Spiritual Reading

I just started reading about St. Catherine of Siena and so far I'm really pleased with the writing style of this book. It's an easy and enjoyable read, without being too simple. A perfect choice for spiritual reading while in the presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

Each chapter starts with a quote and while not all of them are from St. Catherine, this one was, and I loved it so much I couldn't resist sharing.

"To the servant of God, every place is the right place, and every time is the right time."

Hitchens vs. Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens (atheist) and Peter Hitchens (Christian)

The heart of the man who lives for God knows peace, joy, and happiness. The heart of the man who lives for the world knows fear, sorrow, and misery.

Intolerance

"America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance.
It is not.
It is suffering from tolerance of right and wrong,
truth and error,
virtue and evil,
Christ and chaos.
Our country is not nearly so much overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded…

In the face of this broadmindedness,
what America needs is intolerance."

~ Archbishop Servant of God Fulton Sheen

The FIRST First Lady

"I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not our circumstances."

~Martha Washington

When Men Were Men

" You can`t whine and bellyache because somebody else got a good break and you didn't."

" I have tried to live my life so that my family would love me and my friends respect me. The others can do whatever they please."

" When the road looks rough ahead, remember the Man Upstairs and the word Hope. Hang onto both and tough it out."

"Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway."

"To me, The Wild Bunch (1969) was distasteful. It would have been a good picture without the gore. Pictures go too far when they use that kind of realism, when they have shots of blood spurting out and teeth flying, and when they throw liver out to make it look like people`s insides. "The Wild Bunch" was one of the first to go that far in realism, and the curious went to see it. That may make the bankers and stock promoters think that it is a necessary ingredient for successful motion pictures. They seem to forget the one basic principle of our business - illusion. We`re in the business of magic. I don`t think it hurts a child to see anything that has the illusion of violence in it. All our fairy tales have some kind of violence - the good knight riding to kill the dragon, etc. Why do we have to show the knight spreading the serpent`s guts all over the candy mountain?"

Quoting Paul

The other night Paul said something that I just knew was a quotable quote, in fact as soon as the words came out of his mouth I stopped him from speaking further so I could right down exactly what he said. I thought it was perfect, especially since it came from a discussion about St. Zita.

"We do God's work when we do our own well, and with the right intentions." ~Paul

Lenten Discipline

A discipline won’t bring you closer to God. Only God can bring you closer to Himself. What the discipline is meant to do is to help you get yourself, your ego, out of the way so you are open to His grace.

~James Kushiner

A Little Reminder

If you look at what you do not have in life,

you don't have anything,

If you look at what you have in life,

you have everything.

So True

"There is no surer means of calling down God's blessings

upon the family . . . than the daily recitation of the Rosary"

(Pope Pius XII).

We Are All Blessed

"If at all times we want what others have, we will fail to see that we already possess what they are lacking."

I Really Like This One.

"Is Prayer your Steering Wheel or your spare tire?"

~Corrie Ten Boom

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver

"I like clarity, and there’s a reason why," began the archbishop. "I think modern life, including life in the Church, suffers from a phony unwillingness to offend that poses as prudence and good manners, but too often turns out to be cowardice. Human beings owe each other respect and appropriate courtesy. But we also owe each other the truth -- which means candor."

Quotes That My Sweetie Would Like

"A room without books is like a body without a soul."

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

"I have always imagined that Paradise will be some kind of library."

— Jorge Luis Borges

"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."

— Groucho Marx

"Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them."

— Lemony Snicket

"No furniture is so charming as books."

— Sydney Smith

A Patriotic Moment

Please remember to PRAY for the brave men & women who are risking their lives everyday.

"We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."

~George Orwell

Mother Teresa

"Not very long ago I said Mass and preached for their Mother, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and after breakfast we spent quite a long time talking in a little room. Suddenly, I found myself asking her -- don't know why -- 'Mother, what do you think is the worst problem in the world today?' She more than anyone could name any number of candidates: famine, plague, disease, the breakdown of the family, rebellion against God, the corruption of the media, world debt, nuclear threat, and so on.

"Without pausing a second she said, 'Wherever I go in the whole world, the thing that makes me the saddest is watching people receive Communion in the hand.'"

- Father George William Rutler, Good Friday, 1989 in St. Agnes Church, New York City (a precise transcript taken from a tape of his talk available from St. Agnes Church)

Madonna & Child

Podno's Law:

One is tolerant or broadminded only of that which does not affect him.

Quote Of The Week

It is not difficult to determine what would be the form and character of the State were it governed according to the principles of Christian philosophy. Man's natural instinct moves him to live in civil society, for he cannot, if dwelling apart, provide himself with the necessary requirements of life, nor procure the means of developing his mental and moral faculties. Hence, it is Divinely ordained that he should lead his life ----- be it family, or civil ----- with his fellow men, amongst whom alone his several wants can be adequately supplied. But, as no society can hold together unless some one be over all, directing all to strive earnestly for the common good, every body politic must have a ruling authority, and this authority, no less than society itself, has its source in nature, and has, consequently, God for its Author. Hence, it follows that all public power must proceed from God.

----Pope Leo XIII, On the Christian Constitution of States

Be Positive Every Day

Life is a mixture of moments-

some happy, some sad,

and most in-between.

Make the most of each day

as it happens.

Don't listen to those whispers of doubt;

ignore any voice that says

you can't do something.

You're worthy,

and you can go as far

as you dare to dream.

Life will lead you

according to your perceptions.

Let your viewpoint be filled with hope,

and keep your eyes focused

on the positive.

~ Barbara J. Hall

"Charity may be a very short word, but with its tremendous meaning of pure love, it sums up man's entire relation to God and to his neighbor." ~ St Aelred of Rievaulx

"Kindness should become the natural way of life,not the exception."