To Thirst

Christ, the source of life, addressed his clear call to all generations: "If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink." Only one condition is laid down: to thirst.
--Fr. M.M. Philipon, O.P.

God as a Surgeon

Working within us like a surgeon, God condemns and cuts away whatever in us is infected by sin, cleansing us from corruption with the knife of affliction.
--Bl. Ogerius of Locedio

Respect for the Poor

"Assistance to the unfortunate honors when it treats the poor man with respect, not only as an equal, but as a superior--since he is suffering what perhaps we are incapable of suffering; since he is a messenger of God to us, sent to prove our justice and charity, and to save us by our works."

--Frederick Ozanam, quoted by James Patrick Derum in Apostle in a Top Hat

Psalm 106

O give thanks to the Lord for he is good;
for his love endures for ever.
Who can tell the Lord's mighty deeds?
Who can recount all his praise?

Song of Songs 2: 10-12

He says to me,
"Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,
and come!
For see, the winter is past,
the rains are over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth."

Psalm 144

Blessed by the Lord, my rock,
   who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.
My refuge and my fortress,
   my stronghold, my deliverer,
My shield, in whom I trust,
   who subdues my people under me.
O God, I will sing a new song to you;
   with a ten-stringed lyre I will chant your praise,
You who give victory to kings,
   and deliver David, your servant from the evil sword.

John 15:16

It was not you who chose me, says the Lord, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.

Matthew 26:41

Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Acts 17: 28

In him we live and move and have our being.

John 19:34

One soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out.

The Cross: a paradox

The cross, instrument of torture and death, raised aloft as a sign of glory, continues to confound the wisdom of this world. God's work of salvation stands human expectations on their head: humility is exaltation, wounds are healing, death is life.

Veneration of the Cross

Behold the wood of the cross,
on which has hung our salvation: come, let us adore!

The Heart of True Wisdom, by Dom Guillerand

There is no need to wait for that knowledge which is the result of study before acting in the region of our relations with God. Religion is belief: but above all, it is practice. It is not knowledge. It is a mutual exchange of love, and it is in this exchange that God reveals himself. He reveals himself in the measure in which we love him, not according to our learning, even in the matter of religion. It is not necessary to know precisely all the perfections of God, nor to be able to expound eloquently all the arguments which prove his existence. How many souls pass the whole of their lives without knowing these things, and yet how profound is their knowledge of him, how warm their fervor, and how intensely real their relations with him. These souls look upon God as a Father, who is unceasingly communicating to them his thoughts and desires, and it is by these thoughts and desires they live. He becomes, as it were, their very soul and their innermost life. His Spirit abides in the depths of their spirit, enlightening, encouraging, and directing all the inner resources that they possess. And they love the Father, and hold converse with him. They share with him their joys and their sorrows, and he is the secret confidant of all their hours. He is there, in the depth of their soul, waiting to receive them into his intimate dwelling-place the moment they turn to him. They recognize him, and they know it is he who is calling them, whenever an interior voice invites them to think of him. Their minds meet inevitably, and thus they enter into a relationship at once living, continuous, and full of delight -- a relationship between the soul and its divine Guest, which grows in intensity.

Dom Augustin Guillerand, O.Cart. (died 1945) was a French Carthusian monk and a revered spiritual author.

Jeremiah 5:14

Behold, I make my words
in your mouth, a fire.

Those who love and those who labor

Lo, the bread of heaven is broken
In the sacrament of life.

Matthew 13:17

Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

Matthew 10:27

What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

Ephesians 4:28

The thief must no longer steal, but rather labor, doing honest work with his [own] hands, so that he may have something to share with one in need.

Wisdom 9:13

What man knows God’s counsel,
or who can conceive what our Lord intends?

Romans 11:34

For who has known the mind of the Lord
or who has been his counselor?