Franciscan Quote of the Day

Let us all remember this: one cannot proclaim the Gospel of Jesus without the tangible witness of one’s life. Those who listen to us and observe us must be able to see in our actions what they hear from our lips, and so give glory to God! Inconsistency on the part of pastors and the faithful between what they say and what they do, between word and manner of life, is undermining the Church’s credibility.

Pope Francis via Kissing the Leper: And now a word from our Holy Father…..

And the Spirit of the Risen Christ drove out fear from the Apostles’ hearts and impelled them to leave the Upper Room in order to spread the Gospel. Let us too have greater courage in witnessing to our faith in the Risen Christ! We must not be afraid of being Christian and living as Christians! We must have this courage to go and proclaim the Risen Christ, for he is our peace, he made peace with his love, with his forgiveness, with his Blood and with his mercy.

~Pope Francis, Regina Caeli, Divine Mercy Sunday, 7 April 2013

At Easter, on the morning of the first day of the week, God said once again: “Let there be light”. The night on the Mount of Olives, the solar eclipse of Jesus’ passion and death, the night of the grave had all passed. Now it is the first day once again – creation is beginning anew. “Let there be light”, says God, “and there was light”: Jesus rises from the grave. Life is stronger than death. Good is stronger than evil. Love is stronger than hate. Truth is stronger than lies. The darkness of the previous days is driven away the moment Jesus rises from the grave and himself becomes God’s pure light. But this applies not only to him, not only to the darkness of those days. With the resurrection of Jesus, light itself is created anew. He draws all of us after him into the new light of the resurrection and he conquers all darkness. He is God’s new day, new for all of us.

~Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, Easter Vigil Mass 2012

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.

~Second Letter of St. Paul to St. Timothy 4:3-5

It doesn’t matter how far away we are from everyone, it doesn’t matter if they take everything away. Nobody can ever take away the faith we carry in our hearts. This is how we build an altar in our own hearts.

Bl. Maria Restituta via Kissing the Leper

A subjective quest for emotional fulfillment subverts Christian worship by focusing on how worship makes a person feel, and by encouraging worship schemes that arise from individual self-expression rather than the lived history of the people of God down through the ages. “Man fully alive” is at the heart of that most baneful of cultural deviations, the circus act known as “the contemporary worship service.”

~ Patrick Henry Reardon, “The Man Alive” (Touchstone Archives).

‎How necessary it is – both for the lives of individuals and for the serene and peaceful coexistence of all people – to see God as the center of all there is and the center of our personal lives.

~Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus Address, Munich, Germany, 10Sep06 via St. Francis of Assisi – Poverello (Facebook Page)

No, no I never expected that there is a short-cut that bypasses the drudgery of human experience. I don’t want one, I want to drink to the chalice of my Lord. In my case (and isn’t this the common, ordinary state?) how non-glamorous, how ignoble this chalice! What does it amount to me with me? A sense of inner fragility and faintness which taps, knocks at the wall of my body too. I seem unable to face up to any pressure. I feel faced with an immense ‘trial’ utterly beyond myself, and yet when I look, where is the trial? What have I to suffer compared to so many people? I have good health, am surrounded with love, have everything I need, and yet life itself seems more than I can bear—the unutterable loneliness and emptiness, the mystery and obscurity. Yesterday, I heard of a poor woman enduring humiliating helplessness for ten years, and now, faced with new symptoms, her splendid spirit is breaking and she can take no more. Just one of millions similarly suffering from seemingly unbearable afflictions. And what relation has my life to hers? By comparison I have nothing to suffer. It is my hope that this ‘suffering’ of mine which is nameless, which really has no right to be called suffering, this inner ‘dissolution’ should be a way through which Jesus comes to others in grief and pain. I feel overwhelmed with everything: with the beauty of the world, with its terrible pain, with its evil and ugliness, the devilish brutality of man to man–with the word of God so mighty and so obscure. I could weep my eyes out with–I don’t know what! Oh, how fragile I am, without achievement; no human victory, no human beauty, only that which is he, who experienced in all its raw bitterness the human condition.

~Carmelite Ruth Burrows quoting a friend named Petra in Guidelines for Mystical Prayer via Heather King’s fantastic blog Shirt of Flame.

The Pope’s gesture is a powerful reminder to renounce every human security, trusting exclusively in the strength of the Holy Spirit.

It’s as if Benedict XVI said to us, in St. Paul’s words, ‘I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus’ (Phil 1:6).

Fr. Julián Carrón, “The Incredible Freedom of a Man Taken Hold of By Christ” – Press Releases

God without priests. Churches without authority. Faiths that are optional. It’s wonderfully liberating. The divine can’t get his hands on us anymore! Now we can be spiritual without being religious. It’s the luxury good human beings have always wanted: bespoke worship, idols made to spec.

R.R. Reno, “Freedom from Religion” | First Things

[Editor's note: this may be one of those quotes that benefits greatly from reading the piece that the quote was taken from. Just in case the tone of this fragment isn't clear because it is a mere fragment, R.R. Reno isn't advocating a religion as described above but is describing what, in some sense, has become what currently passes for religion.]

One morning just before dismissing us, the priest said, “Stay as long as you like. This is your home.”

Oh, this IS my home! I thought, and wandered around for a bit, then went and sat before the Blessed Sacrament myself. Of course the Church is no one building; every Catholic church is my home. But that I could leave my earthly home, drive eight minutes, and sit before Christ is a sacred mystery and gift beyond all imagining.

~Heather King, Shirt of Flame

Christians should know better than most that we are not in ultimate control of our lives, and therefore be better at flourishing in situations which call for us to give up the illusion of control.  But are we?  Living in a culture which celebrates self-actualization above almost everything else makes this a very difficult counter-cultural practice. Indeed, I count myself among the Christians who need to get better at trusting in God and giving up the illusion of control.

~Charles Camosy, The Allure of Choice and Control: From Pete Carroll, to Defensive Medicine, to the NRA | Catholic Moral Theology

Among the many lessons from Reverend King’s life are that faithful Christians should pursue their dreams, but be willing to make sacrifices, and be prepared to endure doubt, ridicule and even persecution. Worthy dreams are usually accomplished only after tribulations, and intense struggle. But if we don’t lose heart, and remain faithful to God, it will all be worth it.

~William Doino, Struggles and Dreams: Lessons from Reverend King via First Thoughts | A First Things Blog

Too many people who claim to be Christian simply don’t know Jesus Christ. They don’t really believe in the Gospel. They feel embarrassed by their religion and vaguely out of step with the times. They may keep their religion for comfort value. Or they may adjust it to fit their doubts. But it doesn’t reshape their lives because it isn’t real. And because it isn’t real, it has no transforming effect on their personal behavior, no social force, and few public consequences.

~Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, A Heart on Fire: Catholic Witness and the Next America

Many Christians seem to believe that if they try to follow God’s will, things should go well for them. But holiness has nothing to do with an easy life, except perhaps to militate against it. If we are truly striving to live holy lives, we should expect to face tough decisions, difficult circumstances, mockery, persecution, and even death.

If the Holy Family could not escape such trials, why should we?

~Kevin Birnbaum, Keeping up with the Josephs « the candle

[Sorry to be sharing yet another quote directly from the web, it's just that there has been so much good stuff out their lately.]

Saint Luke describes the reaction of Mary and Joseph to Jesus’ words with two statements: “They did not understand the saying which he spoke to them,” and “his mother kept all these things in her heart” (2:50, 51) Jesus’ saying is on too lofty a plane for this moment in time. Even Mary’s faith is a “journeying” faith, a faith that is repeatedly shrouded in darkness and has to mature by persevering through the darkness. Mary does not understand Jesus’ saying, but she keeps it in her heart and allows it gradually to come to maturity there.

~Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives via a minor friar.

The Wandering: what’s happening in my life isn’t working for whatever reason — there is a pull, the hand of  God pointing me in something more.

The Leper: I’ve found something for which I’m looking — some type of encounter, prayer and/or ministry, has grabbed my heart and won’t let go.

Playing in Churches: I need to do something — I don’t know what, so let me start actually doing something.

All of a sudden: brothers and sisters.  Build churches long enough and I’ll eventually find myself involved in religious life — do not be afraid of this. The jump is a long way down — but never underestimate the gravity-defying power of grace.

Up to now, I’ve done nothing: reaching religious life is just a reminder of all the things I haven’t yet done.  Say your prayers, work hard, go to sleep.  Repeat.

via New Sandals: Revised Theses on Franciscan Discernment.

We are in much the same position as those shepherds on that first Christmas. We have heard the good news. What will we do with it? The shepherds took action. They left all they had to worship the newborn Lord. They risked humiliation sharing the strange message with others. Will we? Do we have the courage to live like the shepherds?

~Kevin Birnbaum, The adoration of the shepherds « the candle.

The construction of a Christian culture begins by lifting our own hearts up to God, without plans or reservations, and letting him begin the work. It sounds like a small thing. It is a small thing. But as Christians know better than anyone, worlds and empires, and even salvation itself, can turn on the smallest “yes.”

~Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, A Heart on Fire: Catholic Witness and the Next America

At every moment God’s will produces what is needful for the task in hand, and the simple soul, instructed by faith, finds everything as it should be and wants neither more nor less than what it has.

~Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade, Self-Abandonment to Divine Providence