St. Alphonsus Liguori on Tribulation

Tribulation opens the eyes which prosperity had kept shut.

ML on Justice & Mercy

The world is too big for anything but justice, and too small for anything but mercy. :)

Becoming A Pilgrim

"And thus, without knowing anything about it, I became a pilgrim."

~Merton regarding his unconscious and unintentional visiting of the great shrines of Rome, long before becoming Catholic.

Only Light

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." - Martin Luther King, Jr

The Balm That Heals The Ingratitude Of The World

Make the resolution today to be nothing for creatures, nothing for yourself, and all for God.  The great secret of holiness, I repeat to you, is to love, and saints are nothing but chalices of sorrowful love, "fools of faith, beings of light."  Another day I will speak to you about the martyrdom of love, that which most crucifies, and obtains the most graces.  For now you have enough to entertain yourself at the feet of Jesus.  I only tell you that humble souls are the ones who know how to love truly, and are the only ones to receive and communicate the rays of sovereign goodness.

Love, then, but with a love born of humility; we are not holy because we are not humble.  Do you love me more than these?  Tell him: "This is what I desire, Jesus of my heart, this is what I long for with all the enthusiasm of my humble heart.  To love you more than all the angels and saints."  To love you, to love you!  All the rest is detail, Jesus, images that pass, they are smoke that vanishes, only you, Jesus, Jesus and Mary.  I want to enter into your heart, more deeply than the lance, more profoundly than your heartbeats, and live from its warmth and its light, its charity and zeal, its meekness and humility.  That wound bleeds, that wound is waiting for me and hopes that I may be the balm that heals the ingratitude of the world and of those who are his own.  You, the Jesus who lives and breathes not far away, but right near to me, the one whom I devour with the inmost ardent desire every morning, shall be, from now on, the confidant of my secrets, of my confidences.

You love me, and this electrifies me.  You want to be my Father, my guide, my companion, by brother, my friend, my spouse, my everything!  O sweet Jesus, look at me!  One glance from you, and my heart will be opened to holy growth.  Give me your heartbeats, give me your voice, your heart, your tenderness, you compassion!

Possess me, absorb me, transform me, divinize me, simplifying me so that we may be two in one, you in me, I in you!

~Venerable Concepcion Cabrera de Armida (Conchita)

I Got This

"I know this looks bad.  But we'll be out of here in a few minutes.  I got this."
~tom cruise in Knight And Day (movie)
http://www.knightanddaymovie.com/#/home

Contemplative Prayer

Paradoxical as it may seem, it would not even occur to a person -- no, nor to an angel or saint -- to desire contemplative love were it not already alive within him.  I believe, too, that often our Lord deliberately chooses to work in those who have been habitual sinners rather than in those who, by comparison, have never grieved him at all.  Yes, he seems to do this very often.  For I think he wants us to realize that he is all-merciful and almighty, and that he is perfectly free to work as he pleases, where he pleases, and when he pleases.

Yet he does not give his grace nor work this work in a person who has no aptitude for it.  But a person lacking the capacity to receive his grace could never gain it through his own efforts either.  No one at all, neither sinner nor innocent, can do so.  For this grace is a gift, and it is not given for innocence nor withheld for sin...

Contemplative prayer is God's gift, wholly gratuitous.  No one can earn it.  It is in the nature of this gift that one who receives it receives also the aptitude for it.  No one can have the aptitude without the gift itself.  The aptitude for this work is one with the work; they are identical.  He who experiences God working in the depths of his spirit has the aptitude for contemplation and no one else.  For without God's grace a person would be so completely insensitive to the reality of contemplative prayer that he would be unable to desire or long for it.  You possess it to the extent that you will and desire to possess it, no more and no less.  But you will never desire to possess it until that which is ineffable and unknowable moves you to desire the ineffable and unknowable.  Do not be curious to know more, I beg you.  Only become increasingly faithful to this work until it becomes your whole life.

To put it more simply, let that mysterious grace move in your spirit as it will and follow wherever it leads you.  Let it be the active doer and you the passive receiver...  Your part is to be as wood to a carpenter or a home to a dweller.  Remain blind during this time, cutting away all desire to know, for knowledge is a hindrance here.  Be content to feel this mysterious grace sweetly awaken in the depths of your spirit.  Forget everything but God and fix on him your naked desire, your longing stripped of all self-interest.

from The Cloud Of Unknowing
which was written in Middle English by an unknown mystic of the 14th century.