The beauty of the month of May is reflected not only in nature but also in its dedication to Our Lady and in recognition of our earthly mothers. Additionally, it is the traditional time of great rejoicing as colleges and universities across the country celebrate commencement ceremonies.
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Category Archives: Living on Grace
Love, Marriage, and Praying More Novenas
Annie and John Paul Deddens
“Prayer is a surge of the heart, it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.” –St. Therese of Lisieux
I found out about Pray More Novenas years before getting to know Annie. When I learned the backstory of how Pray More Novenas came in existence, I remember thinking- wow! this couple really has something special!
Obedience and Surrender
“All that is done by obedience is meritorious . . . It is obedience, which, by the light of Faith, puts self-will to death, and causes the obedient man to despise his own will and throw himself into the arms of his superior . . . Placed in the bark of obedience, he passes happily through the stormy sea of this life, in peace of soul and tranquility of heart. Obedience and faith disperse darkness; he is strong because he has no longer any weakness or fears, for self-will, which is the cause of inordinate fear and weakness, has been destroyed.”
-Saint Catherine of Siena
The Grunt Padre: A Holy Week Journey Toward Sainthood
As a Lieutenant in the U. S. Navy Chaplain Corps, Father Vincent Capodanno finally reached a much-anticipated goal, arriving in Vietnam during Holy Week, 1966. While he couldn’t know it at the time, stepping onto Vietnamese soil initiated his journey to his own personal passion, his own way of the cross, at the same time that the Passion of Jesus was being commemorated.
Our Ultimate Longing
“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or to be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that country and to help others to do the same.”
C.S. Lewis
Saint Joseph: Celebrate Him, Celebrate His Feast!
As a devout Jew and a man of deep faith, Joseph of Nazareth would have been highly familiar with the Scriptural promises of a Messiah. While he surely prayed for His coming, the humble carpenter never could have foreseen the crucial role he himself would play in the daily life of this Messiah for whom he longed.
Who Me, Proud?
All human beings come into the world with a few pieces of standard equipment. There’s the built-in fan club, the professional spin-doctor, and the grievance counselor who specializes in taking our side. Should any of this equipment fail and a weakness or two be accidentally revealed, we have an uncanny ability to bury that fault beneath a glittering pile of exaggeration. Insults are automatically sent into our “calculate revenge” circuitry from which few escape unscathed. Where does this fabulous equipment come from?
The Greatest Adventure
“It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.”
-St. John Paul the Great Read the rest…
Jekyl & Hyde: The Battle Between Grace and Nature
There’s a little bit of Jekyl and Hyde in all of us. The inclination to choose wrong over right is a personal battle everyone has had to fight since Adam and Eve made the original “bad choice” by opting out of paradise for nothing more than one lousy apple.
He will give us the desires of our heart.
“Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” –Matthew 6:7-15 Read the rest…
