The Steady Gleam

link to photo attribution

'All the lights of this world, radiant in their brilliance and wealth and flashing splendour, cannot compare with the pure, steady gleam of Faith.

'No earthly light can show us God.  No blaze from the fires of this world can light up the mysteries of life, or reveal Eternal Truths.

'No!  It is the fixed, constant, and unchanging Ray of Faith that turns darkness into day, and exchanges doubt for certainty.

'Faith gives not only light, but understanding and acute vision also.  All that we can see, we know was made from invisible things.

'Faith pierces the visible and gives a glimpse of the Invisible.'

from The Living Pyx of Jesus by A Religious, Pellegrini, Australia, 1941,  p.120

Love's Secret

"Love's secret is to be always doing things for God,

and not to mind because they are such very little ones."   

F.W. Faber

Painting:  Edgar Degas, Woman Ironing, Google Art Project

This post is linked to Catholic Bloggers Network Linkup Blitz 

Good Advice?

"Never read books you aren't sure about...  even supposing that they are very well written from a literary point of view.

"Let me ask you this:  would you drink something you knew was poisoned just because it was offered to you in a golden cup?"

St. John Bosco

Joseph Wright of Derby painting, c.1760-62

Hope for the Dry Times

'One single act done with dryness of spirit

is worth more than many done with sensible devotion.' 

St. Francis de Sales

Painting: Joseph Stieler, Anna Hillmayer 1829

In This Garden

"'Let my beloved come into His garden,' says the spouse of the Canticles...   Now, the Divine Spouse comes into His garden when He comes into a devout soul, for since His delight is to be with the children of men, where can He repose better than in the soul that He has made in His own image and likeness?

"In this garden He Himself plants the loving delight that we have in His goodness, and on which we feed our souls."  (St. Francis de Sales, from Treatise on the Love of God)

An Unfortunate Truth

'For a small living 

men run a great way;

for eternal life

many will scarcely raise

a single foot from the ground.'

Thomas A' Kempis (from The Imitation of Christ)

God is the Cause of Loving God

'God is the cause of loving God....

He Himself creates the longing.

He Himself fulfills the desire....

Kindly, He leads the way.

He repays us justly.

He is our sweet hope.

He is riches to all who call upon Him.  

There is nothing better than Himself.  

He gave Himself in merit.  

He keeps Himself to be our reward.'

St. Bernard of Clairvaux


Painting:  El Greco, St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata

The Supreme Act

'Of all human activities, 
listening to God 
is the supreme act 
of man's
reasoning 
and will.'  

Pope Paul VI

A Journey Marked Daily

'The school of faith is not

a triumphal march,

but a journey 

marked daily by 

suffering and love, 

trials and faithfulness.'  

Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, May 24, 2006

'God makes all things work together for the good of those who love Him..."
Romans 8:28

Wierusz Kowalski painting in US public domain

Prayer Reveals...

'Prayer reveals to souls 

the vanity of earthly goods and pleasures.  

It fills souls with light, strength and consolation; 

and gives them a foretaste of the calm bliss of our heavenly home.'  

St. Rose of Viterbo

Painting:  Poul Friis Nybo, Woman with Pearls, in US public domain

At Each Moment

'God's will is to peacefully do, at each moment, what at that moment ought to be done.'

St. Katherine Drexel

Painting:  William Kay Blacklock, Cleaning Fruit

Just This Once

Mothers can't help it.  When they run into nearly forgotten YouTube videos with one of their children in them... and even with a photo of said (teenaged) child showing off a newly caught fish... Mothers gotta throw all of their "this is not a deeply personal blog" ideas out the window.  Just this once.   

A mother might remember nearly miscarrying a son.  Fretting and worrying and dismissing others' well intentioned but painful "assurances" that "there can be plenty of other children."  (but I want THIS one ... I already love THIS one... don't they understand...?).  The intense joy when that very son arrives at term, full-voiced and healthy.  The even more intense joy as "Frankie" grows up to love and serve God. 

A mother remembers a little boy's concerns about not wanting to go to Heaven "cause there's angels there, and angels are girls - YUK!!!"  A mother looks at all-grown-up Frankie and thanks God for his faith, for his family, for all of the years.

No, this is not a family blog.  Most of my family members prefer it that way.  Only one is a total extrovert-to-the-core, and it is he who had one half-second of fishing "fame" in a music video, back when he was a teen.  No, Frankie was not singing in it (except with a group around a campfire), but golly - in that one split-second, could he FISH :)!!  Fishing is one of his favorite things to do even now.

The singer in this music video is Chris Rice (who also wrote the song "Go Light Your World," famously recorded by Kathy Troccoli).

Playing backup guitar is singer Michael W. Smith.

The one-second-fisherman is Frankie - who by that time had made his peace with girls :).   
It's his picture on the still shot of the video before you click on it, at least on the one that shows up when I see it.  He's older now, as I write this, but in this picture he bears a striking resemblance to a little boy I once raised.  Can time really have flown so fast?  I sit and stare.

Anyway, today is Divine Mercy Sunday, and I think the song's theme is appropriate.

Besides that:  mothers can't help it.   Just this once.

(Gratefully linking this post to Memoir Monday at Campfires and Cleats)

(This post is linked to Catholic Bloggers Network Linkup Blitz)

No Limit to Your Mercy

'Depth of Mercy, O Triune Holiness, yet one God,

Whose bosom is filled with love for all, 

as a good Father You scorn no one.  

O Love of God, Living Fountain, 

pour Yourself out upon us, Your unworthy creatures.  

'May our misery not hold back the torrents of Your love,

for indeed, there is no limit to Your mercy.' 

St. Faustina, Diary # 1307

Painting: Frederic Edwin Church, Rainy Season in the Tropics

See, the Winter is Past

'Arise, My beloved, My beautiful one, and come!

For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth.

the time of pruning the vines has come,

and the song of the dove is heard in our land.

The fig tree puts forth its figs, 

and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.  

Arise, My beloved, 

My beautiful one,

and come!'

Song of Songs 2:10-13

Painting: Bidau, Eugene; A Peacock and Doves in a Garden, 1888 

The First Home

'When man is entirely caught up in his own world, with material things, with what he can do, with all that is feasible and brings him success, with all that he can produce or understand by himself, then his capacity to perceive God weakens, the organ sensitive to God deteriorates, it becomes unable to perceive and sense, it no longer perceives the Divine..'  Pope Benedict XVI, 2006

'God is the first home of human beings, and only by dwelling in God do men and women burn with a flame of divine love that can set the world on fire.'   Pope Benedict XVI, 2006