Category Archives: Saints and Blesseds

Third Week of Advent

With our lamps burning, keep watch for the Lord

You who are eath born and you who are mortal hear this ! You who are in the dust awake and sing praise. A physician is coming to the sick, a redeemer to those who have been sold, a path to wanderers and life for the dead.

If we were in the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, where no foe enters we would have nothing to fear. ( Heb 9:11-12 ) As it is we are exposed to the three malign and powerful winds: the flesh, the devil and the world. These attempt to extinguish the enlightened conscience by blowing evil desires and illicit impulses into our hearts spinning you around so suddenly that you scarcely know where you are going. Therefore the soul must be sheltered by both pair of hands for fear that what has already been lighted may be extinguished. We must choose to burn rather then to give way. We must never forget the interests of our souls and we should make this the chief occupation of our hearts.

So then once our loins are thus girded and our lamps are burning, we must keep watch by night over the flock of our thoughts and actions. ( Lk 2:8 ) Then whether the Lord comes in the first watch or in the second or in the third he will find us prepared. The first watch is uprightness of action – trying to bring your whole life into line with the Rule you have vowed. The second is purity of intention. Whatever you do you should do for God’s sake. The third is the safeguarding of unity so that situated as you are in a community, you put what others want before what you want. We are building up our faith so that if we cannot see the wonders reserved for us, we can at least contemplate something of the wonders that have been done for us on earth.

The Holy Spirit too is waiting for us. The Spirit is the godly love and graciousness to which we have been predestined from eternity and most surely he wants to have accomplished what he has predestined. So then, since the wedding is ready and the whole throng of the heavenly court is longing and waiting for us, let us not run aimlessly; let us run with desires and with progress in the virtues. To get under way is to progress.

Let each one of us say, Look on me and have mercy according to the judgment of those who love your name. May your will be done. In the meantime, let this be our consolation, dearly beloved, until we go forth: that the Lord may be with us. May he by his great mercy bring us to that happy going forth and to that shining tomorrow.

The herald of the day then is also the one who cries out, be sober, be vigilant. ( John 12:32 ) The night is far gone the day is near. Let us cast off the world of darkness and put on the armor of light ! He is drawing all things to himself , he who is over all, God Blessed forever. Amen.

St Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot
the Advent Sermons

Second Week of Advent

O Judah and Jerusalem

‘O Judah and Jerusalem fear not.’ We are addressing true Jews, Jews not in letter but in spirit, Abraham’s offspring, whose promised increase we see realized ( Gal3:29 ).

Fear not true confessors, you who confess the Lord not only with your mouths but just as much with all and every part of you! True confession is when all your works are God’s works and confess him. Let them however confess with a twofold confession, so that you are clothed with double garments – that is with confession of your sins and confession of divine praise. Then will you be true Jews, if your whole life confesses that you are sinners deserving of far greater punishments but that God is supremely good and exchanges the eternal punishments you have deserved for these light and transitory ones.

As for you be true Jews; be the true Jerusalem so that you may no longer fear anything. Jerusalem is the vision of peace – vision, not possession – to whose borders – the Lord has brought peace. If therefore you do not have peace – or indeed because in this world you cannot have perfect peace – at least look at it, ponder it, consider it and long for it. Let the eyes of your heart ( Eph1:18 ) be turned toward it and your intention be turned toward peace so that everything you do you do out of longing for this peace which surpasses all understanding, that being reconciled you may have peace with God.

And so Judah and Jerusalem, fear not if you cannot yet attain the perfection you are longing for. Let your humbleness of your confession supply what the imperfection of your way of life lacks. God’s eyes have beheld your imperfect being. On that account has he commanded his commandments to be kept absolutely so that when we see our imperfect being failing and unable to fulfill its obligation we may flee toward mercy and say ‘because your mercy is better than life’.

Then we who cannot appear in the garments of innocence or righteousness can appear garbed in confession. Confession and beauty are in the Lord’s sight , provided that they come not from the mouth alone but from the whole person so that all our bones may ask, ‘Lord who is like you’ and ask it with a gaze fixed on peace along and with a longing for reconciliation with God. To such persons is said O Judah and Jerusalem, fear not; tomorrow you shall go forth.

St Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot
the Advent Sermons

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Venerable Fulton Sheen

“To every Christian…there comes the supreme moment when he must choose between temporal pleasure and eternal freedom. In order to save our souls, we must often run the risk of losing our bodies.”

“To do God’s Will until death, that is the inner heart of all holiness.”

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Joy is the echo of God’s life within us

Christ, Light of the Soul

by Blessed Columba Marmiam

on Prayer

It is not merely as creatures, that we speak to God, but as Children with our Heavenly Father; coming before Him to adore and praise Him, to tell Him of our love, to learn to know His will and to attain from Him the necessary help to accomplish His will…

Prayer only really begins at the moment when the will, set on fire with love, enters supernaturally into contact with Divine Good, yielding itself lovingly to God in order to please Him and fulfill His precepts and desires.

“These remain, faith, hope and love
and the greatest of these is love.” 1 Cor. 13:13

Faith gives place to the vision of God,
Hope vanishes in the possession of God,
Love remains and unites us to God…
Grace here below, glory above!

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First Week of Advent

In the lord’s advent which we are celebrating, If i fix my gaze on the person of the one who is coming, i will fail to grasp the wonderousness of his majesty. If i fix my attention on those to whom he comes, i am overwhelmed by the magnitude of his condescension. Surely the angels are astonished by the strange situation – seeing below themselves the One whom above them they ever adore and now manifestly both ascending and descending to the Son of Man. (John 1:51)

Once a year the universal Church celebrates a solemn remembrance of the coming of such majesty, such humility, such godly love and indeed such a glorification of ourselves. Would that this be done always as it is done this once ! How much more fitting that would be. What madness for people to desire or to dare to occupy themselves with any other business after the coming of so great a King ! should they not leave all else aside and free themselves entirely for worshiping him, and in his presence be mindful of nothing else ?

Virtues not possessions are the true riches. These conscience carries with itself that it may be rich forever. When our Savior comes, he will transform the body of our humiliation, conforming it to the body of his glory only if our heart has first been transformed and conformed to the humiliation of his heart. That is why he told us, Learn of me for I am meek and humble of heart. Consider well these words for humility is twofold: one of thinking the other of feeling – here called the heart. By the former we realize that we are nothing and this we learn from ourselves and from our weakness. By the later we spurn worldly glory and this we learn from Him who emptied himself taking the form of a servant. When they sought him for a kingdom he fled. When they sought him for the great test and shameful suffering of the cross, he willingly offered himself.

All our virtue is far from true virtue as it is from the appearance and all our wings are good for nothing if they are not covered with silver. Great is the wing of poverty by which we fly so swiftly to the kingdom of heaven ! But in the case of the virtues that follow the use of the future tense indicates a promise; poverty is not promised as given ( Mat 5:3 ) . So we are told in the present tense that theirs is the kingdom of heaven while in other cases they will inherit, they shall be comforted and so on.

Let us cover our wings with silver then, in our way of life in Christ just as the holy martyrs washed their robes in his passion. As much as we can, let us imitate him who so loved poverty that although the ends of the earth were in his hand, he had yet no place to lay his head.

From the Sermons of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot

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