Food for the journey (Vol 5)

Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me to find a special time and place for you in my daily life. I tend to be so busy and so preoccupied. I neglect to provide the opportunity simply to be with you. Even when I do set aside time for prayer, I tend to become so distracted. The concerns and anxieties that trouble me tend to well up and occupy my attention. Give me the courage to weather the storm of my inner desires, drives and fear so that I can become faithful to quiet time with you. Enable me in this time to experience more clearly the truth about you, about me, about others, about the world, about the devil. Sustain me in a loving embrace of all that is truly real. Amen.
-from Spiritual Masters by Bishop Alfred Hughes.

From the Saints
Perfection exists in being what God wants us to be
–St. Teresa Child of Jesus

Quote
We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.
-Blessed Theresa of Calcutta

Scripture
Give and gifts will be given to you, a good measure, packed together, shaken down and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. - Luke 3:8

On Evangelizing
Your faithfulness to Christ will lead more people to Christ than anything else.

On God's mighty power
If I had to depend on my own strength, I would lose all confidence and courage in such an undertaking. But when I think of the help of God, when I consider his promises, when I take into account his power and his goodness, everything within me comes alive again, and I feel strong and powerful enough to work in the vineyard of the Lord. Even if far away from home, I am close to him who has called me to this work.
-Blessed Francis Xavier Selos

Food for the journey (Vol 2)

Please visit Conversion Diary, host of Seven Quick Takes.


Prayer of the week
Please take from me my life
when I don't have the strength
to give it away to you, Jesus.

From the Saints
"Life's distortions are removed by God's kind eye, giving us sight of our dignity and seeing the ways our soul glass is smudged." - St. Catherine of Sienna

Quote of the week
"Our life of poverty is as necessary as the work itself. Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them." -Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

On the Mass
"We are going to be bored unless we come with a burning desire to hear God's word, to meet him in sacrament and to be changed in the way in which we continue to live our lives.

[We should] bring to the sacred liturgy all that is transpiring within our own lives. We can then bring it directly to God and place it in his hands and offer ourselves in a way that is open and pliable to his loving will. We want to be taught by him. We want to be purified by him. We want to be changed by him. For this to happen .. we have to move beyond wanting to be entertained or made to feel good. Rather we need to be strengthened by a voluntary self-offering in union with Christ that accepts the kind of suffering that purifies and ennobles us.

This kind of engagement in the liturgy is what liturgy ultimately implies. Liturgy is ultimately and involvement that demands courage and a lively faith. It requires the desire of the whole person to be engaged. It includes a willingness to be transformed and led into a new life. "

from Spiritual Masters: Living a life of prayer in the Catholic Tradition by Bishop Alfred Hughes

Truth
Jesus will never be arrested for forced entry. We have to open the door to let him in.

Almost the last bite
The Great Commission is what Christ told his followers to DO. It's not the great suggestion.

Scripture of the Week
Though I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength, yet my reward is with the Lord, my recompense is with my God. - Is 49:4