“Don’t waste time in your life trying to get even with your enemies. The grave is a tremendous equalizer. Six weeks after you all are dead, you’ll look pretty much the same. Let the Lord take care of those whom you think have harmed you. All you have to do is love and forgive. Try to forget and leave all else to the Master.”
- Mother Angelica
Today I ended up having an hour-long amiable discussion at a bar with an atheist. It made me very sad to hear him speak of Christians and the Church in such bitter terms. What then, is to be our response as Christians?
A brother asked him [Poeen], “How ought we to live?” Poemen replied, “We have seen the example of Daniel. They accused him of nothing except that he served his God”
- Sayings of the Desert Fathers, 1:13
One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time. – John Piper
John Loncar recently posted a great quotation on Shameless Popery that I found really touching and wanted to share. This is an extract from a letter written by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, a 12th-century theologian and a Doctor of the Church, which he wrote to a couple who had suffered the tragedy of a miscarriage:
“Your faith spoke for this child. Baptism for this child was only delayed by time. Your faith suffices. The waters of your womb — were they not the waters of life for this child? Look at your tears. Are they not like the waters of baptism? Do not fear this. God’s ability to love is greater than our fears. Surrender everything to God.” – St. Bernard of Clairvaux
Today’s quotation seems very appropriate since I arrived back into San Diego last night. Who would you like in your heavenly welcoming party?
Just in case God asks who I want to [meet me in Heaven], I’ve got my list ready.
My desired greeting team includes not only my father and grandmother, but also John Fisher and John Paul II, Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Sienna , Fr. Caj, Sr. Rose, Sr. Diane, Blessed Mary, and Jesus Himself. All waiting to receive me as the newest arrival into the family of God once and for all. Waiting to say, “Welcome home!”
- Jeff Cavins, “I’m not being fed!”
For those who come to theological conclusions by putting their finger in the air to test the various options, Jesus gives us an example by first asking the Apostles what others think of him. Notice that all their answers were wrong. How often do we look to the opinion of others rather than seek out His authority for answers? Knowing that the Father would reveal the correct answer, Jesus asks them the most important question, “But who do you say that I am?”
- Jeff Cavins, “I’m not being fed!”
“The cathedrals and churches architecturally prepare our souls for the beauty of the Eucharist”
- Jeff Cavins, “I’m not being fed!”
“We don’t know if we want to be rescued. We are so enamored with our small stories and our false gods, we are so bound up in our addictions and our self-centeredness and take-it-for-granted unbelief that we don’t even know how to cry for help”
- John Eldredge, Epic, Page 62
There is no Bible study in the world that is good enough or stimulating enough or nutritious enough to substitute for the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. There’s no song moving enough to replace the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
- Jeff Cavins, “I’m not being fed!”
As today is the last of the Desert Father quotations I’m going to be doing for a while, I’m going to end with my favourite, the Desert Mother Syncletica:
[Syncletica] also said, “When the devil does not use the goad of poverty to tempt us, he uses wealth for the same purpose. When he cannot win by scorn and mockery, he tries praise and flattery. If he cannot win by giving health, he tries illness. If he cannot win by comfort, he tries to ruin the soul by vexations that lead us to act against our monastic vows. He inflicts severe illness on people whom he wants to tempt and so makes them weak, and thereby shakes the love they feel towards God…
Iron is cleaned of rust by fire. If you are righteous and suffer, you grow to a higher sanctity. Gold is tested by fire.
When a messenger from Satan is given to you to be a thorn in your flesh, lift up your heart, for you have received a gift like that of St. Paul.
- De vitis Patrum, Sive Verba Seniorum, Liber V
