The Mission of My Life

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 know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments. Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about.

John Henry Cardinal Newman

The Great Conversation

Western civilization has been the result of a long, difficult conversation.  When we read the classics and greats of the western world, we join into a Great Conversation which began when God spoke the universe into existence, but we also remind ourselves and the rising generation that the conversation has yet to end, and will not end until all things have been redeemed through the One.

- Brad Birzer (full article here)

The Duty of the Moment

The hard truth is that I don’t have to go to South America to be a saint. I can do that here, among the pots and pans and glowing rectangles of my life, by striving to remain fully awake, fully alive, living each moment in the presence of God. I can strive to love everyone I meet, not with my own love but the love of Christ — a love that isn’t always romantic or thrilling, that sometimes feels like drudgery, but only because its glory is hidden, like the glory of Christ was hidden on earth. Love in action means love where and when you are, not in the dream of some beautiful Elsewhere.

- Steve Gershom

Thomas Aquinas

Grant me the talent

Of being exact in my explanations

And the ability to express myself

With thoroughness and charm. 

There are many kinds of alms the giving of which helps us to obtain pardon for our sins; but none is greater than that by which we forgive from our heart a sin that someone has committed against us.

—St. Augustine

The Holy Father's September Prayer Intentions
Teachers. That all teachers may know how to communicate the love of truth and instill authentic moral and spiritual values.
Church in Asia. That the Christian communities in Asia may proclaim the Gospel with fervor, witnessing to its beauty with the joy of faith.

If you feel that Catholicism or Christianity or religion is not
represented, by detractors or defenders, in ways that honor its
profundity and beauty, live out its profundity and beauty. To do this
is more telling than any argument.

-- Marilynne Robinson

Say only the good things

πᾶς λόγος σαπρὸς ἐκ τοῦ στόματος ὑμῶν μὴ ἐκπορευέσθω, ἀλλὰ εἴ τις ἀγαθὸς πρὸς οἰκοδομὴν τῆς χρείας, ἵνα δῷ χάριν τοῖς ἀκούουσιν.

Let every rotten word not go forth from your mouth, but whatever is good for necessary edification, so that it may give grace to those who hear.

-- Ephesians 4:29

"You may take it, young man, that I am versed in the elements of my business.  This is not a conceivable bone either of a tapir or of any other creature known to zoology.  It belongs to a very large, a very strong, and, by all analogy a very fierce animal which exists upon the face of the earth, but has not yet come under the notice of science.  You are still unconvinced?"

"I am at least deeply interested."

"Then your case is not hopeless.  I feel that there is reason lurking in you somewhere, so we may patiently grope around for it."

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World

The Refinery

For you, God, tested us;
you refined us like silver.
You brought us into prison
and laid burdens on our backs.
You let people ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water,
but you brought us to a place of abundance.
Psalms 66:10-12

Totally love him, who gave himself totally for your love.

—St. Clare

Whose Body?

'I've left my catalogue behind,' said Lord Peter deprecatingly, 'uncommonly careless of me. D'you mind puttin' back to where we came from?'

'To the Seville Club, sir?'

'No - 110A Piccadilly - just beyond - thank you.'

'Thought you was in a hurry,' said the man, overcome with a sense of injury.

'I'm afraid it's an awkward place to turn in,' said Lord Peter, answering the thought rather then the words.

Don't worry, be happy!

" To escape the distress caused by regret for the past or fear about the future, this is the rule to follow: leave the past to the infinite mercy of God, the future to His good Providence, give the present wholly to His love by being faithful to His grace." de Caussade, Spiritual Counsels.

Trust

GOD, my Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet swift as those of hinds
and enables me to go upon the heights.

Habakkuk 3:19

The natural meaning of marriage

Fr. Koterski again:

Natural marriage as something whose full meaning is extremely difficult to put into words, let alone be understood by young people when marrying. Yet it is something one can readily see enough of so as to desire intensely. The commitment of marriage then serves as a means by which those who do not yet know how to say well all that the act of sexual intercourse means by binding themselves to live in such a way as to grow into expressing what are the most appropriate aspects of their activities.

The desire to make one’s partner a parent seems to be more prominent in some cultures than others. A man desires to make his wife yet more of a woman by making her a mother, and a woman desires to make her husband yet more of a man by becoming a father.

A good definition of symbol from Fr. Joe Koterski, S.J.

“symbol” – a sign whose structure or activity or appearance signifies not only what it conveys by resemblance at the level of material likeness but that can lead us to a higher realm by virtue of some sort of likeness to the immaterial and spiritual reality it signifies.

"[W]hat fills and satisfies the soul consists, not in knowing much, but in our understanding the realities profoundly, and in savoring them interiorly." --St. Ignatius of Loyola.

The Ballad of the White Horse~G.K.

For not till the night's blue slate is wiped

Of it's last star utterly,

And new strange signs writ there to read,

Shall eyes with such amazement heed

As when a great man knows indeed

A greater thing than he.

The Family and the Church

Show by the witness of your lives that it is possible, like Christ, to love without reserve, and do not be afraid to make a commitment to another person! Dear families, rejoice in fatherhood and motherhood! Openness to life is a sign of openness to the future, confidence in the future, just as respect for the natural moral law frees people, rather than demeaning them! The good of the family is also the good of the Church. I would like to repeat something I have said in the past: "the edification of each individual Christian family fits into the context of the larger family of the Church which supports it and carries it with her ... And the Church is reciprocally built up by the family, a ‘small domestic church.’” Let us pray to the Lord, that families may come more and more to be small churches and that ecclesial communities may take on more and more the quality of a family!


-- Pope Benedict XVI, Homily on Croatia's Catholic Family Day

The body and happiness.

"No one can be sad while they're using wrist and hand and eye and every muscle of their body." Bardia, Till We Have Faces.

"I said not long before that work and weakness are comforts. But sweat is the kindest creature of the three--far better than philosophy as a cure for ill thoughts." Orual.

World Wars

"Isn't it good that there have only been two world wars?" --Anthony, while flitting around the house looking for a jawbone of an ass.

G.K. Chesterton

"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him."

Successful Prayer

"Prayer cannot be measured on a scale of success and failure because it is God's work--and God always succeeds. When we believe we have failed at prayer, it is because we decided what shape our prayer should have, and are now frustrated that there is nothing we can do to implement our ambition" (Michael Casey, Towards God).

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Oh my God, fill my soul with holy joy, courage and strength to serve You. Enkindle Your love in me and then walk with me along the next stretch of road before me. I do not see very far ahead, but when I have arrived where the horizon now closes down... A new prospect will open before me, and I shall meet it with peace.

Montjoy!

"Lords, Barons, charge on the foe! Spur hard!

See that ye hold unflinching the gates ye were bidden to guard!

In the name of God I beseech you, resolve you to deal with the sword

Great blows, and receive them! Forget not the banner of Charles your lord!"

If I had only One Sermon to Preach

Human beings are happy so long as they retain the receptive power and the power of reaction in surprise and gratitude to something outside. So long as they have this they have as the greatest minds have always declared, a something that is present in childhood and which can still preserve and invigorate manhood. The moment the self within is consciously felt as something superior to any of the gifts that can be brought to it, or any of the adventures that it may enjoy, there has appeared a sort of self-devouring fastidiousness and a disenchantment in advance, which fulfils all the Tartarean emblems of thirst and of despair.

-- G. K. Chesterton, in The Common Man, pp. 252-3

Pouring out a thousand graces,
he passed these groves in haste;
and having looked at them,
with his image alone,
clothed them in beauty.

Ah, who has the power to heal me?
Now wholly surrender yourself!
Do not send me
any more messengers,
they cannot tell me what I must hear.

St. John of the Cross - The Spiritual Canticle, Stanzas 5 and 6

But our homeland is in heaven and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transfigure the wretched body of ours into the mould of his glorious body, through the working of the power which he has, even to bring all things under his mastery.

Phillipians 3:20-21

St. Edith Stein

"When night comes, and retrospect shows that everything was patchwork and much that one had planned left undone, when so many things rouse shame and regret, then take all as is, lay it in God's hands, and offer it up to Him. In this way we will be able to rest in Him, actually to rest and to begin the new day like a new life."

Und wenn die Nacht kommt
und der Rückblick zeigt,
dass alles Stückwerk war
und vieles ungetan geblieben ist,
wenn so manches
tiefe Beschämung und Reue weckt:
dann alles nehmen, wie es ist,
in Gottes Hände legen
und Ihm überlassen.
So wird man in Ihm ruhen können,
wirklich ruhen
und den neuen Tag
wie ein neues Leben beginnen.

Dickens

"Dickens sure knows how to pull the heartstrings. Its like he's milking a cow or something....I was thinking of the Three Stooges." --anonymous family member.

"But if he wishes to prevent this fire of divine love from growing cold because of injuries received, let him keep the eyes of his soul always fixed on the serene patience of his beloved Lord and Savior." -- St. Aelred.

Be at peace. Do not look forward in fear to the changes of life; rather look to them with full hope as they arise. God, whose very own you are, will deliver you from out of them. He has kept you hitherto, and He will lead you safely through all things; and when you cannot stand it, God will bury you in his arms.

-- St. Francis de Sales (via Mary Kate Thielman)

More True Devotion to the Holy Spirit

Behind all our problems is always the problem of the heart, for love, that noble and kingly sentiment, is the first and foremost affection in the soul. All other affections we know are related to love: hope is love that longs for union with the beloved; sadness is separation from the beloved...

Lit Choir Woes

"One note I would watch is the F natural on the fourth page for the Sopranos. It's a little fuzzy."
"It's going sharp, Fred?"
"It's a little fuzzy, which would be fine if it was a teddy bear, but it's not. It's a note."

(Fred the Recording Specialist and Andrew J. McShane)

True Devotion to the Holy Spirit ~Martinez

For God, the immeasurably wise, infinitely good God, loves us. With wonderful power, but exquisite gentleness, He leads us through the winding, painful paths of this world until we reach our home. Then there will be an end of trouble, our tears will be dried, and we shall no longer need consolations, for the heavenly Sun of celestial happiness will shine forever in all its fullness.

White bread

"Well, white bread is such a strong temptation!" -- Tim

Guess who.

"You all know in what way the community of believers has been wounded in recent times by the attacks of evil, by the penetration of sin in the interior, in fact in the heart of the Church. Do not take this as a pretext to flee from God's presence; you yourselves are the Body of Christ, the Church! Carry intact the fire of your love in this Church every time that men have obscured her face. "Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord" (Romans 12:11).
When Israel was in the darkest point of its history, God called to the rescue no great and esteemed persons, but a youth called Jeremiah; Jeremiah felt invested with too great a mission: "Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth!" (Jeremiah 1:6). But God did not let himself be misled: "Do not say, 'I am only a youth'; for to all to whom I send you you shall go, and whatever I command you you shall speak" (Jeremiah 1:7)."

Cliff notes #1

"There are laws and there are laws. The Law of Grace is the law of personal relationship with God."

"Grace is not a thing; it is a relationship with Him."

"It is not because we are not ax murderers that we are suddenly in a healthy relationship with the Lord."

"If you want it for me, Lord, it is for my own good."

"Each one is just as holy as he wants to be. He already is giving us sufficient grace for holiness. It isn't a matter of divine favoritism [that some become canonized saints]. Do we want to cooperate with His grace?"

"If we give Him only a little freedom of movement, that is all He has."

"Fear of God is not like fear of dogs."

Gregory Jennings, Jr.

To God be the glory.

I have just one word.

Dallas, Texas, Superbowl, baby!

Two from Belloc

These are the advantages of travel, that one meets so many men whom one would otherwise never meet, and that one feeds as it were upon the complexity of mankind.

* * * * *

Do not, I beseech you, be troubled about the increase of forces already in dissolution. You have mistaken the hour of the night; it is already morning.

Indian restaurants are now one of most popular places to eat out in Britain. However it is best to avoid those called "A Taste of the Raj" because instead of serving you food you will be beaten with long sticks and forced to build complicated railway systems.


(BBC - I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue)

My Poem for the month

An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,-- Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow Through public scorn,--mud from a muddy spring,-- Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know, But leech-like to their fainting country cling, Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow,-- A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field,-- An army, which liberticide and prey Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield,-- Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay; Religion Christless, Godless--a book sealed; A Senate,--Time's worst statute unrepealed,-- Are graves, from which a glorious Phantom may Burst, to illumine our tempestous day. Percy Bysshe Shelley

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI)

Anyone who expected that Christianity would now become a mass movement was, of course, disappointed. But mass movements are not the ones that bear the promise of the future within them. The future is made wherever people find their way to one another in life-shaping convictions. And a good future grows wherever these convictions come from the truth and lead to it.

-- Preface to the 2000 edition of Introduction to Christianity

καὶ ἡ θάλασσα οὐκ ἔστιν ἔτι

As for the statement, "And there shall be no more sea," I would not lightly say whether it is dried up with that excessive heat, or is itself also turned into some better thing...For then there shall be no more of this world, no more of the surgings and restlessness of human life, and it is this which is symbolized by the sea.

Quod autem ait: "Et mare iam non est:" utrum maximo illo ardore siccetur an et ipsum vertatur in melius, non facile dixerim....Iam enim tunc non erit hoc saeculum vita mortalium turbulentum et procellosum, quod maris nomine figuravit.

-- St. Augustine, City of God, 20.16

A New Heaven and a New Earth

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, God's dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them (as their God). He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, (for) the old order has passed away." The one who sat on the throne 5 said, "Behold, I make all things new." Then he said, "Write these words down, for they are trustworthy and true." He said to me, "They are accomplished. 6 I (am) the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give a gift from the spring of life-giving water. The victor 7 will inherit these gifts, and I shall be his God, and he will be my son" (Rev. 21:1-7)

We had some nice conversations about the fact that "the sea was no more."

Overheard from a phone conversation between Anthony and grandpa

"Grandpa, ya wanna see something?..."

[grandpa's response unheard]

"...Okay, look at yourself!"

Edward Taylor (1642-1729)

God is Gone up with a triumphant shout:
The Lord with sounding Trumpets melodies:
Sing Praise, sing Praise, sing Praise, sing Praises out,
Unto our King sing praise seraphick-wise!
Lift up your Heads, ye lasting Doores, they sing,
And let the King of Glory Enter in.

Methinks I see Heavens sparkling Courtiers fly,
In flakes of Glory down him to attend;
And heare Heart Cramping notes of Melody
Surround his Charriot as it did ascend:
Mixing their Musick, making e’vry string
More to inravish, as they this tune sing.

-- from Meditation Twenty, Sacramental Meditations

"For the good man is neither uplifted with the good things, of time, nor broken by its ills; but the wicked man, because he is corrupted by this world's happiness, feels himself punished by its unhappiness." -- St. Augustine, City of God, Book I, Ch. 7.

Reading the Ancients

There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern books.  Thus I have found as a tutor in English Literature that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about "isms" and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said.  the error is rather an amiable one, for it springs from humility.  The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face.  He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him.  But if he only knew, the great man, because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator.  The simplest student will be able to understand, if not all, yet a very great deal of what Plato said; but hardly anyone can understand some modern books on Platonism.  It has always therefore been one of my main endeavours as a teacher to persuade the young that first-hand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than second-hand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire.
(C.S. Lewis, introduction to On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius)

Prayer and providence

What we mean, in the last resort, by "an answer to prayer," is that from the beginning of time, before He set about the building of the worlds, God foreknew every prayer that human lips would breathe, and took it into account. That, and nothing less, is the staggering claim which we make every time we say the "Our Father".

-- Msgr. Ronald A. Knox, Caliban in Grub Street

Praise of the Creator

These are thy glorious works, Parent of good,
Almightie, thine this universal Frame,
Thus wondrous fair; thy self how wondrous then!
Unspeakable, who sitst above these Heavens
To us invisible or dimly seen
In these thy lowest works, yet these declare
Thy goodness beyond thought, and Power Divine:
Speak yee who best can tell, ye Sons of light,
Angels, for yee behold him, and with songs
And choral symphonies, Day without Night,
Circle his Throne rejoycing, yee in Heav'n,
On Earth joyn all yee Creatures to extoll
Him first, him last, him midst, and without end.
Fairest of Starrs, last in the train of Night,
If better thou belong not to the dawn,
Sure pledge of day, that crownst the smiling Morn
With thy bright Circlet, praise him in thy Spheare
While day arises, that sweet hour of Prime.
Thou Sun, of this great World both Eye and Soule,
Acknowledge him thy Greater, sound his praise
In thy eternal course, both when thou climb'st,
And when high Noon hast gaind, & when thou fallst.
Moon, that now meetst the orient Sun, now fli'st
With the fixt Starrs, fixt in thir Orb that flies,
And yee five other wandring Fires that move
In mystic Dance not without Song, resound
His praise, who out of Darkness call'd up Light.
Aire, and ye Elements the eldest birth
Of Natures Womb, that in quaternion run
Perpetual Circle, multiform; and mix
And nourish all things, let your ceasless change
Varie to our great Maker still new praise.
Ye Mists and Exhalations that now rise
From Hill or steaming Lake, duskie or grey,
Till the Sun paint your fleecie skirts with Gold,
In honour to the Worlds great Author rise,
Whether to deck with Clouds the uncolourd skie,
Or wet the thirstie Earth with falling showers,
Rising or falling still advance his praise.
His praise ye Winds, that from four Quarters blow,
Breath soft or loud; and wave your tops, ye Pines,
With every Plant, in sign of Worship wave.
Fountains and yee, that warble, as ye flow,
Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise.
Joyn voices all ye living Souls, ye Birds,
That singing up to Heaven Gate ascend,
Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise;
Yee that in Waters glide, and yee that walk
The Earth, and stately tread, or lowly creep;
Witness if I be silent, Morn or Eeven,
To Hill, or Valley, Fountain, or fresh shade
Made vocal by my Song, and taught his praise.
Hail universal Lord, be bounteous still
To give us onely good; and if the night
Have gathered aught of evil or conceald,
Disperse it, as now light dispels the dark.

--John Milton, Paradise Lost, Bk. V

Pope Benedict XVI

In some way we want life itself, true life, untouched even by death; yet at the same time we do not know the thing towards which we feel driven. We cannot stop reaching out for it, and yet we know that all we can experience or accomplish is not what we yearn for. This unknown “thing” is the true “hope” which drives us, and at the same time the fact that it is unknown is the cause of all forms of despair and also of all efforts, whether positive or destructive, directed towards worldly authenticity and human authenticity...To imagine ourselves outside the temporality that imprisons us and in some way to sense that eternity is not an unending succession of days in the calendar, but something more like the supreme moment of satisfaction, in which totality embraces us and we embrace totality—this we can only attempt. It would be like plunging into the ocean of infinite love, a moment in which time—the before and after—no longer exists. We can only attempt to grasp the idea that such a moment is life in the full sense, a plunging ever anew into the vastness of being, in which we are simply overwhelmed with joy. This is how Jesus expresses it in Saint John's Gospel: “I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (16:22). We must think along these lines if we want to understand the object of Christian hope, to understand what it is that our faith, our being with Christ, leads us to expect.

The Gospel Without Compromise

To love with the heart of God, we must empty ourselves totally of self. We must empty ourselves of self, so as to allow Christ to love through us. Without Him we cannot love anything or anyone, not even ourselves.

C.S. Lewis

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.” -

The School of Mary

"to enter willfully and deliberately into the School of Mary." -- Fr. Cliff

Healing of Memories

"God's grace can transform out histories, even retroactively, if we submit it all to Him." -- Fr. Cliff.