It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant … Continue reading All Saints’ Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day
Words of the Saints: St. Louis to His Son
(Meant to have something of my own, but I've fallen down with a bad cold and don't have much in the way of thinking powers. So enjoy the advice of St. Louis IX to his son) 1. To his dear first-born son, Philip, greeting, and his father's love. 2. Dear son, since I desire with … Continue reading Words of the Saints: St. Louis to His Son
Words of the Saints: A Prayer of St. Bede
(A little late on this: taken from this excellent article on the Saint by my sister, which I recommend you read) Lord God almighty,open wide the door of my heartand illumine it with the grace of the Holy Spirit,that I may seek what is pleasing to your will.Guide my thoughts and my heart,and lead my … Continue reading Words of the Saints: A Prayer of St. Bede
Words of the Saints: St. John Henry Newman on Some Difficulties
Yet not a little may be said in explanation of a step, which so many of his admirers and well-wishers deplore. I own to a deep feeling, that Catholics may in good measure thank themselves, and no one else, for having alienated from them so religious a mind. There are those among us, as it … Continue reading Words of the Saints: St. John Henry Newman on Some Difficulties
Words of the Saints: St. Ignatius’s Principle
"Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul. All other things on the face of the earth are created for man to help him fulfill the end for which he is created. From this it follows that man is to use these things to … Continue reading Words of the Saints: St. Ignatius’s Principle
Words of the Saints: St. John Henry Newman on the Hour of Death
"Well is the hour of death described as the evening. There is something in the evening especially calm and solemn, fitly representing the hour of death. How peculiar, how unlike anything else, is a summer evening, when after the fever and heat of the day, after walking, or after working, after any toil, we cease … Continue reading Words of the Saints: St. John Henry Newman on the Hour of Death
Words of the Saints: St. Thomas on the Resurrection
We find that many arose from the dead, such as Lazarus [Jn 11:1-44], the son of the widow [Lk 7:11-16], and the daughter of the Ruler of the synagogue [Mk 5:35-43]. But the resurrection of Christ differed from the resurrection of these and of all others in four points. (1) Christ’s resurrection differed from that … Continue reading Words of the Saints: St. Thomas on the Resurrection
Words of the Saints: St. Leo on the Passion
"O wondrous power of the Cross! O ineffable glory of the Passion, in which is contained the Lord's tribunal, the world's judgment, and the power of the Crucified! For you drew all things unto You, Lord and when You had stretched out Your hands all the day, long to an unbelieving people that gainsaid You … Continue reading Words of the Saints: St. Leo on the Passion
Words of the Saints – St. John Henry Newman on Literature
"A Literature, when it is formed, is a national and historical fact; it is a matter of the past and the present, and can be as little ignored as the present, as little undone as the past. We can deny, supersede, or change it, then only, when we can do the same towards the race … Continue reading Words of the Saints – St. John Henry Newman on Literature
Words of the Saints: Saint Francis de Sales on Anxiety
Book IV, Chapter II of Introduction to the Devout Life (emph. mine): "Anxiety of mind is not so much an abstract temptation, as the source whence various temptations arise. Sadness, when defined, is the mental grief we feel because of our involuntary ailments;—whether the evil be exterior, such as poverty, sickness or contempt; or interior, … Continue reading Words of the Saints: Saint Francis de Sales on Anxiety
Serpent's Den 