Thought for Today

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puzzleannie said:
I have help in the spiritual life from a lot of people along the way, but there are a couple of very special people who have influence for the good probably far beyond what they realize and barbarateresa is one of them, just want to say thanks, for always striking the right chord.
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How very strange…I think of you in exactly the same way!👍 …CAF and quite a few members have become great supports for me in my spiritual life, and I have grown because of them.

Blessings - Barb:)
 
Had a few words of wisdom from my Inbox today:
Paradoxically, we achieve true wholeness only by embracing our fragility and sometimes, our brokenness. Wholeness is a natural radiance of Love, and Love demands that we allow the destruction of our old self for the sake of the new.
  • Jalaja Bonheim
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“A mistake only becomes a failure when you repeat it.” - author unknown
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Do not let any occasion of gaining merit pass without taking care to draw some spiritual profit from it; as, for example, from a sharp word which someone may say to you; from an act of obedience imposed against your will; from an opportunity which may occur to humble yourself, or to practice charity, sweetness, and patience. All of these occasions are gain for you, and you should seek to procure them. - Saint Ignatius Loyola
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This particular quote from St. Ignatuis struck me, since I have just sent off a personal email to a friend griping and complaining about something. The thing for me about these personal failures and something that really points out my failure, is that I rarely forget the lesson. Hence the failure is turned into something of a profit by the blessing of something someone has said. Sometimes it is simply reading a post on CAF that is really pertinent to something that has recently happened in my life…and the post I read is pointing out my failure. This is The Holy Spirit at work in both the other person who has shared words of wisdom, and me to whom the wisdom is so ‘in this moment’ pertinent.
 
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**Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset. **
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- Saint Francis de Sales
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These two quotes about anxiety have made the rounds for a few centuries :), but they are favorites of mine and I consider these two saints my heroes and friends:
“Let nothing disturb you, nothing frighten you. All things are passing. God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Nothing is wanting to him who possesses God. God alone suffices.”
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– St. Teresa of Avila
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“Do not look forward to what might happen tomorrow. The same everlasting Father who cares for you today, will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either he will shield you from suffering, or he will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace then and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations.”
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– St. Francis de Sales
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Thank you for the (name removed by moderator)ut and most consoling and encouraging quotes from two of our great saints and masters of the spiritual way…👍 …
 
puzzleannie said:
I have help in the spiritual life from a lot of people along the way, but there are a couple of very special people who have influence for the good probably far beyond what they realize and barbarateresa is one of them, just want to say thanks, for always striking the right chord.
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I feel just like PuzzleAnnie! I am so very grateful for everyone on CAF, but some alwasy stand out. Barb is one of the very special ones to me.

I think it is just about being content with being obedient. Is it not to find joy in our station in life which has been granted to us by our Almighty Father? Much easier said than done, but in order for me to try to remain obedient, I find it easiest to simplify it.

Our Lord has created persons for all states in life, and in all of them we see people who who achieved sanctity by fulfilling their obligations well.

-------St. Anthony Mary Claret
 
IS GOD ON THE BACK BURNER?
By Father Dave Dwyer, CSP

“This people says: ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.’ Then (the LORD said): ‘Is it time for you to dwell in your own paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?’”(Haggai 1: 2-4)
“Stop making excuses and get to the work of building up your spiritual life.” Don’t put God on the back burner today. Choose to do something spiritual you’ve been putting off. I will too.
 
“In this temple of God, in this the divine dwelling place, God
alone rejoices with the soul in the deepest silence. There is no
reason for the intellect to stir or seek anything, for the Lord who
created it wishes to give it repose here.”
  • Teresa of Avila -
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This is a wonderful thread, thank you Barbara. Here is a small contribution from me.
Truth and justice must stand above my comfort and physical well-being, or else my life itself becomes a lie. In the end, even the “yes” to love is a source of suffering, because love always requires expropriations of my “I”, in which I allow myself to be pruned and wounded. Love simply cannot exist without this painful renunciation of myself, for otherwise it becomes pure selfishness and thereby ceases to be love.
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-Pope Benedict XVI, from the encyclical “Spe Salvi”
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**There is no other cause for the Incarnation except this alone: He saw us bowed down to the ground perishing, tyrannized by death, and he had mercy. **
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- Saint John Chrysostom
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Blind as we are, we hinder GOD, and stop the current of His graces. But when He finds a soul penetrated with a lively faith, He pours into it His graces and favours plentifully; there they flow like a torrent, which, after being forcibly stopped against its ordinary course, when it has found a passage, spreads itself with impetuosity and abundance.
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Yes, we often stop this torrent, by the little value we set upon it. But let us stop it no more: let us enter into ourselves and break down the bank which hinders it. Let us make way for grace; let us redeem the lost time, for perhaps we have but little left; death follows us close, let us be well prepared for it; for we die but once, and a miscarriage there is irretrievable.
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-Brother Lawrence
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Thanks Bridge for the excellent quote from Brother Lawrence…it did rather remind me of the Prayer of St. Teresa of Avila for the Healing of Memories:
O my God! Source of all mercy! I acknowledge your sovereign power. While recalling the wasted years that are past, I believe that you, Lord, can in an instant turn this loss to gain. Miserable as I am, yet I firmly believe that you can do all things. Please restore to me the time lost, giving me your grace, both now and in the future, that I may appear before you in ‘wedding garments’.
Amen. (
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Teresa of Avila)
 
St. Teresa is truly wonderful. Currently i’m reading her Way of Perfection and am finding much treasure there. For today’s thought though here is a passage from The Interior Castle.
(…) we must be keenly on the watch against the devils’s arts, lest he deceive us in the form of an angel of light. He creeps in gradually, in numberless ways, and does us much harm, though we do not discover it until too late. (…) as I said elsewhere, he works like a file, secretly and silently wearing its way.
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The devil’s wiles are many; he would turn hell upside down a thousand times to make us think ourselves better than we are. He has good reason for it, for such fancies are most injurious; sham virtues springing from this root are always accompanied by a vainglory never found in those of divine origin, which are free from pride.
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-St Teresa of Avila
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Bridge said:
St. Teresa is truly wonderful. Currently i’m reading her Way of Perfection and am finding much treasure there. For today’s thought though here is a passage from The Interior Castle.
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Excellent and importantPost…Thank you Bridge. It illustrates well the importance of good spiritual direction. I think it was St. Teresa that said that one should pray for and seek a director who is holy, wise and educated (in the spiritual life). A good spiritual director is absolute gold - more - the most precious of the precious of stones and a wondrous gift if one has one.
If one is unable to find a director then again I think it was St. Teresa who said that we can abandon ourselves into God’s hands with absolute trust.
But I think to abandon oneself into God’s Hands without praying for or seeking good spiritual direction just may be somewhat presumptious.

Having said all that a good director, indeed, can be hard to find. And there can be many reasons why one does not have a spiritual director. I would never ever give up though on praying that God would indeed send one a good director.

Thanks again for the quote…Blesssings - Barb:)
 
“(…) that I would have folk in their silence take good heed that their minds be occupied with good thoughts, for unoccupied be they never. For if ever the mind were empty, it would be empty when the body sleepeth. But if it were then all empty, we should have no dreams. Then, if the fantasies leave us not sleeping, it is not likely that ever they leave us waking. Wherefore, as I say, let us keep our minds occupied with good thoughts, or else the devil will fill them with evil.”
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-Thomas More, The Four Last Things
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This quote goes well with a thought i had this morning upon waking: that i absorb more darkness than i realize and that i dim the brightness of my soul because i am do not let in as many beautiful thoughts and images and words and music as often as i should. That i need to make more of an effort to surround myself with good and joyful things during moments of boredom instead of simply turning on the news or reading political forums and getting caught up in all the mudslinging and the anger and the snide comments and so forth.

So when i opened up my collection of quoted passages and this was the first one that i chanced upon…well i knew i didn’t have to look any further.
 
The child of Bethlehem directs our gaze towards all children who suffer and are abused in the world, the born and the unborn. Towards children who are placed as soldiers in a violent world, towards children who have to beg, towards children who suffer deprivation and hunger, and towards children who are unloved. In all of these it is the Child of Bethlehem who is crying out to us; it is the God who has become small who appeals to us.* - Pope Benedict XVI (December 24, 2006)*
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Bridge said:
This quote goes well with a thought i had this morning upon waking: that i absorb more darkness than i realize and that i dim the brightness of my soul because i am do not let in as many beautiful thoughts and images and words and music as often as i should. That i need to make more of an effort to surround myself with good and joyful things during moments of boredom instead of simply turning on the news or reading political forums and getting caught up in all the mudslinging and the anger and the snide comments and so forth.

So when i opened up my collection of quoted passages and this was the first one that i chanced upon…well i knew i didn’t have to look any further.
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…thank you Bridge, I really needed to read that!.👍 …
 
Not too often at all that I will quote from The Imitation - the following did speak to me:
THE IMITATION OF CHRIST
  • by Thomas a Kempis -
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Give me, Lord, heavenly wisdom to learn above all else to seek and find You, to enjoy and love You more than anything, and to
consider other things as they are, as Your wisdom has ordered them. Grant me prudence to avoid the flatterer and to bear patiently with him who disagrees with me. For it is great wisdom not to be moved by the sound of words, nor to give ear to the wicked, flattering siren.
Then, I shall walk safely in the way I have begun.
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Code: 
      -------- Bk. 3, Chapter 27
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