It is Always Better to Think Well of Others

"In our neighbor we must direct our attention to the good and not to the evil. And if it should happen that we deceive ourselves by regarding as good what in reality is bad, we need not be disturbed, for St. Augustine says, charity is not grieved when by mistake it attributes something good to one who is evil." - St. Jane de Chantal

Loving God - Self Denial

In order to attain to the perfect love of God it is necessary, moreover, to deny oneself by gladly embracing what is opposed to self-love, and refusing oneself what self-love demands.  One day when St. Teresa was sick, they brought her a very palatable dish; the Saint would not touch it.  The attendant urged her to eat, saying that the dish was well-prepared.  "That's just the reason I abstain from eating it," replied the Saint.  And so with us; what pleases us most, in that we must deny ourselves, and just because it pleases us.  For example, we must turn our eyes away from this or that object because it is most agreeable to us; do a service to an ungrateful person just because he is ungrateful; take a bitter medicine just because it is bitter.  According to St. Francis de Sals, our self-love ants to have a share in everything even in things the most holy.  For this very reason, says the Saint, we must love even virtue without attachment.  For example, it is necessary to love prayer and solitude; but when obedience or charity prevent us from devoting ourselves to prayer and solitude we should not be disquieted, but accept resignedly everything that happens by the will of God to thwart our inclinations.

The 12 Steps to Holiness and Salvation by St. Alphonsus Liguori

3 Powerful Weapons Against the devil

According to Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, they are as follows:

1.  The Holy Name of Jesus.  Satan cannot stand His Holy Name because at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in Heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Philippians 2.9-10).

2.  The Blood of Christ.  Through the invocation of the Blood of Christ because without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.

3.  Our Blessed Mother.

The Devil - Venerable Fulton Sheen

3 Things Necessary for Attaining Eternal Life

There are three things necessary for the attainment of eternal life: 

1.  the pardon of our sins;
2.  the victory over temptations,
3.  and the crown of all graces, a  holy death.

These three things are accordingly the objects of our hope.

- From the 12 Steps to Holiness and Salvation by St. Alphonsus Liguori

Growing in Virtue by Small, Sustained Mortifications

A Lenten Meditation - Being a True Follower of Christ

The following is an excerpt from The 12 Steps to Holiness and Salvation by St. Alphonsus Liguori. It is from the chapter on Faith.

This seems to be the place to correct a false impression that is very prevalent. There are many who imagine that a life in harmony with the precepts of our holy faith must necessarily be a sad and joyless life. The devil pictures our holy religion to them as a tyrant who imposes only burdens and cares upon her children, forces them to constant renunciation and interdicts the gratification of every desire. There is no doubt that for those whose only desire is to satisfy their sensual cravings, a life in accordance with holy faith has little that is attractive. "They that are Christ's," says the Apostle, "have crucified their flesh with the vices and concupiscences.' (Gal. 5:24)

The law of Jesus Christ commands us to battle against our inordinate inclinations, to love our enemies, to mortify our body, to be patient in adversities and to place all our hope in the life to come. But all this does not make the life of the truly faithful a sad and sorrowful one. The religion of Jesus Christ says to us, as it were: Come and unite yourselves to Me; I will lead you along a path which to the bodily eyes seems rough and hard to climb, but to those of good will is easy and agreeable. You seek peace and pleasure? Well and good! Which peace is to be preferred? That which when scarcely tasted, disappears and leaves the heart replete with bitterness, or that which will rejoice and satiate you for all eternity? You strive for honors? Very well! Which do you prefer, that empty honor that disappears like a puff of smoke, or that true and genuine honor which will one day glorify you before the whole world? Ask those who lead a life of faith if the renunciation of this world's goods makes them sad! Visit the holy anchorite Paul in his grotto, St. Francis of Assisi on Mount Alverno, St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi in her convent and ask them if they miss the joys and pleasures of this earth! They will answer without hesitation: No, no; we desire but God alone and nothing else..."

Lent 2018 - St. Faustina's Visions of the Afterlife

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Feel Called to the Religious Life? - Capuchin Sisters of Nazareth

Please check out the website of the Capuchin Sisters of Nazareth.

Thank you to their chaplain for sharing the following information with me.

I am the Chaplain of the Capuchin Sisters of Nazareth in the Diocese of Scranton PA, and am wondering if you might post a link to their web page on your site. Also could you share this with young girls who are discerning religious life and other home schooling families in your area. The Capuchin Sisters are Franciscans who live a deeply contemplative life and Also have an apostolate. Capuchin Franciscan Sisters

THE VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY What It Means for Us

The Visitation by Evelyn Pickering De Morgan , 1883

by Brother John M. Samaha, S.M.

            While the feast of Mary’s Visitation to Elizabeth has been celebrated on other dates, the liturgical calendar revision authorized by Pope Paul VI placed it on May 31 -- after the Annunciation (March 25) and before the Birthday of St. John the Baptist (June 24).

            Most likely the feast of the Visitation originated with the Franciscans in 1263.  However, there is lack of certainty about the origin and the various dates that have been assigned to the feast.  By the late 14th century the celebration of the feast was well established.

Theme of the feast

            The theme of the Visitation feast centers on Mary responding to the prompting of the Holy Spirit to set out on a mission of charity.  This is reflected in the opening prayer and the prayer over the gifts, and in the canticle antiphons for Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer.  With John the Baptist we recognize joyfully the presence of Christ.  The feast clearly celebrates the first chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel.

            Church documents attest to the importance of the feast.

            In its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) , #57, the Second Vatican Council states: 

“This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ’s virginal conception up to his death; first when Mary, arising in haste to go to visit Elizabeth, is greeted by her as blessed because of her belief in the promise of salvation and the precursor leaped with joy in the womb of his mother.”  (cf. Lk 1:41-45)

            Venerable Pope Paul VI in Marialis Cultus, #7, observes that in the “celebrations that commemorate salvific events in which the Blessed Virgin Mary was closely associated with her son” . . . “the liturgy [of the Visitation] recalls the Blessed Virgin carrying her Son within her and visiting Elizabeth to offer charitable assistance and to proclaim the mercy of God.”

            In Redemptoris Mater, #12, Pope St. John Paul II wrote:

“Moved with charity, therefore, Mary goes to the house of her kinswoman....  While every word of Elizabeth is filled with meaning, her final words would seem to have a fundamental importance: ‘And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her from the Lord’ (Lk 1:45).  These words can be linked with the title ‘full of grace’ of the angel’s greeting.  Both of these texts reveal an essential Mariological content, namely, the truth about Mary who has become really present in the mystery of Christ because she ‘has believed,’ the fullness of grace announced by the angel means the gift of God himself.  Mary’s faith proclaimed by Elizabeth indicated how the Virgin of Nazareth responded to this gift.

Meaning of the feast

            The thrust of chapters one and two of Luke’s Gospel is not simply a family event between Elizabeth and Mary.  The Visitation is an event of salvation history.  Elizabeth, a model of the Old Testament, meets the New Testament in Mary’s faith in the mystery of her own destiny.  But what is most significant is the meeting of their unborn children.  John, who leaps in his mother’s womb, is already anticipating his role as precursor of the Messiah.

            In the Visitation narrative we look to Mary as model of the apostolate of the Church.  She brings Jesus and a blessing on the house of Zechariah.  The experience of the primitive Church was that the power of the Lord was the greatest gift it had to offer.  To bring Jesus will always be the supreme norm of any genuine apostolate.  The Church’s mission is to show Jesus as wisdom and power in each situation of human need.

            While the prayer after communion invites us to recognize the presence of Christ among us in the Eucharist, we must remember that the presence of Christ is discovered not only in the Eucharist.  He is met in others, and he asks us to serve him in others.  Mary’s service for Elizabeth by her visit remains a model for the Christian who wishes to meet Christ in daily life.

Liturgy and life nourish faith

            Like us, Mary had to walk by faith.  One writer likens faith to darkness and light.  It is dark because we cannot fully grasp divine truth.  It is light since faith brings us to truths we cannot know otherwise.  Mary walked in the light of faith.  God told her enough about his plan for her to make each new step.  Faith is not only intellectual, that is, belief.  Faith is also trust and action.

            Pope St. John Paul II in Redemptoris Mater, #14, offers an inspiring account of Mary’s faith. 

“To believe means to abandon oneself to the truth of the word of the living God, knowing and humbly recognizing ‘how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways’

 (Rm 11:33).  Mary, who by the eternal will of the Most High stands, one may say, at the very center of those inscrutable judgments of God, conforms herself to them in the dim light of faith, accepting fully and with a ready heart everything that is decreed in the divine plan.”

            Faith means to say “amen” (so be it) to the word, the command, and the promises of God.

            An important element of Mary’s faith is also common to ours.  God speaks to us through others.  We come to know God and his saving plan through people in the Christian community; for example, parents, teachers, preachers, and others.  Revelation is not made directly to us.  Except for the special experience of the Annunciation, Mary came to know God’s will through others.

            Mary’s faith, which is praised by Elizabeth, draws her to the dignity of being the Mother of Jesus and still greater to being a true disciple of the Lord.  Faith was not easier for her than for us.  The contrary is true.  For Mary it was more difficult to believe than for the apostles.  She understood more of God’s plan.  Pope St. John Paul II commented that the expression, “blessed is she who believed,” is a key unlocking the innermost reality of Mary.  Being aware that this faith was difficult, involving deep struggle, gives us an insight into Mary’s life and evidence of her likeness to us, sharing completely in the human condition, but without sin.