Celerity of the Saints
St Francis Solano, when under the impetus of love, would move like the wind so that no one could keep pace with him. On Christmas, a friar caught sight of him rushing along carrying some…
Category: Wisdom Traditions
Today’s One-Liner (#208)
Be gentled with others, but stern towards yourself. –Saint Teresa of Avila, cited in Stephen Clissold, The Wisdom of the Spanish Mystics
Living Examples
The most notable new female community was the Missionaries of Charity, originally founded by an Albanian nun, Bl. Teresa of Calcutta (d. 1997), to work especially with the poorest of the poor in India—the abandoned…
Today’s One-Liner (#204)
I felt charity enter into my soul, and the need to forget myself and to please others; since then I’ve been happy! –Saint Therese of Lisieux, Story of a Soul: Autobiography
So Long Ago and So Modern
St. Francis anticipated all that is most liberal and sympathetic in the modern mood; the love of nature; the love of animals; the sense of social compassion; the sense of the spiritual dangers of prosperity…
Today’s One-Liner (#203)
…Chesterton was quite sure that one of the great arguments for being a Christian was that it enabled us to understand the real nature and depths of evil in ourselves and in the world. –James…
A Prayer from Saint Teresa of Calcutta
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some…
Today’s One-Liner (#201)
Mental cases, mental illness, and physical illnesses, as well as poverty, are calls upon our compassion, because we must see Christ in them, but it is so hard to see Christ in anyone who is…
Look within
Turn your attention upon yourself and beware of judging the deeds of other men, for in judging others a man labors vainly, often makes mistakes, and easily sins; whereas, in judging and taking stock of…
Before Their Conversions
To become Christian is, fundamentally, to perceive that it isn’t just others who have scapegoats. And note that the two greatest Christians, the founders of the Church, Peter and Paul, were two converted persecutors. Before…