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Remember Me - Saturday after the Fifth Sunday in Lent

3/28/2020

When, as often happens in this life, you see deeds done, words become law, in defiance of right, do not be scandalized nor doubt the power of God’s Sovereign Will. Full of consideration for our liberty He permits revolts because He wills only to receive genuine obedience; but all the time that prescriptive right is reserved and will receive full recognition when the time of justice has come. Then will Jesus hold His court of assize, the insurgents summoned before Him will realize from the weight of His sentence that not for a moment did He cease to be their ruler. Bent beneath the burden of His judgment they will say a despairing farewell to the Kingdom of His Glory and retreat to the realm of woe. Alas ! for these eternal exiles for whom is no reprieve.

But Christian souls convinced of the sovereign rights of their Lord, recognize both the sweetness and the honor of obeying him. The grievous spectacle of agitation that alike dishonors and disintegrates society, when human will claims to rule without any superior law to direct or restrain it, shows them clearly how necessary is Christ’s government to the existence of order and of peace. It is for that object I implore you to work, by prayer, by words, by example, by influence. You may not see the triumph on earth of your divine monarch, but it is certain you will see and enjoy in heaven the kingdom of His glory.
- Fere Monsabre

It is very important that we should help each other by prayers.
- St. Teresa

Remember Me - Saturday After the Fourth Sunday in Lent

3/28/2020

St. Ignatius recommends us to dwell sometimes when we contemplate, on this thought, “This is all for me.'' We must try to believe more and more firmly this great truth which arms us well against all hopeless thoughts or enkindles the fire of love. All this contrition is for me and for my sins. How far short, then, my contrition is of what it should be! Blessed Mother of Sorrows, pray for me now and at the hour of my death, that I may see clearly, while I look on the agony of thy Son, the truth of that word : “Know then and see that it was an evil and a bitter thing for thee to have left the Lord thy God." (Jerem. ii.) Alas, I knew not what I was doing. I knew not how evil and bitter a thing it was. I "sinned and said: “What harm hath befallen me?" I sinned, and how little have I as yet realized the force of those words far more applicable to me than to the Jews: “Is this the return that you makest to the Lord, O foolish and senseless people? Is not He thy Father that hath possessed thee, and made thee, and created thee?" (Deut. xxxii.)

“According to the multitude of thy tender mercies, O Lord, blot out my sins. For I will declare my iniquity and I will think for my sins." (Psalm xxxvii.)

All this contrition is for me, to be added to mine. Therefore, when I go to the sacred tribunal, I have something better to rely upon than my own feeble act of contrition. Jesus Christ, my surety, my Savior, is uniting all His great contrition with my most insufficient sorrow.
- Father Gallwey S.J.

Remember Me - Friday After the Fourth Sunday in Lent

3/27/2020

''My kingdom is not of this world" Jesus Christ does not deny that He is king of the world, but only that He reigns in it with the splendor and pomp of its visible princes. How then does He reign in it? By poverty, contempt, obedience, lowliness, by the cross; it is thus that He has brought the empire to His feet. Let me not, my Savior, be behindhand in recognizing my king, however common, however displeasing to my taste, may be the externals of Thy royalty. I am content with Thy surroundings as much for love of Thee as for the sake of imitating Thee; no one can lower himself by growing more like Thee.

"Thou art then a king?" Pilate asks again; and, "I am what thou sayest," Jesus replies. This is the same answer as before, for faith and truth cannot contradict themselves, I believe, again, O Lord, that Thou art the king of my soul, I confess Thee and adore; I will ever cry "Thou art King, my Savior and my God." I will appeal to Thy rights over me when passion claims me as a captive in defiance of my allegiance, sworn to Thee. Am I not in the world just to bear this testimony? I will be faithful, strengthen this resolution in me, ‘formed as it is under the inspiration of Thy grace!
- Pere Arancin S.J.

O Lord Jesus Christ, I adore Thee hanging on the cross. Thy head crowned with thorns ! Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ!
- St. Gregory

Remember Me - Thursday After the Fourth Sunday in Lent

3/26/2020

There is a well known phrase of St. Augustine’s, '‘God does not command what is impossible except as commanding
us to do all that we can towards it and to ask that He will do, in our aid, the share of it that we cannot do.'’ Ah, if you should have to work, to strive, to suffer, to die, even to die upon a cross if God wills it, do not for a moment doubt that the power lies for you already in His hand, if he has not already placed it in yours—the grace to die, to suffer, to strive, to conquer.

But I do not stop at asking you to expect only what is indispensable, from God. Have you ever found God stopping short at what is absolutely necessary? He certainly might do so, and if He did would still do what is just, holy and adorable. But does He ever? Has He ever done it with you? Ah, if ever He has, I will tell you when it was—in the day and hour when your trust in Him failed. David dares to say, “With the perverse Thou wilt be perverse;” that is, towards him who comes to Thee crookedly Thou wilt advance crookedly. How much the more then might one say, “with him who shuts his heart up from Thee, Thy heart will be shut up” and that every distrustful heart closes God's hand. Expect then, unwaveringly, from God an abundance of grace.
- Msgr. Gay

In union with the perfect confidence and hope that the holy and Blessed Virgin Mary placed in Thee, do I hope,
O Lord.
- St. Pius V

Remember Me - Wednesday After the Fourth Sunday in Lent

3/25/2020

Do not scrutinize too closely whether you are doing much or little, ill or well, so long as what you do is not sinful and that you are heartily seeking to do everything for God. Try, as far as you can to do everything well, but when it is done do not think about it; try rather to think of what is to be done next. Go on simply in the Lord’s way and do not torment yourself. We ought to hate our faults, but with a calm hatred, not pettishly nor anxiously. We must learn to look patiently at them, and win through them the grace of self-abnegation and humility. For want of this, and through looking at your imperfections in an unreal way they do but increase upon you. Nothing so causes our tares to thrive as disquietude and impetuousity in striving to uproot them. There is a great temptation to be disgusted at the world, when we are constrained to dwell in it; but God’s providence is wiser than we are. We fancy that if we changed our portion we should be better; possibly—if we changed ourselves. But I am a steadfast foe to all such useless, dangerous, evil desires; even when what we wish for is good in itself, the desire is evil ; since God denies us that particular good thing, and chooses rather to prove us in some other way. He wills to speak to us as to Moses from a burning bush, and we would fain hear Him in a still small voice as when He spoke to the Prophet Elias.
- St. Francis de Sales

Blessed are they that follow in all things the will of God.
- Thomas d Kempis

Remember Me - Tuesday After the Fourth Sunday in Lent

3/24/2020

Among other things needful in the spiritual combat, one is the perseverance with which we must strive continually to mortify our passions, which in this life never die, but on the contrary like evil weeds shoot up every hour.

And this is a battle from which, as it ends only with life, there is no escape; and he who fights not in it is of necessity either taken captive or slain. Besides we have to deal with enemies who bear us an unceasing hatred, so that from them we can never hope either for peace or a truce, because they slay those most cruelly who strive most to make friends of them.

Thou hast no cause however to fear either their power or their number; for in the battle none can be a loser but he who wills it; the whole strength of our enemies is in the hand of the Captain for whose honor we have to fight. And not only will He guard thee from all treachery, but He will even fight for thee, a being mightier than all these enemies. He will give the victory into thy hands, if only thou wilt fight manfully together with Him, and trust not in thyself, but in His power and goodness. And if the Lord give thee not so speedy a victory, be not disheartened, but be the more assured that all things which shall befall thee, those even which to thee may seem furthest from, yea most opposed to thy victory, all will He turn to thy good and profit, if thou wilt but bear thyself as a faithful and generous warrior.
- Scupoli

The soldier's fidelity is proved in battle, and blessed is he who is faithful in adversity.
- St. Alphonsus Liguori

Remember Me - Monday After the Fourth Sunday in Lent

3/23/2020

Blessed is the soul which frequently considereth the last hour, when all must be ended in, this life—joys or sorrows, honors and reproaches. Happy the soul that is as a poor pilgrim traveling towards God—that despiseth all the pomp of the world, however great and enticing. For in that last hour all shall perish—cities, castles, villages, vessels of gold and silver, all dainty meats and flowers, cups of smelling wine. Then shall be dumb the lyre, trumpet, pipe and harp. Then shall be no more sport nor mirth, no more dance nor loud applause, no more songs nor merry laughter, no more the sound of revelry in street or bower—for the hearts of all living shall fail, and the whole earth shall tremble at the presence of God. O how wise is he that daily considereth these things ! Blessed is he that of his own desire keepeth himself away from the many snares and dangers of the world. Blessed is he that watcheth day and night against temptation; for so long as the soul is united to the body, and the body is nourished with the fruit of the earth, man cannot be exempt from sin nor free from temptation, nor assured that he may not fall.

There is nothing that endureth, nothing that abideth on this earth, of which the body of Adam and his sons were formed. Then in all thy works, whatever they may be, wherever thou goest, to what place soever thou proceedest, remember the end of life, and the last hour, which shall come at a time thou thinkest not.
- Thomas a Kempis

He who has made you what you are has the right to require that you should be wholly His.
- St. Augustine.

Remember Me - The Fifth Sunday in Lent - Passion Sunday

3/22/2020

The Prophet Elias, persecuted by impious Jezabel, retreats into the desert, and having made a day’s journey in it sinks at the foot of a tree with the prayer: "It is enough; let me die.’’ An angel descending from heaven, touching the prophet, said: '‘Rise and eat, for a long journey is before you.” Rising, he ate the food brought him by the angel, and in its strength journeyed forty days and forty nights until he reached the Mount of God.

The Prophet Elias is the Christian soul traveling through the desert of life. Often wearied by the weight of existence the exile casts himself down despondently in the shadow of the first rock he meets, and cries, “Lord, I have lived long enough, release me from this world ; the source of life and strength is withered within me.” Soul of little faith! Lift your eyes, and see the Angel who is at your side. He holds in his hand food prepared in heaven. Take this strengthening manna and you will rise in full strength for the journey that lies before you. Take this Bread. It is Jesus Christ, and “Christ is life, and life is bread,” as Tertullian says. {De orat.)

How many weak souls drag themselves wearily through the shades of mortal languor, because, though they have known the gift of God, they have forgotten to eat their bread, and their soul is enervated like the body of a man who for a long time has eaten no food.
- Msgr. Landriot

Remember Me - Fourth Sunday in Lent

3/22/2020

O dear brethren, anticipate the day of Judgment. Be beforehand with it. That day is coming as the rising of tomorrow's sun. The day is not far off when the Great White Throne will be set up, and we shall stand before Him; and the eyes that are as a flame of fire, will search us through and through ; and not His eyes alone, but the eyes of all men will be upon us ! and the ears of men will hear that which the accuser will say against us in that day. There will be no secrecy there; no hiding of our sins, nothing concealed from God, or from that multitude which is around the Great White Throne. What does He require of you now? The Great White Throne is veiled in His mercy. In the holy Sacrament of Penance He sits as the Judge, not arrayed in the splendors which will dazzle and blind us at the Last Day, but as the Good Shepherd, and as the Good Physician, the Friend of Sinners, who is come not to call the just, but sinners, to repentance. There He sits in His mercy. Come to Him then, one by one. Be beforehand with the Day of Judgment. That which you confess now will be blotted out and forgiven in that day. That which you hide now will be in the book of God’s remembrance, laid up for a record in the day of the great assize. It is not much that He requires of us to come and tell it in the ear of one man in His stead—If it be painful to you, if shame cover your face, offer up the pain and the shame as a part of the penance, as Mary Magdalene in the midst of that great banquet. It is precisely for this purpose that the salutary pain may be the medicine of our pride. Dear brethren, then, be beforehand with the Day of Judgment, while the day of grace lasts ; and come to Him as you are.
- Cardinal Manning

Remember Me - Saturday After the Third Sunday in Lent

3/21/2020

Love for our neighbor must be disinterested and generous, but it must be pure, not the indulgence—even at some cost of physical effort—of mere good nature, or, what it is a tendency, if not a fault of the present generation to make it, an outlet of energy, an object of business. Love for our neighbor must not be rash, but sage and discreet. We must render him the services due to him from us ; help to instruct ignorant brethren, to correct them, or soothe them in spiritual or corporal need. But we must not injure our own eternal interests by love to our neighbor. An Ancient philosopher was once asked by a neighbor to do him some kindness at the expense of his honour, and on his refusal was asked sharply, ‘‘What is the good of your being my friend, if your friendship is useless to me?” To which the philosopher answered wisely, “What good is yours to me, if it does me harm?” Our test should be a similar one, and none of us have any right to go beyond the line thus marked.
- Abbee Puyol

Though thou art bound to set a good example, thou must never do it solely with this view; else thou wilt lose all benefit to thyself.
- Scupoli

Remember Me - Friday After the Third Sunday in Lent

3/20/2020

Consider the marvel of Jesus' Heart as corresponding to an infirmity in the heart of man. Just because we love little we love few people; we shut ourselves up to love, we build ourselves a little nest wherein we place the beings most dear to us—a father, a mother, a wife, children, a few friends. What can we do? We have only a drop of love; we husband it, expending it on a few, for even while we give these few all we have, we are not sure of having given them enough.

How different the Heart of Jesus! He loves all men and all with the same zeal. Small and great, rich and poor, the just and the sinner, the waifs and strays of the world. Is there any one He forgets ? Whom has He not loved, tenderly, ardently? What being has ever been found too foul for this most pure Heart, too common for this most noble Heart, too haughty for this humble Heart, too small for this sublime Heart? It seems even as if immensity did not suffice Him, and in His prayers. His words, one surprises bursts of affection in which He embraces all created beings and even worlds unknown to us.
- Msgr. Bougaud

What shall I give back to the Lord for all that He has given to me?
- Psalm cxv.

Remember Me - Thursday After the Third Sunday in Lent

3/19/2020

Consider the mystery of the three resurrections wrought by the Savior of mankind, that of the Ruler's daughter, that of the young man of Naim, and that of Lazarus at Bethany. The young girl had only just died, and was not prepared for burial: she typifies the sinner who has fallen, but has not yet contracted the habit of sin and the indifference consequent upon it. The young man is the sinner who has made no effort to rise after his fall, and whose will has lost its spring; they are carrying him to the grave and if he did not meet our Lord on the way he would be laid among those who can never return. Lazarus is a still more terrible figure. He is already given over to corruption. A stone rolled over the tomb has condemned his body to a slow and inevitable decay. Is it possible for him to revive? Yes; if Jesus deigns to make him an object of His divine power.

In these days the Church prays and fasts, and we with her, that these three forms of death may hear the voice of the Son of God and arise. The mystery of Christ’s resurrection is about to produce its wondrous result in each of these degrees. Let us unite ourselves to this design of the divine mercy, praying urgently night and day to the Redeemer. Then when a few days hence we see the dead restored to life, then shall we cry with the inhabitants of Naim: ‘‘A great prophet has arisen among us ; God has visited His people.”
- Dom. Geuranger

A true conversion finds God always ready for it.
- St. Augustine

Remember Me - Wednesday After the Third Sunday in Lent

3/18/2020

Seek not to penetrate into futurity, neither encourage a habit of anticipating good or evil. Our trials do not always come from those occasions we may have foreseen— God frequently takes us by surprise, and sometimes in those objects on which we most fondly rest our hearts and in those moments when we think ourselves most secure. The evils which we have imagined for ourselves often vanish before the eye of reason and it is not in our own power to choose where the blow shall fall.

Let then, the obedience of every day be your daily bread: live upon the will of your God: He provides for you celestial manna. Be satisfied with it; it is not in your power to lay it up in store, or to say how much of it God shall give you. All that you have to do is to use it in such proportions as you receive it.

Strive to live your life in peace, simplicity and resignation. Place your hopes of happiness in God, and not in His creatures, and you will then be secure. For on Him you may rely with full confidence.
- Fenelon

Do all things with holy simplicity, without regard to anything but to please God.
- Scupoli

Remember Me - Tuesday After the Third Sunday in Lent

3/17/2020

What is trial? A rendezvous which God appoints to His creatures that He may test their love. Trial alone, indeed, can provide the opportunity for the proof of man’s free choice between his own will and the will of God ; and the severer the trial the better we can show our love by our generosity in triumphing over it.

When God destines a soul, says the Apostle, to the glory of the elect, He also destines it to reflect the image of His only Son. How can a soul reflect that image in itself? Through glory? Why, as to glory the Son of God was glorious on Thabor, but that glory lasted for an hour. Through strength? Hardly, for it is rare indeed that God predestines a creature to miraculous deeds.

Through holiness, then? Yes; and what is the most striking element in the holiness of the Son of man? The resignation His love evinced in His sufferings. Ecce Homo! Behold the Man! Look at Him as Pilate shows Him to you, with His reed. His crown of thorns, His bruised and disfigured face, dimmed by shame. This is truly the Man of Sorrows, with His burning Heart and His gentle glance. Look well at Him, for such is the model we must copy in its grief, if we are to reflect its rays when we enjoy its vision in the bosom of the Eternal glory.
- Pere Marchal.

When God has chosen a soul which he predestines to become great He marks it with His seal, and God’s seal is a cross.
- Abbe Mounier

Remember Me - Monday After the Third Sunday in Lent

3/16/2020

Whenever you do anything—that is, in general—do all things—that is, each thing in particular—in the name, not only to the name, of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and further give thanks to God through Him. (Col. iii. 17.)

As everything should be offered to God, so everything should be given thanks for to Him; since whatever you offer Him is really His gift. You are a river, grateful to its origin, but only a river; you have to bear back to the ocean what was given to you from it. Observe how the Church, directed in this matter by the Apostle Paul, has instituted two solemn prayers to be said one at the beginning and one at the end of every duty, to commend it to God and to thank Him for it. This thanksgiving is due to God Himself, to God as the Fountain of all good that flows to us, to God the Father and just as He gives us all through the medium of Jesus Christ, so He delights that we should thank Him for all by Jesus Christ.

But somehow the greater part of mankind seems to pay its debts after the pattern of animals feeding greedily under an oak on the acorns that fall abundantly from it, and never thinking of looking up to admire the origin of the gifts.—So few are there among them who really give thanks.
- P. Segneri S.F.
All that Thou takest from me I give Thee; and all that I have not given Thee I owe Thee.
- Madame Swetchine

Remember Me - Third Sunday After Lent

3/15/2020

The further humanity progresses, the more striking does Christ's power become. As each new horizon opens out, as each fresh need arrives, this power responds to it by a new illumination, by a remedy hitherto unguessed.

How many marvels for example are evident to us that the earliest Christians never dreamed of, but that we are compelled to confess always existed in His intention, and what marvels are there not that we cannot divine, but of which our children’s children will be constrained to say. He knew them of old, from before the ages.

And whilst this power wears through time, renewed to meet the least advances of civilization, its strength is undiminished. It impresses souls at the end of twenty centuries as in their first days. Napoleon said: “A man’s heart glows at the recital of Alexander’s conquests, but here is a conqueror who makes the whole human race His own, and makes it like to Himself—a miracle indeed!
- Mgr. Bougaud

Do you need such great knowledge to love God and deny yourself for His love? You already know a great deal more than you practice.
- Pension

Remember Me - Saturday after the Second Sunday in Lent

3/14/2020

In this world we have to live by faith, for all that we suffer comes from God’s hand. It is either willed or permitted by God—and for our good. Some trials indeed come straight from Him. Such are the interior anguish of dereliction, of desolation, of dryness, and others of the same kind. Our Lady suffered such a trial in the loss of her Son after the Feast. Think of this grief by the light of the love she bore Him. Think too, of the answer given her at the moment of her ecstasy at meeting Him again ; of another trial of hers when at the marriage in Cana He seemed to repel her suggestion. Did either shake her faith or cause her to protest ? Consider her gentleness whom His reproof rendered still meeker, and compare it with the impulse of our souls when God sends us trials. Where is our faith? We fail to find recollectedness in prayer, and we leave it off : we lose our old fervor in the reception of the Sacraments, and we
neglect them. In our spiritual desolation we turn to creatures for comfort and when God withdraws himself from us to prove our affection or to draw us to Him, we perhaps forsake Him.

O hard and foolish hearts ! Ask rather for crosses and trials and labor : they lead, as they well may, to a closer likeness to Mary’s holy heart, to a closer union with that of her Divine Son.
- P. Manfredini

Jesus, sick of heart. His friends asleep, and His enemies vigilant, places Himself entirely in His Father’s hands.
- Pascal

Remember Me - Friday After the Second Sunday in Lent

3/13/2020

Let us try to enter into the intentions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to infuse our hearts with the feelings that animated His when on earth—the glory of God by the cessation, or at least the diminuation of sin. Can our thoughts or desires find a more glorious object? One more worthy of our zeal? If to this is added the conversion of sinners, the thought alone excites the heart including as it does all those ills of human nature of which sin is the head and cause, the physical sufferings of sinners in time, the frightful eternity of infinite woe they cannot escape without repentance. If, again, from these general considerations, we pass to those which, among the mass of sinners enduring them, touch us more nearly, is it not impossible for us to help glowing with ardent desires of compassion and Christian charity?

Following Christ's example, then, we must sanctify ourselves to obtain the conversion and sanctification of our brethren then will sinners indeed repent—each offering of self will be a victory.

- Abbe Des Gennettes

If we wish to help our neighbors, we must reserve neither place, nor hour, nor season for ourselves.
- St. Philip Neri

Remember Me - Thursday After the Second Sunday in Lent

3/12/2020

My advice is to put confidence in prayer. I repeat it in prayer, whatever your state of mind. It is indeed a great, fatal delusion, to cease from prayer because a fault has been committed. Such discouragement is not in accordance with God's will, who well knows our pitiableness and never asks our confidence more than when all seems lost. Indeed God adopts in relation to us, many titles directly encouraging in times of great distrust. He is a father, a physician, a good shepherd, the prodigal's father even, and we have these names to choose from among them that which best suits our actual condition.

We ought, to give ourselves up to the feeling that corresponds to the one chosen, as, gratitude, love, or perhaps confusion, grief, and regret, though these last should be filial and accompanied by a lively confidence in God's goodness. Such is His way founded on His will; anything else arises from self-love for the natural man, and can lead us to no good. For the rest we must never neglect vigilance. Our Lord Jesus Christ linked these two rules together; watch and pray.

- Pere Cestac

Why should you suppose God is far off because you cannot perceive Him? He is always, you may be sure, near to those whose hearts are blank and sorrowful.
- Fenelon

Remember Me - Wednesday after the Second Sunday in Lent

3/11/2020

May you hope to receive temporal blessings from God? Yes, in the degree in which they are connected with your sanctification and salvation. It is plain that in themselves such gains cannot be the object of supernatural desires; they may, however, become one in any way by which they are more or less directly connected with our end. That is why, when He engages solemnly to hear our prayers, our Lord makes no categorical reserve. He says, ‘'All that you ask shall be granted you, or, all that you desire you shall see accomplished.'' And indeed in the sublime and universal prayer He taught us Himself, and which obviously is the guide for our hopes, no less than four of the seven petitions composing it regard temporal or earthly gifts. The remark is St. Augustine's. But be careful to observe that these good things have never more than a relative value for Christians, and that to consider them inside this connection is to be the victim of an illusion.

To desire and demand them for their own sake, is to set your foot on an insecure and perilous track; and even those who desire them in relation to a higher object, are bound invariably to keep in mind the character of superfluity attributed to earthly gifts by our Lord in the Gospel. They are thrown into the bargain, so to speak, when God grants them, and we should realize this as well as the fact that He gives them as necessary or useful adjuncts only. So while we ask for them with humble simplicity, we at the same time leave ourselves entirely to Him in the matter, without any shadow of disquietude.

- Msgr. Gay

Remember Me - Tuesday after the Second Sunday in Lent

3/10/2020

Of the three kinds of Pride. There are three, one of thought, that is when any one thinks himself more highly than he ought to think; against which it is said, ''Be not high-minded, but rather fear,’’ and which he denies to exist in himself who say, "Lord I am not high-minded, my looks are not proud.”

Another is of will, when anyone wants to be treated with more consideration than is his due; against which it is said, "How can ye believe who are receiving honor one from another?”

A third is in deed against which saith the Lord, "When thou art bidden to a feast sit not down in the highest place.” This, when a man treats himself better than he ought.

Against each of these forms many sayings are found in Holy Scripture, if they are sought out. Against all it is said, "Whosoever exalteth himself shall be humbled,” and "God resisteth the proud. And many other passages there are. Of these three, when each one is by itself that is the least which is in deed only, because it is done through ignorance alone, and yet since it is a fault it ought to be amended. Of the other two that which is in will alone is more to be condemned, because it errs knowingly. But that which is in thought is only the more foolish, since it does not manifest itself, and to itself appears quite just. * * *

If your prudence will frequently reconsider this, you will understand it more fully than is here set down.
~ St. Anselm

Remember Me - Monday After the Second Sunday in Lent

3/9/2020

When you think about making money, you do not for a moment consider those poorer than yourself, you aspire to level yourself with those richer. It is only in religious matters that you show a tendency to modesty and self efifacement. It is only there that you meekly quote your inferiors. Why do you not rather imitate Zaccheus, who gave half his goods to the poor. One is reduced to wishing that the Christians of the present day would imitate the Pharisees, who gave the tenth of what they possessed.

Jesus Christ has a kingdom. He has taxes, domains, treasures, a treasury in heaven ; that treasury is the purse of the poor, the common purse such as He had on earth with His disciples. Levy a tax on yourselves, a settled tax upon the annual income you receive from your possessions, or your earnings—be your own Customs-officer. Now, will you make it a tenth ? I hope so, even though that’s not much, since that is what the Pharisees gave, and if your justice does not exceed that of the Pharisees you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
~St. Augustine

The poor hold out their hands, but God receives what is given to them.
~Pere Chassay.

Remember Me - Second Sunday in Lent

3/8/2020

Nothing is more useful or wholesome for one who would fain come to life everlasting, than to meditate continually on the salvation of his soul. He that is more anxious for his soul’s good than for the increase of his fortune or comforts of his body is a merchant truly wise; for he valueth the spiritual riches which perish not more than the perishable good things of earth.

Blessed is that good servant who has been faithful over a little, who useth every moment of his life in a profitable way ; who is not busied with what doth not concern him, and who, to please God, becometh like one that is deaf and dumb. He goeth through the bustle of the world in peace, having his soul always in his hand.

Take therefore no thought of the behavior of thy neighbor, save and as far as the love of God and charity may require. Desire not the praises of men, seeing they are vain. Be not fearful of their reproach; for instead of doing harm to thy soul, humiliations cleanse it, and render it more meet to receive a brighter crown in heaven and none are worthy to be glorified in heaven who are unable to bear reproach on earth for the love of God.
~Thomas a Kempis.

Bear the annoyances of your condition in a penitential spirit; these are the penances God assigns you and far more useful than what you may choose for yourself.
~Fenelon.

Remember Me - Saturday After the First Sunday in Lent

3/6/2020

What is fervor? It does not mean emotion. Fervor consists in these three things: regularity, punctuality, and exactness—that is doing our duty to God by rule; doing it punctually at the right time; and, exactly, that is, as perfectly as we can. But if we have been indulging in venial sins, of any sort or kind, we begin to do our duty towards God in a slovenly way ; we neglect the right time : we do it irregularly, we put off God with imperfect service. Those venial sins are like the dust settling on a perfect machine. As the dust accumulates upon the timepiece, the motion of the timepiece becomes slower; and as it becomes sluggish it loses its perfection.

So, mortal sin is the death of the soul, but venial sin is the disease of the soul. Those who willingly allow themselves to fall into such infirmities and imperfections, which are not yet mortal are like men who are making bad blood, men in whom morbid humors are accumulating a lingering malady upon them. More than this, venial sins have the effect of giving a perverse inclination to the will. The will once united with God, and converted to God, has begun gradually to avert itself from God.

There is no such thing as an equilibrium between God and sin; that cannot be; and when the will loses its union with God, it immediately inclines itself towards sin.

Once more, such sins displease God ; and can any sin be small which displeases God?
~Cardinal Manning.

Remember Me - Friday After the First Sunday in Lent

3/5/2020

Learn the kindness of the Crucified. His enemies said, “His blood be upon us and upon our children." Not so Christ, but supplicating the Father, He said: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." For if His blood had indeed fallen upon them and upon their children, the apostles would not have been made out of their children, neither three thousand nor five thousand would have believed on the spot. See how barbarous and cruel those were towards their descendants! they ignored even nature itself, whilst God was more loving than all the fathers put together, and tenderer than any mother.

He did not at once let the chasement and penalty fall upon them, but He allowed forty years and more to pass after the cross. Our Lord Himself was crucified under Tiberius, and their city was destroyed under Vespasian and Titus. Now why did He allow so long a time to elapse after all these things? Because He wished to give them time for repentance, so that they might put off their impieties and be quit of their crimes. As, having a respite for conversion, they remained in their impenitence.

He at last inflicted punishment upon them, and destroying their city, sent them out wanderers over the, face of the earth. And this He did through love. He dispersed them that they might everywhere see that Christ whom they had crucified adored, and that seeing Him adored by all they might learn His power and acknowledge their own exceeding wickedness, and in acknowledging might come to the truth.
~ St. John Chrysostom.