Quotations that Motivate & Inspire

[Guest]

JUNE IS THE MONTH

DEDICATED TO

THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

 

Behold this Heart which has loved men so much, and yet men do not want to love Me in return. Through you My divine Heart wishes to spread its love everywhere on earth."- 

(Jesus to St Margaret Mary)

Sacred Heart of Jesus, Font of Love and Mercy

 

Quote

In the apparitions to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Jesus gives these twelve promises for those who are devoted to His Sacred Heart.

1. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life.
2. I will establish peace in their families.
3. I will console them in all their troubles.
4. They shall find in My Heart an assured refuge during life and especially at the hour of their death.
5. I will pour abundant blessings on all their undertakings.
6. Sinners shall find in My Heart the source of an infinite ocean of mercy.
7. Tepid souls shall become fervent.
8. Fervent souls shall speedily rise to great perfection.
9. I will bless the homes where an image of My Heart shall be exposed and honored.
10. I will give to priests the power of touching the most hardened hearts.
11. Those who propagate this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, never to be effaced.
12. The all-powerful love of My Heart will grant to all those who shall receive Communion on the First Friday of nine consecutive months the grace of final repentance; they shall not die under my displeasure, nor without receiving their Sacraments; My heart shall be their assured refuge at that last hour.

 

1.  

[Guest]

6 hours ago, Gary david said:

Hi Barbara how are you doing? I have been reading your posts on St. Therese and they are simply inspiring and simple as well. I really don't think that God wants us to find Him in a complicated way. He will be found in the most simple acts of love. I know you know the story of St. Therese Barbara but thought that I might show just a small part of her short life in this short story so that those that may not know can read it.

  God bless Barbara......

At the age of 14, on Christmas Eve in 1886, Therese had a conversion that transformed her life. From then on, her powerful energy and sensitive spirit were turned toward love, instead of keeping herself happy. At 15, she entered the Carmelite convent in Lisieux to give her whole life to God. She took the religious name Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. Living a hidden, simple life of prayer, she was gifted with great intimacy with God. Through sickness and dark nights of doubt and fear, she remained faithful to God, rooted in His merciful love. After a long struggle with tuberculosis, she died on September 30, 1897, at the age of 24. Her last words were the story of her life: "My God, I love You!"

The world came to know Therese through her autobiography, "Story of a Soul". She described her life as a "little way of spiritual childhood." She lived each day with an unshakable confidence in God's love. "What matters in life," she wrote, "is not great deeds, but great love." Therese lived and taught a spirituality of attending to everyone and everything well and with love. She believed that just as a child becomes enamored with what is before her, we should also have a childlike focus and totally attentive love. Therese's spirituality is of doing the ordinary, with extraordinary love.

She loved flowers and saw herself as the "little flower of Jesus," who gave glory to God by just being her beautiful little self among all the other flowers in God's garden. Because of this beautiful analogy, the title "little flower" remained with St. Therese.

Her inspiration and powerful presence from heaven touched many people very quickly. She was canonized by Pope Pius XI on May 17, 1925. Had she lived, she would have been only 52 years old when she was declared a Saint.

"My mission - to make God loved - will begin after my death," she said. "I will spend my heaven doing good on earth. I will let fall a shower of roses." Roses have been described and experienced as Saint Therese's signature. Countless millions have been touched by her intercession and imitate her "little way." She has been acclaimed "the greatest saint of modern times." In 1997, Pope John Paul II declared St. Therese a Doctor of the Church - the only Doctor of his pontificate - in tribute to the powerful way her spirituality has influenced people all over the world.

 

Thank you very much indeed, Gary, for posting all the above valuable information on St Therese.   I am cruising along doing ok at the moment, thank you  Gary - and thank you for asking too.

 In the days in which St Therese lived the final 8 years of her life (she died at 24 years of age) as a humble nun in a Carmelite Monastery in Lisieux, France, spirituality tended to be very harsh and demanding especially in her own Carmelite monastery in Lisieux.  Too harsh and demanding for St Therese and so she sought out a simple and uncomplicated way suited to those who do not aspire, nor feel themselves able, to undertake great works.  She called this way of life "The Little Way".  St Therese is now a canonized saint and a Doctor of The Church.  Her way can be summarized as the way of love........of doing all for love, even picking up a piece of paper on the street, smiling at someone, doing the dishes or making the bed.........the quite ordinary things of everyday life.  The very heart of the Gospel - all for love and Therese was committed to walking the talk and in her day this would have been very much against the general tide.

St Therese is my Confirmation patron.

St Therese "The Spirituality of Imperfection" (written by a Carmelite nun - Sr. Vilma Seelaus, O.C.D.) http://showcase.netins.net/web/solitude/vilma5.html

Official website of St Therese of Lisieux (heaps of pictures) http://www.archives-carmel-lisieux.fr/english/carmel/

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, BarbaraTherese said:

I really don't think that God wants us to find Him in a complicated way. He will be found in the most simple acts of love.

Very well said, Gary.  You have hit the nail on the head.........and very precisely.  It is not what one is doing, but why one is doing whatever one is doing.  What we need to do in our way of life is not a task so much, rather it is God expressing His Will for us and for this moment or time in our life.

Thank you 

Edited June 1, 2019 by BarbaraTherese

[Guest]

 

 

 

St Vincent de Paul Society - Quote of the Day – May 31

https://famvin.org/reflections/quote-of-the-day-may-31-2/

"God’s grace will never fail you" (VII:203).

[Guest]

 

Quote

 

https://www.littleflower.org/therese/life-story/her-life-at-lisieux-carmel/

THERESE DEVELOPS HER "LITTLE WAY"

Therese was aware of her littleness. "It is impossible for me to grow up, so I must bear with myself such as I am with all my imperfections. But I want to seek out a means of going to heaven by a little way, a way that is very straight, very short and totally new."

Therese went on to describe the elevator in the home of a rich person. And she continued: "I wanted to find an elevator which would raise me to Jesus, for I am too small to climb the rough stairway of perfection. I searched then in the Scriptures for some sign of this elevator, the object of my desires and I read these words coming from the mouth of Eternal Wisdom: 'Whoever is a little one let him come to me.' The elevator which must raise me to heaven is your arms, O Jesus, and for this I have no need to grow up, but rather I have to remain little and become this more and more," And so she abandoned herself to Jesus and her life became a continual acceptance of the will of the Lord.

The Lord, it seems, did not demand great things of her. But Therese felt incapable of the tiniest charity, the smallest expression of concern and patience and understanding. So she surrendered her life to Christ with the hope that he would act through her. She again mirrored perfectly the words of St. Paul, "I can do all things in him who strengthens me." "All things" consisted of almost everything she was called upon to do in the daily grind of life.

Life in the Carmel had its problems too: the clashes of communal life, the cold, the new diet and the difficulties of prayer (two hours' prayer and four and a half hours of liturgy). One day, she leaned over the wash pool with a group of Sisters, laundering handkerchiefs.

One of the Sisters splashed the hot, dirty water into Therese's face, not once, not twice, but continually. Remember the terrible temper that Therese had? She was near to throwing one of her best tantrums, but said nothing! Christ helped her to accept this lack of consideration on the part of her fellow Sister, and she found a certain peace.

Again, in the daily grind of convent life, she was moved by her youthful idealism to help Sister St. Pierre, a crotchety, older nun who refused to let old age keep her from convent activities. Therese tried to help her along the corridors.

"You move too fast," the old nun complained. Therese slowed down. "Well, come on," Sister urged. "I don't feel your hand. You have let go of me and I am going to fall." And as a final judgment, old Sister St. Pierre declared: "I was right when I said you were too young to help me." Therese took it all and managed to smile. This was her "little way."

Another nun made strange, clacking noises in chapel. Therese did not say, but the good lady was probably either toying with her rosary or was afflicted by ill-fitting dentures.

The clacking sound really got to Therese. It ground into her brain. Terrible-tempered Therese was pouring sweat in frustration. She tried to shut her ears, but was unsuccessful. Then, as an example of her 'little ways', she made a concert out of the clacking and offered it as a prayer to Jesus. "I assure you," she dryly remarked, "that was no prayer of Quiet."

Therese, the great mystic, fell asleep frequently at prayer. She was embarrassed by her inability to remain awake during her hours in chapel with the religious community. Finally, in perhaps her most charming and accurate characterization of the "little way," she noted that, just as parents love their children as much while asleep as awake, so God loved her even though she often slept during the time for prayers.

 

 

[Gary david]

20 hours ago, BarbaraTherese said:

 

 

Hi Barbara. I want to thank you as well for posting this, it is true and wonderful. I saw something today that I found myself smiling at and then thought about you and your post and reflected upon the wonderful innocence and true joy that lies in a child which is why Jesus speaks of them as He does. So I thought that hopefully you may also share in this smile, so here it it is. Thanks again Barbara and may God truly bless you.....

[Guest]

Thanks Gary - I am indeed sharing in your smile. 

Reflecting on your image with the Dad in the image as The Father and the child as all of us brings a wealth of understanding of our relationship with The Father and His with us.  And even without that reflection, it is a beautiful little video.  I particularly loved the older sister congratulating her little brother on his catch and almost putting him right off his game with joy.

Thank you for sharing!

[Guest]

 

 

Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591)
Carmelite, Doctor of the Church
Sayings of light and love

https://dailygospel.org/AM/gospel?utm_source=newsletter

"In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world"

Strive to keep your heart in peace and do not allow anything that happens in this world make you uneasy, but consider that it must all come to an end. In all things, however annoying they may be, we should rather rejoice than be sad if we are not to lose an even greater good: peace and tranquillity of soul. Even if everything here below were to fall apart and all were to go against us, it would be useless to worry ourselves about it, for worrying would cause us more injury than gain.

To bear with all things with the same equanimity and peace does not merely assist the soul in making great gains but also helps it form a better judgement of its present adversities and apply suitable remedies to them.

The heavens are stable and not subject to change, and souls of a heavenly texture are also stable and not subject to disordered desires or any such thing for, in their own way, they are like God and are never moved.

[Guest]

[Gary david]

22 hours ago, BarbaraTherese said:

Thanks Gary - I am indeed sharing in your smile. 

Reflecting on your image with the Dad in the image as The Father and the child as all of us brings a wealth of understanding of our relationship with The Father and His with us.  And even without that reflection, it is a beautiful little video.  I particularly loved the older sister congratulating her little brother on his catch and almost putting him right off his game with joy.

Thank you for sharing!

Your more than welcome Barbara! Thanks for letting me know this has brought a smile to you. This means you sent one back to me. This is how God works right Barbara. Well I wish you and buddie well and may God bless you and your day.....

[Guest]

29 minutes ago, Gary david said:

Thanks for letting me know this has brought a smile to you. This means you sent one back to me. This is how God works right Barbara.

 I agree with you Gary

 

 

30 minutes ago, Gary david said:

Well I wish you and buddie well and may God bless you and your day

And to you and yours also, Gary - a very happy and blessed day.  

[Gary david]

1 hour ago, BarbaraTherese said:

 I agree with you Gary

 

 

And to you and yours also, Gary - a very happy and blessed day.  

[Guest]

[Guest]

To be like Christ.  This is our goal, plain and simple.

It sounds like a peaceful, relaxing, easy objective. But stop and think. He learned obedience by the things he suffered.  So must we.

It is neither easy nor quick nor natural. It is impossible in the flesh, slow in coming, and supernatural in scope. 

Only Christ can accomplish it within us.

http://www.shalomplace.com/seed/

The 98 year old Mother Superior from Ireland was dying. The nuns gathered around her bed trying to make her last journey comfortable. They gave her some warm milk to drink but she refused. Then one of the nuns took the glass back to the kitchen. Remembering a bottle of Irish whiskey received as a gift the previous Christmas, she opened and poured a generous amount into the warm milk. Back at Mother Superior's bed, she held the glass to her lips. Mother drank a little, then a little more and before they knew it, she had drunk the whole glass down to the last drop. "Mother," the nuns asked with earnest, "please give us some wisdom before you die." 

She raised herself up in bed and with a pious look on her face said, "Don't sell that cow.

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He said not, "Thou shalt not be troubled, thou shalt not be travailed, thou shalt not be diseased;" but He said, "Thou shalt not be overcome."
  - Juliana of Norwich

 

Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking about yourself one way or the other at all.
   - William Temple