Family

This world fears the family for famine. We fear to increase our families because of the loss of material comfort. The families we do have separate easily, for we are afraid to give ourselves to one another. We are afraid of the sacrifice involved in the family. Be not afraid. In sacrifice do we find penance, and with the family comes consolation, just as Joseph sacrificed much and yet was more greatly consoled.

Pleasure

We purchase cheap pleasures instead of holy penance. Yet the removal of pain and the pursuit of pleasure only turns pleasure into a terrible idol and master called addiction. Pain tempers and disciplines pleasure and pleasure helps make pain bearable. Thus our perfection is not to be found in fleeing from pain but in embracing it, in offering it up for others, like Christ on the Cross.

Treasure

We are a people of full bank accounts and bankrupt souls. Why? We can't take our money with us into death. All we can take is love. Ultimately, our lives are nothing save an opportunity to build up treasure in Heaven, and that treasure is our love - for everyone and everything. A love which begins in Christ, as Our Lady's has.

Siblings

God made older sisters so young men could be instructed on the mysteries of femininity. And God made younger brothers so young women would know what they were getting into. But older brothers exist to protect those who come after, and younger sisters exist to remind us that there are things worth protecting.

Saints

Our priest quipped at Mass that a young boy once told him, in reference to the Saints depicted in stain glass windows, that "Saints are those the sun shines through." Beautiful imagery and also very true. Many seem to fear that dying to themselves and living in Christ will make them less themselves. The imagery here reminds us that the Saints are not made less, but rather more distinct through the light of Christ.

Secrets

Secrets and lies serve only our sins.  They hide in the shadows of our shame.  Only by being revealed and exposed can sin be expelled.  Only through the Grace of God can we open ourselves to His light.

Broken

I am broken and ruined, yet somehow God loves me.

Carpentry

Jesus spent His human life as a carpenter, but His best wood work was as God. Carpentry prepared the way for the Cross.

Pride

Pride is best at recognizing itself in others, for proud people cannot meet without a conflict of wills. And pride is worst at recognizing itself in the self, for proud people cannot believe they are less than what their pride claims. Obedience, then, is a fitting cure, for even one who believes himself great can obey, and in obeying, be in truth humble.

Parish

You can measure the health of any given parish by the lines for confession.

Blow

Chesterton suggested that a blow is bad because it humiliates, not because it hurts. If true, we should turn the other cheek! Remember, if you can be humiliated then you're not humble enough. Interestingly, this also means that defense motivated by factors other than our pride may be perfectly legitimate, dispelling the “Jesus is a pacifist” and “all violence is evil” arguments.

Love

"Love" is an answer easily given, but not so easily lived.

Satan

Satan has no sense of humor.  He, like all proud creatures, cannot tolerate laughter, because they can never take themselves lightly.  And Satan must be taken seriously for his temptations to tempt.

Generous

Never regret being generous.

"-isms"

Christ, not capitalism, is the cure and hope for the world's poor. Christ, not communism, is the sure source of justice.  For who but Christ has shown such charity while sharing such poverty?

Surprised?

Is anyone really going to be surprised by this, if it is true?

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Lusts

The only escape from the lusts of the Devil are the pains of the Cross.  Lord let me always have Thy Cross to cling to!

Desire

If we desire greatness, we must be humble. If we want to be strong, first we must be weak. If hungry for power, then fast through helplessness. If glorified, then first we must glorify. If we wish for life, we must die. For it is only after we glorify God, that He can give us His glory. It is only in embracing Christ's death that we can live. It is only in admitting our own flaws that we can be healed.

Searching

To those who say they are searching: Love does not hide. By its nature it proclaims itself to all, it stands brazen against the horizon. If you're searching for Love, it is not because Love is in hiding, but because you are in hiding. Stop searching, your search is an excuse for your ego to remain hidden. As long as you remain searching, you are not finding. Open up to Love, die to yourself, follow Christ.

Cross

"The Cross cannot be defeated, for it is Defeat."

G.K. Chesterton

For Man

The Sacraments are not for God, but for Man.

Bread

“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.”

“Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the bread of life.”

We offer simple bread yet it becomes the Bread of Life. We too, though humble in nature, are called to become Christ.

Laughter

Jesus Christ wept openly for all to see. He shouted in anger at the corruption in the temple. He showed compassion to all in the streets. He taught in calm and reasoned discourse. But He never, ever laughed in the Gospels. Tears heal but a laugh at the wrong moment can shatter a soul instead of heal it. I wonder if perhaps He knew that the laughter of God could hurt us more than all His anger or tears.

Perilous

The most perilous thing in the world is the Eucharist. The second is sex. The third is laughter. The danger of a thing is commensurate to its innate goodness, its peril relates to its pleasure. The Eucharist is, of course, God Himself, sex is how we take part in the creative act of the Divine, and laughter is how we best know Joy itself.

Incarnation

The Incarnation can be summed up thus: The Son of God became the Son of Man so that the children of Man might become children of God.

Sufficiency

There is no such thing as sufficient faith, hope or charity.

Gratitude

Lord, I don’t have words of eloquence or extravagance. I have no silver tongued soliloquies. I have no hope of adequately expressing this in words worthy of your Incarnate glory.  So I am forced to say, in most humble, human fashion, “Thank you.  I am so sorry.  I love you.”

Merry Christmas to all, may we all know love, repentance and gratitude this day!

Sacraments

We must learn unity in body for the Sacrament of Marriage by dedicating ourselves to unity in Body through the Sacrament of the Lord's Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Thus it is the Blessed Sacrament, the Sacrament of Communion, the Sacrament of Sacraments.

Doubt

Faith is a thing of firm, steadfast purpose. The voice of the enemy is ever one of doubt, doubt of what is good, what is true and what is beautiful. The purpose of faith is reconciling Man and God. And so the purpose of the enemy is ultimately doubt of God's love and forgiveness.

Consolation

Lord, let me stand beside Mary at the foot of the Cross.  Let me be your consolation, and you mine.

Order

Order in our exterior lives helps build order in our interior lives. It is thus that cleanliness is next to Godliness. By keeping your exterior home clean, you help keep your soul's castle clean, that He may come and live within it.

Christ

All you Christians remember: You might be the only Christ someone meets today. Or this week. Or this month. Or this year. You may be the only Christ someone ever meets. “Christ has no hands or feet but yours,” says St. Teresa. Be Christ to the world. And remember, Christ openly showed His tears but hid His laughter. Perhaps because He knew that tears would always heal, while laughter could always hurt.

Vice

We cannot be afraid to live for fear of our vices. Instead, we must turn even our vices to the service of God by showing the beauty of repentance and forgiveness to others.

Joy and Sorrow

The Cross is a first step to knowing Christ, but there is always more of Christ to know. Experiencing Christ in this Moment we know the reality of joy and sorrow intermingled. We know how happiness can exist in great suffering. And so we know how we can offer up our own sufferings, and remain as happy as the Saints. This is the next step to the Hidden Joy.

Suffering

The first step to experiencing God is to meet Him where He came closest to Man. This is Christ. Yet Christ's life has one Moment in which He was more understandable, and this is His Eucharistic sacrifice. Suffering, because of its universality, is the place in which we can most easily grasp Him. We can hold fast to the wood of the Cross. We can cling, if only to His feet, and understand some of His pain, and so Him.

Joy

Share His Joy!

Providence

There is no coincidence, only Providence.

Purity

Everywhere we look we can see passion in this world.  But where is purity?

Humility

If you can be humiliated, you're not humble enough.

Augustine

"Unlearned people are taking Heaven by force, while we, with all our knowledge, are so cowardly that we keep rolling around in the mud of our sins!" St. Augustine spoke these words in shame. Let us lift them up in triumph, for the same man who lived them has become a Saint manifest in glory. God loves the fools and the favored! Even the most gifted can be Saints, should they become humble enough to Love and serve!

Russell

"So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence." Bertrand Russell meant this in a sarcastic, disparaging sense. And yet, thank God! God loves the fool as much as the favored. Russell shows us how pride makes love impossible, and intelligence is no guarantee of grace. It may even become a great stumbling block in our path to God. Beware your gifts!

Riddle

I am often challenged, as a theist, to answer certain questions about the relationship of God and Creation. Amen, amen, I say to you the real riddle is not Creation, but Man.  Of course God creates, Love always creates. The ways it begets are manifestly obvious. No, the riddle is Mankind's apparent discomfort with being Man. Fish do not complain of water being too wet, yet Man complains of men being too selfish.

Feelings

Feelings are not a guide to truth, they are a testing flame.

Day

Day by day
the world grows worse
yet in suffering does love come first

For if the world is to be better
so it must first know chain and fetter

And dreary dreams
turn to love and splendor
day by day

Holiness

The couple that seeks holiness must do so together, for they are two that have become one. It is not enough for husband or wife alone to be a Saint. Marriage can never be about me or us and only then God. It must be God first and only then us. This is because marriage is the most intimate reflection of Trinitarian love we have, and only with God first can we realize this and so become Saints.

Opportunity

The world is full of opportunities to Love.

Submission

If the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the Church, presenting her before God blameless and pure, to die for her that she may live, then we may say that his love is to will for her good before his own, always. It is to this love that wives are to submit, to this will that they must bend their own.

After all, if your husband wills for your good before his own, and you refuse, what are you rejecting?

Far

Love can never say "this far and no farther."  Its arms must always be outstretched to their utmost, like the Man on the Cross.

Apathy

In Christianity you will certainly find those who are willing to turn the other cheek, and even those who are willing to turn others' cheeks, but you will at least not find those who doubt they have cheeks to turn.

Likewise, in Christian teaching you will find empathy, and even enmity, but you will not find apathy.

And why? Because it can never be said that Christianity doesn't teach that there are things worth fighting for, even if it teaches that the best way to fight for them is not to fight at all.

The Goal.

You know, it occurs to me that I've seen very good, nice, possibly even holy people say that they'll be satisfied if they just make it to Heaven. Setting up salvation as the goal makes no sense. The goal is not Heaven. The goal is the most intimate communion with God possible, people. Don't seek to make Heaven by the skin of your teeth. Seek to commune with God as deeply as you possibly can, always.