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Here are this week’s must-reads:
+ “St. Therese had her own battle to fight against self-reliance. Her one goal was to become a saint, but she quickly found that she was completely incapable of achieving it on her own. There were so many virtues to acquire and sacrifices to be made. She felt she was too weak. However, everything she knew of God was rooted in the truth that He would not inspire a desire that was impossible…
“Therefore sanctity was not about what she could do for God, or about stacking up her own salvation points, but rather boldly believing in His love, trusting He would supply what she lacked. Therese would employ a new tactic against self-reliance. When a moment came when she needed patience, or another virtue, even though she did not feel she had it in her, she would ask it from the Lord, and step into that situation with confidence that He would provide it.
“And He did, as no situation was too big or too small for Him. From a human perspective, this was a very vulnerable way to live, precisely because it does not seek security in oneself.” – Sr. Maria Faustina Pia, S.V. “Jesus, I trust in You”
+ “Let us love, since that is what our hearts were made for.” — St. Therese
+ “If anything strikes us as final, it’s death, isn’t it? The person’s dead – he’s gone, that’s it, that’s over. But look how (casually) Jesus refers to death: ‘Oh, Lazarus, he’s asleep, I’m going to wake him.’ What that is, everybody, is the sovereign authority and power of God. Yes, to us, death looks absolute and final, but it’s not absolute and final to God. To God, it’s a matter of waking someone from sleep – it’s the sovereignty of the Son of God over death…
“(And) When Jesus sees the people around the tomb weeping, He weeps… He weeps here at the tomb of Lazarus. The Incarnation means that God enters into our human condition – God takes to himself a human nature, in such a radical way, that He thinks with a human mind, he wills with a human will, and he weeps from human eyes. It’s God’s intimate participation in the fullness of our humanity even at this place where we weep in our anguish over the death of a friend. God weeps, God shares that with us… this is God who enters into the nitty gritty, all the particularity and pain of being human. It’s a great comfort…” — Bishop Barron
+ Showing God Our Love for Him Through the Five Love Languages
+ “Prayer is where we are filled with and transformed by the One we love so as to bring Him to all people. Prayer is where we are nourished, challenged, consoled, energized, sustained and transformed. It is a hidden work, and yet the most important one of all. And prayer is one of the most important things we have to share in helping others deepen their own relationships with the Lord.” — Sr. Orianne Pietra Rene
+ “The Rosary becomes a repetition of prayer that includes a bodily element – the passing of the beads in our hands, the mental element in terms of remembering the words themselves, the heart and the spirit — because we’re concentrating those in a time of prayer. but it becomes a beautiful way of forgetting self and descending into the mystery of prayer… what we’re doing is we’re just sitting with our Mother.” — Brother Richard
+ “Once I had my children, as any mother will understand, my time was never my own again! Children simply don’t fit into neat little time packages. And as mothers, we are constantly asked to give, to be there, to listen, to serve—we are called to pour out and to sacrifice our own wishes and desires in order to better love our children. But the sacrifice is wasted if the attitude of serving is self-concerned and complaining in nature. How we serve, in other words, is just as important as what we serve. If we don’t recognize or accept this, we’re bound to make things difficult for ourselves and our children. Giving your children the gift of a joyful mother with a thankful spirit, aiming to be a consistent source of light and happiness, is one of the most lifegiving ways to bless them.” — Sally Clarkson
+ “The Lord measures our perfection neither by the multitude nor the magnitude of our deeds, but by the manner in which we perform them.” — St. John of the Cross
+ “I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here and in the world to come.” — Henri Nouwen
+ “A few years back I found myself reading about the history of fashion and learned that until recent it was women—mothers in particular—that set the trends and wore the most beautiful things, while the younger women wore simpler versions of those styles. To me that spoke volumes about teaching femininity and the value of motherhood. I do believe there can be a movement that shows the world the beauty of motherhood once again. Most significantly within our own hearts and homes, in our own daily surrenders and willingness to serve with joy by way of self-sacrificial love of our families. But also by way of dress, when we leave the home and show the world that our bodies are cared for—that we have not fallen apart in motherhood, that we value our feminine role and see the beauty in it.” — Megan, A Mother’s Lace
Here’s what was featured in the last two weeks of the Catholic Wife, Catholic Life Collection.
I share these every Monday and they always include: two gluten-free recipes, a reflection & prayer based on Sunday’s Mass readings, and links to budget-friendly fashion & Catholic home decor. When I’m creating them, I always look up the upcoming feast days and find pieces to complement them so that you can have some examples of how to decorate for the different feasts & Liturgical seasons! Those who sign up also get a long list of promo codes to some amazing Catholic businesses, including 25% off to The Catholic Company.
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