Such is the mercy of God that he will hold his children in the consuming fire of his distance until they pay the utmost farthing, until they drop the purse of selfishness with all the dross that is in it, and rush home to the Father and to the Son and the brethren—rush inside the life-giving Fire whose outer circle burns. ~George MacDonald
Lord we grieve with the people of Paris.
We grieve for the lives lost in senseless violence.
Our tears are shed for those who have been wounded.
Our hearts ache for those who are consumed by hate.
Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Lord have mercy.
Lord give wisdom to those who must make decisions.
Lord give your strength to those who seek to protect.
Lord give guidance to those who must respond.
Lord have mercy.
Christ have mercy.
Lord have mercy.
The scripture is full of places that prove fasting to be not the invention of man but the institution of God, and to have many more profits than one. And that the fasting of one man may do good unto another, our Savior shows himself where he says that some kind of devils cannot be cast out of one man by another “without prayer and fasting.” ~St Thomas More
He brought light out of darkness, not out of a lesser light, and he can bring thee summer out of winter, though thou hast no spring. Though in the ways of fortune, understanding, or conscience thou hast been benighted till now, wintered and frozen, clouded and eclipsed, damped and benumbed, smothered and stupefied, now God comes to thee, not as the dawning of the day, not as the bud of the spring, but as the sun at noon. ~John Donne, The Major Works
Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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The guarantee of one’s prayer is not in saying a lot of words. The guarantee of one’s petition is very easy to know: how do I treat the poor? The degree to which you approach them, and the love with which you approach them, or the scorn with which you approach them – that is how you approach your God. What you do to them, you do to God. The way you look at them is the way you look at God. ~Bl. Oscar Romero, The Violence of Love
Now mark that—this is the Gospel truth. … I am not talking economics, I do not understand them. I am not talking politics, I do not understand them. I am talking the Gospel, and I say to you this: If you are Christians then your Jesus is one and the same: Jesus on the Throne of his glory, Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus received into your hearts in Communion, Jesus with you mystically as you pray, and Jesus enthroned in the hearts and bodies of his brothers and sisters up and down this country. And it is folly—it is madness—to suppose that you can worship Jesus in the Sacraments and Jesus on the Throne of glory, when you are sweating him in the souls and bodies of his children. It cannot be done. ~Frank Weston, Our Present Duty
Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can. ~The Rev. John Wesley
Jesus’ Redemption is gift – a pure, unmerited, gratuitous gift; and simultaneously, reveals the truth about every human person: one prized, precious, and cherished; one chosen by the Lord, and set free from the bondage of sin and death by Love – to be loved and to love. The challenge for the believer is to live in the moment of redemption – fully alive, fully human — trusting confidently in this most wondrous gift. ~Mother Agnes Mary Donovan, SV; IPS 2013 Commencement Address
It is my privilege to spend many hours every week in the confessional. As I hear the low voices whispering the sins which are common to most of us, there’s always a temptation to try and be “original and creative” in giving advice and guidance. But the confessional is the place for the tried-and-true. Our Holy Mother the Church has been dispensing medicine for these two thousand years, and She knows what is best: the truth, spoken gently but clearly, and then the comforting and liberating words of absolution. The penitent doesn’t need or want the priest’s creativity; the penitent needs and wants Christ’s love and forgiveness. ~Fr. Christopher George Phillips, AtonementOnline