“God is not pleased with the quantity of our work, but with the love with which we work” (St. Francis de Sales).
“Love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pt 4:8) and increases the value of everything else.
“God is not pleased with the quantity of our work, but with the love with which we work” (St. Francis de Sales).
“Love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pt 4:8) and increases the value of everything else.
O most blessed Light divine,
May that light within us shine
And our inmost being fill!
Where you are not, we have naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint and ill. Read More
“Dwell on nothing but God” (Blessed Henry Suso).
We know a similar phrase from St. Augustine, who tells us that we can use all the things of this world, but we should enjoy God alone.
What are these two masters of spiritual life referring to? Was it not our Father who gave us so many wonderful things to rejoice in? No doubt He did! Read More
“I think it is impossible for love to be content to tread water” (St. Teresa of Avila).
Love cannot be content to remain in the same place because it is infinite. “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 Jn 4:16). Read More
You, of comforters the best;
You, the soul’s most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;
In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.
“Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine”.
The term “poor” includes all of us, especially those who are aware of their own poverty.
“Souls need a certain divine touch, and time presses; do not be afraid of anything, I am your Father; I will help you in your efforts and your work. I will sustain you always and make you enjoy, already here below, peace and joy of soul, making your ministry and your zealous works bear fruit” (Message of the Father to Sister Eugenia Ravasio).
Today, after the Feast of the Ascension, we begin the novena in preparation for the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. In my reflections over the next few days, I would like to step out of the usual framework of daily meditations and contemplate some aspects and ways in which the Holy Spirit works. The aim is to get to know Him better and thus to prepare ourselves for the Solemnity of Pentecost. As a guide for these meditations I will take the Pentecost Sequence, undoubtedly one of the most beautiful prayers of the Church:
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).
Acts 1:1-11
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”