CALENDARIUM ROMANUM FORMA ORDINARIA

Always be careful that your occupations be not transformed into worries and become a spiritual concern. Although you are submerged in the waves, taken in storms of many difficulties, gaze upwards and always tell our Lord: O God, for you I sail and travel; Be my guide and my pilot! Meanwhile, concern yourselves to address the business one issue after the other, as best you can; And faithfully apply your mind, but gently and sweetly. If God grants you success, bless it; If he does not wish to grant it to you, bless that also. You just have to try to succeed with a good heart. Neither the Lord nor reason demand results from you, but the necessary application, commitment and diligence. Many things depend on us, but not success. Live in peace and rest on the divine Heart, without any fear, because there we are away from storms, and even the justice of God cannot reach so far. Strive to properly master the anxieties of your heart. Confidence and calm in the great work of your sanctification and that of others. To Jesus the rest.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

It is not I who undertook this work, but it is Christ the Lord who commanded me to come to be with these Irish pagans for the rest of my life, if the Lord shall will it and shield me from every evil (…) But I do not trust myself “as long as I am in this mortal body” (2 Pt 1:13; Rm 7:24) (… )I did not lead a perfect life like other believers, but I confess to my Lord and do not blush in his sight, because I am not lying; from the time when I came to know him in my youth, the love of God and fear of him increased in me, and right up until now, by God’s favour, “I have kept the faith” (2 Tm 4:7).       What is more, let anyone laugh and taunt if he so wishes. I am not keeping silent, nor am I hiding “the signs and wonders” (Dn 6:27) that were shown to me by the Lord many years before they happened, he who knew everything, even before the beginning of time. Thus, I should give thanks unceasingly to God, who has frequently forgive my folly and my negligence, in more than one instance, and has never been angry with me, who am placed as his helper, though I did not easily assent to what had been revealed to me, as the Spirit was urging. The Lord “took pity” on me “thousands upon thousands” of times, (Ex 20:6) because he saw within me that I was prepared to serve him. (…) Many were trying to prevent this mission; they were talking among themselves behind my back and saying, “Why is this fellow throwing himself into danger among enemies who do not know God?” Not from malice did they say this; as I myself can testify, they perceived my rusticity. And I was not quick to recognize the grace that was then in me; I now know that I should have done so earlier.       Now I have put it frankly to my brothers and co-workers, who have believed me because of what “I have proclaimed and still proclaim” (2 Co 13:2) to strengthen and reinforce your faith. I wish only that you, too, would make greater and better efforts. This will be my pride, for “a wise son makes a proud father”. (Pr 10:1)
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

O my Lord Jesus, how quickly will a person become poor who, loving you with all his heart, is unable to bear being more wealthy than his Beloved. How speedily will he become poor who, reflecting that all that is done to one of these little ones is done to you and that all that is not done to them is not done to you (Mt 25:40.45), brings comfort to all the neediness within his power. How quickly will he become poor who receives your words in faith: “If you would be perfect, sell what you have and give to the poor. Blessed are the poor. Everyone who has given up his possessions for my sake will receive a hundred times more and in heaven, eternal life” (Mt 19:21.29; 5:3) and so much more. O my God, I cannot believe some souls are able to see you poor and yet choose to remain rich, to see themselves as so much greater than their lord, their Beloved, and not want to be like you in everything insofar as it depends on them, especially in your humiliations. (…). In my view, anyway, I cannot think of love without a pressing need for conformity, for likeness and, above all, for sharing all the pains and difficulties, all the hardships of life. To be rich, at ease, living comfortably off my possessions when you were poor, afflicted and living painfully off a hard labor – no, I cannot, my God; I cannot love like that. It isn’t right that “the slave should be greater than his master” (Jn 13:16), nor that the bride should be rich when the Bridegroom is poor. (…) As for me, it seems impossible to me to comprehend love without a seeking for likeness (…), without a need to share in every cross.

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team