27 April 2006

We are to "be perfect."
We are to be holy.
What is holiness?

To be holy is to be filled with His Love.

Now, we must free ourselves so that we can be filled.
That's what all the books and devotions are about.

24 April 2006

It is our sin that makes mercy necessary; mercy being love in the face of need.
And it is our sin - not the sin of our past, but the sin of our NOW - that makes God's mercy and love so incredible, incomprehensible. These things that we see in ourselves that make us unlovable and unworthy are the very things that allow God to show His mercy and love as our only hope, far beyond our capacity to grasp.

He always looks on us with mercy. His glance tears down the wall that keeps us apart from our selves and from Him, and leaves us open and vulnerable to change. His hands reach in through the cleft of our being and straighten the convolutions of our minds, calms our hearts, strengthens every fiber within. And His Word is always action and peace, coming from the mouth of Love and penetrating to the center of what we are, renewing us. His creative power is perpetually making all things new. Truth is dynamic and embraces every age and each person’s situation – He is alive and breathing through His Church and through each soul, revealing Himself ever anew.

Love is always new, love always finds new ways to give itself, to prove itself, to express itself. There is nothing sclerotic about Truth, because God is Truth, and He is “ever ancient, ever new.”

This giving that began before time and reached its summit when the King of kings was crowned with thorns and raised on the throne of the cross continues to give at every moment, to give through our hands and words. Every moment is an intersection of time with the eternal, in which the Incarnation and Passion of Christ are being made present in every life and circumstance. The Kingdom of God is within us, with its power to save each of us.

We are saved by His love and mercy.

~from His Suffering and Ours, available from http://www.lulu.com/kathryntherese
"We've got to make room for everything and everybody - goats included. Whether it be a goat or a lambkin, the Master expects each beast to be returned in healthy condition. Don't go trying to stop a goat stinking like a goat - a waste of time and a source of despair, I can tell you...

A Christian people doesn't mean a lot of little goody-goodies. The Church has plenty of stamina, and isn't afraid of sin. On the contrary, she can look it in the face calmly and even take it upon herself, assume it at times, as Our Lord did."

~the Cure de Torcy in "The Diary of a Country Priest" by Georges Bernanos
(a masterpiece of storytelling)

20 April 2006


Life is good.
Life is very, very good.

Even if everyone's smile isn't perfect.



I have much for which to be grateful this Easter.

13 April 2006


I will post more after Easter. Meanwhile, let us all pray for one another during these holy days.

07 April 2006

+
You set aside Your glorious garments to bend low in order to serve us, to wash our feet to prepare us for a meal. A banquet of love which will make us new and for which nothing but the action of God can prepare us.

But we must not resist, must not protest out of a shallow humility that forgets that Your way is perfect, even if it makes us uncomfortable, even if we recognize our unworthiness, like Peter. Unless we are washed by You, we can have no part in You. "Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well." (Jn 13:9)

We can only be prepared for the Banquet by allowing You to wash us, by yielding to Your loving condescension. It is by our willingness to surrender to Your love that we are made worthy of it.

Give us the grace of yielding to Your love, Lord, so that we may be readied and taken up by You into the fullness of life with You that You long to share with us. May we allow You to "chastise us with glory" (St. Teresa of Avila) and cleanse us with tenderness, accepting all as gift of Your merciful kindness.

Give us the humility to allow ourselves to be fully loved by You.