St. Anselm A Prayer of all souls longing for God

Let me know You and love You, 

so that I may find my joy in You

From the Proslogion by Saint Anselm, bishop

My soul, have you found what you are looking for?  

You were looking for God, and you discovered that He is the supreme being, and that you could not possibly imagine anything more perfect.  You have discovered that His supreme being is life itself, light, wisdom, goodness, eternal blessedness and blessed eternity.  He is everywhere, and He is timeless.

Lord my God, You gave me life and restored it when I lost it.  Tell my soul that so longs for You what else You are besides what it has already understood, so that it may see You clearly.  

It stands on tiptoe to see more, but apart from what it has seen already, it sees nothing but darkness.  Of course it does not really see darkness, because there is not darkness in You, but it sees that it can see no further because of the darkness in itself.

Surely, Lord, inaccessible light is Your dwelling place, for no one apart from Yourself can enter into it and fully comprehend You.  

If I fail to see this light it is simply because it is too bright for me.  Still, it is by the light that I do see all that I can, even as weak eyes, unable to look straight at the sun, see all they can by the sun’s light.

Light of God

The light in which You dwell, Lord, 

is beyond my understanding.  

It is so brilliant that I cannot bear it, I cannot turn my mind’s eye toward it for any length of time.  I am dazzle by its brightness, amazed by its grandeur, overwhelmed by its immensity, bewildered by its abundance.

O supreme and inaccessible light, O complete and blessed truth, how far You are from me, even though I am so near to You!  How remote You are from my sight, even though I am present in Yours! You are everywhere in Your entirety, and yet I do not see You; in You I move and have my being, and yet I cannot approach You; You are within me and around me, and yet I do not perceive You.

O God, let me know You and love You so that I may find my joy in You; 

and if I cannot do so fully in this life, let me at least make some progress every day, until at last that knowledge, love and joy come to me in all their plenitude.  

While I am here on earth let me learn to know You better, so that in heaven I may know You fully; let my love for You grow deeper here, so that there I may love You fully.  On earth then I shall have great joy in hope, and in heaven complete joy in the fulfillment of my hope.

O Lord, through Your Son You command me, no, You counsel us to ask, and You promise that You will hear us so that our joy may be complete.  Lord, I am making the request that You urge us to make through Your Wonder-Counselor.  Give me then what you promise to give through Your Truth.  You, O God, are faithful; grant that I may receive my request, so that my joy may be complete.

St. Anselm, Bishop of Canterbury

Meanwhile, let this hope of mine be in my thoughts and on my tongue; let my heart be filled with it, my voice speak of it; let my soul hunger for it, my body thirst for it, my whole being yearn for it, until I enter into the joy of the Lord, who is Three in One, blessed forever. 

Amen.

Taken from the Liturgy of the Hours, April 21 St. Anselm, bishop and doctor

Suffering - God Purifies Us

Let us Rejoice in the joy that follows sadness

From a letter by Saint Peter Damian, bishop

You asked me to write you some words of consolation, my brother.  Embittered by so many tribulations, you are seeking some comfort for your soul.  You asked me to offer you some suggestions.

But there is no need for me to write.  Consolation is already within your reach, if your good sense has not been dulled.  My son, come to the service of God. Stand in justice and fear.  Prepare your soul; it is about to be tested.  These words of Scripture show that you are a son of God and, as such, should take possession of your inheritance.  What could be clearer than this exhortation?

Where there is justice as well as fear, adversity will surely test the spirit.  But it is not the torment of a slave.  Rather it is the discipline of a child by its parent.

Event in the midst of his many sufferings, the holy man Job could say: Whip me, crush me, cut me in slices! And he wold always add: This at least would bring me relief, yet my persecutor does not spare me.

But for God’s chosen ones there is great comfort; 

the torment lasts but a short time.

  

Then God bends down, cradles the fallen figure, 

whispers words of consolation. 

With hope in his heart, man picks himself up 

and walks again toward the glory of happiness in heaven.

Craftsmen exemplify this same practice.  By hammering gold, the smith beats out the dross.  The sculptor files metal to reveal a shining vein underneath.  The potter’s furnace puts vessels to the test.  And the fire of suffering tests the mettle of just men. 

The apostle James echoes this thought: 

Think it a great joy, dear brothers and sisters, 

when you stumble onto the many kinds of trials and tribulations.

When men suffer pain for the evil 

they have perpetrated in life, 

they should take some reassurance.  

They also know that for their good deeds 

undying rewards await them in the life to come.

Therefore, my brother, scorned as you are by men, lashed as it were by God, do not despair.  Do not be depressed.  Do not let your weakness make you impatient.  Instead, let the serenity of your spirit shine through your face.  Let the joy of your mind burst forth.  Let words of thanks break from your lips.

The way that God deals with men can only be praised.  He lashes them in this life to shield them from the eternal lash in the next.  He pins people down now; at a later time he will raise them up.  He cuts them before healing; he throws them down to raised them anew.

The Scriptures reassure us: let your understanding strengthen your patience.  In serenity look forward to the joy that follows sadness.  

Hope leads you to that joy and love enkindles your zeal.  The well-prepared mind forgets the suffering inflicted from without and glides eagerly to what it has contemplated within itself.

Not a Popularity Contest YOU MUST SPEAK THE TRUTH

Are you on the way to Hell??

This world has turned from God so much 

that the souls in it are racing down 

the road to hell and eternal damnation!!!  

ARE WE AMONG THEM?

Our duty as Catholics is to stand up even against all odds -- even unto our own death to tell souls the TRUTH of Christ's Teachings.  

HOMOSEXUALITY IS WRONG!!

ABORTION IS WRONG!!

CONTRACEPTION IS WRONG!!

GAY MARRIAGE IS WRONG!!

Watch this video by Micheal Voris titled "Not a Popularity Contest".  Not a Popularity Contest  

http://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/not-a-popularity-contest

He speaks clearly about our duties as Catholics.  

To remain SILENT is a sin.  

Christ said we would be hated 

as He was hated.  

To be His True Follower 

we must accept this Martyrdom even to death!!!!

HELP SPREAD THE TRUTH 

FOR WE ARE ACCOUNTABLE TO GOD

AS TO WHAT WE DID TO SAVE OTHERS...

WHAT WILL GOD SAY TO YOU?

Not a Popularity Contest  

http://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/not-a-popularity-contest

Examine your Conscience in the Presence of God

Divine Love

Baldwin Bishop of Canterbury

Love is as Strong as Death

from a treatise by Baldwin, Bishop of Canterbury

Death is strong, for it can rob us of the gift of life.  Love too is strong, for it can restore us to a better life. 

Death is strong, for it can strip us of this robe of flesh.  Love too is strong, for it an take death's spoils away and give them back o us.

Death is strong, for no man can withstand it.  Love too is strong, for it can conquer death itself, soothe its sting, calm its violence, and bring its victory to naught.  The time will come when death is reviled and taunted.  O death, where is your sting?  O death, where is your victory?

Love is as strong as death because Christ's love is the very death of death.  Hence it is said: I will be your death, O death! I will be your sting, O hell! Our love for Christ is also as strong as death, because it is itself a kind of death: destroying the old life, rooting out vice, and laying aside dead works.

Our love for Christ is a return, though very unequal for His love for us, and it is a likeness modeled on His.  For He loved us and, through the example of love He gave us, He became a seal upon us by which we are made like Him.  We lay aside the likeness of the earthly man and put on the likeness of the heavenly man; we love him as he has loved us.  For in this matter he has left us as an example so that we might follow in His steps.

That is why He says: Set me as a seal upon your heart.  It is as if He were saying: 

"Love Me as I love you.  

Keep Me in your mind and memory, 

in your desires and yearnings, 

in your groans and sobs.  

Remember, man, the kind of being I made you; how far I set you above other creatures; the dignity I conferred upon you; how I made you only a little less than the angels and set all things under your feet.  Remember not only how much I have done for you.  Yet look and see: Do you not wrong Me?  Do you not fail to love Me?  Who loves you as I do?  Who created and redeemed you but I?"

Lord, take away my heart of stone, a heart so bitter and uncircumcised, and give me a new heart, a heart of flesh, a pure heart.  You cleanse the heart and love the clean heart.  Take possession of my heart and dwell in it, contain it and fill it, you who are higher than the heights of my spirit and closer to me than my innermost self!  

You are the pattern of all beauty and the seal of all holiness.  Set the seal of your likeness upon my heart!  In Your Mercy set Your seal upon my heart, God of my heart and the God who is my portion for ever! Amen.

God's Love letter for you...(worth watching)

LIVE YOUR FAITH -- SHOW OTHERS TRUE HAPPINESS

 

 

If we live as we believe

serving others

by sharing our love

 

Those who do not believe

will think again about their non-belief

 

 

 

If you are a beacon of LOVE

with the Light of Christ in you

 

All will come to see

and believe!!!!

 

Jesus,  Lord

teach us to live our faith

and walk in your ways.

Prayer for encouragement

St. Francis de Sales

MOTHER TERESA

Satan calls you by your sin, God calls you by your name

PUT ON THE ARMOR OF GOD

New Pledge of Allegiance

The Word, the Wisdom of God, was made flesh

The Word, the Wisdom of God, was made flesh

From a sermon by Saint Peter Chrysologus, bishop

The holy Apostle has told us that the human race takes its origin from two men, Adam and Christ; two equal in body but unequal in merit, wholly alike in their physical structure but totally unlike in the very origin of their being.  The first man, Adam, he says, became a living soul, the last Adam a life-giving spirit.

The first Adam was made by the last Adam, from whom he also received his soul, to give him life.  The last Adam was formed by His own action; He did not have to wait for life to be given to Him by someone else, but was the only one who could give life to all.  The first Adam was formed from valueless clay, the second Adam came forth from the precious womb of the Virgin.  In the case of the first Adam, earth was changed into flesh; in the case of the second Adam, flesh was raised up to be God.

What more need to be said?  The second Adam stamped His image on the first Adam when He created him.  That is why He took on Himself the role, and the name, of the first Adam, in order that He might not lose what He had made in His own image.  The first Adam, the last Adam; the first had a beginning, the last knows no end.  The last Adam is indeed the first; as He Himself says: I am the first and the last.

I am the first, that is, I have no beginning.  I am the last, that is, I have no end.  But what was spiritual, says the Apostle, did not come first; what was living came first, then what is spiritual.  The earth comes before its fruit, but the earth is not so valuable as its fruit.  The earth exacts pain and toil; its fruit bestow subsistence and life.  The prophet rightly boasted of this fruit: Our earth has yielded its fruit. What is this fruit?  The fruit referred to in another place:  I will place upon your throne one Who is the fruit of your body.  The first man, says the Apostle, was made from the earth and belongs to the earth; the second man is from heaven, and belongs to heaven.

The man made from the earth is the pattern of those who belong to the earth; the man from heaven is the pattern of those who belong to heaven. 

 

How is it that these last, though they do not belong to heaven by birth, will yet belong to heaven, men who do not remain what they were by birth but persevere in being what they become by rebirth?  The reason is, brethren, that the heavenly Spirit, by the mysterious infusion of His Light, gives fertility to the womb of the virginal font.  The Spirit brings forth as men belonging to heaven those whose earthly ancestry brought them forth as men belonging to the earthly ancestry brought them forth as men belonging to the earth, and in a condition of wretchedness; He gives them the likeness of their Creator.  Now that we are reborn, refashioned in the image of our Creator, we must fulfill what the Apostle commands:  So, as we have worn the likeness of the man of earth, let us also wear the likeness of the man of heaven.

 

Now that we are reborn, as I have said, in the likeness of our Lord, and have indeed been adopted by God as His children, let us put on the complete image of our Creator so as to be wholly like Him, not in the glory that He alone possesses, but in innocence, simplicity, gentleness, patience, humility, mercy, harmony, those qualities in which He chose to become, and to be, one with us.

Taken from the Liturgy of the Hours, according to the Roman Rite, Catholic Book Publishing Corp., New York, 1975

The Glory Be prayer -- Why we pray it

THE GLORY BE PRAYER

The Very Words Of The Glory Be Prayer
Create A Reassuring Peacefulness

To him be glory and empire for ever and ever. Amen.
                                                                         -Rev. 1:6

The very words of the Glory Be Prayer of the Catholic Rosary create a reassuring peacefulness. 

The Greek word doxology refers to a simple prayer that praises God. The Letters of St. Paul in the New Testament are usually concluded with a doxology. Two such examples are

• "For of him, and by him, and in him, are all things: to him be glory for ever. Amen." -Romans 11:36
• "To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, unto all generations, world without end. Amen." -Ephesians 3:21

You can find Jesus' command to baptize all nations in St. Matthew's Gospel. Jesus uses the following phrase which acknowledges the relationship of the Blessed Trinity.

• "Going therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." -Matthew 28:19

The Glory Be prayer continues by professing that God is everlasting. 

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit were one from the beginning of time and will continue to be forever. 

This is a Biblical truth and is supported by many passages in the New Testament. 

The phrase "glory forever" is repeated throughout the Letters of St. Paul as you can see from one of the above Bible verses. 

Such comfort and peace can come from the knowledge that God loves you and takes care of you. 

He has from the moment of your creation and will continue to forever. 

When you believe that God is in control of your life you can live in complete peace and security.

---

The History And Origin Of
The Glory Be Prayer

Many Catholic prayers, including the Glory Be prayer, were formed to combat false teachings.

This has brought much tranquility for Catholics - being able to confidently believe in the truths of God.

And, more importantly...

...knowing where to turn to find them.

As early as the year 300 Catholics began using the phrase, "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit".

This phrase became popular for two reasons.

• The first reason is because it is fitting to praise God in this form following the example Jesus gave when He instructed his followers go out and baptize. 

• And secondly to defend and promote the belief in the Blessed Trinity. The belief in three divine Persons in one God.

In the year 529 the second part of the prayer was added. "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end."

This phrase was added to confirm that there truly are three Persons in one God.

That the Son and the Holy Spirit were one with the Father in the beginning, now and always will be. 

During that period up until present day, there have been two forms of this prayer. The short or minor prayer that is used in the Catholic Rosary prayers and the greater or major prayer which is prayed during Catholic Mass. 

It is a longer and more elaborate prayer which goes like this: 

Glory Be Prayer  Longer Version   Glory to God in the highest,  and peace to his people on earth. Lord God, heavenly King,  almighty God and Father, we worship you, we give you thanks,  we praise you for your glory.  Lord Jesus Christ,  only Son of the Father, Lord God, Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world:  have mercy on us; you are seated at the right hand  of the Father: receive our prayer. For you alone are the Holy One,  you alone are the Lord, You alone are the Most High,  Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit,  in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

By the 600s the Catholic Rosary prayer, the Glory Be Prayer, has been prayed in the exact form as you now pray it. 

It has always been a fitting prayer to use when ending a longer prayer form. 

Traditionally it was used at the end of the psalms and after a sermon and of course after each decade of the Rosary prayer. 


http://www.how-to-pray-the-rosary-everyday.com/glory-be-prayer.html

Humble yourself before God quote by Thomas a Kempes

"In religion, 

a person shall be proved as gold in a furnace,

 and no person in religion 

can remain long in grace and virtue 

unless he will humble himself 

with all his heart for the love of God." 

Thomas a Kempes, 

Imitation of Christ

A Writing from St. Faustina--Divine Mercy in My Soul

Saint Faustina--Divine Mercy in My Soul

Notebook 1

St. Faustina with the Divine Mercy Image

1

O Eternal Love, You command Your Sacred Image [1] to be painted

And reveal to us the inconceivable fount of mercy,

You bless whoever approaches Your rays,

And a soul all black will turn into snow.

 O sweet Jesus, it is here [2] You established the throne of Your mercy

 To bring joy and hope to sinful man.

 From Your open Heart, as from a pure fount,

 Flows comfort to a repentant heart and soul.

 May praise and glory for this Image

Never cease to stream from man's soul.

 May praise of God's mercy pour from every heart,

 Now, and at every hour, and forever and ever.

 O My God...

Excerpts taken from the book, “Divine Mercy in My Soul” by Saint Faustina

Her writings can also be found on this website http://www.saint-faustina.com/Diary/DMIMS1.shtml