In each Hail Mary, Elizabeth’s greeting is repeated. The joy is always on account of Mary’s bringing Jesus, that through her Jesus does not just come into ‘the house of Zechariah’ but into every house. For Mary is still on her way to bring Jesus, her child, to people. That is what she means to do at Christmas, in every home. |
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God’s call went out to John ‘in the wilderness’. In order for God to speak to me, I must hear him. In order to hear, I need a certain degree of quiet. That is why John was in the wilderness. The silence there is so complete that one’s heart is quieted and starts to hear. In our world today, silence has become a rare commodity. That is why it is so important to me that our churches are open. |
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Golden bowls of incense . . . remind us that incense is to help us focus on joining our prayers with the prayers of the saints in heaven. . . . [It] isn’t just aesthetics, it’s sacramentality. |
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We have something to contribute to the Glory of Christ because His Glory is extended when He manifests His Glory in us. |
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[Our] love of neighbor is genuine love (instead of common interest) only if it includes the love of God and leaves the other free for God. Love of neighbor finds its fulfillment in the love of God, love of God its concretization in love of neighbor. |
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It is sin that sharply shows up the limitations of creatureliness. It separates human consciousness from God and isolates it in itself. At the same moment it also separates me from the other human being. It is the Lord who, in suffering for us, takes all our loneliness into his physical and psychic forsakenness on the Cross and graces us in the Eucharist with a new openness of body and soul to God and other men. |
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Does the Church teach that those who take their own life automatically go to hell? That’s what I learned. . . . Actually, the Church does not teach this. The Church has never said that a particular soul, even from suicide, is in hell. . . . This is how the Church now looks upon suicide: with pity, not with condemnation. |
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When my grandmother took her life … in that microsecond, God can perform miracles. Even when we make a bad decision, a horrendous decision, a life-ending decision, we have hope in God’s mercy. |
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If a pastor fails to feed his parishioners with the Word of God, they may well be the first on the Day of Judgment to demand his punishment for having left them spiritually starved. Do we repay our redemption, our vocation and our other blessings from the Lord by such disregard for His commands? How we shall call on the rocks and mountains to cover us from His merited indignation! |
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Could it be that one reason for the lack of vocations is our failure to stress sacrifice? The young have a sense of victimhood that we underestimate. They want a mission, a challenge! |
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The central point here is that the right of the laity to be involved in the mission of the Church is not a benevolent concession from bishops or priests. The laity have this right and duty by reason of their Baptism. This sacrament creates a fundamental equality among all the baptized: to live the new life in Christ and witness to him according to one’s vocation in the Church and in the world. |
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I too have worn the Scapular of Carmel over my heart for a long time! Out of my love for our common heavenly Mother, whose protection I constantly experience, I hope that this Marian year will help all the men and women religious of Carmel and the devout faithful who venerate her with filial affection to grow in her love and to radiate to the world the presence of this Woman of silence and prayer, invoked as Mother of Mercy, Mother of Hope and Grace. |
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The sign of the Scapular points to an effective synthesis of Marian spirituality, which nourishes the devotion of believers and makes them sensitive to the Virgin Mother’s loving presence in their lives.
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The Christian has to learn from the Incarnation to be a legitimate and authentic child of his time, his people, his society, his country. The Gospel has the power to give life to a culture. . . . The Christian should be a credible witness of this truth. He should work to make the culture one in which he can comfortably live and express his faith. And the person best placed to do this is not the cleric or the religious but the layperson. |
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Of the Lord's life on earth, 91% was hidden, and of Mary's life, 97%. The Holy of Holies and "Nature's Solitary Boast" lived lives of deep prayer before great works. They would stay close to the Source of all good works and drink deep of the fountain of living waters -- the Father. |
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If I were to put all the love in the world into one heart it would be merely as a spark in comparison with the love the Heart of Jesus has for me. |
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He who labors as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands. |
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Whenever you begin any good work you should first of all make a most pressing appeal to Christ our Lord to bring it to perfection. |
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Wrong decisions of the heart and blindness of the mind curse the hands to wretched, destructive actions; and the opposite also holds true. The metanoia of the heart brings about the enlightenment of reflection and return to God, the consecration to healing and blessed work. |
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The One who judges me is the Lord. Therefore, judge not before the time, before the Lord comes. He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will reveal the intentions of hearts. They will each receive praise accordingly from God. |
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