For Another World

Painting: Dante Gabriel Rossetti

More Beautiful Than That

Painting: Jules Tavernier, Sunrise Over Diamond Head, 1888

If We Only Knew

On Which They Are Gazing

On Our Way

We Fix Our Eyes

Childish Concerns

'Soon we shall be in eternity, and then we shall see how very petty are the things of this earth, and how inconsequential it is whether we are involved in them or not....

'When we were small children, how carefully we collected pieces of wood, stone and such to build huts, and if someone knocked them down we cried... but now we understand how unimportant these things were.  We will feel the same one day in Heaven, when we see that all our preoccupations in this world were nothing but childish concerns. Be faithful to your duties, but be convinced that there is nothing more worthy or more important than eternal salvation and the perfection of your soul.'

St Francis de Sales

Before Those Greater Splendors

To Travel Peacefully

Earth Hath No Sorrow

Nor Time For Times

                    
                               'Do not seek repose here, for this is a world of toil. 
                               And if you can discern wisely, do not change time for time;
                               what is permanent for what is not;
                               what does not end for what ends;
                               nor truth for lying;
                               nor body for shadow;
                               nor watching for slumber;
                               nor that which is in season for that which is out of season;
                               nor the Time for the times.
                               Collect your mind;
                               do not let it wander among varieties that do you no good.'

                                               St. Ephrem the Syrian


                                                               Painting: John William Waterhouse, Windswept

The House of Your Father

"Once, when I was deeply moved by the thought of eternity and its mysteries, my soul became fearful; and when I pondered about these a little longer, I started to be troubled by various doubts. Then Jesus said to me:   

'My child, do not be afraid 
of the house of your Father.'"

St. Faustina Kowalska, Diary 290












Photo of Shrine of Divine Mercy, Stockbridge MA, by C. Wells

What Further Delights

'When you view fields and seashores, flowers and fruits, which gladden you with their appearance or with their fragrance, say: How many beautiful things God has made for me on this earth in order that I may love Him!  What further delights He has in store for me in heaven!'

St. Alphonsus de Liguori

N Shuman photo

Coronation

'You, who have the kingdom of heaven, are not a poor little woman, but a queen.'

Blessed Jordan of Saxony





















Painting: Charles Sillem Lidderdale, 1877

Pilgrims and Strangers

 

'We are pilgrims and strangers on earth. 

Pilgrims sleep in tents

and sometimes cross deserts, 

but the thought of their homeland 

makes them forget everything else.'

Charles de Foucauld




Painting: John Singer Sargent, A Tent in the Rockies

Beautiful the Glittering Wounds and Scars

'Lift up your eyes and see
where you belong:
the Fatherland
of the heavenly paradise...
All who are there
will be glad to see you.
They long fervently
for your joyful presence..
they want you
to engage devoutly
in the spiritual combat
of suffering,
and behave chivalrously
in all the same hardships
that they themselves
have overcome!
If you only knew
how they now,
with great sweetness,
remember the cruel years
through which they once passed.
Truly, all suffering
would only be easier for you,
knowing that the more
bitterly you have suffered,
the more honorably
you are received there.
How pleasant
that honor will be...
How exquisitely
beautiful will be
the glittering wounds and scars
that you received here below
for the sake of My love!'

Blessed Henry Suso

'Therefore, since we are surrounded by this cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every encumbrance of sin which clings to us and persevere in running the race which lies ahead.  Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who inspires and perfects our faith.'  (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Painting: Gustave Dore.Triumph of Christianity

Oh My Lord, What a Day

                               'Oh my Lord, what a day
                               when I shall have done once and for all with all sins,
                               and shall stand perfect and acceptable in Your sight,
                               able to bear Your presence, nothing shrinking from Your eye,
                               not shrinking from the scrutiny of angels and archangels,
                               when I stand in the midst and they around me.

                               'Oh my God, though I am not fit to see or touch You yet,
                               still I will ever come within Your reach,
                               and desire that which is not yet given me in its fullness.' 

                               Blessed John Henry Newman

                                         Painting:  Thomas Cooper Gotch, The Awakening

That Thorns Remain

               
                            'I thank Thee (Lord) that all our joy
                            is touched with pain;
                            That shadows fall on brightest hours;
                            that thorns remain:
                            so that earth's bliss may be our guide,
                            and not our chain.

                            For Thou Who knowest, Lord, how soon
                            our weak heart clings,
                            hast given joys, tender and true,
                            yet all with wings.
                            So that we see, gleaming on high,
                            Diviner things.

                            I thank Thee, Lord, that Thou has kept
                            the best in store;
                            we have enough, yet not too much
                            to long for more:
                            A yearning for a deeper peace,
                            not known before.

                            I thank Thee, Lord, that here our souls,
                            though amply blest,
                            can never find, although they seek,
                            a perfect rest -
                            nor ever shall, until they lean
                            on Jesus' breast.'

(from Sheltering the Divine Outcast, compiled by A Religious, The Peter Reilly Co, Philadelphia, 1952, pp. 181-182)

                                     Painting: Swallow, John Everett Millais

                                    This post is linked to Catholic Bloggers Linkup

Then We Shall See

 

'Soon we shall be in eternity, and then we shall see how very petty are the things of this earth....
When we were small children, how carefully we collected pieces of wood, stone and such to build huts, and if someone knocked them down we cried.. but now we understand how unimportant these things were.  We will feel the same way one day in heaven, when we see that all our preoccupations in this world were nothing but childish concerns.  Be faithful to your duties, but be convinced that there is nothing more worthy or more important than eternal salvation and the perfection of your soul.'

St Francis de Sales (letter)

Albert Anker Painting


This post is linked to Catholic Bloggers Network

But an Atom

'Eternal incomprehensible God,

 I believe, and confess, and adore Thee,

 as being infinitely more wonderful, resourceful,

and immense than this universe which I see.

I look into the depths of space

in which the stars are scattered about...   

But all, all that is in these worlds, high and low,

 are but an atom compared with the 

grandeur, the height and depth, the glory

 on which Thy saints are gazing

            in their contemplation of Thee.'          

                                                           

John Henry Newman 

NASA Hubble photogaph