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

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

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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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

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

The Truth About Truth

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'

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

Sweet Union

 

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

St. Vincent de Paul 

Photo 2015 N Shuman

To Learn Everything

Painting used is by Eastman Johnson

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

 

The Time Is Now

Though the Grass Withers

Painting used is 'An Italian Garden' by William Merritt Chase

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And Fair Weather Returns

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

St. Teresa of Avila

Painting: Winslow Homer, Summer Squall