I have just been reading over your letter, and am more vexed than I can say, though not half so vexed as I ought to be, with myself, for not having answered it. I cannot say that engagements have hindered me. I might and ought to have written; neither am I quite so bad as to have forgotten you. It was the old bad habit.
At all times and every day, dearly beloved, certain signs of the divine goodness are set up before us, and no part of the year is estranged from the holy mysteries, so that, while protections for our salvation meet us everywhere, we may always look more eagerly for the welcoming mercy of God.
The earliest step in penitence is to give head to good desires. They are the voice of our capacity crying out for fulfilment. Desires should crystallize into resolution. The human will is of great power to set the life free from bondage. We do not honour God’s power by depreciating the ability of the human will to do strong deeds.
The kind of a night we spend is in a large degree for us to determine. The Christian should at times leave everything in God’s hands, and do nothing but lie back on God’s bosom. The opportunity comes every night when we go to sleep. This is the season when the mind and soul should rest not less than the body.
And so I assert that there are no less than six ways in which a man can believe in Eucharistic adoration—two of them which are not held in our Church at all, one of them which no logical mind can possibly hold, and the other three of which,
A humble person is one who, like the humble Mary, says, “The Powerful One has done great things in me.” Each of us has an individual greatness. God would not be our author if we were something worthless. You and I and all of us are worth very much, because we are creatures of God, and God has prodigally given his wonderful gifts to every person.
One of the signs of the present time is the idea of participation, the right that all persons have to participate in the construction of their own common good. For this reason, one of the most dangerous abuses of the present time is repression, the attitude that says, “Only we can govern, no one else; get rid of them.” Everyone can contribute much that is good, and in that way trust is achieved.
O Christ our God, bless this food and this drink of your servants with a spiritual blessing, and make us healthy in soul and body; so that as we enjoy the food our bodies require in the modesty appropriate to our religious calling, we may share in your infinite blessings, and in the kingdom of heaven, together with your saints.
For the prescribed forty days coincide in time with that season of the year when nature experiences a thaw; it is the business of fasting to produce a thaw in our soul. This is not a coincidence. God is sketching His will for us through the living motions of nature.
Glory be to Thee, O heavenly Father, for first loving us, and giving the dearest thing Thou hadst for us: O help me to love again, and to think nothing too dear for Thee.