CALENDARIUM ROMANUM FORMA ORDINARIA

Do you remember that beautiful passage where Jesus says to Father “that He has given Him power over all flesh so that He might give eternal life to it” (Jn 17:2)? That is what He wants to do in you: at every moment He wants you to go out of yourself, to leave all preoccupations, in order to withdraw into the solitude He has chosen for Himself in the depths of your heart. He is always there, although you don’t feel it; He is waiting for you and wants to establish a “wonderful communion” with you, as we sing in the beautiful liturgy, an intimacy between bride and Bridegroom; He, through this continual contact, can deliver you from your weaknesses, your faults, from all that troubles you. Didn’t He say: “I have come not to judge but to save (Jn 12:47).” Nothing should keep you from going to Him. Don’t pay too much attention to whether you are fervent or discouraged; it is the law of our exile to pass from one state to the other like that. Believe that He never changes, that in His goodness He is always bending over you to carry you away and keep you safe in Him. If, despite everything, emptiness and sadness overwhelm you, unite this agony with that of the Master in the Garden of Olives, when He said to the Father: “If it is possible, let this cup pass me by (Mt 26:39).” It may perhaps seem difficult to forget yourself. Do not; worry about it; if you knew how simple it is…. I am going to give you my “secret”: think about this God who dwells within you, whose temple you are; Saint Paul speaks like this and we can believe him. Little by little, the soul gets used to living in His sweet company, it understands that it is carrying within it a little Heaven where the God of love has fixed His home. Then it is as if it breathes a divine atmosphere; I would even say that only its body still lives on earth while the soul lives beyond the clouds and veils in Him who is the Unchanging One. Do not say that this is not for you, that you are too wretched; on the contrary, that is only one more reason for going to Him who saves. We will be purified, not by looking at this wretchedness, but by looking at Him who is all purity and holiness.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

whoever desires from the Lord that “one thing,” and seeks after it, asks in certainty and in confidence… Because this blessing is nothing else than the “peace which passeth all understanding,” even when we are asking it in our prayers, we know not what to pray for as we ought. For inasmuch as we cannot present it to our minds as it really is, we do not know it, but whatever image of it may be presented to our minds we reject, disown, and condemn; we know it is not what we are seeking, although we do not yet know enough to be able to define what we seek. There is therefore in us a certain learned ignorance, so to speak — an ignorance which we learn from that Spirit of God who helps our infirmities. For after the apostle said, “If we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it,” he added in the same passage, “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us, with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is in the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” This is not to be understood as if it meant that the Holy Spirit of God, who is in the Trinity, God unchangeable, and is one God with the Father and the Son, intercedes for the saints like one who is not a divine person; for it is said, “He maketh intercession for the saints,” because He enables the saints to make intercession. He therefore makes the saints intercede with groanings which cannot be uttered, when He inspires them with longings for that great blessing, as yet unknown, for which we patiently wait.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

“You became imitators of our divine Lord,” says Paul. How? “Receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit” (1Thes 1,6). And not only in affliction but in the midst of afflictions and sufferings without number. You can confirm this from the Acts of the Apostles. There we see how persecution was stirred up against them and how their enemies denounced them to the magistrates and aroused the whole town. They were in affliction yet you cannot say they remained faithful with anguish and groaning. No! It was with great joy. The apostles had set them an example: “Rejoicing they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name of Christ” (Acts 5,41). Now here is something truly admirable! It is already a great deal to bear affliction patiently, but to rejoice in it is to show oneself above human nature and to possess nothing more than a passionless body, so to speak. But in what way were they imitators of Christ? In the very same thing he himself suffered without complaining but with joy. For it was by his own will that he found himself among such afflictions. It was for our sake that he humbled himself, going to meet the spitting, buffeting, and even the cross. And he so greatly rejoiced in this that he called it his glory. “Father,” he said, “glorify me” (Jn 17,5).

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team