Gould on Art

"The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity."

~ Glenn Gould

God Pours Out His Spirit

In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
I will show wonders in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the the Lord.
And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

~ Acts 2: 17-21

We Will Not Comply!

Re the HHS Mandate to force everyone to supply coverage of abortions even if it violates our conscience:

We cannot – we will not – comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second-class citizens. We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our religious freedom. Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build America’s cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, only to have their posterity stripped of their God given rights. In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties. I hope and trust she can count on this generation of Catholics to do the same. Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less.

http://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/a-letter-from-archbishop-dennis-m-schnurr-concerning-hhs-edict/5749

Crocs

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.

~ Winston Churchill

There Was No-one Left!

"First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.”http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/niemoeller.html

St. Francis De Sales on Confidence in God

I am a poor, frightened little creature, the baby of the family, timid and shy by nature and completely lacking in self-confidence; and that is why I should like people to let me live unnoticed and all on my own according to my inclination, because I have to make such enormous efforts about shyness and my excessive fears.  Who can fail to see that this is not living according to the spirit?

No indeed,... for when I was still very young and had little understanding I already lived like this; but although according to my temperament I am shy, nervous and as timid as a mole, I want to have a good try to overcome these natural passions and little by little learn to do everything that belongs to the office which obedience, proceeding from God, has laid upon me.  Who can fail to see that this is living according to the spirit?

Living according to the spirit means doing the actions which the spirit of God asks of us, saying the words and thinking the things that he wants.  And when I say thinking the things he wants, I am referring to your willed thoughts.   I am miserable and so I don't feel like talking: draymen and parrots do as much; I feel miserable, but since charity demands that I should talk I will do it:  that is what spiritual people say.

I have been slighted and I get cross: peacocks and monkeys do as much; I have been slighted and I rejoice: that is what the Apostles did.  So to live according to the spirit is to do what faith, hope and charity teach us to do, whether in things temporal or things spiritual.

So live wholly according to the spirit,...  live sweetly and in peace.  Be quite confident that God will help you, and in all that happens rest in the arms of his mercy and fatherly goodness.

~ Saint Francis De Sales (+ 1622)

[taken from Magnificat for Tuesday, Jan. 24th, 2012]

Tutu on Choosing Justice

If you are neutral in situations of injustice,
you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
~ Desmond Tutu