Friday, July 31, 2015

The Truth About These Days

'These are the days when the Christian is 
expected to praise every creed except his own.'

G.K. Chesterton















Painting: Thomas Dewing, The Mask, in US public domain due to age

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

You, Martha



'You, Martha, if I may say so, are blessed for your good service, and for your labors you seek the reward of peace. Now you are much occupied in nourishing the body, admittedly a holy one. 

'But when you come to the heavenly homeland will you find a traveler to welcome, someone hungry to feed, or thirsty to whom you may give drink, someone ill whom you could visit, or quarreling whom you could reconcile, or dead whom you could bury? No, there will be none of these tasks there. 

'What you will find there is what Mary chose. There we shall not feed others, we ourselves shall be fed. Thus what Mary chose in this life will be realized there in all its fullness; she was gathering fragments from that rich banquet, the Word of God. 

'Do you wish to know what we will have there? The Lord himself tells us when he says of his servants, Amen, I say to you, he will make them recline and passing he will serve them.’ 

St. Augustine, from today's Office of Readings 
 
 Painting: Semiradsky, Christ and Martha and Maria

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Hiding Place




'Keep yourself hidden in God, and nothing can hurt you.'

St. Paul of the Cross


                                                                               Painting: Restout, St Bruno



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Sunday, July 26, 2015

Fast Mount the Pointed Shafts of Light



            'The dawn is sprinkling in the east
            Its golden shower, as day flows in;
            Fast mount the pointed shafts of light:
            Farewell to darkness and to sin!'
 

            Roman Breviary


            Painting: Jules Tavernie, Sunrise Over Diamond Head,1888

Saturday, July 25, 2015

I'll Accept Whatever God Allows. IF.....

'Many would be willing to have afflictions 
provided that they
be not inconvenienced 
by them.'

St. Francis de Sales






















Painting: Ellen Day Hale

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Neither Waves Nor Novelties

'An adult faith 
does not follow 
the waves of fashion 
and the latest novelties.'

Pope Benedict XVI















Painting: Macke, 'Reflection in the Shop Window'


Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Christ Without His Nails



             'Some... equate goodness with indifference to evil 
             and think that God is good if 
             He is broadminded or tolerant about evil. 
             Like the onlookers at the Cross, they want God on their terms, 
             not His, and they shout 'come down, and we will believe.' 

             'But the things they ask are the marks of a false religion: 
             it promises salvation without a cross, 
             abandonment without sacrifice, 
             Christ without His nails.'


Venerable Fulton Sheen


Painting: James Tissot, Jesus Wept


Monday, July 20, 2015

Sweet Union

 

'Perfection: is it not a loving, sweet union of the will with that of God?'

St. Vincent de Paul 


Photo

Friday, July 17, 2015

Living in the Time of Noguilt



'We are living in the only period of the world's history in which there is a universal denial of guilt. Dostoevsky wrote 'the time is coming when men will say there is no sin; there is no guilt; there is only hunger. And they will come crying and fawning to our feet saying 'give us bread.''

'It used to be that Catholics were the only ones who believed in the Immaculate Conception. Now everybody believes that he was immaculately conceived.'


Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Painting: Michelangelo, Fall and Expulsion from Garden of Eden


 

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Monday, July 13, 2015

But I Can Do This


'I am not capable of doing big things, but I want to do everything, even the smallest things, for the greater glory of God.'

St. Dominic Savio














Painting: Auguste Renoir, Gabrielle and Jean



Saturday, July 11, 2015

Upon My Lips A Song


                      'Because the road was steep and long
                      and through a dark and lonely land,
                      God set upon my lips a song
                      and put a lantern in my hand.'

                      From 'Love's Lantern' by Joyce Kilmer



                                    Painting: Julius von Klever, Reisigsammler 1911, with digital alteration

Thursday, July 9, 2015

No More Lost Time


'Let us make up for lost time. 
Let us give to God 
the time that remains to us'

St. Alphonsus de Liguori














Painting: Emil Czech, in US public domain due to age

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

So I Beg For Help


'I can scarcely contain my tears, so ashamed am I 
of the lukewarmness and lethargy of the present times.'

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Painting: Wilhelm Bernatzik,Vision of St Bernard (cropped), in US public domain due to age

Monday, July 6, 2015

When We Get Accustomed

'Sins, however great and detestable they may be, are looked upon as trivial, or not as sins at all, when men get accustomed to them. And so far does this go, that such sins are not only not concealed, but are boasted of and published far and wide.'

St. Augustine










Painting: Edouard Manet

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Why Sin Is Not the Worst Thing In The World



'Sin is not the worst thing in the world. The worst thing in the world is the denial of sin....  If I deny that there is any such thing as sin, how shall I ever be forgiven? The denial of sin is the unforgivable sin, for it makes redemption impossible.' 

                                                                       Venerable Fulton Sheen


Painting: Jean Béraud, The Magdalen at the House of the Pharisees, in US public domain due to age

Friday, July 3, 2015

So That...



'Do not conform yourselves to this age 
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, 
so that you may judge what is God's will, 
His good, pleasing and perfect will.'  

Romans 12:2

Painting: Paul Gauguin

Thursday, July 2, 2015

And Fair Weather Returns


'Storms, like a wave, pass quickly. And the fair weather returns.'

St. Teresa of Avila




Painting: Winslow Homer, Summer Squall