"CUM GRANDE HUMILITATE!"

"Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words."

A special "Thank you!"
Goes out to
John Michael Talbot
for giving us permission
to use his song on our
"Come to the Quiet"
You Tube Video
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Showing posts with label Franciscan Lay Apostolate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Franciscan Lay Apostolate. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Contemplation Is A Way Out Of Self-Centeredness

 


Once we discover interior silence, compassion flows. The deeper we enter into inner silence, the deeper becomes our compassion for others. It is impossible to enter through the doorway into silence without becoming a part of God's embrace of al humanity in its suffering and joy.


T

Paradox Of the Mystical Life

 


One of the paradoxes of the mystical life is this: that a man cannot enter into the deepest center of himself and pass through that center to God unless he is first able to pass entirely out of himself and empty himself and give himself to other people in the purity of selfless love.


T

Loving The Creator Through His Creation

 






Instead of worshiping God through His creation we are always trying to worship ourselves by means of creatures.

T


Thursday, April 14, 2022

The Doorway Into The Silent Land Is A Wound

 


The doorway into the silent land is a wound. Silence lays bare that wound. We do not journey far along the spiritual path before we get some sense of the wound of the human condition, and this is precisely why most people abandon contemplation as soon as it begins to expose this wound; they move instead to some form of spiritual entertainment that will maintain distraction or hide us from our woundedness.


T

Wednesday, April 13, 2022

How Do I Give Glory To God?

 


A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. Likewise, I give glory to God by being who I am. Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of my discovering who I am and by discovering my true self. Not to accept and love and do God's will is to refuse the fullness of my existence.


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PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

 


Make me an instrument of your PEACE.

Where there is hatred, let me sow LOVE.

Where there is injury, PARDON.

Where there is doubt, FAITH.

Where there is despair, HOPE.

Where there is darkness, LIGHT.

And where there is sadness, JOY.

O DIVINE MASTER

Grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled, as to CONSOLE.

To be understood, as to UNDERSTAND.

To be loved as to LOVE.

For it is in GIVING that we receive,

It is in PARDONING

That we are pardoned.

And it is in dying

That we are born to ETERNAL LIFE.


                    T

Tuesday, April 12, 2022

What Have We Franciscans Become?


 Fr. Stan Fortuna: a true Franciscan Friar


Who are we Franciscans now? What have we Franciscans become? One giant shrine of stones hidden behind the walls of Assisi, Pogio Bustone, Fonte Colombo and Greccio? Is that all we are now? Where are the beggars in cords? Where are the beggars in patched habits? 


T

Self-Centered Prayer


True prayer demands that I be totally honest with myself because it is only the real me who can talk with God. If, for example, I feel the need to be "worthy" or "perfect" or "holy" before I am allowed to pray, then I will most likely never pray at all, or if I do, it will be a fake, self-aggrandizing, self centered me talking to myself rather than with God. 


T

Monday, April 11, 2022

Have You Ever Heard A Tree Grow?

 

Bronze statue of St. Francis of Assisi in La Verna, Italy

Have you ever heard a tree grow? Have you ever heard grass grow? I haven't. Have you ever stretched out across the ground at midnight and stared up at the moon and the stars? We do this every clear night at the Portiuncula. Tell me, what sound do the stars make as they move across the sky? NONE! Complete silence! No wonder our seraphic father, Saint Francis, loved nature so completely. This is how nature taught him to pray: in S-I-L-E-N-C-E!


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You Don't Know Me


 

If I say I love you and then begin to tell you about all those things I love about you and you say, "Well, you don't know anything about me then. You don't really know me!" Can the same thing be said about our love for Jesus Christ? In order know the true Jesus Christ and to fall in love with the reality of what and who He truly is, we must first divest ourselves of any pre-conceived notions we have of Him. We discover who Jesus really is by letting go of what we think Jesus is and allow Him to show us who He is.  


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Saturday, April 09, 2022

Saturday, April 02, 2022

Spiritual And Not Religious?

 


In an age when people claim to be "spiritual, not religious ," they really don't have a clue what either term means and their lack of motivation is quite common. We must long for truth, freedom, loving communion with the silent depths of God (like the depths of the ocean).

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