Franciscan Quote of the Day

In the school of the Eucharist, Jesus trains our eyes how to recognize him not only “in the breaking of the bread,” but also in our daily lives, so that we don’t miss the Lord interacting with us and speaking to us.

~Joe Reciniello, OH……….. FRANCESCO: “When you approach the tabernacle remember that he has been waiting for you for twenty centuries.”.

The mystery of the poor is this: That they are Jesus, and what you do for them you do for Him. It is the only way we have of knowing and believing in our love. The mystery of poverty is that by sharing in it, making ourselves poor in giving to others, we increase our knowledge of and belief in love.

~Dorothy Day, The Mystery of the Poor

I think forgiveness is one of the surest signs of the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is incredibly difficult, often scandalous, and yet it is the thing God absolutely demands of us if we are to have any hope whatsoever of having our own sins forgiven. Our strategies for avoiding it are numberless and becoming a Christian often only leads people to come up with ingenious theological rationales for explaining why they don’t need to do it. But Jesus is stark and plain-spoken: If you do not forgive you will not be forgiven.

~Mark Shea, Catholic and Enjoying It!

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.

Loving Father,

Help us remember the birth of Jesus,

that we may share in the songs of the angels,

the gladness of the shepherds,

and worship of the wise men.

Close the door of hate

and open the door of love all over the world.

Let kindness come with every gift

and good desires with every greeting.

Deliver us from evil by the blessing

which Christ brings,

and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.

May the Christmas morning

make us happy to be thy children,

and Christmas evening bring us to our beds

with grateful thoughts,

forgiving and forgiven,

for Jesus’ sake.

Amen.

Go through each thing with Jesus, every encounter you had with a person or on the phone and ask yourself this question, “Did they see me today or did they see Jesus today?” If the answer is that they saw me, then there is still a lot that needs to be repented. People are supposed to be looking and seeing Jesus in my life. So I need to ask if I’m pushing myself, and my ideas, or am I pushing Jesus and His ideas?

Fr. Larry Richards, Surrender! The Life Changing Power of Doing God’s Will

Christ roams through our streets in the person of so many of the suffering poor, sick and dispossessed, and people thrown out of their miserable slums; Christ huddled under bridges, in the person of so many children who lack someone to call father, who have been deprived for many years without a mother’s kiss on their foreheads … Christ is without a home! Shouldn’t we want to give him one, those of us who have the joy of a comfortable home, plenty of good food, the means to educate and assure the future of our children? “What you do to the least of me, you do to me,” Jesus said.

~St. Alberto Hurtado, S.J.

Transform me into yourself, so that I may no longer know myself, nor find myself, except in you.

~Thomas of Jesus quoted by Therese on Twitter

If you really want to love Jesus, first learn to suffer, because suffering teaches you to love.

~St. Gemma Galgani

Into this universal human situation Jesus comes, saying, “Repent,” which means “change the direction in which you are looking for happiness.” Human happiness is found in the growth of unconditional love. The work of spiritual direction is to help us to become aware of the obstacles to divine love and the free circulation of that love within us. This requires the cultivation of a non-possessive attitude toward ourselves and other people. Gradually we learn that God is the true security, God truly loves us, and with this love, we can make it, even if no one else seems to care.

~ Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO, via Little Portion Hermitage

We must pray without tiring, for the salvation of mankind does not depend on material success; nor on sciences that cloud the intellect. Neither does it depend on arms and human industries, but on Jesus alone.

– Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini (via Saint Quote of the Day)

In Jesus Christ, God has given away everything it means to be God, and has lavishly bestowed upon us every blessing of the divine life. And we are called to imitate God by wasting the best of ourselves on each other, to give of ourselves for the life and happiness of the other. That’s what it means to give up your life for the life of the world, just like Jesus does on the Cross.

Brother Charles, in his blog post: “The Gospel of Prosperity“