Faith & Doubt

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“…I find the materialistic explanations of life inadequate to explain reality. I’ve learned to attend to fainter contacts between the seen and unseen worlds. I sense in romantic love something insufficiently explained by mere biochemical attraction. I sense in beauty and in nature marks of a genius creator for which the natural response is worship. I sense in desire, including sexual desire, marks of a holy yearning for connection. I sense in pain and suffering a terrible disruption that omnipotent love surely cannot abide forever. I sense in compassion, generosity, justice, and forgiveness a quality of grace that speaks to me of another world, especially when I visit places…..marred by their absence. I sense in Jesus a person who lived those qualities so consistently that the world couldn’t tolerate him and had to silence and dispose of him. I could go on and on. In short, I believe [in God] not so much because the invisible world impinges on this one but because the visible world hints, in the ways that move me most, at a lack of completion.” ~Philip Yancey, Faith and Doubt

Prayer & Holiness

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Prayer is the breath of life to our soul; holiness is impossible without it.

~St Teresa of Calcutta

Oct 28: Feast of Sts. Simon and Jude

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Sts. Simon and Jude, pray for us.

I advise you not to look for praise, even when you deserve it. It is better to pass unnoticed, and to let the most beautiful and noble aspects of our actions, of our lives, remain hidden. What a great thing it is to become little! Deo omnis gloria! —All the glory to God. ~St Josemaria Escriva, The Forge, #1051

O God, we thank you for the glorious company of the apostles, and especially on this day for Simon and Jude; and we pray that, as they were faithful and zealous in their mission, so we may with ardent devotion make known the love and mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Standing Firm in God’s Love

 

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What does the Lord ultimately want from us? Our hearts.…God’s grace is always given to a heart that seeks him, and when relief comes, your heart will be flooded with more love, and you will feel liberated from everything that binds you and keeps you from being genuine. You will be truly joyful – you will be able to freely give or withhold whatever is required by the Spirit. You will no longer feel the need to measure up to anything or anyone, because your love for God, to whom you belong, will make you stand firm.…Happy and secure are those who have given their whole heart to God. How simple this is if we but look to Jesus, God’s Son and our brother, whose pure heart reaches out to us. ~Johann Christoph Blumhardt; The God Who Heals

Calvary Love

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If I am soft to myself and slide comfortably into self-pity and self-sympathy, if I do not by the grace of God practice fortitude, then I know nothing of Calvary love. If I myself dominate myself, if my thoughts revolve round myself, if I am so occupied with myself I rarely have “a heart at leisure from itself,” then I know nothing of Calvary love.…That which I know not, teach Thou me, O Lord, my God. ~Amy Carmichael

Kingdom Living

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What a mighty thing it is to live for God’s kingdom! Do not shrink back. Live for it; look for it, and you will find that it is so powerful it will completely overwhelm you – it will solve every problem in your life, and every problem on earth. Everything will become new, and each person will love the next in Christ. All separation and sin, all suffering and darkness and death will be overcome, and love alone will rule. ~J. Heinrich Arnold; Freedom from Sinful Thoughts

Ruler of Heaven & Earth

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Father, creator and ruler of heaven and earth, you made man in your likeness to subdue the earth and master it, and to recognize the work of your hands in created beauty. Grant that your children, thus surrounded on all sides by signs of your presence, may live continually in Christ, praising you through him and with him. Amen

Patience & Courage

 

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Have the patience and courage to begin again anew each day, and trust in God’s help; his mercy is new every morning. Then you will understand that life is always a matter of becoming or growing, and that you must always look forward to the greater things. Even though you stand in battle with dark powers, the victory will be yours, since in Christ every evil is overcome. ~Eberhard Arnold; Eberhard Arnold: Writings Selected

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You say that he is full of defects. Very well … but, apart from the fact that people who are perfect are found only in Heaven, you too have defects, yet others put up with you and, what is more, appreciate you. That is because they love you with the love of Jesus Christ had for his own, and they had a fair number of shortcomings. Learn from this. … You complain that he shows you no understanding. I am certain he does as much as he can try to understand you. But what about you? When will you make a bit of an effort to understand him? … All right, I agree. That person has behaved badly; his behavior has been reprehensible and unworthy; he shows no merit at all. Humanly speaking he deserves to be utterly despised, you added. I understand what you mean, I can assure you, but I do not share this concluding view of yours. That life which seems so mean is sacred. Christ has died to save it. If He did not despise it, how can you dare to? … It is true that life, which by its nature is already rather narrow and uncertain, sometimes becomes difficult. But that will help you to become more supernatural and to see the hand of God. Then you will be more human and understanding with those around you. ~St. Josemaria Escriva, Furrow

Living for the Lord’s Return

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Live intensively in the expectation of the Lord! He who does not wait for the Lord in every aspect of his life does not wait at all. I ask myself every evening, have I really loved enough, hoped enough, fought enough, worked enough? The expectation of the kingdom must lead to deeds. ~J. Heinrich Arnold, Discipleship