St. Therese's Spiritual Library

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...Therese drew profit from her reading and the Carmelite instruction she received ruing her religious life. She did not indulge in that sort of spiritual gluttony that makes some 'pious' persons devour a great quantity of sweetly devotional books. Her spiritual reading list can be reduced to:

1. Holy Scripture
2. The Imitation of Christ
3. Father Surin's Foundations of the Spiritual Life Note: The one I found online has been adapted for use in the Anglican Church.
4. Father Arminjon's The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life
5. The Works of St. Teresa of Jesus
6. The Works of St. John of the Cross


From the Complete Spiritual Doctrine of St. Therese of Lisieux by Rev. Francois Jamart. O.C.D., Alba House

Your Concern Was Deeply Appreciated

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As you know by now, the Hawaiian islands were threatened by a tsunami caused by the huge earthquake in Japan. Thank God...and I can't say this enough...Thank God, He spared Hawaii once again.

My family and I were deeply touched by all the messages of concern and prayers we received from so many people. Not only did we receive calls, emails and text messages from our family and friends on the Mainland but we also received messages through Twitter and Facebook. I received emails from friends who read my blog. I had friends send out prayer request for us. Wow! to say I am touched is not even close to sharing how I feel.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart...thank you very, very much for caring!!

I was able to get noon Mass. I had to give thanks to God, pray for Japan but I also wanted to pray for each and every one of you.

The Cross that Most Resembles the Cross of Christ

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"...there is one cross more nearly resembling the cross of Christ than any other, and that is, lovingly and patiently to submit to unjust punishment, rebuffs, or accusations..."

- from the introduction of The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ by Anna Catherine Emmerich

Living Simply This Lent

Mary Jane shared a really good article just in time for our Lenten journey.

Living Simply During Lent

I'm skipping to #5:

Fifth, embrace silence. Kreeft calls silence "the unknown power source…the great untapped resource." He says that silence is more, not less than noise. Cultivate inner silence by eliminating outer noise. Turn off the television. Skip the radio in the car. Listen more. Talk less. God speaks to us all the time, but often with the cacophonic sounds intruding into our lives we just don't hear Him.

Graces of Lent

How often I have discovered that the good reason I have given, even to myself, for what I do, is not the real reason that I am doing it for. What Jesus describes for us in the Gospel exposes just this split within our hearts. The good reason for which the hypocrite does what he does is so that God will be pleased with his faithfulness and charity. The real reason is so that people will think him to be faithful and charitable. The problem is that we only have on heart, and in the end it can be attached only to one thing, either the good reason, God, or the real reason, people's approval. Once we have attached ourselves, we already have our reward.

Sanctity happens when our good reason and our real reason are the same reason. It happens when the split is eliminated and we have embraced our truest longings as the reason for our lives. Jesus tells us to pray and give where others cannot see us praying and giving so that we not lose track of the entreaty coming from our heart, and thus lose track also of the answer, Jesus himself.

The more our sacrifices are secret, the more there must emerge our secret heartfelt reason for them.

And our Father who sees in secret will repay you.

Father Vincent Nagle, F.S.C.,B. - Special assistant to the Patriarch of Jerusalem and administrator at St. Justin's Parish Church in Nablus, Palestine.

-March 2011 Issue of Magnificat.

Don’t rub off your ashes, urges bishop

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Catholics should try not to rub their ashes off after Ash Wednesday Mass, an English bishop has said.

Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton, who heads the department of evangelisation and catechesis, urged Catholics across Britain to wear “the outward sign of our inward sorrow for our sins and for our commitment to Jesus as Our Lord and Saviour”.

He said: “The wearing of the ashes provides us with a wonderful opportunity to share with people how important our faith is to us and to point them to the cross of Christ. I invite you where possible to attend a morning or lunchtime Mass.

You can read the rest of Anna Arco's article here

Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

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Jesus in the Eucharist,
immortal King of ages,
Who from the humble throne of the Tabernacle would conquer the world,
O Jesus,
do not permit that any of us who are close to Thy Sacred Heart,
the never-failing source of living water, should perish of thirst.
Do not permit the members of our household to fall fainting on the road of life because they refuse to nourish themselves with Thee,
the Bread sent down from Heaven for earth's exiles.

Because Thou art Jesus,
cross the abyss that separates them from Thee;
pay no attention to their ignorance;
win them in spite of their weakness,
heeding only Thy pity and the prayer of faith and love that,
unknown to them, we offer Thee at Thy merciful request. O Jesus, save them, by Thy grace!...

By the Immaculate Queen, let them drink the chalice of thy love!...

- Holy Hour by The Rev. Fr. Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SS.CC.
Book Four

Pope Benedict XVI: ST. FRANCIS OF SALES: GREAT MASTER OF SPIRITUALITY AND PEACE

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During today's general audience, which was held in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope spoke about St. Francis de Sales, bishop and doctor of the Church who lived in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Born in 1567 to a noble family in the Duchy of Savoy, while still very young Francis, "reflecting on the ideas of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, underwent a profound crisis which led him to question himself about his own eternal salvation and about the destiny God had in store for him, experiencing the principle theological questions of his time as an authentic spiritual drama". The saint "found peace in the radical and liberating truth of God's love: loving Him without asking anything in return and trusting in divine love; this would be the secret of his life".

Read the rest at VIS

On Dealing with Temptations

St. Francis de Sales gave the following advice to St. Jane de Chanal on patience and bearing temptations.

"...while a temptation displeases you there is nothing to fear; for why does it displease you, save because you do not will it? ... these burdensome temptations come from the malice of the Devil; but the pain and suffering that we feel come from the mercy of God who, against the will of the enemy, draws from his malice holy tribulations, by which He refines the gold that He would put into His treasures.

...your temptations are from the Devil and from Hell, but your pains and afflictions are from God and Paradise. The mothers are from Babylon, but the daughters are from Jerusalem. Despise the temptations; embrace the tribulations...

Thy Will be Done by St. Francis de Sales, Sophia Press

On Friendship by the Book of Sirach

Sacred Heart Church, Honolulu

...A kind mouth multiplies friends, and gracious lips prompt friendly greetings. Let your acquaintances be many, but one in a thousand your confidant. When you gain a friend, first test him, and be not too ready to trust him for one sort of friend is a friend when it suits him, but he will not be with you in time of distress.  Another is a friend who becomes an enemy, and tells of the quarrel to your shame.  Another is a friend, a boon companion, who will not be with you when sorrow comes.  When things go well, he is your other self, and lords it over your servants; but if you are brought low, he turns against you and avoids meeting you. Keep away from your enemies; be on your guard with your friends. A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure. A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance his worth. A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy, such as he who fears God finds; For he who fears God behaves accordingly, and his friend will be like himself.

Sirach 6:1-18

The guidance given above in the Book of Sirach should really be taken seriously by everyone. Seems like everyone uses the word "friend" very lightly.  I know I am one of those culprits.  In reality, aren't those we consider friends really just acquaintances?  It is not a negative thing to have many acquaintances.  Yet not everyone is blessed to have a really good friend.  If you have such a friend, be grateful.

Even if we don't feel like we have a close friend, remember that we do.  It is Jesus and He is always there for us.