God continues to invite us

"[H]ow  patient God is with us! He only asks our attention. If we will attend to Him, He will do all the rest. We shall find that things begin to drop into our lap without any asking. In spite of our repeated blind refusals, in spite of our obstinancy and selfwill, up to the very moment of death God continues to invite, to persuade, to beckon.

Now there is one perfectly obvious way in which we can, or ought to be able to detect if we are travelling on the wrong - or just not on the right - path through life. If there is a recurring: 'If I were you I should' in our conversations with other people, we may begin to wonder. This persistent desire on the part of them all to tell us what they would do if they were us, can only mean one thing: whatever the facts may be, we are managing to give the impression that we are not in the right place nor engaged in the right occupation.

Of course we may indignantly exclaim that it is only the mistake of a lot of intolerable busybodies. Very well, then, so much the better. In that case it is quote easy to rectify their mass-mistake by convincing ourselves that our circumstances are just what we should have chosen. If we had all the world to choose from, and that we are doing the one thing on earth which suits us best. When we have convinced ourselves of that, we shall find that quite automatically all the busybodies will begin minding their own business again and no longer be interested in us and our occupations. It is a curious fact, but it has only to be tried to be proved.

On the other hand, let us admit that what they suggest may quite possibly be true. Perhaps we are not making the best of life; not using our gifts to the greatest advantage; we are either misfits or merely forlorn drifters, and everyone else can see if except ourselves. All we do is to grumble in general about life, without making any whole-hearted attempt to grapple with it.

For we have only to turn to God: to think of Him and of our neighbour instead of thinking exclusively along our own lines. We have only to wake up and become aware of existence as a real thing, and God as a real Person, and ourselves as His creation, and the next event in our lives will be that our vocation will come walking down the road to meet us, and bump into us so heavily that even we shall no longer be able to pretend that we do not know what it is."

-- Catch us those little foxes by A Carmelite Nun

The love love of God lies in the grace-aided will

Gethsemani

"It would also be a grievous error to conceive the love of God as anything which essentially involves sense-emotion or feeling. The love love of God lies in the grace-aided will; it presupposes and the intellect insofar as the will needs its cooperation to love, for the will is a blind faculty; but in practice one need only attend to the will. A very high degree of love of God is quite compatible with an absence of any feeling of emotion, and even with the presence of a feeling of distaste for the service of God. We have only to remember our Lord's prayer in the Agony at Gethsemani to realize that. In fact, if one is going to achieve the heights of the spiritual life, it is necessary to pass through a stage where one's apparent spiritual activity is reduced to a dry act of willingness to conform one's self to God's Will, in the darkness of a sheer decision to believe in God without light of any sort. This does not mean that the emotions have not their part to play in the spiritual life. On the contrary, they can be a most effective aid to the real agent, which is the will working by faith."

Our spiritual needs come befor

"One frequent cause of disappointment, especially in our prayers of petition, is that God does not give us what we want, but that we need. 'Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things' (Mt 6:32). In such a case, we are disappointed because our priorities may be misplaced and our value system inverted.

Occasionally we should ask ourselves what our priorities really are. To help us refocus, Jesus advises: 'Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well' (Mt 6:33). Attaining this holiness ('righteousness') should leave us immune to disappointment, because when we have God and his love (manifested by his beneficence toward us), we have everything we need, spiritually. The answers to our physical needs come as an unfailing bonus.

-o-

Our spiritual needs come before, not instead of, our physical needs. Thus, really trusting in God's promised provisions for our life-needs, with spiritual goals at the top of our shopping list, will immunize us against any disappointment. When our wants are subordinate to our needs, especially our spiritual needs, the art of trusting God without disappointment is the inevitable result, and the reward that awaits us is equally inevitable. It is the one that Paul was allowed to preview: 'No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him' (1 Cor 2:9)."

-- Pathways of Trust: 101 Shortcuts to Holiness by John H Hampsch, CMF

Only what you will, my God

Let us all resign ourselves into His hands, and pray that in all things He may guide us to do His Holy Will ... When thoughts of this or that come I turn to Him and say: "Only what you will, my God. Use me as You will".


-- Saint Mary of the Cross (Mary McKillop), Foundress of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart


** St Mary is Australia's first canonized saint!

We must ask with faith

"“Ask, and it shall be given you.” (Matthew 7:7).

When we repeat the words of Christ, “Ask, and it shall be given you,” do we really dwell deeply on their meaning? They were said by Jesus Christ himself, who is truth itself. Christ never did or said anything in vain. So, these words of Christ mean exactly what they say: if we ask God for something, we will receive it. In order to get the significance of the words, let us consider the case in which we ask our fellow man for something. Suppose he tells us that we will receive it. He is speaking as an ordinary human being and we know it. We know in our heart that he may or may not be able to give us what we ask. He has the wish to do so, but he has not the absolute power. The power to give comes from God.

On the other hand, when we ask something of God, we know that he can give it to us. Jesus Christ is God and he has absolute dominion over all things. Moreover, he wants us to ask and he wants to give: “Ask, and it shall be given you.” But, we must ask with faith, believing that we will receive, if it is God’s holy will."

-- Christ our Model by Matthew Aherne, OCarm

Sanctity made easy

"I believe that if those souls that tend towards sanctity were instructed as to the conduct they ought to follow, they would be spared a good deal of trouble. I speak as much of people in the world as of others. If they could realise the merit concealed in the actions of each moment of the day: I mean in each of the daily duties of their state of life, and if they could be persuaded that sanctity is founded on that to which they give no heed as being altogether irrelevant, they would indeed be happy. If, besides, they understood that to attain the utmost height of perfection, the safest and surest way is to accept the crosses sent them by Providence at every moment, that the true philosopher’s stone is submission to the will of God which changes into divine gold all their occupations, troubles, and sufferings, what consolation would be theirs! What courage would they not derive from the thought that to acquire the friendship of God, and to arrive at eternal glory, they had but to do what they were doing, but to suffer what they were suffering, and that what they wasted and counted as nothing would suffice to enable them to arrive at eminent sanctity: far more so than extraordinary states and wonderful works. O my God! how much I long to be the missionary of Your holy will, and to teach all men that there is nothing more easy, more attainable, more within reach, and in the power of everyone, than sanctity. How I wish that I could make them understand that just as the good and the bad thief had the same things to do and to suffer; so also two persons, one of whom is worldly and the other leading an interior and wholly spiritual life have, neither of them, anything different to do or to suffer; but that one is sanctified and attains eternal happiness by submission to Your holy will in those very things by which the other is damned because he does them to please himself, or endures them with reluctance and rebellion. This proves that it is only the heart that is different. Oh! all you that read this, it will cost you no more than to do what you are doing, to suffer what you are suffering, only act and suffer in a holy manner. It is the heart that must be changed. When I say heart, I mean will. Sanctity, then, consists in willing all that God wills for us. Yes! sanctity of heart is a simple “fiat,” a conformity of will with the will of God.

What could be more easy, and who could refuse to love a will so kind and so good? Let us love it then, and this love alone will make everything in us divine."

-- Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean-Pierre de Caussade, SJ

He never ceases from giving us proofs of His goodness

"Who is He That watches over us with solicitous love and disposes of us by His Providence? It is the good God. He is so good that He is essential Goodness and Charity Itself, and in this sense "none is good but God alone" (Luke xviii, 19). There have been Saints who participated to a wonderful degree in the Divine goodness. Nevertheless, even the very best of men have possessed only a rill, or a stream, or at most a river of goodness, whereas God is the ocean of all goodness, goodness limitless and inexhaustible. When He has poured out upon us benefits almost innumerable, let no one think Him either wearied from giving or impoverished by His munificence. He has still an entire infinitude of goodness to dispense. In truth, the more He gives away the richer He becomes, for He gains the glory of being better known, loved, and served, at least by generous hearts. He is good to us: "He maketh His sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust" (Matt. v, 45). He never ceases from giving us proofs of His goodness, opposing to the multitude of our sins "the multitude of His tender mercies" in order by His goodness to conquer our malice. Sometimes He has to punish, because He is not alone infinitely good but infinitely just also, yet "even in His anger He is not unmindful of His mercy" (Hab. iii, 2).

This God, so infinitely good, is our Father Who is in Heaven. Just as He delights in this title of "the good God," and recalls to us His ancient mercies over and over again; in the same way He loves to proclaim Himself our Father. Because He is so great and holy and we so little and sinful, we might well have been afraid to approach Him. Therefore, to win our confidence and our affection He never tires of repeating in Sacred Scripture that He is our Father and the Father of mercies. It is "from Him all paternity in Heaven and earth is named" (Ephes. iii, 15), and there is no father like our Father in Heaven. He is a father in His devotedness, a mother in His tenderness. There is nothing on earth comparable to a mother's heart for self-forgetfulness, profound affection, and inexhaustible mercifulness; hence, nothing that inspires so much confidence and abandonment. And yet God's tenderness for us immeasurably surpasses that of the best of mothers. "Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee" (Is. xlix, 15). What can He refuse us "Who hath so loved the world as to give us His Only-begotten Son?" (John iii, 16). He knows well, much better than we, what we require for soul and body; and He commands us to ask it of Him, and only reproves us for not asking enough. Nor will He give a stone to His child when he asks Him for bread. And if He sometimes has to exercise severity in order to prevent us from ruining ourselves, it is always the love of the Father that wields the rod. He measures the force of each blow, and when He judges the chastisement sufficient dries our tears and pours soothing balm into our wounds. Let us have confidence in God's love for us, and never doubt His Heart of a Father." 


-- Holy Abandonment by Dom Vitalis Lehodey, OCR

Is infused prayer necessary for perfection?

"It is quite certain that it is not necessary. St Teresa declares that her daughters, 'although devoted to prayer, need not all be contemplatives properly so called.' She says that is impossible. 'A soul will not be prevented from being perfect without this gift and can achieve perfection just as the greatest contemplatives do.' The way of contemplation is a 'short-cut' by which God gives powerful aid and accomplishes His work in a very short time. But He distributes His grace when He wishes, as He wishes, and to whom He wishes without taking account of time or the service one has rendered Him. 'He acts in this way for reasons known only to Himself.'

However, side by side with this way of contemplation, there is another, which is the way of conformity to the divine Will and which, too, can lead to perfection. 'Real union with God,' says St Teresa, 'can easily be achieved if we make efforts not to have any will of our own and to embrace everything demanded of us by the divine Will.' No doubt, this will demand more effort from us 'because the soul works more with its own energy,' but it will also have much more merit, 'and its reward will be greater. Ultimately, however, the infused kinds of prayer themselves have no other purpose than to bring us to that union of conformity in which true perfection consists.'

St John of the Cross is of the same opinion. 'God does not elevate all those to contemplation,' he writes, 'who are faithful in the practice of the spiritual life. Not even half of these are so privileged. Why? He alone knows the reason.' The reason, say the Carmelite authors who have interpreted this statement, is to be found sometimes in a lack of generosity in these souls, sometimes in the Will of God.

There are, then, two ways of arriving at perfection. However, even souls who do not walk in the way of infused contemplation or mystical prayer can sometimes be favored by contemplation."

-- The Spirit and Prayer of Carmel by Fr François Jamart, ocd

Sooner or later wretchedness will be transformed into burning charity

"The three aspects of the spiritual life - the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious outpourings of the Holy Spirit - recall the image of the fire and the log used by St John of the Cross.

When the fire approaches the log it first lights it up and warms it. That corresponds to a joyful mystery. We are warmed by the love of God revealed to us. When the fire comes closer, the wood begins to blacken, smoke, smell bad, and give out tar and other unpleasant substances. This is the sorrowful outpouring: the soul has the painful experience of its own wrtchedness. This phase lasts until the purifying fire has completed its work and the soul is totally transformed into a fire of love. Here is the glorious outpouring, in which the soul is strengthened in charity, the fire Jesus came to kindle on earth.

The lesson of this imagery is very optimistic: we should not fear the times when we feel crushed by our wretchedness. We should abandon ourselves trustingly to God sure that sooner or later wretchedness will be transformed into burning charity. St Thérèse of Lisieux wrote to her sister, Marie du Sacré-Coeur: 'Let us keep far from everything that shines, let's love our littleness... then we will be poor in spirit, and Jesus will come and look for us. However far away we are, he will transform us into flames of love.'"

-- Interior Freedom by Fr Jacques Philippe

Memorial of St Gertrude the Great

"Gertrude of Helfta was a highly intelligent woman. She was born on 6 January 1256 in the little town of Eisleben in Thuringia. At age 5, Gertrude went to the Cistercian monastery school of Helfta in Saxony, and since then has always been known as "Gertrude of Helfta". She dedicated herself to study, and it was not long before she surpassed all her companions.

She also discovered Christ in the monastery, and the beauty of living for him and with him in the intimacy of love. But the divine Teacher remained in the background of her life for some time while she used all her faculties to improve her education, becoming proficient in literature, philosophy, song and the refined art of miniature painting.

After several years, Gertrude moved from the monastery school to the novitiate, taking the veil and becoming a nun. For her Jesus was "Someone", but her studies were still her all. But she was not on the wrong track, for knowledge, when it goes hand in hand with humility, does not distance people from God. And he was waiting on her path.

Experiencing a 'new birth'

In 1280, she was 24 years old and a half-hearted and distracted nun. Towards the end of the year, she went through an inner crisis that lasted several weeks. She felt lonely, lost and depressed. Her human plans disintegrated like shattered idols. This might have been the end of everything, but instead, it was a new beginning.

On 27 January 1281, Gertrude saw Jesus in person in the form of a marvellous adolescent who said to her, "I have come to comfort you and bring you salvation". Remembering that day, she was to write: "Jesus, my Redeemer, you have lowered my indomitable head to your gentle yoke, preparing for me the medicine suited to my weakness". From that moment, she was solely concerned with living in full union with Jesus.

In her writings, she established the date of her newfound unity with Christ as 23 June 1281: all her life she must have seen that day as the day of her new birth, the birth of the true Gertrude in the image of Christ.

She abandoned the study of profane subjects and dedicated herself entirely to the study of Scripture, writings of the Church Fathers and theological treatises. She found extraordinary delight in reading the letters of Augustine, Gregory the Great, Bernard and Hugh of Saint-Victor.

From a scholar specialized in the humanities, she became a "theologian" filled with God and his fragrance. Her life was truly filled with the Lord alone.

But Gertrude did not want to be the only one to enjoy this supreme "Pleasure"; so she began to write short treatises for the Sisters in the monastery and those who approached her in which she explained the most difficult passages of Scripture, true spiritual treasures written in a clear and lively style.

The monastery parlour was also often filled with people in search of her words, comfort and guidance. She exercised a great influence on souls.

A confidant of Jesus

Since her conversion, she had become the confidant of Jesus, who revealed to her the infinite Love of his divine Heart and charged her to spread it among human beings with love for the suffering and for sinners. Gertrude's ecstasies with Jesus prompted her to write those ardent pages that would bring souls to him.

Humble, always happy and smiling, with a loving heart for all, she sparkled with trust, joy and peace, and led everyone to the Lord. To her soul, Jesus was like a spring day, vibrant with life and scented with flowers: Love par excellence, the one overwhelming Love. This is why she is known on the one hand as the "Teresa of Germany" and on the other, the "theologian of the Sacred Heart".

One day, Jesus said to Gertrude: "It would be good to make known to men and women how they would benefit from remembering that I, the Son of God and of the Blessed Virgin Mary, always stand before God for the salvation of the human race, and that should they commit some sin through their weakness, I offer my unblemished Heart to the Father for them".

She truly became one with Jesus and transmitted him to her brethren in the many works she has bequeathed to us, some of which have been lost.

In 1298 her health deteriorated but she transformed her sufferings into love, an offering with Jesus to the Father and a gift for humankind.

During her long and painful illness, she decided to recount the "adventure" of her conversion and to tell of the wonderful revelations with which Jesus had favoured her: "Until the age of 25, I was a blind and insane woman . . . but you, Jesus, deigned to grant me the priceless familiarity of your friendship by opening to me in every way that most noble casket of your divinity, which is your divine Heart, and offering me in great abundance all your treasures contained in it".
On 17 November 1301, at age 45, she rejoined her Bridegroom for ever. Interestingly, she is the only woman among the saints to be called "the Great": St Gertrude the Great.

-- Gertrude: The Only Female Saint to Be Called 'The Great'  by Paolo Rossi
© L'Osservatore Romano

St Gertrude the Great, pray for us!

-o-


Three lessons given by the Heart of Jesus to St Gertrude with regard to confiding abandonment

1. One time, when St. Gertrude was discouraged at prayer, Our Lord encouraged her to have great confidence in His Divine Heart, inviting her to present herself before Him, like Esther before Assuerus:

"What dost thou command, My sovereign?" The Saint answered: "I ask, O Lord, that Thy most amiable Will may be fully accomplished in me." Then Jesus, naming to her one after another the persons who had recommended themselves to her prayers, said: "What dost thou ask for this soul and for this, and for that other, who claim more especially thy prayers?" Gertrude answered: "I only ask, O Lord, that Thy Will may be perfectly accomplished in them. All my desire and my delight is to see Thee fully satisfied in me and in all Thy creatures." "My Heart," replied Jesus, "is so touched with that confiding abandonment of thy heart to My holy Will, that it will itself supply for whatever may have hitherto been wanting in thy life in this respect, and will henceforth love thee as if thy whole life had been perfectly conformed to My good Pleasure."

Let us follow her example and desire only the accomplishment of the Will of God in ourselves and in others; in our own affairs and in those of the Church; in our works of zeal and in all that we have at heart. Let us have this sweet and all-abiding confidence and in abandonment to Our Lord's Divine mercy as St. Gertrude received from the Heart of Jesus: that He Himself will supply all that has been wanting in us in this regard, "and accept all our past prayers as if they had been in perfect conformity with His holy Will; all our past actions as if they had been performed only to accomplish His desires; and all our past sufferings as if they had been accepted with perfect resignation."

 2. One night, St. Gertrude was suffering more than usual from a fever; she was anxious about the course of this malady. Jesus appeared to her, carrying health in His right hand and sickness in His left, offering her both that she might choose that which she preferred. Gertrude leaned towards His loving Heart, in which she knew the plenitude of every good resided, and answered: "Lord, I choose nothing, I desire only the good pleasure of Thy Heart." Then Jesus, causing a fountain, as it were, of grace to spring from His Heart, made it flow into that of Gertrude, saying: "Since thou renouncest thy own will to abandon it entirely unto Mine, I pour into thee all the sweetness and all the joy of My Divine Heart.

Like this great Saint, us choose nothing, ask nothing, having all confidence in the all-wise, all-loving will of Our Lord Jesus. For He will choose what is best for us, and fill us with the sweet joy of His Heart; for there can be no greater happiness for a creature "than to give pleasure to His Creator, to be guided by His most amiable Will; and to confide all to His watchful Providence."

3. One year, on the Feast of the Circumcision, when asked for spiritual New Year's gifts for her community, Our Lord told her: "If anyone will generously renounce his own will to seek only My good Pleasure, My Divine Heart will illuminate him with a vivid light to know My wishes. I will show him in what he has failed with regard to his Rule, which is the expression of My Will; and will atone with him for all his shortcomings. Like a good master instructing a dearly loved child, I will let him lean on My Heart, will gently point out to him his faults, will kindly correct what he has done amiss, and supply what he has neglected. And if, as a heedless child, he pays no attention to some points, I will attend to them for him, and make up what he has passed over. The New Year's gift most conducive to My glory that I can bestow on these souls is the desire to Please Me in all things, and confiding abandonment to My Divine Heart. I will grant them, with the atonement for all their failures of the past year, light and strength to conform themselves henceforward entirely to My holy Will."

-- Love, Peace and Joy by Fr André Prévot

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St Gertrude's prayer to her Guardian Angel

O most holy angel of God, appointed by God to be my guardian, I give you thanks for all the benefits which you have ever bestowed on me in body and in soul. I praise and glorify you that you condescended to assist me with such patient fidelity, and to defend me against all the assaults of my enemies. Blessed be the hour in which you were assigned me for my guardian, my defender and my patron. In acknowledgement and return for all your loving ministries to me, I offer you the infinitely precious and noble heart of Jesus, and firmly purpose to obey you henceforward, and most faithfully to serve my God. Amen.

Die to yourself so you can rise with Christ

"... God's love is so immense, its power so limitless, its embrace so tender and intimate, that Love Himself brings forth life.

-o-

... being configured to Christ means exposing the weakest parts of who we are so that God can make us strong; it means becoming blind to the ways of this world so that Christ can lead us; it means dying to ourselves so that we can rise with Christ."

-- Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers in his foreword to From Slave to Priest: A Biography of the Reverend Augustine Tolton by Sr Caroline Hemesath, OSF

Trust in God's mercy: live in the present moment for the greater glory of God

"Today the Lord said to me, 'My daughter, My pleasure and delight, nothing will stop Me from granting you graces. Your misery does not hinder My mercy. My daughter, write that the greater the misery of a soul, the greater the right to My mercy; (urge) all souls to trust in the unfathomable abyss of My mercy, because I want to save them all. On the cross, the fountain of My mercy was opened wide by all the lance for all souls - no one have I excluded!'

[Words of St Faustina:]

O Jesus, I want to live in the present moment, to live as if this were the last day of my life. I want to use every moment scrupulously for the greater glory of God, to use every circumstance for the benefit of my soul. I want to look upon everything, from the point of view that nothing happens without the will of God.

God of unfathomable mercy, embrace the whole world and pour Yourself out upon us through the merciful Heart of Jesus."

-- Divine Mercy in My Soul by St Faustina Kowalska

He who desires nothing else than God walks not in darkness

"Jesus be in your soul and thanks to Him that He has enabled me not to forget the poor, as you say, or be idle, as you say. For it greatly vexes me to think you believe what you say; this would be very bad after so many kindnesses on your part when I least deserved them. That's all I need now is to forget you! Look, how could this be so in the case of one who is in my soul as you are?

Since you walk in these darknesses and voids of spiritual poverty, you think that everyone and everything is failing you. It is no wonder that in this it also seems that God is failing you. But nothing is failing you, neither do you have to discuss anything, nor is there anything to discuss, nor do you know this, nor will you find it, because all of these doubts are without basis. He who desires nothing else than God walks not in darkness, however, poor and dark he is in his own sight . . . .

You were never better off than now, because you were never so humble nor so submissive, nor considered yourself and all worldly things to be so small, nor did you know that you were so evil, nor did you serve God so purely and so disinterestedly as now, nor do you follow after the imperfections of your own will and interests as perhaps you were accustomed to do . . . . It is a great favor from God when he darkens [the faculties of the soul] and impoverishes the soul in such a way that it cannot err with them. And if one does not err in this, what need is there in order to be right other than to walk along the level road of the law of God and of the Church and live only in dark and true faith and certain hope and complete charity, expecting all our blessings in heaven, living here below like pilgrims, the poor, the exiled, orphans, the thirsty, without a road and without anything, hoping for everything in heaven?

. . . Desire no other path than this and adjust your soul to it (for it is a good one) and receive communion as usual. Go to confession when you have something definite; you don't have to discuss these things with anyone."

-- The Collected Works of St John of the Cross translated by Fr Kieran Kavanaugh, ocd, & Fr Otilio Rodríguez, ocd

I should live only by seeing God and my soul in all things

"I felt a strong impulse to go to prayer. I began with my spiritual Communion but in making my thanksgiving my soul was dominated by love. One by one the perfections of God were presented to me: His goodness, His wisdom, His immensity, His mercy, His holiness and justice. There was a moment when I did not know anything. I felt that I was in God. When I contemplated the justice of God, I began to be fearful. I would have wanted to flee or to hand myself over to His justice. I saw hell, whose fire was enkindled by the anger of God, and annihilating myself I begged for mercy and felt that I was filled with it. I saw how horrible a thing sin is. I want to die before committing it. I promised to see God in His creatures and to live in great recollection. He told me to strive to be very perfect and in a practical way He explained to me each one of His perfections. I should do all my actions with perfection so that between Him and me there would be unity, since I would not have it if I did something imperfect. Afterward I remained as though not knowing what was going on in my head, and I was afraid to present myself before the others, because I believed I still had something that would make me conspicuous. I believe that more than an hour went by. In the evening I did not have much fervor but I was recollected.

-o-

I made my prayer. I felt love and union with God, but I had very little recollection. For a long time I kept on without thinking of anything. I just remained there passively receiving the rays of the Divine Sun. Our Lord asked that I should obey through faith. He told me that He desired for me the greatest purity possible. I should live without worrying about things of the body, as though the body did not exist. I should look for no comfort. I should live only by seeing God and my soul in all things... Afterward I felt the pain of separation and even fear of such an austere life that I am going to live. But then I grew calm by putting my confidence in God." -- St Teresa of the Andes

-- God the Joy of my Life by Fr Michael D Griffin, ocd

Hand yourself over to Him and you will be transformed

"[L]et yourself be invaded by God. Live in Him through faith. Hand yourself over to Him passively. He won't fail to take possession of your whole being. He is love; and we exist only because of His infinite Goodness. Let's breathe in, to put it that way, the divine milieu in which we live. God is in us, and in every created thing. Let's adore Him with faith. Everything changes when we look at the Divine Sun. May faith be the lens that reveals to you your Creator. A soul that has faith has everything, because it has God. Sufferings are transformed by faith.

The important thing is not to concentrate on the external. We should examine the source from which things are born, and faith will make it known: it's God's love which tries, refines and purifies our soul. When you're suffering, look at Jesus. He is loving you with tenderness, because you are participating in His cross, in the cross He carried in His most divine Heart from Bethlehem to Calvary. Place yourself and everything around you in that Heart of Jesus. Live abandoned to His holy Will. From that abandonment, oneness with God will be born."

Letters of Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes translated by Fr Michael D Griffin, ocd

Believe without reservation and trust in His mercy

You cannot make an act more pleasing to God than to absolutely believe, without reserve, in His kindness, in His love, that you trust in His mercy. That is what glorifies Him the most! Trust in His Court, in His good Heart.

Vous ne pouvez pas faire d'acte plus agréable à Dieu que de croire absolument, sans réserve, à sa bonté, à son amour, que de vous confier en sa miséricorde. C'est cela qui le glorifie le plus ! Confiez-vous à Son Cour, à Son bon Coeur.

-- Père Jacques of Jesus, ocd

N.B. Not on the Eucharist, but still a wonderful thought by Père Jacques that would make a nice holy card.

Peaceful abandonment: our greatest gift to God

"Abandonment to the will of God simplifies our whole lives and the interior of our souls. It does not mean leaving aside human effort, common sense, normal foresight or careful planning. It means we give ourselves freely to His Word. It is the surrender to the impression of the Divine Word in our lives as Jesus surrendered to it. Even though He always was the Divine Word from eternity, He became the Word in the flesh of human nature in order to show us how to carry out the word in a world that is always putting up obstacles against it. We can do nothing greater than to give ourselves completely to Him so that He can live again in us to carry out His own will.

Peaceful abandonment; there is no greater gift to God. It is the crowning of our lives and the highest tribute to the Divine Majesty. It is the greatest worship, the worship Jesus asked for 'in spirit and truth.' It makes our whole life an act of worship and adoration no matter what we do. It is what the Lord asked when He said: 'Abide in My love'... remain in it, and you will have done everything to please Me. It is the one thing necessary."

-- The Pathways of Prayer: Communion with God by Sr Immaculata, ocd

Grace in the midst of turmoil

"Actual graces are acts of the divine will; it will be enough, therefore, for God, in order to manifest these graces to souls, to make use of the means through which His will is known to us, namely, Divine Providence.

It could be objected that not all that happens within the scope of Providence is an actual grace, at least for the reason that many things are simply the permissive will of God, while grace involves the will of good pleasure. However, the bottom falls out of the objection if we consider that the acceptance of all of Providence is something desired by God as obligatory for us.

This acceptance by us is, then, what God desires of us, and on our part there results a filial obligation. However, God does not impose any obligation upon us without offering us the grace to fulfill it. From this it follows that every event, even though it only be permitted by Divine Providence, is for us a real and objective offer of actual grace. Here, finally, we begin to see the full richness of the bold assertion of St Therese of the Child Jesus: Everything is a grace.

This is also the thought of St Paul: 'And we know that to them that love God all things work together unto good;' and St Thomas, commenting on the words of the Apostle adds the note: 'even sin.' This may seem disconcerting, but even short reflections shows that it is not, if one considers the mysterious wisdom with which God permits us to be cast down that so we may be brought to humility and prayer. In this soil His grace will bring perfection and love to full flower."

-- Everything is a Grace by Fr Anastasius of the Holy Rosary, ocd

At each moment resolve to fulfill God's will, and you can live in perpetual communion with Him

"We can live in perpetual communion with Love by making ourselves one with His will. May the divine will never find resistance in our soul. There must always reign in our soul a faith-filled spirit. Amid this pure air, the voice of God which should always rule over us is never lost. May our soul be like a participation in Him. God within Himself always accomplishes what He wills. May we, lost as insignificant things amid His immensity, also accomplish everything He desires. How shall we become more like Him except by doing His divine will? In loving and embracing it, we love and embrace a good that is infinitely pleasing to God; a good that contains within itself eternal reason; a good in which eternal wisdom is present; a good in which there is infinite power; a good in which there is present, in a condensed way, all the love and holiness of our God. In carrying out that good, are we not working together with God? And in working as God would have us, we are another God. In a word, we become Him.

For this reason, we must put up with everything, love everything as an expression of the will of God who wishes to sanctify us, for Jesus Christ has already told us that it is God's will that we be holy. And I think that the way most suited to our miserable condition is to look to the present, that is, at each moment to resolve to fulfill God's will perfectly accepting everything He sends us, whether prosperity or adversity, whether proceeding from ourselves, from circumstances around us, or from other people."

-- Letters of Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes translated by Fr Michael D Griffin, ocd

Abandonment opens the gates of God's treasures

"It is prayer that leads us to such an appreciation of Divine Providence that the soul can reach this state of abandonment. Prayer opens the gates of the treasures of the Divine will. It is founded on Divine Providence because our only reason for living is to do the will of God. We pray, not just for what we want but in order, above all, to be able to accomplish the will of God.

As we pray we begin to see into the transcendent darkness of Divine things. God illumines the soul that prays. When the hand of God seems to deal out only adversities, bitterness and afflictions, we are made to turn to Him for help in our trials.

We learn God and His ways; we learn humility in dealing with Him; we learn to revere His majesty because we see that in our prosperity we were walking in darkness, and if not in serious sin, at least we were living for ourselves, with that dullness to Divine realities which can never be cleared away without the cleansing power of suffering. It is through prayer that we penetrate into the secret and hidden mysteries of the Divine will. We see and experience that we only knew abstractly before, namely, that God's infinite ways are so much above us that we must suffer before we can see.

We learn that there is grace for every trial; that God really is with us in suffering. He never presses down without holding us up with the other hand. No, we may not see where we are going but we need see when we are being led? The light that is given may not be exactly the light that we want, the light that will answer our demands to understand why He is being so hard on us. The light that we are given shows us that we are sinners and we dare not demand to know. We are illumined by a light that will feed us with the sweet peace of humility. we understand that we can trust His desire to do good for us; that what He takes away only seems to take away in order to give us something greater. We learn that what He does not grant in one way He will grant in another. If He closes a door it is to keep us from going through it to our own loss. If He shuts up our path with 'square stones' (Lamentations 3:9) it is to keep us from going astray. If He hinders and brings to nothing all out plans and aspirations, it is to show us how much we were working for our own profit. If He lets our lives turn to failure, it is to keep us from sin.

We come to understand that He wants us to love Him and cling to Him in situations we cannot understand. Peaceful abandonment is always profitable to us. Through it we see that it is His merciful love that is pursuing us through trials and adversities. He wants to bring the proud heart to surrender; He wants to soothe the fearful heart with trust - because the proud one does not want to surrender to a power above himself or to admit his need to depend on God's loving providence... and the fearful one mistrusts his own ability to remain in grace because he has not yet learned by experience that it is God Who keeps him in grace. "

-- The Pathways of Prayer: Communion with God by Sr Immaculata, ocd