"A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach or reading Plato in a state of pride."
-C.S. Lewis

I'm praying for you!

:)

God's response to Hezekiah's prayers (2 Kings 19):

This is the word the LORD has spoken concerning him:

She despises you, laughs you to scorn,

the virgin daughter Zion!

Behind you she wags her head,

daughter Jerusalem.

Whom have you insulted and blasphemed,

at whom have you raised your voice

And lifted up your eyes on high?

At the Holy One of Israel!

Through the mouths of your messengers

you insulted the Lord when you said,

‘With my many chariots I went up

to the tops of the peaks,

to the recesses of Lebanon,

To cut down its lofty cedars,

its choice cypresses;

I reached to the farthest shelter,

the forest ranges.

I myself dug wells

and drank foreign waters,

Drying up all the rivers of Egypt

beneath the soles of my feet.’

“Have you not heard?

A long time ago I prepared it,

from days of old I planned it.

Now I have brought it about:

You are here to reduce

fortified cities to heaps of ruins,

Their people powerless,

dismayed and distraught.

They are plants of the field,

green growth,

thatch on the rooftops,

Grain scorched by the east wind.

I know when you stand or sit,

when you come or go

and how you rage against me.

Because you rage against me,

and your smugness has reached my ears,

I will put my hook in your nose

and my bit in your mouth,

And make you leave by the way you came.


“This shall be a sign for you:

This year you shall eat the aftergrowth,

next year, what grows of itself;

But in the third year, sow and reap,

plant vineyards and eat their fruit!

The remaining survivors of the house of Judah

shall again strike root below

and bear fruit above.

For out of Jerusalem shall come a remnant,

and from Mount Zion, survivors.

The zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.


“Therefore, thus says the LORD about the king:

He shall not come as far as this city,

nor shoot there an arrow,

nor confront it with a shield,

Nor cast up a siege-work against it.

33By the way he came he shall leave,

never coming as far as this city,

oracle of the LORD.

I will shield and save this city

for my own sake and the sake of David my servant.”

I'm praying for you!

:)

“Start being brave about everything. Drive out darkness and spread light. Don’t look at your weaknesses. Realize instead that in Christ crucified you can do everything.”

— St. Catherine of Siena

I'm praying for you!

:)

I'm praying for you!

:)

I'm praying for you!

:)

Little way

“Little things done out of love are those that charm the Heart of Christ.” - St Therese de Lisieux

I'm praying for you!

:)

Love of self

When you refuse to love yourself, when you say, "I'm ugly" or "I'm worthless" you are saying that God is wrong, because in His eyes you are all beautiful and destined for the highest purpose, to be loved and to love.

I'm praying for you!

:)

What would it profit?

Fr. Baker gave a homily today about prioritizing God. The bible says, "what would it profit a man to gain the whole world but to lose his life?" We sell out Christ for so much less though - tv shows, momentary comfort, petty arguments, gossip. We can't just embrace the cross when someone asks us to choose between Christ and torture or between Christ and death. We cannot even hope to make the right choice then if we don't bear our daily crosses and put Christ first in our daily lives.

I'm praying for you!

:)