“What is the mark of love for your neighbor? Not to seek what is for your own benefit, but what is for the benefit of the one loved, both in body and in soul.” –St. Basil the Great
“Only in Christ can men and women find answers to the ultimate questions that trouble them. Only in Christ can they fully understand their dignity as persons created and loved by God.”– Pope St. John Paul II
“Woe to me if I should prove myself but a halfhearted soldier in the service of my thorn-crowned Captain.” St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen This image by El Greco captures so much about Jesus in his moment of suffering…his dignity, his focus on his Heavenly Father, his peace and joyful acceptance of the cross…this is who we are following!
“The Past is frozen and no longer flows, and the Present is all lit up with eternal rays.” CS Lewis Right here, right now…this is what matters to God and what should matter to you.
“What we need most in order to make progress is to be silent before this great God with our appetite and with our tongue, for the language he best hears is silent love.” St. John of the Cross
All of us have wonders hidden in our breasts, only needing circumstances to evoke them. (Charles Dickens)
Sometimes we are afraid to share the treasure within, becoming a little vulnerable and taking the risk of showing our inner core…yet that is what most touches the hearts and minds of people, and what is so needed in our human interaction today!
“Once a person learns to read the signs of love and thus to believe it, love leads him into the open field wherein he himself can love. If the prodigal son had not believed that the father’s love was already waiting for him, he would not have been able to make the journey home – even if his father’s love welcomes him in a way he never would have dreamed of. The decisive thing is that the sinner has heard of a love that could be, and really is, there for him; he is not the one who has to bring himself into line with God; God has always already seen in him, the loveless sinner, a beloved child and has looked upon him and conferred dignity upon him in the light of this love.” Hans Urs Von Balthasar
“Remember that not a single word is lost during prayer, if you say it from your heart; God hears each word, and weighs it in a balance. Sometimes it seems to us that our words only strike the air in vain, and sound as the voice of one crying in the wilderness. No, no; it is not so!…The Lord responds to every desire of the heart, expressed in words or unexpressed.”–Saint John of Kronstadt
“Lay all your cares about the future trustingly in God’s hands, and let yourself be guided by the Lord just like a little child.” –Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross When God takes off the training wheels, never doubt that he knows we are ready and he runs behinds us just to make sure!
