The Friendship of the World

"All its compliments are false pretenses with which it deceives and entices the reckless. Although now it will show itself to you as a friend, in the time of need you will find it an enemy. In the greatest anguish it will leave you alone, and in the fire of tribulation you will know how vain is the glory of the world, for you will have nothing then. The friendship that the world shows you is deceitful, and although now it shows you a cheerful face and you may be prosperous and rich, the hour is near when you will be left without all these things that you love. "

Friar Diego de San Cristóbal, 'Tratado de la vanidad del mundo', Vol. 1, 1908, pp. 374.

______________________________________

Motherhood

"Now, a woman's function, a woman’s way, a woman’s natural bent is motherhood. Every woman is called to be a mother: mother in the physical sense, or in a more spiritual and more exalted, yet real none the les.”

-H.H. Pius XII, excerpts from “Questa grande”, dated October 21, 1945. Address to the Delegates of the Catholic Women's Associations of Italy.

_________________________________________

If We Are Like Sheep, We Overcome; but if We Turn into Wolves, We Are Overcome

"Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves." (Mt. 10:16)

As long as we are sheep, we overcome and, though surrounded by countless wolves, we emerge victorious; but if we turn into wolves, we are overcome, for we love the shepherd’s help. He, after all, feeds the sheep not wolves, and will abandon you if you do not let him show his power in you.

What he says is this: “Do not be upset that, as I send you out among the wolves, I bid you be as sheep and doves. I could have managed things quite differently and sent you, not to suffer evil nor to yield like sheep to the wolves, but to be fiercer than lions. But the way I have chosen is right. It will bring you greater praise and at the same time manifest my power”. That is what he told Paul: My grace is enough for you, for in weakness my power is made perfect. “I intend”, he says, “to deal in the same way with you”. For, when he says, I am sending you out like sheep, he implies: “But do not therefore lose heart, for I know and am certain that no one will be able to overcome you”.

The Lord, however, does want them to contribute something, lest everything seem to be the work of grace, and they seem to win their reward without deserving it. Therefore he adds: You must be clever as snakes and innocent as doves. But, they may object, what good is our cleverness amid so many dangers? How can we be clever when tossed about by so many waves? However great the cleverness of the sheep as he stands among the wolves – so many wolves! – what can it accomplish? However great the innocence of the dove, what good does it do him, with so many hawks swooping upon him? To all this I say: Cleverness and innocence admittedly do these irrational creatures no good, but they can help you greatly.

What cleverness is the Lord requiring here? The cleverness of a snake. A snake will surrender everything and will put up no great resistance even if its body is being cut in pieces, provided it can save its head. So you, the Lord is saying, must surrender everything but your faith: money, body, even life itself. For faith is the head and the root; keep that, and though you lose all else, you will get it back in abundance. The Lord therefore counselled the disciples to be not simply clever or innocent; rather he joined the two qualities so that they become a genuine virtue. He insisted on the cleverness of the snake so that deadly wounds might be avoided, and he insisted on the innocence of the dove so that revenge might not be taken on those who injure or lay traps for you. Cleverness is useless without innocence.

Do not believe that this precept is beyond your power. More than anyone else, the Lord knows the true natures of created things; he knows that moderation, not a fierce defense, beats back a fierce attack.

Saint John Chrysostom

______________________________________

Don’t Think You Know Betther than God What is Better for You and When Should it Happen

Pray, ask, insist, over and over, don't give up. If God considers it convenient, he will grant it to you in a timely manner, but don't believe that you know perfectly what is best and when it should happen. Don’t try to compete with He who who knows everything. Surrender with confidence to His Will. And Bless Him always. He loves you sweetly and watches over you.

If through prayer we could get what we ask for right away, piety would become a business. Sometimes God allows everything to get dark, without solution, because then He will shine with an unexpected solution.

_______________________________________

The Devotion to Mary, Sign of Salvation

1. 

"God revealed to Saint Catherine of Siena, 'in His goodness, and on account of the Incarnate Word, He had granted to Mary, who was His Mother, that no one, not even a sinner, who devoutly recommends himself to her should ever become the prey of Hell.'"

Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, The Glories of Mary, Ch. VIII, 1

__________________________________________

Unless Your Justice Abound More Than That of the Scribes and Pharisees, You Shall Not Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt. 5:20)

If therefore thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath anything against thee; Leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother, and then coming thou shalt offer thy gift.

_____________________________________

The Purpose

In You

"For my heart cannot rest or be fully content until, rising above all gifts and every created thing, it rests in You."

Imitation of Christ, III, 21, 2

______________________________________

Tolerant to Error?

"There is no other subject on which the average mind is so much confused as the subject of tolerance and intolerance. Tolerance applies only to persons, but never to principles. Intolerance applies only to principles, but never to persons. We must be tolerant to persons because they are human; we must be intolerant about principles because they are divine. We must be tolerant to the erring, because ignorance may have led them astray; but we must be intolerant to the error, because Truth is not our making, but God's..."

Bishop Fulton J Sheen

____________________________________

Saint Jerome Dixit: Same Causes Produce the Same Effects

“Do you want to correct yourself of your faults? Anticipate and avoid the occasions in which you have succumbed; if you do not do this, the same causes will produce the same effects. Examine your life and you will see that the occasions and the dangerous companies are the ones that, every day, make you relapse into the same sins. A pilot does not approach but trembling to the place where before he was shipwrecked; a convalescent does not even dare to touch the fruit that made him sick; only the sinner looks for the occasions that have lost him. What need is there to go to such a part, where each day it is necessary to overcome or perish?”

Saint Jerome

________________________________________

Freedom

"Freedom, Sancho, is one of the most precious gifts that heaven has bestowed upon men; no treasures that the earth holds buried or the sea conceals can compare with it; for freedom, as for honour, life may and should be ventured; and on the other hand, captivity is the greatest evil that can fall to the lot of man".

Don Quiote of la Mancha, Part II, Chapter 58

Painting by Edward John Gregory (1850-1909)

_________________________________________

The Prayer that Padre Pio Used to Recite

Padre Pio de Pietrelcina had a favorite prayer that used to recite for all those who requested his prayers. Every day many people, either in person or by letter, asked Padre Pio to pray for a specific intention, and most of the times this intention was miraculously answered by God.

Below is the prayer that Padre Pio said each time he wanted to intercede for someone. Actually, it is a prayer wrote by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and is commonly called the "Efficacious Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus". She was a saint who lived in the seventeenth century and during her life received multiple visions of Jesus.

Let’s pray it with the same devotion as Padre Pio.

I. O my Jesus, you have said: "Truly I say to you, ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you." Behold I knock, I seek and ask for the grace of... (here name your request)

Our Father... Hail Mary... Glory Be to the Father...

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.

II. O my Jesus, you have said: "Truly I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you." Behold, in your name, I ask the Father for the grace of… (here name your request)

Our Father... Hail Mary... Glory Be To the Father...

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.

III. O my Jesus, you have said: "Truly I say to you, heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away." Encouraged by your infallible words I now ask for the grace of... (here name your request)

Our Father... Hail Mary... Glory Be to the Father...

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, for whom it is impossible not to have compassion on the afflicted, have pity on us miserable sinners and grant us the grace which we ask of you, through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, your tender Mother and ours.

St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus, pray for us.

Amen

About Modesty

"For modesty foresees threatening danger, forbids us to expose ourselves to risks, demands the avoidance of those occasions which the imprudent do not shun. It does not like impure or loose talk, it shrinks from the slightest immodesty, it carefully avoids suspect familiarity with persons of the other sex, since it brings the soul to show due reverence to the body, as being a member of Christ (1 Cor. 6:15) and the temple of the Holy Spirit".

- H. H. Pius XII, Encyclical Sacra virginitas.

_______________________________________

"...God Alone is Enough"

Let nothing upset you,
Let nothing deter you,
Everything passes,
God never changes.

Patience
Empowers everything;
Who has God lacks nothing:
God alone is enough.

Raise your thought,
Toward heaven,
Let nothing distress you,
Let nothing upset you.

Follow Jesus Christ
With stout heart,
And come what may,
Let nothing deter you.

Do you see the glory of the world?
It is an empty show;
Nothing is stable,
Everything passes.
Aspire for the heavenly,
Which lasts forever;

Faithful and rich in promises
God never changes.
Love it as much as it deserves,
The immense good;
But no love is solid
Without patience.

Let trust and lively faith
Keep your soul,
Whoever believes and hopes
Reaches all.
Harassed from hell,
Who has God,
Although he sees it,
Mocks its fury.

Desertions may befall him,
Crosses, misfortunes;
God being his treasure,
Nothing is amiss.
Go, then, goods of the world;
Go, such vanities,
Although everything may be lost,
God alone is enough.

Saint Teresa of Avila
___________________________________________