St. Paul is the great master of the spiritual life. No one can teach us better than he how to become a saint. Here are his very words: “Whatever you do in word or work, do all in the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Lest we may think that the Apostle is speaking only of offering our spiritual acts to God, he goes into particulars and says: “Whether you eat or whether you drink, or whatever else you do, do all for Our Lord Jesus Christ.”
There are no acts more material, more necessary, than eating and drinking. Therefore, St. Paul mentions these to show us that we must do everything for the love of God.
Take these words, Dear Reader, as directed to yourself by the Apostle, and you have at once another great secret of sanctity. To do this, it is not necessary to add one iota to your prayers or devotions; you have merely to form the intention of offering your every action for the love of God. This makes your every work meritorious.
All your acts give pleasure and glory to God. It does not matter whether you succeed or fail in your enterprises; your acts have the same merit. Thus, the countless acts of every day are pleasing God and earning for us rewards for all eternity.
On the other hand, if we neglect to follow this rule of the Apostle, all our acts are worthless. We deprive ourselves of wonderful rewards, and we rob God of His glory and pleasure. Think for a moment on the long lives of 50, 60, 70 years, every day of which is full of energy and activities—but all are lost if we do not offer them to God!
Do not think, Dear Reader, that what St. Paul recommends is impracticable or impossible, a thing that only Saints can do. There is no difficulty whatever in offering our acts to God, and there is nothing more consoling, nothing more meritorious. HOW TO GIVE EVERY ACTION THIS INESTIMABLE VALUE
The first act of every good Christian in the morning is to fall on his knees and make his Morning Offering. It can be done in this wise:
“Sacred Heart of Jesus, through the most pure hands of Mary, I offer Thee all the prayers, works and sufferings, all the actions of this day and of all my life, in union with the Masses being offered all over the world, for the intentions of Thy Sacred Heart and for the Apostleship of Prayer. Every breath I draw, every beating of my heart, every glance of my eyes, every step I take, every single act I do, I wish to be an act of love for Thee.”
This little act takes one minute, but it must be done slowly and with full deliberation. We must mean what we say. It is a short act, but it gives immense value to every action.
Our every act, as a consequence, gives glory to God and receives a distinct reward in Heaven. This offering has still more value if, from time to time during the day, we renew it by saying briefly: “All for You, dear Lord.” Who can be so foolish as to neglect this sacred obligation, yet many make the act in a careless, distracted fashion. Some do not make it at all!
All the saints and holy writers attach the gravest importance to the Morning Offering.
Every morning, we may be tempted to put off our prayers until “later” or skip them altogether because we have much to do and action is where it is at. If we allow the devil to win in this very first struggle of the day, he will win many more of the battles throughout the day. Our Morning Prayers, whether they be said while nursing a baby or changing a diaper, need to be a priority and the very foundation of our daily life.
Why did the Saints love to pray? Just because they knew and they felt that they were talking to God. Therefore, far from being wearisome it was an immense joy for them to pray…
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To get a good start in the morning, through the energy of one’s love and the help of the precautions taken the evening before; to renew quietly the bonds of divine union at favorable opportunities, such as on entering a room, hearing a bell ring, taking leave of someone, or beginning or finishing a piece of work; to ask God humbly for the desired help to correspond to grace: these are all positive helps to union with God.
They offer possibilities for achievement that will be more or less easy according to the alertness and aptness of the individual soul. Above all, in one who is inclined to give a little more time to prayer and well-chosen spiritual readings, they ought to have appreciable results.
There are, further, certain negative precautions that are important: the avoidance of useless thoughts and the curbing of natural impetuosity. We all have the habit of conversing with ourselves, and nothing is more fruitful if the ideas exchanged are worthwhile. Unfortunately, if we are not vigilant, we become come for the most part the victim of useless prattling, as harmful as the chatter of two persons who continue to talk when they have nothing to say.
St. Francis de Sales once jokingly spoke in praise of poor memories, quoting in this connection the words of St. Paul to the Philippians: “Forgetting the things which are behind,” and he showed the spiritual advantage in not remembering so many things when we are occupied in prayer or the concerns of our daily life.
“We never live,” a certain philosopher once remarked. “We hope to live.” It might be good to add that not only do we project our thoughts into the future, but we unceasingly scrutinize the past. Truly, a weak memory can sometimes times be very profitable, for have not many of our failings and nearly all of our inattention to God come from the play of our memories, in season and out of season?
Furthermore, certain natures are the prey of impressions: they react to everything, for everything, for nothing. They laboriously concoct dreams throughout the day. They build up imaginary situations, one more fantastic than the other. They probe the thoughts of such and such a person.
Upon the slenderest hint, they invent a whole novel. From a single word they overheard, they deduce a whole argument, arriving at positive conclusions. They are living kaleidoscopes.
Women are said to be particularly adept in this kind of sport. They are affectionate, and that may strangely enough be a help in prayer; they have impressionable souls and an imagination that easily rambles, and that can be very detrimental to recollection.
What can we do? Each of us must discipline himself, using the means at hand. We must go to God by means of the possibilities that are ours. The abilities of one are not the abilities of another. Even when we have a definite set of fixed rules, we must always in practice take account of the personal coefficient.
God knows that well and does not require of all a like achievement. The essential thing is that we go to the limit of our grace, not to the limit of another’s grace.
That is the reason for the wide diversity among the saints, even among souls dwelling together in the same institute or in the same family. Nothing is more delightful than this variety in the different types of religious psychology.
There is no doubt that a married woman, if she is a good manager and is not encumbered by some job outside the home, can find time for normal religious exercises and can even provide for meditation, spiritual reading and a relatively frequent assistance at Mass and reception of Holy Communion; time, after all, is something that varies in its possibility for adaptations and compressibility and woman excels in the heart of putting many things into a small place…. -Christ in the Home, Fr. Raoul Plus, S.J., 1950′
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We ought to begin early in the morning. Someone asked St. John Vianney for advice on how to remain united with God at every moment. The saint responded by revealing what he did himself: “At the beginning of the day, I try to unite myself closely to our Lord, and then I act with the thought of that union.”
Further, we should endeavor to fall asleep thinking of God, and should our sleep be broken, try even then to avoid the admission of any distracting ideas.
Upon arising, before we allow the preoccupations of the day to engross us, we ought to make a gentle but firm effort to fix ourselves in God. This is of tremendous importance if the hour of prayer follows close upon the hour of arising.
Night gives us a free, clear mind; since the last movement of our soul before going to sleep was supernatural, it is fitting that we oppose any intrusion of distracting ideas that might trouble us at prayer.
If, for some reason, the time for prayer must be set for later in the day, as is often the case with the mother of a family, it is no less important, since very often all depends upon a good start.
A lively recollection of the divine presence within us, or of approaching Holy Communion; the thought of the sanctification of our day, which will help to make up the immense ensemble of the life of souls; the gripping realization of prayer needed for sinners and of reparation to be offered for the world for its sins of the night that has passed; the feast of the day, if the Liturgy holds a special appeal -any such thought will establish contact with God.
We must use what best succeeds for us. But it must be something definite, strong, truly stimulating, and expressed with a maximum of love. The warmer the air and the stronger the wind, the higher the balloon rises. It is a question, we must not forget, of elevation.
To unite ourselves to God is first and foremost a supernatural act. We must, then, earnestly beg from Heaven the necessary help that the Lord may multiply His advances and that we may have the quiet of soul and the required courage to correspond to His interior solicitations.
We must pray humbly and persistently, convinced that alone, without God’s powerful grace, we shall fail.
In the spiritual diary of young Lyautey, the following significant entry was found under the date of October 1876, at which time the future marshal, then twenty-two, was taking an officer’s course at Saint Cyr:
“You think you are holy; you really believe you are worth something because I have flooded you with graces…. But what have you done? You have never struggled.”
Without ceasing, I have sent you my inspirations as I am giving them to you now at this moment; without out ceasing, I have allowed you to be recollected, and you have never known how to make use of my revelations.
Instead of recognizing that it was I who deigned to speak to you, you persisted in believing that in your fruitful reflections it was you who elevated yourself above your life through your own generous efforts, and looking upon yourself with admiration, you became self-complacent.
How can you hope to meditate with profit when, instead of withdrawing from yourself, of establishing silence in your soul, you become, as it were, two persons, the one prostrate before the other; the one seeming to pray while the other extols him saying, `You are great; you are noble; you are holy; you are generous.’
Even now as I speak to you, are you not inclined to admire yourself because you are attentive to me? Think, then, my son, of all those to whom I do not speak at all. Think of the absolutely special graces you have received.
What wisdom in this young officer’s meditation! We so readily believe that of ourselves we are capable of something. Should it happen that we enjoy consolations, we imagine that these divine favors are the reward of our goodwill. The failure of many of our efforts toward union with God can be laid to our secret pride.
There will be some things, of course, that very soon they will not want to do for her..dull, dreary things, fetching, cleaning, carrying. But these also they must be trained to do. The mother will often want to save time and trouble by doing them for herself, but if she does she will hurt her children’s character. She must train them young to work for others, to be unselfish, to give. -Dominican Nun, Australia, 1950’s
by V. Kowalski, The Catholic Family Australian Magazine
A hot summer’s day was drawing to a close, and the setting sun cast a crimson glow on the walls of a somewhat gloomy-looking castle, which, vacated by the proprietors, had been hastily converted into a military hospital.
A few days before, a terrible battle had been fought in the immediate neighborhood; a great many gallant soldiers, from the ranks both of conquerors and conquered, had fallen on the field, never to rise from it again; and a great number of wounded men were carried to the castle.
Groans of agony resounded within its precincts as one after another of the stricken men who awaited their turns to have their wounds dressed was carried in and laid on the mattresses which were spread on the floor of a large empty room.
Swiftly and noiselessly the attendants moved to and fro, executing the briefly-worded orders of the medical men, given in low but peremptory tones. At length the last man had received attention, and the wearied doctors and their assistants withdrew, leaving their patients under the care of the Sisters of Mercy, who would remain with them all night.
In a small chamber upstairs lay an officer of high rank in the Prussian army, both of whose legs had been shattered by the bursting of a bomb. The injured limbs had been skillfully amputated, but the prostration consequent on the great loss of blood was such as to leave little hope of his recovery; in fact, the surgeon had that day told the nurse that the sufferer could hardly live through the night.
Kneeling by the open window, her pale features lit up by the bright afterglow of the sun which had already sunk in the west, the Sister devoutly recited the Rosary, praying earnestly for the soul that was soon to pass from time into eternity.
The sick man made a slight movement, and the Sister went softly to his side and asked him if he felt any easier. She spoke in the Polish language; for the wounded officer was a Polish count and the religious was his fellow-country-woman. She was one of a small party of Sisters who had been sent from a convent in Posen to the seat of war to tend the sick and wounded, whether friends or foes.
“I have difficulty in breathing, Sister,” he replied, “otherwise I am not in pain.”
“Shall I send for a priest, Count? she next inquired. “You may, perhaps, wish to make your confession. To have one’s conscience at peace is often a step toward the recovery of physical health and strength.”
The officer smiled faintly and said: “Speak frankly, Sister: confess that you do not think I shall recover and you are desirous that I should not depart out of this world unprepared, if indeed it comes to that. Am I not right?”
The nurse answered, evasively: “Our life is in the hand of God, and we know not how soon the end may come. Therefore it is well to be prepared to appear before our Judge with a calm conscience.”
“Then you think a man dies more peacefully after confession?”
“Yes, I am quite sure of it. A clean conscience and prayer give peace to the heart and inspire one with the hope of a better life hereafter.”
“But, Sister, I have got out of the habit of praying, and I never go to confession. I have forgotten how to pray.”
“If you will allow me I will help you, Count. We will pray together.”
“Then you believe in the power of prayer? Do you really believe that our prayers are of any use?”
“Most assuredly I do. With my whole soul I believe that God hears and answers the supplications that arise from our inmost heart. To prove to you how firmly I believe it, let me tell you that for thirty years I have daily said a decade of the Rosary for the conversion of a certain person, and I shall continue to do so until my dying day; although it is highly improbable that I shall ever know whether my petition has been granted.
But, trusting in the all sufficient merits of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I feel confident that I have not prayed in vain.”
“Who is the fortunate individual for whom you intercede so perseveringly? May I know his name?”
“I have never seen the unhappy man who has forsaken his God. I do not even know his name — at least I know only that his Christian name is Louis, and that he belongs to a family of rank, who are known to be devout Catholics. ”
“Louis! Louis!” the Count murmured. “Tell me, Sister, what has induced you to pray for this erring Louis if he is quite a stranger to you?”
“It is too long a story to tell you Count. I am afraid it will weary you. ”
“Nothing of the sort. Tell me your story; it will serve to while away the time that must elapse before I either regain my strength or pass from hence.”
“Do you think it will interest you?”
“It will interest me more than you imagine. Begin at once. I am anxious to hear it.”
“My father,” the Sister began, “lost all his property through unfortunate circumstances. Soon after he died, leaving my mother almost penniless, with four children dependent on her.
One day a lady came to see us, and took us all to live with her. I remember that she was very pretty, but had an extremely sad expression of countenance. My mother made herself useful in the house, and our hostess gave us children a good education.
I felt called to the religious life; my mother consented to my entering a convent; our benefactress gave me a small dowry and sent me, with her blessing, to Paris, where I passed my novitiate.
On the day of my clothing my mother said: “You know, my child, that, after God, we owe everything to our munificent benefactress. She was my dearest friend when we were both girls, and she has been a good friend to you. I know you love her. Have you never wondered why one so fair, so wealthy, so benevolent, should always appear sorrowful?”
— “I have often remarked how sad she was,” I answered; “and could not understand why she was not happy.”
—”A secret grief casts its shadow over her life,” said my mother. “She had one sister, to whom she was fondly attached and this sister on her deathbed gave her only son into her charge, begging her to watch over him.
That nephew, although most carefully brought up, had no sooner left school than he cast aside restraint and entered on the path of sin and destruction. Not only did he set at naught his soul’s welfare: he ruined his health, gambled away his fortune, and by his irregular life broke his aunt’s heart; for she doted on him, despite all his misdeeds.
If you would prove your gratitude to our friend, say a prayer daily for her nephew Louis, that he may see the error of his ways and return to God. God alone can work that miracle of grace.”
“I solemnly promised to pray every day for his conversion; and I have kept my word, although my mother and our benefactress have been dead for twenty years.
Just now, while you were asleep, the thought of that unhappy man suddenly recurred to my mind and I felt terribly anxious about him. I knelt down directly, and earnestly entreated God to save him. I felt certain that some calamity threatened to overtake him — something worse even than death. Perhaps at this very moment he is in extreme danger.”
The Sister uttered these last words almost in a whisper, as if speaking to herself rather than to the sick man. When she turned and looked at him, she was startled and alarmed.
His eyes were half closed, two large tears were rolling down his pallid cheeks, and his hands trembled so violently that the silken coverlet rustled.
“My sad story has agitated you, Count!” she exclaimed. “I ought not to have told it to you. Forgive me! I will go and call the doctor.”
“No, do not go, dear Sister — pray do not go! Only tell me one thing more. You must know the name of the lady who was aunt to the Louis of whom you speak. Tell me what it was.”
“The name of that kind lady was Helene von Raborowska. Her maiden name was Von Granowska. Her family estate was near Granowa, and to that her nephew was the heir.”
Then the Count groaned aloud and hid his face. “Sister,” he said, with a trembling voice, “it was for me that you prayed so long. I am that Louis — that miserable wretch who broke his foster mother’s heart by his wickedness and folly.”
The Sister clasped her hands and, with tears in her eyes, exclaimed: “O my dear Count, now you must see that it is God’s Providence which has made me cross your path, and has touched your heart by means of my simple story! Do not, I beseech you, thrust from you the hand of a merciful God stretched out to receive you. Turn to Him with all your heart, so that after death you may rejoin that noble lady whom you loved in spite of all your errors — I see it by your tears. Shall I go at once to fetch the priest?”
The Count said nothing, but nodded his head as a sign of consent.
For two long hours the priest sat by the Count’s side; then he administered the sacraments to him. He received them with profound contrition and fervent devotion.
When he was once more alone with Sister Angelica, he raised her hand to his lips and said with heartfelt joy: “Sister, you understand the happiness that fills my soul now that I have made my peace with God. For a long time past my life has been embittered by stings of conscience and self-reproach. Words fail me to describe, to express the happiness I feel; and for this I have you to thank.
It is to your persevering prayers, after God and our Blessed Lady, that I owe my conversion, that I am enabled to hope and trust that my soul will be saved by the mercy of God”
The next morning, when the sun poured its golden beams upon the old castle, Count Louis was no longer among the living. With his last breath he extolled the loving-kindness of God, and expressed his gratitude to Sister Angelica for her prayers. They had prevailed with the Most High and, won pardon and peace for a sinner at the close of an ill-spent life, through the intercession of Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary.
This incident shows the power exercised by faith and charitable intercession on behalf of another; for, as St. Chrysostom remarks, a man often owes his cure to the faith of someone else. Wherefore let us learn in seasons of sickness and affliction to claim the assistance of others.
As Scripture says, “The Lord will hear the prayers of the just,” and will grant to the loving intercession of another what He has denied to your own prayers.
Above all, entreat the Blessed Mother of God to add her powerful word to your petitions, remembering that what she asks of her Divine Son is invariably granted.
The wise wife recognizes her need of God. Frequently she tells Him of her insufficiency. To inspire her husband, to be patient, to be unselfish and loyal, to be the dozen and one other wonderful things a desirable wife must be –all this postulates the presence of God always at her side. – The Wife Desired, Fr. Leo Kinsella http://amzn.to/2sxl4Al (afflink)
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The practicality of St. Teresa’s teaching about mental prayer shines through in this wonderful synopsis of her writings about it–something she said “the whole world could not purchase.” Learn how we should pray, in order to grow in the spiritual life.
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Fidelity during the hours of prayer engenders an almost natural facility in prayer at other times. While this is not its only advantage, it is one that is valuable and easy to understand. The very act of forcing ourselves to spend generously at the feet of God the moments that our life, if intelligently planned, allots to prayer, brings us during that time to a degree of intimate divine union.
Were this the only result, our gain would be immense. If, in conversation with a sincere friend, we find enrichment, how much more we can expect from converse with our Friend above all friends. Prayer brings into view new horizons of thought.
When we have been absorbed in a divine atmosphere for some time – and let us hope that this time is never grudgingly given – our whole being becomes penetrated with the divine: our intellect dwells on the supernatural, our feelings are caught up by the supernatural, and our imagination fixes itself on the supernatural.
Little by little, the supernatural becomes the normal atmosphere of our soul. God, Christ, and the Blessed Virgin are no longer mere names but living personalities. The presence of the Holy Trinity in the depths of our soul, the life of the Savior in the Host, the marvel of the immense and fruitful communion of souls in the state of grace, are no longer nebulous theories but vital realities.
The kingdom of God, which our Lord told us is within, is no longer an accessory in our life, but it is our very life. “First things first, and all other things in their place,” becomes our principle, with the result that all the human affairs of everyday existence assume their proper place, which is by far not the first.
Our soul accustoms itself to live in truth, that is, in the divine. Our feet rest solidly on the earth but our conversation, that is, the whole tenor of our life, is in Heaven. The supernatural takes precedence over the natural. Our efforts to approach divine realities constrain divine realities to respond, and by the normal workings of habit, they begin to control us, to dominate us.
If one tries often and for long periods to adapt himself to a certain climate, he will eventually feel as if the climate has adapted itself to him, becoming a part of his existence.
We are all familiar with the expression “master an idea”; it would be much better to say, “Be mastered by an idea.” Prayer achieves this for us. It establishes union with God not only while we pray, but makes this union relatively easy for us, in keeping with our character and occupations, even when we are not explicitly occupied with prayer.
Consider again a conversation with a friend. Once the conversation has ended, the contact is not broken; it is less lively, perhaps, less real, more diffuse, but effective still. Multiple memories arise: the words spoken, the dear face, the continued sense of the happiness of being together.
Our friend has gone and yet remains. No one else sees him, but we never cease seeing him, and all that we do, we do in the light of his invisible presence, just as a young wife finds her whole house brightened by her husband band even when he is away at work.
When we deal with our divine Friend, the supernatural action of grace cooperates with the normal and human workings of habit. God never allows Himself to be outdone in generosity. He seeks those who seek Him. He pursues with His attentions the soul that places its happiness in loving Him or at least puts forth effort to give Him, whenever it can, a proof of love.
When we exert ourselves in prayer to think only of Him, He comes to us in the midst of our occupations. That is characteristic of the Holy Spirit. He is magnificently grateful, reciprocating a hundredfold every little attention we pay Him.
Of course, it is true, as was suggested before, that our occupations, some of which are so absorbing, our disposition and temperament frequently so unstable, our imagination and feelings constantly active, are sometimes helps and very often hindrances to these divine contacts, these occasional and fleeting communications.
But the law holds: to pray sometimes helps to pray often; nothing more readily develops the spirit of prayer than prayer; nothing so impels God to unite Himself to us at every moment as our resolute effort to meet Him at fixed times for prayerful repose close to His Heart. We must not expect God to make all the advances; we, too, must expend some effort.
Before we try to arrive at an intelligent understanding of what this effort means, we will give some thought to the meaning of prayer. Our “elevation toward God,” which is prayer, can take place in three ways.
In its weakest form, it consists simply in being in the state of grace. According to many authors, all acts placed when this fundamental state of union exists and the soul possesses divine life can justifiably be called prayer.
Others claim that to have prayer, in the strict sense of the word, there must be in addition to the fundamental state of grace an intention of elevation toward God. This intention can be actual or virtual. It is actual if formulated at the moment one starts to act: “My God, I offer You this work,” whether the words be said explicitly or implied by an equivalent act.
It is virtual if it has been formulated at a time considerably antecedent to the beginning of the act it elevates to God. For example, in the morning on arising we can direct to the Most High through the Morning Offering, or any other formula, all the activity of the day. Then, as the hours and minutes roll by, the various actions rise in homage to God. We may, too, from time to time throughout the day, think of raising our mind and heart to God.
At the time we make these intentions, the Morning Offering, and the other periodic offerings, they are clearly actual; their effect of “elevation” governs virtually the length of time that follows until the next actual intention. In this way, strong states and weak states follow upon one another to constitute a continuous and almost constant elevation of the soul.
What we would like to stress here is the manner of making the good intention as constantly actual as possible. We know that “to pray always” does not command us to a state of constant actual elevation exclusively, and that the majority of souls united to God live rather in a state of virtual elevation.
Our Lord does not require continuous acts of union that, we might say, are for the most part impossible, but a continuous state of offering. In other words, God asks not so much for constant attention to Him as for the constant intention to do nothing that is not wholly for Him.
We will not rest satisfied with a virtual intention only, but seek to attain a union with God that is morally constant and actual. We say morally constant, because, clearly, aside from special graces, our capacity for attention, even when wisely and consistently disciplined, is too weak and our occupations in many instances are too distracting to permit the twin effort necessary to think at one and the same time of what we are doing and of God, for whom we work.
Coloring pages for your children….
As Sr. Lucia of Fatima said this is a time of diabolical disorientation. We find an amazing type or image of this in the life of St. John of the Cross. To conquer this inversion, as St. John did, we must remain firm and steadfast in our faith and employ the power of the Most Holy Trinity in casting the devil out of our lives. This is always done through the making of the Sign of the Cross…
Tammy was feeling testy lately and she didn’t know why. She felt like this periodically and it was an uncomfortable sort of thing. Kind of like a cloud that had settled around her…a greyish one that made her uneasy…like all was not okay.
She was short with the kids and her husband, which made the cloud a little more dense. She felt like she was losing control and slipping…
Many things had her worried. Things like…
Why is Susie disobeying so much lately?
How can I get little George potty-trained?
Hubby seems so tired lately…I hope everything is all right.
I wish I wouldn’t have gained that 5 lbs.…
My prayer life needs help…
Why is the neighbor so grouchy with me these days?
And on and on.
This weekend a visiting priest was coming to give a women’s conference. Tammy wasn’t looking forward to it. She had this unpleasant feeling she would walk away from it feeling even more inadequate than ever.
No, she wasn’t praying enough.
Yes, her routine was often messed up…sometimes through her own fault.
No, she hadn’t been making it very often to daily Mass.
She felt she would be reminded of these many inadequacies that were weighing heavy upon her.
Tammy made it through the rest of the week, each day muddling through as the cloud of anxiety stuck with her. It was in the background, and, though Tammy managed to get the basics done each day… it was there, like a chronic itch that was especially annoying when one was being still.
Saturday came. Hubby had said he would watch the kids so Tammy could go to the conference. Tammy was off to Mass, doing her best to have a positive attitude about the talks.
As Tammy sat down in the hall, she noticed many other women coming to take part in the conferences. She wondered if they had it all together. They were smiling, talking and laughing. Tammy said hi to several of them as they were, of course, familiar faces, many of them were friends.
Father went to the podium and introduced himself and began his talk. Tammy fidgeted and tried to pull her thoughts away from the many chores that awaited her at home.
As Father proceeded in his talk, she started to take more notice.
“I’m here today to take that baseball bat that you keep hitting yourself with, out of your hand…”
Hmmm…she thought. That would probably be a good thing.
“We often rely on our own power, our own strength to overcome our faults and failings. We also rely on ourselves often to ‘fix things’ that are, a lot of times, out of our control,” he continued.
“And even if there IS something we should or should not be doing, the strength to carry this out and the wisdom to know what we should be doing evades us. We want answers but we don’t have them.
So, really, the solution to these daily problems is a continual crying out to God for help…for grace, for wisdom. It’s as simple as that…. a continual reaching out to Him Who wants to help in all the nitty gritty details of life.
But how do you do that, as busy wives, and mothers? You often hit the ground running as you struggle to get the day rolling with the multitude of needs that beg to be met.
In the morning, on arising, we can direct to the Most High through the Morning Offering, all the activity of the day.
This is most important, because as the hours and minutes roll by, the various actions rise in homage to God.”
Ok, I do that, thought Tammy. So at least I am starting out my day by doing the right thing.
The priest continued….
“From time to time throughout the day, think of raising our mind and heart to God. Each person has their own individual way of conversing with God. And this is good. God loves us and He made us each with a unique personality and way of expressing ourselves.
A continual conversation with Him throughout the day is very valuable! Like a best friend, and of course, He is the very best, take your cares, your joys, your struggles to Him throughout the day. Talk to Him.
It’s not difficult to do this…it is a matter of habit…of remembering to lift our hearts to Him often throughout the day.
How can we do this? Find ways that help you remember.
As you are getting dressed in the morning, talk familiarly with God. Imagine putting on the armor of God and ask Him to protect you from any evil that may come your way today, to protect you from negative thoughts, from getting discouraged. Ask Him to help you smile more, be more relaxed and peaceful about things….or whatever you wish to say to Him first thing in the morning.
When you have your morning tea or coffee, a quick prayer of gratefulness to Him who gave you this to enjoy is valuable.
As you are teaching school, pray for those children who are having problems…a quick prayer…and then for yourself, the teacher, the mother.
During the children’s nap time, send a quick prayer to the Holy Ghost that you use the time wisely. Then go about your business.
Ask for energy, temperance, kindness, etc. often during the day…”
Father went on about intimately conversing with God and with Our Lady because they are truly our best friends.
Then he concluded, “If it is one thing I am going to give you as homework from this conference, it is this:
Increase your conversation with God throughout the day.
That’s it.
Yes, say your regular prayers, try to say them better. But most importantly, talk to Him throughout the day about your fears, your frustrations, your loneliness, your joys, your gratefulness, etc.”
Tammy walked away that day with a lighter step. Father did not make her feel guilty…he just encouraged her to seek for a deeper relationship with God…not by spending more time in prayer but by learning to converse with Him throughout the day. She felt she could do that.
The next few days, Tammy talked to God, Our Lady, the saints and her Guardian Angel about a lot of things throughout the day… her neighbor’s grouchiness, (“St. Anne, please help my neighbor with whatever it is that is bothering her”) Susie’s disobedience (“Blessed Mother, help Susie, and help me to know what to do”), her bothersome weight gain (“Dear Lord, give me wisdom and temperance”), etc. Little prayers were being sent up all through the day as Tammy thought of it…
After a month or so, Tammy realized something…that cloud of anxiety had dissipated…it was gone!
The problems were still there, there would always be problems, but that cloud of anxiety Our Lord had taken care of. By her continual reaching out to Him, He had in turn, given her more peace in her days!
And it showed in her family life. Her husband made a comment to her that he noticed she was more at peace, more cheerful. This made him happier, too. The children seemed to get along better and, well, life in general, perked up! After all, if Mama’s not happy, her little world feels it!
Tammy was very grateful!
Never forget that it is God’s will that the parents should be the ones to teach the child to pray, as Mary and Joseph helped the boy Jesus to advance in wisdom and grace. -A Dominican Nun, 1954
We must realize that building back to traditional values starts, first, in ourselves and in our homes. Which, in turn, will affect our communities and society in general. And our dress is a powerful means to do just that! It IS like a billboard saying, “There is still something beautiful, noble and good in this world, and it is worth living for.”
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Losing your peace of soul over the state of the world and the Church? Don’t! Consider the following books…..
We live in an age characterized by agitation and lack of peace. This tendency manifests itself in our spiritual as well as our secular life. In our search for God and holiness, in our service to our neighbor, a kind of restlessness and anxiety take the place of the confidence and peace which ought to be ours. What must we do to overcome the moments of fear and distress which assail us? How can we learn to place all our confidence in God and abandon ourselves into his loving care? This is what is taught in this simple, yet profound little treatise on peace of heart. Taking concrete examples from our everyday life, the author invites us to respond in a Gospel fashion to the upsetting situations we must all confront. Since peace of heart is a pure gift of God, it is something we should seek, pursue and ask him for without cease. This book is here to help us in that pursuit.
Reverend Irala here addresses ways to promote mental and emotional well-being to help increase one’s health, efficiency and happiness. He speaks on topics such as how to rest, think, use the will, control feelings, train the sexual instinct, be happy, and choose an ideal. Included are also many practical instructions on dealing with mental struggles of all kinds. This book is most useful in our present times of worldly confusion.
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From Your Soul’s Salvation by Rev. Edward F. Garesche, S.J.
Our waking hour is more important than we ever dream. It has in itself the keynote of the day.
When we first open our eyes in the morning, what do we think of, what do we resolve? Our acts and thoughts are so linked together that upon this first moment depends the color and the action of the following hours.
Great wisdom, then, to give those first moments to Him to whom we wish the whole day to go — to God. Most of us, when we awake, are inclined to cast a half-conscious glance over the day and see what it has in store for us.
Out of our sleepy eyes we look forward through the waking hours and speculate and plan. If there is any special good fortune in store for us, it makes us cheerful. If we anticipate a coming sorrow, we grow sad.
Now, whether sorrow or joy is coming to us, the wisest thing we can do is to give it all over from the beginning into the Hands and into the Heart of God.
Our first thought is to be a loving thought of God which will consecrate our mind and inspire our thoughts through all the day. Our first act of the will is to be an offering of the day with all its thoughts and words and actions in union with His Sacred Heart and with the Heart of His Blessed Mother and with the tremendous sacrifice of the Mass which He offers on so many altars every morning.
This intention, never withdrawn, and, better still, often renewed during our waking hours, will make Christ live in us and let us live in Him.
Besides the Morning Offering, there is another most blessed and fruitful practice which we should all resolve upon and which begins at the waking hour. It is called by spiritual writers the examen of conscience, and it is practiced in this way:
After we have offered our thoughts and words and acts to God, we cast a glance over the coming day and make a strong and earnest purpose to serve God faithfully all during the hours. We foresee perhaps some special difficulty we shall meet in the way of goodness, and resolve and pray to overcome it.
We anticipate some special occasion of doing good and make up our mind gladly to embrace it. Then, in a little prayer, we thank God for His blessings already given, ask pardon for our past offenses, and beg His grace that during the coming day we may go forward in His service and not offend Him.
This will take only a few moments when we wake, and it is the first part of our examination of conscience. The hours run swiftly and bring us to noon — a splendid time to pause and look backward and forward. This will be the second part of our examen.
At some quiet moment we once more think of the good resolutions of the morning. How have we carried them out? We run over rapidly hour by hour, ask ourselves what we have done for God and what we have done against Him. “Give an account of thy stewardship.” We are anticipating God’s judgment.
A good order for our thoughts is this: First, a brief act of thanksgiving for God’s goodness during the morning. Second, a prayer for light that we may know how we have served or offended Him. Third, the brief review of the hours of the morning. Fourth, an act of deep sorrow for whatever sins we have committed and finally an earnest little prayer for grace to serve God better in the future.
After this little interview with God, you will feel a new courage and peace. Then renew your offering and resolutions of the morning, and resolve most earnestly to serve God with more diligence and love from noon until dark.
The afternoon runs on and brings us swiftly to night. The hour of bedtime comes. Now is the time to complete your daily examination. After your prayer is said and before you go to sleep, run briefly again over the five points which you touched on at your midday examen, a prayer of thanks, a prayer for light, then go over the hours of the afternoon and see in what you have offended God and in what you have pleased Him.
Then a brief but fervent act of sorrow and finally an earnest prayer that tomorrow you may make up for today and that you may go forward in praising and loving God.
If this is your last thought at night, you will wake up in the morning with thoughts of God in your mind and ready to renew again this holy and simple progress toward goodness.
This practice is most earnestly commended by all spiritual writers, and it has done wonders in bringing ordinary Christians to heights of goodness. It consecrates the whole day to God, and at what slight expense!
Only three moments are needed, at morning, noon, and night, and it will cost you no time and very little effort to give these moments to God. Yet if He sees you in earnest in this holy practice, He will enrich your whole day with many graces.
Begin this very day and resolve that tomorrow your waking hour will be given to God, that at noon and night and all successive days, you will practice the fruitful activity of this general examen of conscience.
There is another part to this devotion of the examen of conscience, and it is called the particular examen.
In the particular examen we set ourselves to practice some virtue, or to root out some special fault. It is an old remark that every man has some predominant weakness, some central and foundation fault which shows itself in all his sins.
With some it is an inordinate pride, with others a love of pleasure, with others still a love of ease. These besetting sins have been classified, as it were, under the heads of the seven deadly sins of Pride, Covetousness, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy, and Sloth.
By thinking a bit over our own misdeeds, we shall easily see to which one of these sins we are most inclined. There then is our dangerous enemy, and to obtain the opposite virtue should be our most earnest object and desire.
If our fault is a very glaring one and may be observed and give scandal to others, then we should attack it directly by means of a particular examen. But if it is a fault which shows itself more in sins of omission than of commission, it is better sometimes not to attack it directly, but to try to remedy it by cultivating the opposite virtue.
Thus, for instance, if we are given to outbursts of anger, our particular examen should be directed toward correcting our temper. But if we are inclined to the sin of sloth or that of selfishness, then we should do better to cultivate the opposite virtue, and to make our particular examen bear on being energetic and industrious, or on doing good to others.
What is the particular examen? It consists in this, that at three times or moments, the hour of waking, midday, and the hour of retiring, we join to our general examination of conscience this following practice: After going over the five points described, we should call briefly to mind the special fault which we have determined to correct, or the special virtue we have resolved to practice.
In the morning we make a strong resolve to practice this virtue or correct the fault so many times during the course of the morning. At noon, we carefully recall how many times we have fulfilled our resolution, trying to make the number of faults decrease and the number of acts of virtue increase from day to day, and from examen to examen.
It is useful to note down in a little book the results of our examens, and to make comparison day by day. This will give added interest and will afford a useful check on our progress.
At night again we make a review of the time since noon, to discover our progress, then we thank God for His kind assistance, ask His pardon for our faults, and make a fresh resolve for the coming day.
This practice of the particular examen is of immense use in correcting our faults and implanting virtues. We should keep manfully on until we find the fault we were working at is satisfactorily under control, and the virtue we aimed at is fairly implanted in us.
Then we should go on to the next defect in our character, and try to remove it in the same practical way.
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Cheerful Chats for Catholic Children Book. Short Stories for Catholic Children with a Moral and a Prayer following each Anecdote
This is a unique book I have written of Catholic devotions for young children. There is nothing routine and formal about these stories. They are interesting, full of warmth and dipped right out of life. These anecdotes will help children know about God, as each one unfolds a truth about the saints, the Church, the virtues, etc.
Here is a complete guide to mature, responsible, even noble behavior in our complex modern society. Written in the 1930s by a wise Jesuit priest and steeped in the wisdom of the ages, these pages teach the timeless principles that have led countless souls to true success and lasting happiness.
Without condescension, Fr. Garesché shows how to maintain a healthy mind, resist temptations, grow temperate, practice fortitude, think kindly of others, and choose worthwhile amusements. He even explains how to accept criticism graciously and how to develop the kind of confidence that is not rooted in pride, but is the necessary foundation for any life that will be productive and holy. Once you assimilate the wisdom here, you’ll know how to find genuine success the success that transcends money, fame, and pleasure.
Fr. Garesché shows you how to become an apostle for Christ in myriad ways, not only at home among your family and friends, but even at work. Youll learn how to talk about religion with your friends as naturally as you discuss sports or current events. He even gives you tips on how you can bear witness to your faith in Jesus Christ not just in what you say, but in what you do.
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Going home from church, the newlyweds are not going out of the spiritual atmosphere into a worldly one. They are not leaving the Sacrament behind in the house of God. Their union in marriage, their home and their hearts must remain filled with the grace and love of the Lord. A family is actually a little kingdom of God.
These thoughts have prompted Christians at all times to express their union with God, not only as individuals, but also as a family.
It was the ancient custom among Catholics that, at least once a day, father, mother and children would gather in the home for common prayer. This practice deeply impresses its lasting mark on the hearts of the children.
It is not only an addition of individual praying, but a special source of grace and blessings which far transcends the power of an individual’s prayer and unites us with the Lord more deeply and intimately, according to His own word, “Where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
If this is true of any group, how much more does it apply to the prayerful union of parents and children! In fact, it is a common experience that even the small children who cannot yet talk, quickly adjust themselves to the spirit of devotion when the whole family prays. They seem to be inspired by the grace of Baptism, which gives them an instinctive grasp of the supernatural far beyond their natural capacities.
Held in the arms of the mother, such a little child will watch the praying family with large and solemn eyes, even try to fold his hands and assume an attitude of reverence, which is entirely different from his usual behavior.
When parents sometimes complain that their smaller children are not quiet or silent in church, perhaps the reason is in many cases that their children have never breathed the atmosphere of prayer at home.
There is a radiance of warmth and attractive dignity about a father and mother who not only give their children the example of individual prayer, but join with them in a common practice of devotion and family prayer.
In recent times this practice has died out in many homes.
Some people still keep a trace of it in the form of grace at meals; but even this custom is fast disappearing, especially among the younger ones. They are either ashamed or careless, or they persuade themselves there is not enough time to pray before meals. Thus many a “Catholic” home never unites the family in common prayer, to the great spiritual loss of each individual member.
Thank God, in recent years the practice of the family Rosary has spread far and wide. Besides obtaining graces and blessings, it has also resulted in a revival of family prayer. All those who have at heart the kingdom of God in the home can do no better apostolic work than spreading the family Rosary among their friends.
Even in our attendance at liturgical services, especially Holy Mass and Communion, the participation of the family as a whole should be the ideal. It is a pity that practical considerations make it seem necessary in many churches to separate the children from their parents on Sunday, that special children’s Masses should have to be held at which the parents are not allowed, and vice versa.
Our Lord loves every good family so much that one cannot help thinking how greatly He would enjoy seeing parents and children together at His Holy Sacrifice and receiving Him together, as a family.
Besides the act of prayer, there are many ancient customs of sanctifying the home through the use of the sacramentals of the Church: holy water, blessed candles, food blessed by the priest on certain feast days, blessed palms, Easter water, etc.
As we have the altars and shrines in our churches, so a Catholic family would do well to keep a simple but dignified shrine in the home. It would be a symbol to all members that their lives belong to God, that religion and prayer are not merely a Sunday affair, and that the home of Christians is a holy place. How cold are the houses and homes in which no trace of a religious object is found!
More and more Catholic homes in the United States are adopting the custom of Mary gardens. A fairly large statue of the Blessed Virgin is placed outside the house, surrounded by nature’s tribute of trees, shrubs and flowers.
This is not only an honor to Our Lady and a public profession of our faith, but also a powerful encouragement of our devotion to Mary and a source of pious inspiration for many who behold this beautiful sight.
In this troubled world we need the prayers of children. Their souls are innocent, their petitions special in the Eyes of God. Let us get our children on their knees, and with fervor and the remarkable confidence of a child, let us get them to pray for our families, our country, our world….. www.finerfem.com
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Originally written as a religious sister’s guide for daily adoration, 100 Holy Hours for Women contains a plethora of profound spiritual insight into the mystery of the Eucharist. 100 Holy Hours encourages Christian women, of every calling and stage of life, to enter into quiet, loving conversation with Jesus. This book enables all to comprehend the love of Christ, who gave us his Body and Blood that we might come closer to him. Only in the Eucharist can we find the perfect example of total humility, self-sacrificial love, and holy submission. Only through the Eucharist can we hope to attain happiness in this world and the next.
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And that brings us to work as a form of prayer, and helping children understand that work done for the love of God is as tangible an act of love as if they were to run to Him with an embrace.
In the beginning, learning to make our bed, dry the dishes, and polish shoes is fun and a kind of play at being grown up, but soon the novelty wears off, and the chores that started out being fun can lose their glamour and become unpleasant drudgery.
If they are prayer, however, it can be different. Not that tasks we hate doing are suddenly transformed into occasions of great spiritual joy; but there’s a great difference between doing them because you’re told you must, and doing them because they can be applied to the sufferings of some other child somewhere, who has no bed to make, who must spend his nights curled up in a hole, shivering, starved, unhappy, and with no one to care for him.
Then there’s a good reason to try to make our bed with care instead of pulling up the covers to hide the rumples underneath. Then smoothing the sheets, and squaring the corners, and plumping the pillows can be small ceremonies of love from a small girl who does them because Christ can use them as balm for one of His suffering members.
And one of the loveliest things about teaching children that work is prayer is that mothers can’t help having it rub off on them.
These diapers that are changed daily, these meals that are cooked again and again, these floors that are scrubbed today only to get dirty tomorrow — these are as truly prayer in a mother’s vocation as the watches and prayers of the religious are in theirs.
Encourage your child to offer up his sufferings
There is suffering, too, in the lives of children, and it is eloquent prayer. Mere stoicism has no part in the training of a Christian. Too often it’s the death knell to humility.
But suffering embraced and offered to the suffering Christ, even with howls and tears, is a mighty weapon.
The road to Calvary was one long, unending bruise, and it helps a child to remember when he’s hurt that Jesus was hurt like this, and much more, and this pain in a mysterious way can be poured on His wounds and will help make up for the pain He had to bear. Every mother in the world kisses the bumps and bruises of her young to “make them well.”
We can give them something much more tangible to do with their hurts than merely bring them to be kissed. We can comfort and calm and then direct them in the use of the pain, and it’s surprising how willingly they will learn the lesson of pain and its value.
“Offer it up, dear; give it to Jesus to help comfort Him for the pain of the nails in His poor hands and feet.”
Faced as he is with a lifetime of recurring suffering (in one way or another), we give a child the only wholesome weapon to be used when we teach him to take his own pain in his own two hands and apply it freely, as he does work and play and prayer, to the comforting of Christ and His work in His Church.
Many times, parents will turn to scolding the “naughty chair” or the “bad table” in an effort to ease the pain and insult of a child who comes to grief through his own carelessness.
In the process, they feed little desires for vengeance; they give him no recourse but senseless, continuing rebellion against anything and everything that crosses him.
One time, a man who lives in our town was working on his car with no success, growing more and more angry because the cursed (and I do mean cursed) car would not start.
In a rage, finally, he threw his wrench at it, broke a part, and instead of a tricky repair job, he had added to his woes the problem of thumbing a ride to a service station to buy a new part, thumbing a ride back, and starting from scratch to install the new part.
Perhaps his explosion was only the fault of an ungovernable temper, but perhaps — who knows? — it had its beginning long ago in childhood when the only solace for a barked shin was, “Naughty chair to hurt the baby. Kick it back, sonny, kick it back.”
Living in a fallen world, our children are bound to be hurt, both physically and spiritually. We will save them years of wasted opportunities if we teach them that, along with everything else, pain is part of their prayer.
“It is astonishing what undreamed-of qualities a sense of responsibility awakens in a young soul; how the very idea that something depends on her, that she is being trusted, puts our little maid upon her mettle. Therefore it is a good plan to leave to a young daughter some particular duty or duties for which she is entirely responsible. This may of course be a very slight thing to begin with—the dusting of a room, or the arrangement of flowers or books, or the superintendence of the tea-table; but whatever it is, the mother should insist that it be done regularly and at the appointed time. Thus will she teach her child punctuality and a primary lesson in a method, which is the key to all perfect housekeeping. Of course it is a little trouble to the mother to superintend the performance of such little duties, but she will have her reward in the daily increasing helpfulness of the daughter in the home.” – Annie S. Swan, Courtship and Marriage And the Gentle Art of Home-Making, 1894
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This is a unique book of Catholic devotions for young children. There is nothing routine and formal about these stories. They are interesting, full of warmth and dipped right out of life. These anecdotes will help children know about God, as each one unfolds a truth about the saints, the Church, the virtues, etc. These are short faith-filled stories, with a few questions and a prayer following each one, enabling the moral of each story to sink into the minds of your little ones. The stories are only a page long so tired mothers, who still want to give that “tucking in” time a special touch, or pause a brief moment during their busy day to gather her children around her, can feel good about bringing the realities of our faith to the minds of her children in a childlike, (though not childish), way. There is a small poem and a picture at the end of each story. Your children will be straining their necks to see the sweet pictures! Through these small stories, parents will sow seeds of our Holy Catholic Faith that will enrich their families all the years to come!
This revised 1922 classic offers gentle guidance for preteen and teenage girls on how to become a godly woman. Full of charm and sentiment, it will help mother and daughter establish a comfortable rapport for discussions about building character, friendships, obedience, high ideals, a cheerful spirit, modest dress, a pure heart, and a consecrated life.
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It is not necessary to be a saint to enjoy prayer. Everyone who knows how to pray finds intense delight in prayer. To pray well demands no hard or difficult effort, nothing that the ordinary Christian cannot do with pleasure if only he knows how to do it.
First of all, what is prayer and how should we pray?
Prayer is certainly not the mere repetition of words without giving any attention to their meaning though, unfortunately, this is the way that thousands of otherwise good Christians are praying every day.
What then is prayer? Prayer is nothing else than talking to God, conversing with God Himself. When we kneel down and make the Sign of the Cross reverently, God at once turns to us and gives us all His attention as fully as if there was no one else in existence.
Can this be true? It is absolutely true, and as a consequence, when we pray we are enjoying an intimate, personal conversation with God Almighty. What a joy! What a privilege! What an immense consolation! We are speaking to God as truly and as really as Moses spoke to Him on Mount Sinai, as truly, as lovingly as Peter and John and Magdalene when He was on earth.
True, we do not see God with the eyes of our body, but we are perfectly sure by our faith that God is really and truly listening to every word we are saying. Oh, if Christians would only grasp this glorious truth, what delight would they not have in prayer! This was the secret of the Saints, but it is a secret so clear and easy that anyone can understand it.
Why did the Saints love to pray? Just because they knew and they felt that they were talking to God. Therefore, far from being wearisome it was an immense joy for them to pray.
This then is the first clear idea we must have when praying, viz., that we are talking to God in the most real and true sense of that word. There is nothing clearer, easier to understand, nothing more certain.
The second great thought is that God has bound Himself most solemnly to hear our prayers. “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.”
What words could possibly be clearer? These and similar promises our Blessed Lord made over and over again. It is quite certain that we never send up a prayer to God lovingly and confidently that He does not hear, and that does not bring us a great grace in return. We never yet said one prayer, never yet sent up one cry to God that was not heard. Of this there can be no possible doubt.
Sometimes God may not give us what we ask because He sees that it would not be good for us, but undoubtedly in this case He will give us another and a better grace. This, too, is an idea that we must thoroughly understand.
A third truth which we must bear in mind is that every prayer we say with reverence and trust, such as any ordinary Christian can say, gives God immense glory and pleasure. What a joy it should be to feel that we are giving real joy to God. But does God really bother about us?
God does not only love us, but He most earnestly desires our love and affection in return. “Behold the Heart that loves men so much, but is so little loved by men.” These are His own very words addressed to each of us.
Fourthly, our prayers obtain for us many important graces and blessings which we shall never get and never enjoy if we do not ask for them. If a Christian believes these truths, as he is bound to do, is he not a madman if he omits his prayers?
Fifthly, all men desire happiness, all men seek happiness, all men work for happiness. Unfortunately, men seek happiness in a thousand different ways and never find it. They lose their time.
God alone gives happiness, as God alone gives life and health. Happiness is God’s greatest gift, for it embraces what is best for us. God, as we have said, promises to give us all good things if we ask for them. What can be easier than to ask God every day in our prayers for happiness? Why do not men ask God for happiness? They do not think.
True, it is not possible to have perfect happiness in this life, because we are in a vale of tears due to the sin of Adam and due to our own sins, which bring so much sorrow and suffering with them. However we can have a great measure of happiness in this life, and it is God and God alone who can and will give us this great measure of happiness if we confidently and lovingly ask Him for it.
There is no better, no surer way of attaining happiness than by praying for it. Men who do not pray for happiness must be very ignorant, or very foolish.
On the other hand, all of us have to face some suffering. No one can avoid suffering, sickness, pain and disappointments. But here again God helps us. No pain comes to us without God’s permission; not even a hair falls from our heads without His consent.
When God permits suffering He always helps us to bear it. He always gives a grace, a strength, a consolation which enables us to bear the cross He sends us. But once more, we must ask Him.
The very suffering He sends is a reminder to us to go to Him, to ask His help. In pain and sorrow and danger we run to God as the little child runs to its mother in the moment of danger.
One may ask, “But do we not see men in the world happy who do not pray to God?” God allows all in His infinite mercy and compassion a certain measure of the goods of this life. He makes His sun to shine on the just and the unjust, but the pleasure, the joys, the happiness of men who do not love God are full of bitterness and sadness.
Their lives are exposed to many and cruel disappointments, and in their sufferings they have no real comfort, they have no one to go to for consolation.
The good Christian knows that for every pain he has, he will have a great reward in Heaven. He knows that his sufferings are nothing else than a part in the sufferings and Passion of his Lord.
Every word and act of Our Lord was a lesson for us to learn, an example to follow. The greatest lesson of all, the greatest proof of His love for us was His suffering for us. Who, then, is not ready to suffer a little for the love of that God who suffered so much for us?
Our Lord, who was God, suffered; His Blessed Mother suffered. All good men suffer, but they feel that they are only having a little share in the sufferings of their dear Lord. They know full well that every pain will have its reward forever in Heaven, that five minutes’ suffering is worth far more to them than years of pleasure and joy.
Above all, they feel that God is helping them to suffer. Therefore real peace and happiness God and God alone can give and gives to all who ask Him for it in prayer.
Our work within the home can be transformed into a powerful prayer. One day of making meals and changing diapers, of reading stories and sweeping floors, when offered to Our Lord, is worth much more than a day’s work for those at the very top of their profession working just for monetary reasons… www.finerfem.com
HOW TO BE HAPPY HOW TO BE HOLY (by Fr. Paul O’Sullivan) AUDIO! This is an excellent book published in the 1950’s. You will pray as you have never prayed before. Father Paul O’Sullivan teaches Christians a) how to pray. b) how to derive immense benefits from prayer. c) how to enjoy the deep consolations of prayer.
Do you need some good reading suggestions? Visit….
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by Leane VanderPutten
In this troubled world we need the prayers of children. Their souls are innocent, their petitions special in the Eyes of God. Let us get our children on their knees, and with fervor and the remarkable confidence of a child, let us get them to pray for our families, our country, our world….. 
