Renew the Face of the Earth

There is a saying: "Send forth your Spirit and all things will be created and you shall renew the face of the earth." Do you realize that that is true--that he can come like a gentle breath "blowing where it listens and you hear the sound thereof but cannot tell whence it comes, and where it goes," and that he can touch your soul and make everything different? What was real before still remains, yet everything has been renewed. Then you become aware that you have a heart and that you, too, have received the ability to love, and things are filled with a gentle and holy meaning, and you know that everything is good and that it is worthwhile--divinely worthwhile--to be alive and to persevere.

--Monsignor Romano Guardini

Memoria and History

 “The Holy Spirit is always somewhat ‘the unknown’ of the faith...Even now, many Christians do not know who the Holy Spirit is, what the Holy Spirit is. And you sometimes hear: ‘But I get on well enough with the Father and with Son, because I pray the Our Father to the Father, I have communion with the Son, but I do not know what to do with the Holy Spirit. . .' Or people say, ‘The Holy Spirit is the dove, the one that gives us the seven gifts.’ But in this way the poor Holy Spirit always comes last and finds no place in our lives.

"[Holy Spirit is] God active in us, God who helps us remember, [who] awakens our memory... A Christian without memory is not a true Christian: he or she is a prisoner of circumstance, of the moment, a man or woman who has no history. He or she does have a history, but does not how to enter into history. It is the Spirit that teaches us how to enter into history. Historical memory ... When in the Letter to the Hebrews, the author says: ‘Remember your fathers in the faith’ – memory; ‘remember the early days of your faith, how you were courageous’ - memory. A memory of our life, of our history, a memory of the moment when we had the grace of meeting Jesus, the memory of all that Jesus has told us...That memory that comes from the heart, that is a grace of the Holy Spirit... [Remembering] also means remembering one’s own misery, that which makes us slaves, and together with them, the grace of God that redeems us from our miseries.

"Our God is moving forward on the road with us, He is among us, He walks with us. He saves us. He makes history with us. Be mindful of all that, and life becomes more fruitful, with the grace of memory.”
--Pope Francis, Homily on May 13, 2013
http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-at-mass-the-holy-spirit-and-historical-memory

The Tale of Two Cities

"I would ask you, dearest, to be very generous with him always, and very lenient on his faults when he is not by. I would ask you to believe that he has a heart he very, very seldom reveals, and that there are deep wounds in it. My dear, I have seen it bleeding."
-The Tale of Two Cities, Book the Second: The Golden Thread, Chapter 20: A Plea

"There is nothing more to do," said he, glancing upward at the moon, "until to-morrow. I can't sleep."
It was not a reckless manner, the manner in which he said these words aloud under the fast-sailing clouds, nor was it more expressive of negligence than defiance. It was the settled manner of a tired man, who had wandered and struggled and got lost, but who at length struck into his road and saw its end.
-The Tale of Two Cities, Book the Third: The Track of a Storm, Chapter 9: The Game Made

"I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die."
Now, that the streets were quiet and the night wore on, the words were in the echoes of his feet, and were in the air. Perfectly calm and steady, he sometimes repeated them to himself as he walked; but, he heard them always.
The night wore out, and, as he stood upon the bridge listening to the water as it splashed the river-walls of the Island of Paris, where the picturesque confusion of houses and cathedral shone bright in the light of the moon, the day came coldly, looking like a dead face out of the sky. Then, the night, with the moon and the stars, turned pale and died, and for a little while it seemed as if Creation were delivered over to Death's dominion.
But, the glorious sun, rising, seemed to strike those words, that burden of the night straight and warm to his heart in its long bright rays. And looking along them, with reverently shaded eyes, a bridge of light appeared to span the air between him and the sun, while the river sparkled under it.
-The Tale of Two Cities, Book the Third: The Track of a Storm, Chapter 9: The Game Made

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."
-The Tale of Two Cities, Book the Third: The Track of a Storm, Chapter 15: The Footsteps Die Out For Ever

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 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.

Keys of the Kingdom: Atheism

"Funny . . . I still can't believe in God."
"Does that matter now?" What was he saying? Francis did not know. He was crying and, in the stupid humiliation of his weakness, the words came from him, in blind confusion. "He believes in you."
"Don't delude yourself. . .I'm not repentant."
"All human suffering is an act of repentance."
There was a silence. The priest said no more. Weakly, Tulloch reached out his hand and let it fall on Francis' arm.
"Man, I've never loved ye so much as I do now . . . for not trying to bully me to heaven. Ye see--" His lids dropped wearily. "I've such an awful headache."

Psalm 12: 4-5

Give light to my eyes, Lord, lest I sleep in death, and my enemy say: I have overcome him.

Deliver us

Deliver us from evil.

Very significant for me, not only from the Our Father, but from Dr. Dooley.

Isaiah 1:18

Come now, let us set things right,
says the Lord:
Though your sins be like scarlet,
they may become white as snow;
Though they be crimson red,
they may become white as wool.

Grace abounded

Where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more.
Feast days, First Confession.