen of indulgenced devotions. First, consider its importance, as a specially Catholic devotion, as so peculiary giving us a Catholic turn of mind by keeping Jesus and Mary perpetually before us, and as a singular help to final perseverance, if we continue the recital of it.
Fr Faber
The Rosary is the most powerful, at the same time the most efficacious of daily devotions, since all kinds of favours are granted to those who recite it devoutly and regularly. If you wish to know what particular graces we obtain therefrom, the following are those, which the Blessed Alain de la Roche learned from the Blessed Virgin herself: Sanctitas vitae, morum honestas, mundi contemptus, domorim disciplina – Holiness of life, integrity of purpose, contempt of the world, and peace of Christian homes.
Pere Nicolas de Dijon
The Christians of the primitive Church enticed the pagans, not only by their generous and unconquerable patience, but also by the holiness of their lives, and the heretics, as corrupt in their manners as they were in their belief, were the cause that the name of Jesus Christ was blasphemed among the Gentiles, and that the light and brightness of the Church was blackened by an infinity of calumnies. But Truth remains, errors pass away. All these heresies, aided by the eloquence, doctrine, and subtlety of their authors, supported by the powerful influence of the great and noble, sustained by the armies of emperors, have passed away, or are passing away.
Father Texier (17th cent)
What blindness! that each heretic forms his own idea of religion, according to his own private judgement, by refusing to subscribe to the tenets of the Church, that each one becomes the judge and umpire of eternal truths, that from some particular tenet they frame a form of worship, and introduce ceremonies to adore the God Almighty, or to appease His justice, that they undertake to reform, interpret and reverse the precepts of the law and Christian morals, which God has revealed to His Church, and which the inspired writers have left us!
Abbe Flechier
Priests should be holy, says God, because I am holy, and that My being holy I wish My ministers to be holy, and I cannot endure any but holy men to approach Me or My altars. Sanctity is a necessary appendage for the priest, and the want of holiness is a species of irregularity which is unbearable and which I cannot suffer. Let not those who have not the courage to try to become saints, be rash enough to be priests of My altars.
Abbe Flechier
You have the church, which is a refuge, and, if I may dare to say so, is a heaven in miniature. You have a sacrifice offered up and consummated, you have the house wherein the Holy Ghost showers down abundant graces, you have the tombs and relics of the martyrs and saints, and many other things, which should induce you to return from a state of sin and indifference to that of grace and justice.
One Minute Reflection- 13 October – “Month of the Holy Rosary” and the Anniversary of the Last Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima and the Miracle of the Sun – Readings: Dan 3:31; 3:29; 3:35, Ps 118:1, Eph 5:15-21, John 4:46-53
When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and besought Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Jesus therefore said to him, Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe.
John 4:46-53
REFLECTION – Yet the very coming and beseeching Him was a mark of faith. And besides, after this the Evangelist witnesses to him, declaring that when Jesus said, Go, your son lives, he believed His word, and went. What then is that which He says here? Either He uses the words as approving of the Samaritans because they believed without signs; or, to touch Capernaum which was thought to be His own city, and of which this person was. Moreover, another man in Luke, who says, Lord, I believe, said besides, help my unbelief. And so if this ruler also believed, yet he believed not entirely or soundly, as is clear from his enquiring at what hour the fever left him, since he desired to know whether it did so of its own accord, or at the bidding of Christ. When therefore he knew that it was yesterday at the seventh hour, then himself believed and his whole house.
Do you see that he believed when his servants, not when Christ spoke? Therefore He rebukes the state of mind with which he had come to Him, and spoken as he did, (thus too He the more drew him on to belief,) because that before the miracle he had not believed strongly. That he came and entreated was nothing wonderful, for parents in their great affection are also wont to resort not only to physicians in whom they have confidence, but also to talk with those in whom they have no confidence, desiring to omit nothing whatever. Indeed, that he came without any strong purpose appears from this, that when Christ had come into Galilee, then he saw Him, whereas if he had firmly believed in Him, he would not, when his child was on the point of death, have hesitated to go into Judæa. Or if he was afraid, this is not to be endured either.
Observe how the very words show the weakness of the man; when he ought, after Christ had rebuked his state of mind, to have imagined something great concerning Him, even if he did not so before, listen how he drags along the ground.
St John Chrysostom
PRAYER – Lord God, open our hearts to Your Grace, that we may be filled with Your light and overflow with gratitude for Your merciful love. May we love and adore and worship You in return. Although we are sinners, our hearts long to thank You in total trust and humble thankfulness. Grant that by the prayers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Fatima, our Mother, we may grow in holiness. Through Your only Son, our Saviour and Redeemer, with the Holy Spirit, God, forever, amen.
But they made light of it, and went off, one to his farm, and another to his business; and the rest laid hold of his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.
Matt 22:1-14
See then care utterable. He had planted a vineyard; He had done all things, and finished; when His servants had been put to death, He sent other servants; when those had been slain, He sent the son; and when He was put to death, He bids them to the marriage. They would not come. After this He sends other servants, and they slew these also. Then upon this He slays them, as being incurably diseased.
St John Chrysostom
We are hypocrites who serve God just as long as everything is going according to our wishes. Alas, my dear brethren, all of these virtues which we observe in a great many apparent Christians are but like the flowers of spring, which one gust of hot wind can wither.
St John Vianney
From our mutual love and your reverence for me you have thought that I should be consulted, dearest brother, as to my opinion concerning a certain actor, who, being settled among you, still persists in the discredit of the same art of his; and as a master and teacher, not for the instruction, but for the destruction of boys, that which he has unfortunately learned he also imparts to others: you ask whether such a one ought to communicate with us. This, I think, neither befits the divine majesty nor the discipline of the Gospel, that the modesty and credit of the Church should be polluted by so disgraceful and infamous a contagion.
St Cyprian
For what is more truly the beginning for a Christian than to believe in Christ? What end is better than to suffer for Christ?
St Augustine
We must certainly be extraordinarily blind because when all is said and done, there is not a single person who could say that he is ready to appear before Jesus Christ. Yet in spite of the fact that we are quite aware of this, there is still not one among us who will take a single step nearer to God. Dear Lord, how blind the sinner is! How pitiable is his lot! My dear children, let us not live like fools any longer, for at the moment when we least expect it, Jesus Christ will knock at our door. How happy then will be the person who has not been waiting until that very moment to prepare himself for Him. That is what I wish you to be.
St John Vianney
Wherefore also great is the punishment appointed for them that have been remiss. For as they did despite by not coming, so also thou by thus sitting down with a corrupt life. For to come in with filthy garments is this namely, to depart hence having one’s life impure; wherefore also he was speechless.
Do you, therefore, and My other servants, carry yourselves with true patience, with grief for your sins, and with love of virtue for the glory and praise of My Name. If you act thus, I will satisfy for your sins, and for those of My other servants, inasmuch as the pains which you will endure will be sufficient, through the virtue of love, for satisfaction and reward, both in you and in others. In yourself you will receive the fruit of life, when the stains of your ignorance are effaced, and I shall not remember that you ever offended Me.
The Dialogue of St Catherine of Siena
Some people think it a hardship not to be praying all the time for their own souls. Yet what better prayer could there be than this? You may be worried because you think it will do nothing to lessen your pains in Purgatory, but actually praying in this way will relieve you of some of them and anything else that is left – well, let it remain. After all, what does it matter if I am in Purgatory until the Day of Judgement provided a single soul should be saved?
St Teresa of Avila
John Gerson, Chancellor of the University of Paris, remarkable for his learning and virtue, after having explained the fifty properties of divine love mentioned in the Canticles, expired at the close of three days, smiling, and pronouncing these words of the same sacred text: ‘Thy love, O God, is strong as death’.
St Francis de Sales
The sure way of gaining heaven, without much cost, is by making frequent acts of the love of God, and by accustoming ourselves to do everything with the intention of pleasing Him.
Father Segneri SJ
Do not suppose, you Greeks, that my separation from your customs is unreasonable and unthinking; for I found in them nothing that is holy or acceptable to God. For the very compositions of your poets are monuments of madness and intemperance. For any one who becomes the scholar of your most eminent instructor, is more beset by difficulties than all men besides. Such things I have no desire to be instructed in. Of such virtue I am not covetous, that I should believe the myths of Homer. For the whole rhapsody, the beginning and end both of the Iliad and the Odyssey is — a woman.
St Justin Martyr
When then neither loss of money, nor slander, nor railing, nor banishment, nor diseases, nor tortures, nor that which seems more formidable than all, namely death, harms those who suffer them, but rather adds to their profit, whence can you prove to me that any one is injured when he is not injured at all from any of these things? For I will endeavour to prove the reverse, showing that they who are most injured and insulted, and suffer the most incurable evils are the persons who do these things.
You are just, O Lord, and Your ordinance is right. Deal with Your servant according to Your kindness.
Ps 118:137; 118:124
Can we have any conception of a greater love for men than that of our Saviour, since, however wicked or ungrateful we may have been, He does not cease to love us? He forgives us our trespasses so readily that one would say that He was under an obligation to us. He rewards us for our good works liberally, never revealing how much He has contributed towards their performance. Although, in fact, we have done next to nothing for Him, He does not cease to be grateful, and showers down graces with profusion, just as if we had rendered Him some important service.
Fr Juan Eusebio Nieremberg SJ(17th century)
We should love our neighbour with a genuine affection, and not in the same way as we love things necessary or useful, such as bread, a house, and other things which are for our use or for our amusement, these we not love as ourselves, but for ourselves.
St Bernadine of Siena
When the Son of God gave us the best of prayers, He did not intend that we should say ‘My Father’ but Our Father, inasmuch as we have a common Father in heaven we should consider all men as our brethren, and that in this way we should love each other with a mutual love, with a love stronger on grace than in nature, as we have all an equal right to a vocation to a supernatural life, the same hope of a heavenly reward,
St John Chrysostom
How sweet is this command! Does it not appear worthy of the goodness and wisdom of God? Is it not reasonable that men who are endowed with one and the same nature, who have one and the same Father in heaven, who are obliged to live in society, who are all fellow-travellers, and who ought to meet again in heaven, is it not reasonable that we should love one another here below, and should help one another in the same degree as we would wish to be helped ourselves?
Pere de la Colombiere
The love of our neighbour may be placed in the same category as the love we owe to God. All who say ‘Lord, Lord’ (that is to say, all who say that they love God) shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Good works and proof of that love requisite. He alone will enter the kingdom of heaven who does the will of My Father. The same may be said of the love of our neighbour. We must show it by solid proofs.
St Augustine
He who does not believe that he has aught to pay to his neighbour, as if he had discharged the debt, ought rather to weep for himself as being without charity.
Brethren: If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk. Let us not become desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another.
Gal 5:25-26; 6:1-10
Indeed all the vices tend towards and aim at harming those whom they possess, but envy always consumes its own even more. Envy has always been the killer of its own, it strains thought-processes, it racks spirits, it torments minds, and it ruptures hearts.
St Peter Chrysologus
And why need I say more? The one who welcomes it endures his own unending punishments, because he is choosing to have his personal torturer always inside himself.
St Peter Chrysologus
Oh! ye who are envious, let me tell you, that however often you may seek for the opportunity of injuring him, whom you hate, you will never be able to do him so much harm, as you do harm to yourselves. He, whom you would pursue through the malice of your envy, may probably escape, but you will never be able to fly from yourselves. Wherever you may be, your adversary is with you, your sin rankles within.
St Cyprian
The envious man is cruel, proud, unfaithful, impatient and quarrelsome, and what is strange, when this vice gains the mastery, he is no longer master of himself, and he is unable to correct his many faults. If the bond of peace of broken, if the rights of fraternal charity are violated, if truth is altered or disguised, it is often envy that hurries him on to crime. What happiness can such a man enjoy in this world?
St Cyprian
Oh! envious man, you injure yourself, more than he whom you would injure, and the sword with which you would wound, will recoil and wound yourself. What harm did Cain to Abel? Contrary to his intention, he did him the greatest good, for he caused him to pass to a better and a blessed life, and he himself was plunged into an abyss of woe. It is ever thus, the more you envy your brother, the greater good you confer upon him. God, who sees all, takes the cause of the innocent in hand, and irritated by the injury you inflict, deigns to raise up him, whom you wish to lower, and will punish you to the full extent of your crime.
St John Chrysostom
Envy is a gnawing pain which springs from the success and prosperity of another, and this is the reason why the envious are never exempt from trouble and vexation. The envious, however, dare not speak, although envy makes them counterfeit gladness, their hearts are sore within. If you ask him what vexes him, he dare not tell the reason.
St Basil
As the shadow ever accompanies the pedestrian when walking in the sun, so envy throws its shadow on those who are successful in the world.
Letter to the Friends of the Cross by St Louis de Montfort
[3. Nothing is so glorious]
So rejoice and be glad when God favours you with one of his choicest crosses; for without realising it, you are blessed with the greatest gift of heaven, the greatest gift of God. If you really appreciated it, you would have Masses offered, you would make novenas at the shrines of the saints, you would undertake long pilgrimages, as did the saints, to obtain from heaven this divine gift.
The world calls this madness, degradation, stupidity, a lack of judgement and of common sense. They are blind: let them say what they like. This blindness, which makes them view the cross in a human and distorted way, is a source of glory to us. Every time they cause us to suffer by their ridicule and insults, they are presenting us with jewels, setting us on a throne, and crowning us with laurels.
More than that, as St. John Chrysostom says, “All the wealth and honours and sceptres and jewelled crowns of kings and emperors are not to be compared with the splendour of the cross.” It is greater even than the glory of an apostle or evangelist.“If I had the choice,”continues this holy man, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, “I would willingly leave heaven in order to suffer for the God of heaven. I would prefer dungeons and prisons to the thrones of the highest heaven, and the heaviest of crosses to the glory of the seraphim. I value the honour of suffering more than the gift of miracles, giving me the power to command evil spirits, shake the elements of the world, halt the sun in its course, or raise the dead to life. St. Peter and St. Paul are more glorious in their prison chains than in being caught up into the third heaven or receiving the keys of heaven.”
Indeed, is it not the Cross which has given to Jesus Christ “the name which is above all other names, so that all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld should bend the knee at the name of Jesus?” The glory of one who knows how to suffer is so great that heaven, angels and men, and even God himself, gaze on him with joy as a most glorious sight. And if the saints in heaven desired anything, it would be to return to earth so as to bear some crosses.
But if this glory is so great even on earth, what will it be in heaven? Who could describe it? Who could ever understand fully that eternal weight of glory which a single moment spent in cheerfully carrying a cross obtains for us? Who could understand the glory gained in heaven by a year, and sometimes a whole lifetime, of crosses and suffering?
You can be sure, my dear Friends of the Cross, that something wonderful is awaiting you, since the Holy Spirit has united you so intimately to that which everyone so carefully avoids. And you can be sure, too, that God will make of you as many saints as there are Friends of the Cross if you are faithful to your vocation and willingly carry your cross as Christ did.
Brethren: If we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also walk. Let us not become desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another.
Gal 5:25-26; 6:1-10
The yearning after glory is a strange passion. It displays itself in a hundred different ways. Some wish to be honoured, some wish to be in regal power, some aspire to be rich, and others sigh to be strong and robust. This tyrannic passion, passing still further on, induces some to seek for glory by their alms-deeds, others by their fasts and mortifications, some by their ostentatious prayers, others by their learning and science, so various are the forms of this monster vice.
St John Chrysostom
Men soon find that there is no one more importunate than he who, filled with vainglory, praises himself, gives himself airs, and places on his head a wreath of incense. He is laughed at for his vanity, and the more they notice that he boasts of himself, the more they endeavour to humiliate him. In fact, the more you try to attract the praise of the world by your own vanity and vainglory, the more will people either avoid you or laugh at you.
St John Chrysostom
Public approbation has but little effect on a man who has acted from good and conscientious motives, such a man merits as much again as he seems to have disregarded before. Those who seek with too much eagerness for the esteem and applause of the world, receive during this life the reward of their good works, but merit nothing for eternity. The reward which men can give us is frivolous and transient, but God reserves for us an infinite reward, an eternal recompense.
St Ambrose
All the saints admonish us to be on our guard against vainglory, because, say they, it is a cunning thief, which often steals from us our best actions, and which insinuates itself so secretly that it has struck its blow even before we have perceived it.
Alphonse Rodriguez SJ
Would you wish to know how to save yourself from this tempestuous sea? Love God, and you will walk upon its waters, you will tread under foot the pride of the world, and you will be saved.
St Augustine
He sees a crowd of frivolous desires, hopes ill-founded, unjust hatreds, irregulated loves, he sees the wanton extravagance of our pleasures, the inutility of our occupations, the instability of our fortunes, the emptiness of our wishes, the littleness of our interests. Ah! how mean and contemptible did the world appear to him! No wonder he despised it, and retired from it for evermore.
But of the fruit of the Spirit is: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, long-suffering, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity. Against such things there is no law. And they who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires.
Gal 5:16-24
John was made steadfast in God, rooted in Christ, filled with the Holy Ghost, made strong by virtue, and most lofty in holiness, he could not be bent back or altered from his faith in Christ, once he had borne witness to it, by the winds of admirers, or by the squalls of slanderers, or by the gales of threats, or by the feathery touches of pleasure, or by the storms of suffering.
St Peter Chrysologus
If we consider the friendships of the ordinary run of mortals nowadays, we should find that nearly all human friendships are at a very low ebb, and are simply kept up by the prospect of gain in the business of this life. The friendship between persons united in and with Jesus Christ is solid, constant, and invicible, it is not shaken or impaired by suspicion, calumny, or even by death itself.
St John Chrysostom
Indeed, what could I wish to be, if I did not wish to be a saint? I must then be a reprobate, for there is no middle course, either a saint or a reprobate.
LePere D’Argentan
And how many saints, who were men like ourselves, and subject to the same infirmities, have been happier, more contented in their poverty, than the rich worldlings with all their treasures? How many of them have felt a sweeter consolation in the midst of scorn and contempt, than the most ambitious have felt, even when loaded with honours? And how many have felt a holier joy, even when carrying a heavy cross, than the sensualists in the midst of their pleasures.
LePere D’Argentan
How can a truly virtuous man fail in anything? In what situation, will he not be powerful, in what state of poverty, will he not be rich, in what obscurity, will he not be brilliant, in what inaction, will he not be industrious, in what infirmity, will he not be vigorous, in what weakness, will he not be strong, in what solitude, will he not be accompanied? for he will have for company the hope of a happy eternity, for clothing, he will have the grace of the Most High, for ornament, the promises of a halo of glory! Let us recollect that the Saints were not of a more excellent nature than ours, but were more orderly and regular, that they were not exempt from sins, but that they took pains to correct their faults.
St Ambrose
Love Him, then; keep Him as a friend. He will not leave you as others do, or let you suffer lasting death. Sometime, whether you will or not, you will have to part with everything. Cling, therefore, to Jesus in life and death; trust yourself to the glory of Him who alone can help you when all others fail. You will quickly be deceived if you look only to the outward appearance of men, and you will often be disappointed if you seek comfort and gain in them. If, however, you seek Jesus in all things, you will surely find Him. Likewise, if you seek yourself, you will find yourself — to your own ruin. For the man who does not seek Jesus does himself much greater harm than the whole world and all his enemies could ever do.
One Minute Reflection – 30 August – St Rose of Lima OP (1586-1617) Virgin – Readings: Ps 83:10-11, Ps 83:2-3, Gal 5:16-24, Matt 6:24-33
Therefore I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, what you shall eat; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life a greater thing than the food, and the body than the clothing?
Matt 6:24-33
REFLECTION – If spiritual things hold first place in our lives, material needs will cause us no concern, for God in his goodness will give them to us in abundance. On the other hand, if we devote ourselves entirely to earthly pursuits and neglect our spiritual life, concern for what this life has to offer will lead us to neglect our souls. I urge you, therefore, let us not overturn the established order. We know that our Master is good, so let us commit everything to him and not be taken up with the cares of this life. “Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things even before you ask him”.
Jesus wishes us, then, to be free from every anxiety regarding temporal affairs, and to have all possible leisure for the things of the Spirit. He says: "Your part is to seek spiritual blessings, and I myself will provide amply for your material needs. Look at the birds in the sky. They neither sow nor reap nor gather crops into barns, and yet your Father feeds them." In other words, "If I take such care of irrational birds as to supply them with all they need without plowing or sowing, I will take much greater care of you who are endowed with reason, if only you make up your minds to put spiritual things before temporal ones. If I made these creatures for your sake, as well as the whole of creation, and if I take such care of them, of what great care will I not deem you worthy - you for whom I created all of this?"
St John Chrysostom (Baptismal catechesis, no.8)
PRAYER – Almighty God, Giver of all good things, Who willed that blessed Rose, imbued in early life with the dew of heavenly grace, should bloom among the Indians with the beauty of virginity and patience, grant unto us, Thy servants that, following the fragrance of her sweetness, we may be found worthy to become a sweet savour of Christ. Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen
Quote/s of the Day – 29 August – The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist
“Amen I say to you, there hath not risen among them that are born of women, a greater than John the Baptist.”
Matthew 11:11
John was greater than a human being, equal to the angels, the apex of the Law, the seed of the Gospel, the harbinger of the apostles, the silence of the prophets, the lamp of the world, the herald of the Judge, the forerunner of Christ, the preparer for the Lord, the witness of God, the mediator of the whole Trinity.
St Peter Chrysologus
Why was John allowed to die? For what occurred was not a death but a crown, not an end but the beginning of a greater life. Learn to think and live like a Christian. You will not only remain unharmed by these events but will reap the greatest benefits.
John has risen, just as you yourself acknowledge, here it was not the person but the infirmity that perished, here it was not John, but rather death that was overcome by such a death, the punishment is mocked, the executioner is considered a laughingstock, the very sentence of the wretched judge is eluded, because it did not strike down the one who was killed, but raised him to a higher state.
St Peter Chrysologus
I, for my part, think that the mystery of John is being fulfilled in the world until the present. The spirit and the power of John, must first fill the soul of whoever is destined to believe in Christ Jesus, “to prepare for the Lord a people well-disposed” and to “make ready the way of the Lord, [to] clear Him a straight path” in the roughness of their hearts. Not only at that time were “the winding paths … made straight and the rough ways smooth;” rather, the spirit and the power of John still go before the Lord and Saviour’s coming today. Oh greatness of the Lord’s Mystery and of His plan for the world!
Origen
What did you come out to see? A prophet? I tell you truly: he is even more than a prophet. John is more than a prophet, because he was counted worthy of both seeing and holding Christ, whose coming the prophets had foretold, and John was counted worthy of pointing out to a world that was perishing, the Saviour of the world.
St Peter Chrysologus
See how you lie prostrate unto death, while John who was killed is alive. You have lost the purple that received its colour from dye, John is forever gloriously clothed with the radiant purple from his blood. Your dinner guests are now made to share in your punishment, John partakes of the heavenly banquet with the choirs of angels. He hears the dulcet tones of heaven unceasingly; you hear forever the wailing and gnashing in hell. He, who was condemned as the price for your harlot and your dancing-girl, is now honoured with the kingdom and with heavenly rewards, for the sentence you gave, you have received recompense along with your daughter in Tartarus.
Further Divine Perfections Mirrored in the Admirable Heart of Mary
Divine Mercy is a perfection directed towards the miseries of creatures, tending to alleviate them and even to free them from created things when such a liberation enters into the designs of Divine Providence, which does all things with measure, number and weight. This adorable mercy extends, like goodness itself, to all God’s works: “His tender mercies are over all His works.” God’s mercy overshadows the works of nature, the works of grace and the works of glory.
Among the effects of divine Mercy, we must enumerate three principal realities, which in turn embody numberless effects. The first is the Incarnation of the God-Man; the second, His Mystical Body, namely Holy Church; the third is the Mother of the God-Man, namely the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. These constitute three admirable masterpieces of divine mercy.
Beyond this, God not only willed to become man that men might become partakers of the divine nature, but He willed that His only Son should become the Son of Man that men might become sons of God. God willed that His Son come into this world by being born of the seed of Adam and of a daughter of Adam that we might have the God-Man for our brother and the Mother of God for our mother. Thus we have the same father and the same mother as the Son of God Himself.We are His brothers, and as He is our mediator with His Father, so His heavenly Mother is a mediatrix between Himself and us.
In order to render His admirable Mother paramountly able to exercise her double office of Mother and Mediatrix, so that she might protect, favor and assist us with greater efficacy in all our needs, Divine Mercy constituted her, first of all, most agreeable and holy. Secondly, Mercy gave her dominion over everything in heaven and on earth. Thirdly, it gave her the mildest, sweetest and most loving heart save that of the God- Man. To the Heart of Mary God communicated in great abundance His merciful inclinations and established in it the throne and reign of His Mercy more gloriously than in the heart of any other creature, save the sacred humanity of Christ. Divine Mercy reigns so perfectly in Mary’s Heart that she bears the name of Queen and Mother of Mercy. And this most loving Mary has so completely won the heart of God’s mercy that He has given her the key to all His treasures and made her absolute mistress of them.
St. Bernard says: “She is called the Queen of Mercy because she opens the abyss and treasure of divine mercy to whom she chooses, when she chooses and as she chooses.” Divine Mercy holds such complete sway over Mary’s Heart and fills it with so much compassion for sinners and for all persons in need that St. Augustine addresses her thus: “Thou art the sinner’s only hope,” after God. “My dearest children,” says St. Bernard, “her heart is the ladder by which sinners go up to heaven; this is my reliance, this the only reason of my hope.” Euthymius, one of the ancient Fathers who lived over seven centuries ago, adds: “O most merciful Virgin, deign to cast thy pitiful eyes on thy poor servants, for, after God, we have placed all our hope in thee who are our life, our glory, and, as it were, our substance and our being.” St. John Damascene tells us that Our Lady is the only relief of the afflicted, the sovereign comforter of anguished hearts; and St. John Chrysostom declares her to be a boundless ocean of mercy.
Would you know in what further manner divine mercy lives and reigns in the Heart of the Mother of Mercy? Listen to St. Bonaventure: “Great was Mary’s mercy towards the wretched while she was living in exile here below; but immeasurably greater still now that she is happily reigning in heaven. She manifests this greater mercy through innumerable benefits, now that she possesses a clearer insight into the numberless woes of mankind. She does not require past merits, but grants the petitions of all men, out of charity, and opens the bosom of her clemency to everyone. She relieves every need and necessity with an incomparable affection and tenderness of heart.”
Her gentle Heart is so filled with mercy that it overflows on all sides and spreads itself in heaven, on earth and even in hell. Let us again listen to St. Bernard proclaiming this truth: “Who can comprehend, O Blessed – Virgin, the length, the width, the height and the depth of thy mercy? Its length extends to the last day in the life of those who invoke thee; its width encompasses the whole world; its height reaches to heaven, there to repair the losses of the heavenly Jerusalem; its depth has penetrated hell to obtain the deliverance of them that sit in the darkness and shadow of death.”
The virginal Heart of the Mother of Grace is filled with such exceeding mercy that she exercises it not only in favor of sinners who wish to be converted, but also towards many persons who never think of their eternal salvation. She implores her Blessed Son to inspire them, to excite in their hearts sentiments of fear of God and terror at the thought of His judgments. She asks Him to chastise them in divers ways, to raise in their midst persons leading holy and exemplary lives, whose example will draw them to Himself, and to use all other means of obtaining their conversion, or at least, if they will not mend their ways, to prevent them from multiplying their sins, that their damnation may be less terrible.
But what is even more, the Heart of Mary is so full of mercy that, using the extraordinary privileges God has granted to her alone, and out of her incomparable goodness, she often saves from eternal perdition souls who in the ordinary course of divine Justice would have been cast into hell. Such is the mind of that ancient and excellent author, Raymund Jourdain, who succeeded in hiding his name, but not the extent of his learning and holiness: “The Mother’s mercy often saves many whom the justice of the Son would have otherwise condemned.”
Hence St. Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, addresses these beautiful words to Mary: “O purest, best and most merciful Lady, help and relief of the faithful, powerful comforter of the afflicted and assured refuge of sinners, forsake us not, but keep us ever under thy protection. If thou forsake us, to whom shall we have recourse? What would become of us without thee, most holy Mother of God, who are the spirit and life of Christians. Even as respiration is an infallible sign of life in our bodies, so is thy holy name, when it is constantly on the lips of thy servants, on all occasions, at every time and in all places, not only a sign, but a veritable cause of life, happiness and protection.”
Quote/s of the Day – 24 August – St Bartholomew the Apostle and Martyr
“Here is a true child of Israel. There is no guile in him.”
John 1:47
Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
John 1:49
He answered and says unto Him, Rabbi, You are the Son of God, You are the King of Israel: Do you see how his soul is filled at once with exceeding joy, and embraces Jesus with words? You are, says he, that expected, that sought-for One. Do you see how he is amazed, how he marvels? How he leaps and dances with delight? So ought we also to rejoice, who have been thought worthy to know the Son of God; to rejoice, not in thought alone, but to show it also by our actions. And what must they do who rejoice? Obey Him who has been made known to them; and they who obey, must do whatever He wills.
St John Chrysostom
“You are the light of the world, you are the salt of the earth.”
Matthew 5:14
“Like peaceful conquerors, without any human weapons but backed by by the power of God, they divided the world amongst themselves, so that they might win it for Christ! The Roman Empire was small to them. They travelled, moreover, to the distant shores of Ethiopia and India, where the Eagle of Rome had never found its way! Surely, this is the most extraordinary Miracle of history?!
The Holy Spirit accomplished that, which human armies had never been able to do, save in part, or for a limited period of time. In this achievement, He used the weakest possible human means, namely, twelve poor fishermen! The earthly Empire of Rome, passed away but the Spiritual domain of Christ still remains, with its centre at Rome, as the only true Light, the only unfailing hope and the only pledge of salvation for individuals and nations.”
Antonio Cardinal Bacci
O Fathers of Our Ancient Faith
O Fathers of our ancient faith, With all the heav’n, we sing your fame Whose sound went forth in all the earth To tell of Christ and bless His Name.
You took the Gospel to the poor, The Word of God alight in you, Which in our day is told again, That timeless Word, forever new.
You told of God, Who died for us And out of death triumphant rose, Who gave the Truth which made us free and changeless through the ages goes.
Praise Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Whose gift is faith that never dies, A light in darkness now, until The Day-Star in our hearts arise.
O Fathers of Our Ancient Faith is written by the Benedictine Nuns of Stanbrook Abbey. In the Divine Office it is sung at Morning Prayer in the Common of Apostles. It is set to the anonymous tune associated with the 7th century Latin hymn, Creator Alme Siderum.
Quote/s of the Day – 16 August – “Month of the Immaculate Heart” – Readings: Ps 69:2-3, Ps 69:4, 2 Cor. 3:4-9, Luke 10:23-37
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I say to you, many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and they have not seen it; and to hear what you hear, and they have not heard it.
Luke 10:23-37
Deign, O God, to rescue me; O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be put to shame and confounded who seek my life.
Ps 69:2-3
The Lord has heard those supplications which you, my best beloved Donatus, pour forth in His presence all the day long, and the supplications of the rest of our brethren, who by a glorious confession have obtained an everlasting crown, the reward of their faith. Behold, all the adversaries are destroyed, and tranquillity having been re-established throughout the Roman empire, the late oppressed Church arises again, and the temple of God, overthrown by the hands of the wicked, is built with more glory than before.
Lactantius
For there is no proper place for sadness, when we keep the birthday of the Life, which destroys the fear of mortality and brings to us the joy of promised eternity. No one is kept from sharing in this happiness. There is for all one common measure of joy, because as our Lord the destroyer of sin and death finds none free from charge, so is He come to free us all. Let the saint exult in that he draws near to victory. Let the sinner be glad in that he is invited to pardon. Let the gentile take courage in that he is called to life.
St Leo the Great
The Law laid hold on one that gathered sticks on a sabbath day, and stoned him. This is the meaning of, the letter kills. The Gospel takes hold on thousands of homicides and robbers, and baptizing delivers them from their former vices. This is the meaning of, the Spirit gives life.
St John Chrysostom
We must abandon the way of iniquity, and now, while there is yet time, make our peace with the Judge whom we have offended.
Our Morning Offering – 11 August – “The Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary”
Hail, O Mother! By St John Chrysostom (347-407) Father and Doctor of the Church
Hail, O Mother! Virgin, heaven, throne, glory of our Church, it’s foundation and ornament. Earnestly pray for us to Jesus, your Son and Our Lord, that through your intercession, we may have mercy on the day of judgement. Pray that we may receive, all those good things which are reserved for those who love God. Through the grace and favour of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, to Whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be power, honour and glory, now and forever. Amen
Quote/s of the Day – 10 August – Feast of Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr, Readings: Ps 95:6, Ps 95:1, 2 Cor. 9:6-10, John 12:24-26
“If anyone serves me, he must follow me and where I am, there will my servant be also.”
John 12:26
What sort of excuse then will they have who disbelieve the Resurrection, when the action is practiced each day, in seeds, in plants, and in the case of our own generation? For first it is necessary that the seed die, and that then the generation take place. But, in short, when God does anything, reasonings are of no use; for how did He make us out of those things that were not?
St John Chrysostom(Homily 66 on the Gospel of John)
This case is just like the one involving that great man of theirs Paul, who fell down outside the village and on the road as a Jew, yes, he fell in order to arise as a Christian, and he was blinded while under the Law, so that he might see when under grace, just as we find it stated: “Now we see in a mirror, in a riddle, but then we shall see face to face.” “Then”, it will be when what has been buried in death will rise to life, and whatever has been sown in dishonour will rise in glory.
St Peter Chrysologus
The day of their victory shone forth, and they proceeded from the prison into the amphitheatre, as if to an assembly, joyous and of brilliant countenances; if perchance shrinking, it was with joy, and not with fear.
Tertullian (The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity)
Not only does Solomon exclaim that the riches of this world are vanity which cannot satisfy, but he says that they are pains which torment the mind.” Behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” (Eccles. i. 14.) Poor sinners ! they think to be happy in sin ; but they only find bitterness and remorse.” Destruction and unhappiness is in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known.” (Ps. xiv. 7.) What peace! what peace ! No, saith God, “There is no peace, unto the wicked.”What is a soul that lives without God ? Holy Scripture tells us that it is like a stormy sea. ” But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest.”
St Alphonsus Liguori (Preparation For Death)
Unless we resolve to put up with death and ill-health once and for all, we shall never accomplish anything.
Quote/s of the Day – 6 August – Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord – Readings: Ps 76:19, Ps 83:2-3, 2 Pet. 1:16-19, Matt 17:1-9
How lovely is Your dwelling place, O Lord of Hosts! My soul yearns and pines for the courts of the Lord.
Ps 83:2-3
Your lightning illumined the world; the earth quivered and quaked.
Ps 76:19
But not men only, but women also practise this self-denial, overcoming the weakness of their nature by the abundance of their zeal. Let us be abashed then at their earnestness, we who are men, let us cease to be fastened to the things present, to shadow, to dreams, to smoke. For the more part of our life is passed in insensibility.
St John Chrysostom (Homily 55 on Matthew)
Wherefore, I pray, let us seek the unmovable and eternal goods, and the life that never has old age.
St John Chrysostom (Homily 55 on Matthew)
Think what happiness it will be for thee, when thy body shines like the sun at midday. Everything that lives and moves rejoices in the light and warmth of the sun: it gladdens all the face of nature. In like manner thy body will be a joy and delight to thyself and all around thee in Heaven, because of its beauty and its glory.
Fr Martin von Cochem (The Four Last Things)
We must not, as some do, picture to ourselves heaven as a purely spiritual realm. St Dorothea sent to Theophilus by the hands of an angel a basket of flowers culled in the gardens of the celestial paradise, of such surpassing beauty that the sight of them led him to become a Christian, and lay down his life for the faith of Christ.
Fr Martin von Cochem (The Four Last Things)
We know that when He shall appear we shall be like to Him, because we shall see Him as He is.
Our Morning Offering – 31 July – “Month of the Precious Blood” and Mary’s Day
Hail, O Mother! By St John Chrysostom (347-407) Father and Doctor of the Church
Hail, O Mother! Virgin, heaven, throne, glory of our Church, it’s foundation and ornament. Earnestly pray for us to Jesus, your Son and Our Lord, that through your intercession, we may have mercy on the day of judgement. Pray that we may receive, all those good things which are reserved for those who love God. Through the grace and favour of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, to Whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be power, honour and glory, now and forever. Amen
Quote/s of the Day – 28 July – “Month of the Most Precious Blood” – Readings: Ps 78:11; 78:12; 78:10, Ps 78:1, Wis 10:17-20, Luke 21:9-19
God gave the holy ones the recompense of their labors, conducted them by a wondrous road, and became a shelter for them by day and a starry flame by night. He took them across the Red Sea and brought them through the deep waters – but their enemies He drowned in the sea, and cast them up from the bottom of the depths.
Wis 10:17-20
If we speak of legal justice, it is evident that it stands foremost among all the moral virtues, for as much as the common good transcends the individual good of one person. On this sense the Philosopher declares that “the most excellent of the virtues would seem to be justice, and more glorious than either the evening or the morning star.” But, even if we speak of particular justice, it excels the other moral virtues for two reasons. The first reason may be taken from the subject, because justice is in the more excellent part of the soul, viz. the rational appetite or will, whereas the other moral virtues are in the sensitive appetite, whereunto appertain the passions which are the matter of the other moral virtues. The second reason is taken from the object, because the other virtues are commendable in respect of the sole good of the virtuous person himself, whereas justice is praiseworthy in respect of the virtuous person being well disposed towards another, so that justice is somewhat the good of another person.
St Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica, Question 58 – Justice)
It seems as if from Bethlehem and Nazareth we were to be continually looking on to the end of all things, and reminding ourselves that that sweet and gentle Child, around Whose opening days are clustered so many tender thoughts of thankfulness and hopefulness and love, is to come hereafter, terrible to His enemies, a fire going before His face, Heaven and earth rolling up like a scroll before Him, & ‘with the voice of an Archangel and the trumpet of God’ calling on the dead to arise and come to judgment.
Fr Coleridge SJ. 1822 -1893 (The Return of the King)
Cruelty lies not only in allowing the bad to do what they will, but in another thing too quite as much; to overlook, and leave uncared for, him who has done no wrong, but who is without cause or reason suffering ill. For tell me; were any one to gather together wicked men from all quarters, and arm them with swords, and bid them go about the whole city, and massacre all that came in their way, could there be anything more like a wild beast than he? And what if some other should bind, and confine with the utmost strictness those whom that man had armed, and should snatch from those lawless hands them, who were on the point of being butchered; could anything be greater humanity than this?
St John Chrysostom (Homily 16 on Matthew)
Do not suppose, my sisters, that because you do not seek favour with the world you will be left to starve; I can reassure you about that. Never try to sustain yourselves by any human artifice, or you will perish of famine as you would deserve. Look to your Spouse; He must maintain you: if He is pleased with you, those who like you least will give you food even against their will, as you have learnt by experience.
St Teresa of Avila (The Way of Perfection)
Oh grateful and delightsome service of God, whereby man is made truly free and holy! Oh sacred condition of the religious servant, which maketh man equal to the Angels, well-pleasing unto God, terrible to evil spirits, and acceptable to all faithful ones! Oh service to be embraced and ever desired, in which the highest good is promised, and joy is gained which shall remain for evermore!
Quote/s of the Day – 26 July – “Month of the Most Precious Blood” – Readings: Ps 53:6-7, Ps 53:3, 1 Cor. 10:6-13, Luke 19:41-47
For days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a rampart about you, and surround you and shut you in on every side, and will dash you to the ground and your children within you, and will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you have not known the time of your visitation.
Luke 19:41-47
As therefore with regard to the prisoner, when you see him with irons on his back, on his hands, and often on his feet too, you therefore most of all account him miserable; so also as to the rich man, when you see him encompassed with innumerable affairs, let him not be therefore rich, but rather for these very things wretched, in your account. For together with these bonds, he has a cruel jailor too, the wicked love of riches; which suffers him not to pass out of this prison, but provides for him thousands of fetters, and guards, and doors, and bolts; and when he has cast him into the inner prison, persuades him even to feel pleasure in these bonds; that he may not find so much as any hope of deliverance from the evils which press on him.
St John Chrysostom (Homily 14 on Matthew)
On account then of all these things let us entreat the Redeemer of our souls, that He would both burst asunder our bands, and remove this our cruel jailor, and having set us free from the burden of those iron chains, He would make our spirits lighter than any wing. And as we entreat Him, so let us contribute our own part, earnestness, and consideration, and an excellent zeal. For thus we shall be able both in a short time to be freed from the evils which now oppress us, and to learn in what condition we were before, and to lay hold on the liberty which belongs to us.
St John Chrysostom (Homily 14 on Matthew)
And He entered the temple, and began to cast out those who were selling and buying in it, saying to them, It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of thieves.
Luke 19:41-47
It is great honour, great glory to serve Thee, and to despise all for Thy sake. For they shall have great grace who of their own will shall submit themselves to Thy most holy service. They who for Thy love have cast away every carnal delight shall find the sweetest consolation of the Holy Ghost. They who enter the narrow way of life for Thy Name’s sake, and have put away all worldly cares, shall attain great liberty of spirit.
Thomas a Kempis (Third Book: Chapter X)
Therefore all religion is for the sake of the soul; for howsoever the nature of the body may be, it causes no care or anxiety, especially after death, to him, whose soul possesses that whereby it is blessed.
Jesus answering, said: You know not what you ask. Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink? They say to him: We can. He saith to them: My chalice indeed you shall drink; but to sit on my right or left hand, is not mine to give to you, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father.
Matt 20:20-23
For the arrogant is of necessity base, and, on the contrary, the lowly-minded is high. For this is the height that is true and genuine, and exists not in name only, nor in manner of address. And that which is from without is of necessity and fear, but this is like to God’s. Such a one, though he be admired by no one, continues high; even as again the other, though he be courted by all, is of all men the basest. And the one is an honor rendered of necessity, whence also it easily passes away; but the other is of principle, whence also it continues steadfast.
St John Chrysostom (Homily 65 on Matthew)
For this we admire the saints also, that being greater than all, they humbled themselves more than all. Wherefore even to this day they continue to be high, and not even death has brought down that height.
St John Chrysostom (Homily 65 on Matthew)
I am going to tell you that Jesus Christ, by His sufferings and His death, has made all our actions meritorious, so that for the good Christian there is no motion of our hearts or of our bodies which will not be rewarded if we perform them for Him.
St John Vianney
Justin said, No right-thinking person falls away from piety to impiety. Rusticus the prefect said, Unless you obey, you shall be mercilessly punished. Justin said, Through prayer we can be saved on account of our Lord Jesus Christ, even when we have been punished, because this shall become to us salvation and confidence at the more fearful and universal judgment-seat of our Lord and Saviour. Thus also said the other martyrs: Do what you will, for we are Christians, and do not sacrifice to idols.
The Martyrdom of Justin
O blessed ones, count whatever is hard in this lot of yours as a discipline of your powers of mind and body. You are about to pass through a noble struggle, in which the living God acts the part of superintendent, in which the Holy Ghost is your trainer, in which the prize is an eternal crown of angelic essence, citizenship in the heavens, glory everlasting.
Tertullian (To the Martyrs)
Very pleasing to Me, dearest daughter, is the willing desire to bear every pain and fatigue, even unto death, for the salvation of souls, for the more the soul endures, the more she shows that she loves Me; loving Me she comes to know more of My truth, and the more she knows, the more pain and intolerable grief she feels at the offenses committed against Me.
Quote/s of the Day – 24 July – “Month of the Most Precious Blood” – Readings: Dan 3:84, 87, Dan 3:57, 1 Pet. 5:1-11, Luke 22:24-30
For whoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Rom 8:12-17
For since every virtue is a habit that is the principle of a good act, a virtue must needs be defined by means of the good act bearing on the matter proper to that virtue. Now the proper matter of justice consists of those things that belong to our intercourse with other men, as shall be shown further on. Hence the act of justice in relation to its proper matter and object is indicated in the words, “Rendering to each one his right,” since, as Isidore says, “a man is said to be just because he respects the rights [jus] of others.”
St Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica Question 58. Justice)
What sort of deeds then does he mean us to mortify? Those which tend toward wickedness, those which go after vice, which there is no other way of mortifying save through the Spirit. For by killing yourself you may put an end to the others. And this you have no right to do. But to these (you can put an end) by the Spirit only. For if This be present, all the billows are laid low, and the passions cower under It, and nothing can exalt itself against us.
St John Chrysostom (Homily 14 on Romans)
Against such the Lord complains by the prophet, saying, They have reigned, and not by Me; they have been set up as princes, and I knew it not Hosea 8:4. For those reign of themselves, and not by the Will of the Supreme Ruler, who, supported by no virtues, and in no way divinely called, but inflamed by their own desire, seize rather than attain supreme rule.
St Gregory the Great (Pastoral Rule, Book I)
Do you want to be happy, my friends? Fix your eyes on Heaven; it is there that your hearts will find that which will satisfy them completely. All the evils which you experience are the real means of leading you there.
St John Vianney
“No-one can have God as his father, if he does not have the Church as his mother… The Lord warned us of this when He said: “Whoever is not with me, is against me and whoever does not gather together with me, scatters.” The person who breaks the peace and concord of Christ, acts against Christ; the person who gathers together, outside of the Church, scatters the Church of Christ.”
St Cyprian of Carthage (On the unity of the Church)
Quote/s of the Day – 21 July – “Month of the Most Precious Blood” and the Memorial of St Lawrence of Brindisi OFM Cap (1559-1619) Doctor of the Church
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted?
Matt 5:13-19
For by saying, You are the salt of the earth, He signified all human nature to have lost its savor, and to be decayed by our sins.For which cause, you see, He requires of them such virtues, as are most necessary and useful for the superintendence of the common sort. For first, the meek, and yielding, and merciful, and righteous, shuts not up his good deeds unto himself only, but also provides that these good fountains should run over for the benefit of others. And he again who is pure in heart, and a peacemaker, and is persecuted for the truth’s sake; he again orders his way of life for the common good. Think not then, He says, that you are drawn on to ordinary conflicts, or that for some small matters you are to give account.You are the salt of the earth.
St John Chrysostom (Homily 15 on Matthew)
As the lot of the reprobate is to die in sin, that of the elect is to expire in the love and grace of God, which is effected in several ways. Many of the Saints died, not only in the state of charity, but in the actual exercise of divine love.St. Augustine expired in making an act of contrition, which cannot exist without love; St. Jerome, in exhorting his disciples to charity and the practice of all virtues; St. Ambrose, in conversing sweetly with his Saviour, whom he had received in the Holy Eucharist; St. Antony of Padua also expired in the act of discoursing with our Divine Lord, after having recited a hymn in honour of the ever-glorious Virgin; St. Thomas of Aquinas, with his hands clasped, his eyes raised to heaven, and pronouncing these words of the Canticles, which were the last he had expounded: “Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field”.
Half-Hours With the Saints and Servants of God (Charles Kenny)
You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Matt 5:13-19
“The Angels in Heaven were created, to be servants of Christ; man was formed from the earth, in order to be the image of Christ.”
St Lawrence of Brindisi
For that men should be set free from the rottenness of their sins was the good work of Christ; but their not returning to it again any more was the object of these men’s diligence and travail.
Quote/s of the Day – 19 July – “Month of the Most Precious Blood” – Readings: Ps 47:10-11, Ps 47:2, Rom 8:12-17, Luke 16:1-9
Brethren: We are debtors, not to the flesh, that we should live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live. For whoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Now you have not received a spirit of bondage so as to be again in fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons, by virtue of which we cry, Abba! Father! The Spirit Himself gives testimony to our spirit that we are sons of God. But if we are sons, we are heirs also: heirs indeed of God and joint heirs with Christ.
Rom 8:12-17
O God, we ponder Your kindness within Your temple. As Your name, O God, so also Your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Of justice Your right hand is full.
Ps 47:10-11
And this instruction he gives us here also, meaning, Let it have attention shown it indeed, for we do owe it this, yet let us not live according to the flesh, that is, let us not make it the mistress of our life. For it must be the follower, not the leader, and it is not it that must regulate our life, but the laws of the Spirit must it receive.
St John Chrysostom (Homily 14 on Romans)
The prison does the same service for the Christian which the desert did for the prophet. Our Lord Himself spent much of His time in seclusion, that He might have greater liberty to pray, that He might be quit of the world. It was in a mountain solitude, too, He showed His glory to the disciples. Let us drop the name of prison; let us call it a place of retirement. Though the body is shut in, though the flesh is confined, all things are open to the spirit.
Tertullian (To The Martyrs)
“Our greatest cross is the fear of crosses. . . We have not the courage to carry our cross and we are very much mistaken, for, whatever we do, the cross holds us tight – we cannot escape from it. What, then, have we to lose? Why not love our crosses and make use of them to take us to heaven?”
St Jean Vianney
“Start being brave about everything! Drive out darkness and spread light. Do not look at your weaknesses. Realise instead, that in Christ Crucified, you can do all things.”
One Minute Reflection – 15 July – “Month of the Most Precious Blood” – Readings: Ps 36:30-31, Ps 36:1, Sir 31:8-11, Luke 12:35-40
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, Let your loins be girt about and your lamps burning, and you yourselves like men waiting for their master’s return from the wedding; so that when he comes and knocks, they may straight-way open to him. Blessed are those servants whom the master, on his return, shall find watching. Amen I say to you, he will gird himself, and will make them recline at table, and will come and serve them.
Luke 12:35-40
REFLECTION – “At an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” Jesus says this to them so that the disciples would stay awake and always be ready. If he tells them he will come when they are not expecting him this is because he wants to make them practice virtue zealously, without relaxing. It is as though he were saying to them: “If people knew when they were going to die, they would be completely ready for the day”…But the end of our life is a secret hidden from us all…
This is why the Lord expects two qualities of his steward: that he should be faithful, lest he attribute to himself anything that belongs to his master, and that he should be wise, so that he might suitably administer everything put in his charge. So we ought to have these two qualities if we are to be ready at the Master’s coming… Because this is what happens due to our not knowing the day we shall meet him: we say to ourselves: “My master is delayed in coming.” The faithful and wise steward has no such thoughts. Wretch! using the excuse that your Master is late, do you imagine he won’t come at all?His coming is certain. Then why don’t you stay on your guard? No, the Lord is not slow in coming; this lateness is purely in the imagination of the wicked servant.
Saint John Chrysostom (Sermon 77 on St Matthew)
PRAYER – O glorious Apostle and worker of miracles, St Vincent Ferrer, new angel of the Apocalypse and our kind protector, receive our humble prayers and obtain for us a copious shower of divine favors. By that love with which thy heart was inflamed, obtain for us from the Father of mercies the pardon of all our sins, confirmation in the Faith, and perseverance in good works; so that by living as good and fervent Christians we may become worthy of thy powerful patronage. Extend thy patronage also to our bodies, and free us from our infirmities. Protect our lands from the violence of tempest and hail, and keep misfortune far from us. Thus, blessed by thee in the goods of soul and body, we shall be ever devout to thee, and one day see thee in heaven, there with thee to praise God forever and ever. Amen.
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