ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

There is no true virtue without simplicity and humility. Simplicity makes us forget our own lights, and humility persuades us that everyone has more light than we. A really humble person sees only her own faults and not those of others. What a wretched occupation it is to be always examining what others do! Let us prefer rather to be blind and without judgment than to use our powers to consider and judge the actions of our neighbor. A heart that is full of the love of God occupies itself quite differently; it only thinks of suffering for him whom it loves, and it loves all those who give it an opportunity of suffering for its beloved. ST. CLAUDE DE LA COLOMBIÈRE Letter 104. London, 1678

We don't serve the poor with paternalism, helping him or her as if reaching down from above to someone below. This is not what God wants, but rather he wants us to do this as one brother or sister to another. This is my brother or sister, this is Christ; and, with Christ, I am not reaching down from above to someone below, rather I am reaching up from below, to serve him above. ST. OSCAR ROMERO Through the Year With Oscar Romero: Daily Meditations (DLT, 2006)

I pray because I am happy, not because I am unhappy. I did not turn to God in unhappiness, in grief, in despair – to get consolation, to get something from God. I was praying because I wanted to thank God. No matter how dull the day, how long the walk seemed, if I felt sluggish at the beginning of the walk, the words I had been saying insinuated themselves into my heart before I had finished, so that on the trip back I neither prayed nor thought, but was filled with exaltation… my very experience as a radical, my whole make-up, led me to want to associate myself with others, with the masses, in loving and praising God. DOROTHY DAY The Long Loneliness, (Harper, 1952)

The eyes of Christian love are full of faith and of faith's contemplation; they have a luminosity which discovers and lights up a supernatural depth in whatever and whomsoever they fasten upon: this sinner, this unattractive and insignificant person, this avowed opponent of the Church and of Jesus Christ is in reality my brother; Jesus has borne his sins just as he has borne mine (which means that there can be no accusations on either side); his unpleasant characteristics are a burden he is obliged, willy-nilly, to drag around with him, and although I cannot see it, this burden has some connection, through God's grace, with a total burden which weighs on the shoulders of Jesus Christ. HANS URS VON BALTHASAR Prayer

We should find God in what we know, not in what we don't; not in outstanding problems but in those we have already solved…. We must not wait until we are at the end of our tether: he must be found at the center of life and not only in death; in health and vigor, and not only in suffering; in activity, and not only in sin. DIETRICH BONHEOFFER Prison Letters, p. 191

The love of God most high for our soul is so wonderful that it surpasses all knowledge. No created being can know the greatness, the tenderness, the love our Maker has for us. By his grace and help, therefore, let us in spirit stand and gaze, eternally marveling at the supreme, surpassing, single-minded, incalculable love that God, through his goodness, has for us. Then we can ask reverently of our Lover whatever we will, for, by nature, our will wants God and the goodwill of God wants us. We can never cease wanting and longing until we possess him in fullness of joy: then we shall have no further want. Meanwhile his will is that we go on knowing and loving until we are perfected in Heaven. JULIAN OF NORWICH Revelations of Divine Love, Ch. 6  

  And he came down with the Twelve and stood on a stretch of level ground… In last week’s Gospel, Jesus chose his first disciples, the fishermen Simon, James and John. In the meantime, many disciples have gathered around him. In the passage immediately preceding today’s Gospel, he chose from among these the Twelve, with whom he now descends and stands on a stretch of level ground.   Before making this important decision, Jesus had first gone apart to pray as he often does throughout Luke’s Gospel before significant decisions and events. On this occasion he had out in to the hills and spent the whole night in continuous prayer to his Father before choosing the Twelve when day came. From this it is clear that, although he himself is equal to the Father in nature, and as such in the bond of love they are one in mind and will, Jesus nevertheless never presumes to make decisions on his own, but only in communion with the Father, from whom he knows he receives everything. Refreshed,...

However busy you may be, however distracted, however complex life may become, you must not lose the desire to pray. The desire to pray is one thing, the obligation another, and they are not necessarily incompatible. I make the distinction only because there are times in our lives when it is not easy to pray, when we think we have lost the desire to pray. Hence the importance of recognizing the obligation imposed upon us, which enables us, in our frailty and weakness, to persevere. In the life of prayer, fidelity and persistence in the face of all odds, all difficulties, are paramount. These enable us to find again the desire for prayer which, so it seemed, we had lost. CARDINAL BASIL HUME, OSB The Intentional Life

It was the insight of Augustine that no created good can satisfy the restlessness of the human heart, which finds perfect fulfillment in God alone. Unable to enter lovingly into a fulfilling relationship with God because of sin, however, the heart, intent on satiating its desires, grasps at straws and seeks to cling to them, thereby succeeding mearly in whetting further it's desires and exacerbating its own unhappiness and insecurity. The disparity between the boundlessness of human desire and the capacity of what desire can actually achieve by its own power merely leads to the frustration and emptiness that finally tears human society apart. JOE EGAN The Godless Delusion

We need constantly to contemplate the mystery of mercy. It is a wellspring of joy, serenity, and peace. Our salvation depends on it. Mercy: the word reveals the very mystery of the most holy Trinity. Mercy: the ultimate and supreme act by which God comes to meet us. Mercy: the fundamental law that dwells in the heart of every person who looks sincerely into the eyes of his brothers and sisters on the path of life. Mercy: the bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness…. POPE FRANCIS Misericordiae Vultus

What is the meaning of the ark? What appears? For the Old Testament, it is the symbol of God's presence in the midst of his people. However, the symbol has given way to reality. Thus the New Testament tells us that the true ark of the Covenant is a living, real person: it is the Virgin Mary. God does not dwell in a piece of furniture, he dwells in a person, in a heart: Mary, the one who carried in her womb the eternal son of God made man, Jesus our Lord and Savior. POPE BENEDICT XVI Homily

The ascetic whose life is uninfluenced by the Gospel, such as the Stoic of ancient times, does not look for any help from on high. It follows from this that asceticism which is not based on the Gospel teaching is often sullied by contempt for the weaknesses and faults of one's neighbor and by self-satisfaction in one's own virtue. DOM IDESBALD RYELANDT, OSB Union With Christ  

One who knows his sins is greater than he who raises a corpse to life. One who weeps over himself for an entire hour is greater than he who furnishes information to the whole world… One who knows his weakness is greater than he who sees the angels… The solitary and repentant follower of Christ is greater than he who enjoys popular favour in the churches. SAINT ISAAC THE SYRIAN

Because no man through his native power has ever seen God, because no man of himself can suspect any but a natural presence of God in his creation, it follows that no man can either attain or understand or unfold a gratuitous presence except in so far as he draws his light from divine revelation. Speculative theology is good, but speculative theology is not philosophy. It may not theorize in a vacuum. If we are to speculate on the indwelling Trinity living and loving in the depths of our beings, we must first sit humbly with Mary at the feet of the Word and listen to his word. The listening must be observant, but it must also be contemplative and humble, since the Father does not reveal these things to the proud and the crafty but only too little ones. THOMAS DUBAY, S.M. God Dwells Within Us