“Let us affectionately love His angels as counselors and defenders appointed by the Father and placed over us. They are faithful; they are prudent; they are powerful; Let us only follow them, let us remain close to them, andin the protection of the God of heaven let us abide.”
~ St Bernard of Clairvaux
The only true riches are those that make us rich in virtue. Therefore, if you want to be rich, beloved, love true riches. If you aspire to the heights of real honor, strive to reach the kingdom of Heaven. If you value rank and renown, hasten to be enrolled in the heavenly court of the Angels.
~ St Gregory the Great
Invisibly, through the ministry of angels, the Spirit of God, whom even the mind’s eye cannot see, baptizes into himself both our souls and bodies, giving us a new birth.
~ Didymus of Alexandria
“I am Rafael, one of the seven angels who stand and serve before the Glory of the Lord … A king’s secret should be kept secret, but one must declare the works of God and give thanks with due honor. Do good, and evil will not overtake you.”
“Make it a practice to judge persons and things in the most favorable light at all times and under all circumstances.”
“The kingdom of God is peace in the Holy Spirit; He will reign in you if your heart is at peace. So, be at peace and you will honor in a sovereign way the God of peace and love.”
“Let us allow God to act; He brings things to completion when we least expect it.”
“Do not be surprised by your trials, since the Son of God has chosen them for our salvation.”
You must speak to Jesus not only with your lips but with your heart. In fact, on certain occasions, you should only speak to Him with your heart.
Do not be so given to the activity of Martha as to forget the silence of Mary. May the Virgin who so well reconciled the one with the other be your sweet model and inspiration.
Pray, hope and don’t worry. Worry is useless. Our Merciful Lord will listen to your prayer.
“It would be easier for the world to exist without the sun than without the Holy Mass”
“Kneel down and render the tribute of your presence and devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. Confide all your needs to him, along with those of others.”
“The life of a Christian is nothing but a perpetual struggle against self; there is no flowering of the soul to the beauty of its perfection except at the price of pain”
“The best means of guarding yourself against temptation are the following: watch your senses to save them from dangerous temptation, avoid vanity,do not let your heart become exalted, convince yourself of the evil of complacency, flee away from hate, Pray whenever possible.”
Jesus saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him: Follow me. Jesus saw Matthew, not merely in the usual sense, but more significantly with his merciful understanding of man.
He saw the tax collector and, because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him, he said to him: Follow me. This following meant imitating the pattern of his life – not just walking after him. St John tells us: Whoever says he abides in Christ ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
And he rose and followed him. There is no reason for surprise that the tax collector abandoned earthly wealth as soon as the Lord commanded him. Nor should one be amazed that neglecting his wealth, he joined a band of men whose leader had, on Matthew’s assessment, no riches at all. Our Lord summoned Matthew by speaking to him in words. By an invisible, interior impulse flooding his mind with the light of grace, he instructed him to walk in his footsteps. In this way Matthew could understand that Christ, who was summoning him away from earthly possessions, had incorruptible treasures of heaven in his gift.
As he sat at table in the house, behold many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. This conversion of one tax collector gave many men, those from his own profession and other sinners, an example of repentance and pardon. Notice also the happy and true anticipation of his future status as apostle and teacher of the nations. No sooner was he converted than Matthew drew after him a whole crowd of sinners along the same road to salvation. He took up his appointed duties while still taking his first steps in the faith, and from that hour he fulfilled his obligation and thus grew in merit. To see a deeper understanding of the great celebration Matthew held at his house, we must realize that he not only gave a banquet for the Lord at his earthly residence, but far more pleasing was the banquet set in his own heart which he provided through faith and love. Our Savior attests to this: Behold I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
On hearing Jesus’s voice, we open the door to receive him, as it were, when we freely assent to his promptings and when we give ourselves over to doing what must be done. Christ, since he dwells in the hearts of his chosen ones through the grace of his love, enters so that he might eat with us and we with him. He ever refreshes us by the light of his presence insofar as we progress in our devotion to and longing for the things of heaven. He himself is delighted by such a pleasing banquet.
“God is the brightest of lights which can never be extinguished, and the choirs of angels radiate light from the divinity. Angels are pure praise without any trace of a bodily deed.”
Antiphon to Mary
O most splendid jewel clear beauty of the sun which was poured into you a fountain leaping from the Father’s heart that is the peerless Word.
We are celebrating the feast of the cross which drove away darkness and brought in the light. As we keep this feast, we are lifted up with the crucified Christ, leaving behind us earth and sin so that we may gain the things above. So great and outstanding a possession is the cross that he who wins it has won a treasure.
St Andrew of Crete
“When we are overcome by sadness, fear, or suffering; when the pains of loss overwhelm us; when evil seems to have taken power; let us look to the cross and be filled with peace, knowing that Christ has walked this road and walks it now with us and with all our brothers and sisters.”
St Teresa of Avila
“O souls! seek a refuge, like pure doves, in the shadow of the crucifix. There mourn the Passion of your divine Spouse, and drawing from your hearts flames of love and rivers of tears, make of them a precious balm with which to anoint the wounds of your Saviour.”
St Paul of the Cross
There is no evil to be faced that Christ does not face with us. There is no enemy that Christ has not already conquered. There is no cross to bear that Christ has not already borne for us, and does not now bear with us. And on the far side of every cross we find the newness of life in the Holy Spirit, that new life which will reach its fulfillment in the resurrection. This is our faith. This is our witness before the world.
Notburga of was an Austrian saint and peasant from Tyrol. Notburga was born about 1265 at Rattenberg on the Inn river. She was a cook in the household of Count Henry of Rattenberg, and used to give food to the poor.
Notburga then worked for a farmer in Eben Austria. The farmer came upon her in the field one evening as she was setting down her sickle.
The bell had rung for vespers and the vigil for Sunday had just begun. The farmer wanted her to continue working but she insisted that no Christian should harvest during the vigil in good weather.
Perhaps she declared that she should let her sickle decide. She tossed it in the air and it hung there like a crescent moon, a harbinger of good weather. And so Notburga went off to vespers and kept the Sunday vigil.
“The name of Mary is free from all vice and resplendent with every virtue” Saint Bonaventure
“Dei matris nomen sit mihi ultimus linguae loquentis motus,” “May the name of the Mother of God be for me the last movement of my tongue!” Blessed Bartolomo
“Let us pray, then, my devout reader, let us pray God to grant us this grace, that the last word we pronounce at death may be the name of Mary.” Saint Alphonsus Liguori
“May Jesus Christ, thy son, bestow the gifts of his grace on thy servants, w ho invoke the sweet name of Mary.” Saint Bernard
