Words to Live by – from Catholic Tradition

The Tremendous Value of the Crosses Which God Sends to Us

By trials the sensory part of the soul is purified and strengthened, and the spiritual part is refined, purged, and disposed.  Since unpurified souls must undergo the sufferings of fire in the next life [viz., in Purgatory] to attain union with God in glory, so in this life they must undergo the fire of these sufferings to reach the union of perfection.  This fire [viz., trials] acts on some more vigorously than on others, and on some for a longer time than on others, according to the degree of union to which God wishes to raise them, and according to what they must be purged of.

St. John of the Cross, Mystical Doctor of the Church, Living Flame of Love, Stanza 2, #25 (emphasis and bracketed words added).

What We Hold

If you want to know what is your “god”, and what is most important to you, reflect on what you like most to talk about and to think about.

Words to Live by – from Catholic Tradition

 

All that happens to us in this world against our will (whether due to men or to other causes) happens to us only by the will of God, by the disposal of Providence, by His orders and under His guidance; and if from the frailty of our understanding we cannot grasp the reason for some event, let us attribute it to Divine Providence, show Him respect by accepting it from His hand, believe firmly that He does not send it to us without cause.

 

Words of St. Augustine, quoted in Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence –The Secret of Peace and Happiness, Father Jean Baptiste Saint Jure, S.J., and

 St. Claude De La Colombiere, S.J., TAN Books and Publishers, Rockford, IL, 1983, pp. 17-18.

 

 

 

 

Words to Live by – from Catholic Tradition

We are at War!  This Fight should be our only Focus!

To fight is our business now: it is war and battle.  In war one does not seek to have rest, in war one does not seek to have dainty living, one is not anxious about riches; … one thing only he looks at, how he may overcome his foes.  Be this our care likewise: if we overcome, and return with the victory, God will give us all things.  Be this alone our study, how we may overcome the devil ….

Quoted from St. John Chrysostom’s Sermon #15 on the Acts of the Apostles, ch.6, v.9.

 

 

The following words are the secret to being a straight-to-heaven saint.  Repeat them slowly whenever you see them, to help them to “sink into your bones” and to be your principle of life.

Everything I do today, I must do
Purely for the love of God and for His greater honor and glory.

Tape these words on your alarm clock so you see them first thing in the morning, or on the mirror in the bathroom, or on the kitchen refrigerator door. 

What We Hold

Striving for Complete Trust in God

If our doctor tells us to take a cancer-screening test and we are even slightly anxious that the test results might show we have cancer, then we don’t trust enough in God, that whatever the test’s result, it is for our good.

Words to Live by – from Catholic Tradition

 

The Great Value of Withstanding Temptations

 

Fire tempers iron and temptation steels the just.  Often, we do not know what we can stand, but temptation shows us what we are.  Above all, we must be especially alert against the beginnings of temptation, for the enemy is more easily conquered if he is refused admittance to the mind and is met beyond the threshold when he knocks.

 

Imitation of Christ, Thomas à Kempis; Book I, Ch. 13.

What We Hold

 

Let us make this resolution

 

We should always strive to make sure that everything we do, say, and think is what, at our Particular Judgment, we would wish we had done, said, or thought.

 

Cf., Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Section: How to make a good choice, Second Way, Fourth Rule.

 

Words to Live by – from Catholic Tradition

 

Let us pray for things that are appropriate for us

 

St. Thomas Aquinas, Greatest Doctor of the Catholic Church, teaches us how to ask for what we should:

 

St. Augustine speaks against those who ask God for worldly honor, as follows:

 

When you ask for the things that God praises and promises to give, ask him with confidence, because God grants those things to us.  Yet if you ask for temporal things, ask with discretion, for God knows better than man whether things are good or bad for us.

 

Still, many ask God more freely for temporal than for eternal goods.  All such people ask in an indiscreet way, because it does not befit God to give such a small gift, just as it does not befit the King of France to give a dime.  

 

Or, God prefers not to listen to such people, because what they ask for is not salutary for them, just as he did not listen to St. Paul [when he asked God to be delivered from the sting of the flesh, 2 Cor. 12.7], and just as he does not listen to boys in schools asking that they not be flogged, because it is of no avail to them.

 

St. Thomas Aquinas, sermon Petite et Accipietis, preached to the faculty and students of the University of Paris, on the 5^th Sunday after Easter.

 

Words to Live by – from Catholic Tradition

 

The great value and advantage of suffering chastisements

 

St. Alphonsus de Liguori gives us these consoling words to encourage us to appreciate the Crosses we receive from the loving Hand of God:

 

“God”, say St. Augustine, “is angry when He does not scourge the sinner.”  (In Ps., LXXXIX).  When we see a sinner in tribulation in this life, we may infer that God wishes to have mercy on him in the next, and that He exchanges eternal for temporal chastisement.  But miserable is the sinner whom the Lord does not punish in this life!  For those whom He does not chastise here, He treasures up His wrath and for them He reserves eternal chastisement.

 

Quoted from St. Alphonsus de Liguori, Sermon #2, for the 2^nd Sunday of Advent, first point, §10.

 

 

Words to Live by – from Catholic Tradition

 

We must not follow the crowd, or acquiesce in

What Our Lord’s enemies decide is “politically correct”

 

A Commandment of God in the Book of Exodus:

 

Thou shalt not follow the multitude to do evil: neither shalt thou yield in judgment to the opinion of the most part, to stray from the truth.

 

Exodus, Ch. 23, v.2.

 

Words to Live by – from Catholic Tradition

 

St. Gertrude’s Example of Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence

                                          

One day when St. Gertrude was climbing a hill, she slipped and fell down to the bottom.  She was unhurt and began to climb up again, saying: “What great happiness it would have been for me, O Lord, if this fall had been the means of bringing me sooner to Thee!”  Her companions asked her if she was not afraid of dying without receiving the Last Sacraments.  “I would certainly wish with all my heart to receive them in my last moments”, she answered, “but I much prefer the will of God, for I am sure the best disposition for a good death is submission to His will.”

 

Quoted from Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence, the Secret of Peace and Happiness, Father Jean Baptiste Saint Jure, S.J. and Saint Claude De La Colombiere, S.J., Tan Books, 1983.

 

Words to Live by – from Catholic Tradition

 

On the importance of continually advancing in the spiritual life

 

Here is the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, greatest Doctor of the Catholic Church:

 

On the Road to God, not to advance is to fall back.

 

Lectures on St. John’s Gospel, ch.4, #690.

 

 

 

Words to Live by – from Catholic Tradition

During this month of the Holy Rosary, it is very consoling to remember the following:

Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church.

The Seventh Promise of the 15 Promises to those who pray the Rosary, From Saint Dominic and Blessed Alan De La Roche

Even though it seems that there are no uncompromising priests available to us in most places, we must remember that if we are faithful to the recitation of the Holy Rosary and don’t compromise in any way, Our Lady will take good care of us in this life and at our death.