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,...