Franciscan Quote of the Day

In the little parlour of the Convent, Hercule Poirot told his story and restored the chalice to the Mother Superior.

She murmured: “Tell him we thank him and we will pray for him.”

Hercule Poirot said gently: “He needs your prayers.”

“Is he then an unhappy man?”

Poirot said: “So unhappy that he has forgotten what happiness means. So unhappy that he does not know he is unhappy.”

The nun said softly: “Ah, a rich man . . . ”

Hercule Poirot said nothing—for he knew there was nothing to say.

Agatha Christie, “The Apples of the Hesperides” via First Thoughts

Happiness is the sense of peace and joy that stems from knowledge of and union with the One Who created us and Who loves us infinitely. We will attain it fully in heaven, but we can achieve it to a significant extent beforehand by battling our desire to remain independent of God, ignoring the voices that label religion boring and unnecessary, and better acquainting ourselves with Truth through study and prayer.

~Mary Anne Marks quoted in “God and Woman at Harvard“

It pleases me that you should read sacred theology to the brothers so long as on account of this study they do not extinguish the spirit of holy prayer as is ordained in the Rule.

~St. Francis of Assisi, via AlmostCatholic

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve -
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for help, that I might do greater things -
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy -
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life -
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for -
But everything that I had hoped for.
Despite myself, my prayers were answered.
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

~Prayer/poem written by an anonymous Confederate soldier during the Civil War via Michael Wade blog Execupundit

Lord,
may our evening prayer come before you
and let the faith our lips profess
live in the prayerful thoughts of our hearts.

~Liturgy of the Hours, Evening Prayer for Tuesday in Ordinary Time, Week IV

Pita: Dear God, I do not ask for health or wealth. People ask you so often that you can’t have any left. Give me, God, what else you have. Give me what no-one else asks for. Amen.

~Man on Fire (A 2004 film directed by Tony Scott)

Walking, sitting, eating, or drinking, St. Francis was always intent upon prayer. He would go alone to pray at night in churches abandoned and located in deserted places, where, under the protection of divine grace, he overcame many fears and many disturbances of mind.

~St. Francis of Assisi, Celano, First Life, Chapter XXVII (thanks to Portiuncula: the Little Portion)

It is impossible for a person who prays regularly to remain in serious sin; because the two are incompatible, one or the other will have to be given up.

~St.Teresa of Avila

Remembrance of wrongs is the consummation of anger, the keeper of sins, hatred of righteousness, ruin of virtues, poison of the soul, worm of the mind, shame of prayer, cessation of supplication, estrangement of love, a nail stuck in the soul, pleasureless feeling cherished in the sweetness of bitterness, continuous sin, unsleeping transgression, hourly malice.

~St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent via Scott’s Catholicism Blog

Oh, the liberty that is released in our hearts when we let go of the opinions of others! The less we are mesmerized by human voices, the more we are able to hear the Divine voice. The less we are manipulated by the expectations of others, the more we are open to the expectations of God.

~Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home (quote found via the Twitter feeds of Jonathan McIntosh and Caleb Sigler. Thanks guys!)

We commune with God as we honestly are and not as we would like to be. The idealized self is always dying in prayer, because it cannot bear the truth. And if we let it die and pray from who we are becoming, then our image of God changes as we understand more clearly who we are.

~Murray Bodo, O.F.M. — The Way of St. Francis: The Challenge of Franciscan Spirituality for Everyone