Be the Stars of Their Dark Nights

             'Millions there are who are fluttering like wounded birds around the Rock.
             Get on your knees for them; sacrifice for them. 
             Be the sign of the Eternal on the face of the earth, 
             the mystery of faith against the mystery of iniquity. 
             Bear love to those who hate; bring pity to the world's tears;     
             bless those who have forgotten the need of blessing. 
             Be the hidden writing on the parchment of their world. 
             Be the stars of their dark nights.' 

             Archbishop Fulton Sheen

               

                    Painting: George Henry Boughton

Here and Now

'So you want to know the best time to serve the Lord?  It is the present time, which is in your possession here and now. The past is no longer yours; the future has not come yet and is uncertain. The best time is really the present, which you should spend in serving God.'

St. Francis de Sales

Painting: Michael Ancher, By Grandmother's Sickbed

By Whatever Means

'What matters it, to a truly loving soul, whether God be served by this means or by another?'

St. Francis de Sales

Painting: Viktor Schramm, The Fitting, 1900

I Have My Mission

'God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another.  I have my mission - I may never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.'   

John Henry Cardinal Newman

Painting:  William Strang, Cynthia, 1917

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