ST JOSEPH'S ABBEY, SPENCER MA

To join one's will to the will of God, so that the human will consents to whatever the divine will prescribes, and so that there is no other reason why it wills this thing or another except that it realizes God wills it: this surely is to love God. The will itself is nothing other than love, and good or bad will should not be called anything but good or bad love. AELRED OF RIEVAULX The Mirror of Charity

Let your love be strong and constant, neither yielding to fear nor cowering at hard work. Let us love affectionately, discreetly, intensely. We know that the love of the heart, which we have said is affectionate, is sweet indeed, but liable to be led astray if it lacks the love of the soul. And the love of the soul is wise indeed, but fragile without that love which is called the love of strength. ST. BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX On the Song of Songs

If any soul yearns for the transcendent charity of Christ, then her first need is to have this law written in the very center of the heart, for this is the straight and royal road that leads to that royal eminence. In fact, if your heart is agitated with even the smallest dispute over some injury, whether you are enduring it yourself or making another endure it, then there is no room for prayer. No, a cloud presents itself, and let's nothing pass through it. But, on the other hand if you listen carefully, a voice sounds from the cloud: ‘ Make peace with your brother or sister’, and forgive whatever you have against them. JOHN OF FORDE Sermon 91

Not to know when the end is, or the day of the end, is good for people, less knowing, they might become negligent of the time between, awaiting the days near the end. For then they would argue that they must only attend to themselves. Therefore, too, Christ has been silent about the time when each shall die, lest men, being elated because of this knowledge, should immediately neglect themselves for the greater part of their time. Both the end of all things and the end of each of us, then, has been concealed from us by the Word (for in the end of all is the end of each, and in the end of each the end of all is comprehended), so that since it is uncertain and always in the future, we may advance day by day as if summoned, reaching forward to the things in front of us and forgetting the things behind. ST. ATHANASIUS Discourses Against the Arians

The devil… always tempts in order to hurt by urging man into sin. In this sense it is said to be his proper office to tempt…. The devil tempts in order to explore the inward disposition of man, so that he may tempt him to that vice to which he is most prone. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS Summa Theologiae  

You must not break away from holy prayer for any reason except obedience or charity. For often during the time scheduled for prayer the devil comes with all sorts of struggles and annoyances —even more than when you are not at prayer. He does this to make you weary of holy prayer. Often he will say: "This sort of prayer is worthless to you. You should not think about or pay attention to anything except vocal prayer.” He makes it seem this way so that you will become weary and confused and abandon the exercise of prayer. But prayer is a weapon with which you can defend yourself against every enemy. If you hold it with love's hand and the arm of free choice, this weapon, with the light of most holy faith, will be your defense. ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA The Dialogue

ALL THE WAY TO SUNSET Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it. This admonition of St Paul to his beloved Timothy provides a sturdy basis for our reflections this morning, which center on the theme of faith—and perseverance in faith—through prayer. From the outset we must realize how emphatically rooted our faith is in the living tradition that other faithful Christians have gifted us with! As the joyful heirs of others’ deepest treasures and heroism, we must exist in a state of perpetual thanksgiving.   Our gospel selection from St Luke and the first reading (from the Book of Exodus) together offer us a solid catechesis on prayer: first, prayer as struggle ; then prayer as intercession ; and, finally, prayer as plain-old, dogged persistence. We should be greatly consoled by the fact that these texts do not present prayer as an activity of the sleek and strong but, rather, of the radically weak.   In the Exodus passage...

He who seeks God while attending to his own ease and comfort seeks him by night, and therefore does not find him. But he who seeks him in the practice of virtue and good works, disregarding comforts, seeks him by day. Such a one shall find him, for what is invisible at night can be seen by daylight. ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS The Spiritual Canticle

We might say that contemplation is an act of silent attentiveness through which we immerse ourselves in reality, whereas the outward agitation of our souls keeps us on the surface of things. For reality is God's fullness, a fullness in which all things exist and suffice to themselves within Him, a fullness which is the life of the Trinity. By this I mean that the Father communicates Himself totally to the Son, giving Him the totality of what He possesses, thus exhausting in the Son the possibility of loving. JEAN DANIELOU God’s Life In Us

Are you sometimes tormented by those transgressions which, whether grave or slight, have dug an abyss or cast a coldness between God and you? No amount of penances could renew the bonds of friendship, if Jesus Christ had not paid your debts in advance. Insist, like the apostle, on the intentionally personal nature of Christ’s mediation: you are not anonymous among the ranks of the redeemed. AN ANONYMOUS MONK The Hermitage Within

Communion with God is true reality, and by comparison with it everything, no matter how massively it asserts itself, is a phantom, a nothing…. Communication with God is reality. It is true reality, the really real, more real, even, than death itself. JOSEPH RATZINGER Eschatology , 89

Humble love is perhaps the greatest of all evangelical virtues, much more rare than the frequent use of the word ‘love’ in contemporary literature would lead us to suspect. Love in the image of God – generous, patient, gentle love toward everyone, toward those nearest and those most distant, toward friend and enemy, toward just anyone who shows up. A Cistercian Abbott who lived in the 12th century, the blessed Guerric of Igny, said it this way: ‘It is the property of friendship to make itself small before its friends’. ANDRÉ LOUF Tuning Into Grace

When God becomes our guide he insists that we trust him without reservations and put aside all nervousness about his guidance. We are sent along the path he has chosen for us, but we cannot see it, and nothing we have read is any help to us. Were we acting on our own we should have to rely on our experience. It would be too risky to do anything else. But it is very different when God acts with us. Divine action is always new and fresh, it never retraces it steps, but always finds new routes. JEAN-PIERRE DE CAUSSADE Abandonment to Divine Providence

And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” Today’s Gospel begins with the apostles calling out to the Lord as one voice, “Increase our faith.” We all know that the Lord is often frustrated with the disciples for their lack of faith. For example, afraid that they were going sink in the storm on the lake he said to them, “Where is your faith?” On another occasion, counseling them against anxiety about meeting their daily needs, he tells them “If God so clothes the grass in the field that grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?”   This is the first time the apostles have themselves petitioned the Lord to “increase their faith”.   What occasioned this appeal? If we look to the verses immediately preceding today’s Gospel, we hear the Lord address the disciples in this way: “Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the person through whom they occur. It would be better for him if a m...

What good is it to me if Mary gave birth to the Son of God hundreds of years ago, if I do not give birth to the Son of God in my time and my culture? We are all meant to be Mothers of God, for God is always needing to be born. MEISTER ECKHART

Those overtaken by a storm when traveling by sea don't worry about their luggage. But throw it overboard with their own hands, considering their property to be less important than their lives. So why don't we, following this example, throw out whatever drags our soul down to the depths? ST. NELIOS THE ASCETIC