When a person laughs too much, even on stupid things, that person is sad deep inside
When a person sleeps a lot, that person is lonely
When a person talks less and if he talks fast, that person is keeping a secret
When a person can’t cry, that person is weak
When a person eats in an abnormal way, that person is in tension
When a person cries on little things, that person is softhearted
When someone asks about you although that someone is busy, he/she really loves you
Young Karol Wojtyla, who would later be (Blessed) Pope John Paul II, already wore the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Years later, when an assassin shot several bullets into him, he credited Our Lady with saving his life. According to Father Mariano Cera, a Carmelite priest, “just before the Holy Father was operated on, he told the doctors ‘Don’t take off the scapular.’ And the surgeons left it on” (Inside the Vatican Newsflash: John Paul II and the Brown Scapular). After a pilgrimage to Fatima, he famously told the crowd: “One finger pulled the trigger, another guided the bullet” (Fatima: Miracle of the Sun). Let us follow the example of our Blessed Pope John Paul II and trust in Our Lady!
Beautiful article to clear up misconceptions about those who become clergy
I think most people would be surprised to know how many men in the seminary are in love. And, I don’t mean with Jesus; I mean with a woman.
Are you shocked? You shouldn’t be. Seminarians are men, too. Men with emotions, passions, and desires—they fall in love. Being a seminarian and training for the priesthood, or even being an ordained priest, doesn’t change these natural human conditions.
Every man who becomes a priest must at some point make a conscious decision to choose celibacy.…I don’t mean that they simply acquiesce to celibacy, but they embrace it with their whole heart. I am not simply referring to men who think to themselves, “Golly, marriage would be good. Women are beautiful. Sex sounds nice. But, oh well.” I’m speaking of men who have stared into the eyes of a woman with the passionate desire to sweep her off of her feet, profess his love and fidelity to her at the altar, make sweet, sweet love to her, and have a huge Catholic family; men who have looked straight in the eyes of an individual, particular, woman with whom he is in love—and who is in love with him—and said, “I choose Jesus. I choose priesthood. I choose celibacy.”
That’s heroic! And it’s not easy. But it’s what we who are pursuing the priesthood are called to do. It’s what we are all called to do: to seek and follow God’s plan for our life—even if it is contrary to our every human desire!
The great test is the love of enemies. Love is not just a nice feeling when I am with certain people whom I find it easy to be with. It is very hard to love those who are unjust to us, or are unjust to those whom we care about, or are unjust to the Church. Yet, as Saint Silouan said, ”the criterion of the true Christian is love of enemies.” This is at the heart of the Gospel.
- Sister Magdalene from Essex
(Source: incommunion.org)
(Source: man-and-camera)
(Source: romanticcatholicism)
Interior suffering can be more purifying than any other form of pain because we are forced to cope with it. We can distract ourselves and forget a sprained ankle, but when dryness, weariness, sadness, worry and fear assail us, they hound us wherever we go.
We must understand why God permits this interior suffering, for at first glance it would seem life provides enough pain to sanctify us.
Daily trials and even physical pain are somehow outside of us, but interior pain, be it spiritual or mental, is deep within, and forces us to be patient and practice virtue. Interior trials sanctify us slowly because they have the power to change us for the better. It is in the soul, in our personality and temperament, that change must occur if we are to reflect the image of Jesus.
We can be sure that:
Dryness makes us patient as we seek to love God for Himself.
Mental anguish makes us depend upon His Wisdom.
Doubts increase our Faith when we act according to our beliefs rather than our reasoning.
Fear makes us trust God’s Providence and Hope in His Goodness.
Anxiety leads us to distrust ourselves and release our problems to an all-loving God.
Worry makes us realize our helplessness and instills a desire to throw ourselves into the Arms of His Infinite Wisdom.
Discouragement over our imperfections makes us strive for holiness with greater determination.
Uncertainty as to our future makes us look forward to the Kingdom.
Disappointments detach us from the things that pass and make us look to those that are everlasting.
~Mother Angelica http://www.ewtn.com/library/mother/ma11e.htm
(Source: quote-book)