Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar

      [The Lord said to Moses on Mount Sinai: “Let me see your glory!” He answered: “I will make all my beauty pass before you (…) but my face you cannot see” (Ex 33:18 f).] Such an experience seems to me to belong to the soul which loves what is beautiful. Hope always draws the soul from the beauty which is seen to what is beyond (…) And the bold request which goes up the mountains of desire asks this: to enjoy the Beauty not in mirrors and reflections, but face to face. The divine voice granted what was requested in what was denied (…): the munificence of God assented to the fulfilment of the desire but did not promise any cessation or satiety of the desire (…) The true sight of God consists in this, that the one who looks up to God never ceases in that desire. For he says: “You cannot see my face and live” (…).        But when the Lord who spoke to Moses came to fulfil his own law, he likewise gave a clear explanation to his disciples, laying bare the meaning of what had previously been said in a figure when he said: “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine “ (Lk 9:23) and not “If any man will go before me.” And to the one asking about eternal life he proposes the same thing, for he says: “Come, follow me” (Lk 18:22). Now, he who follows sees the back. So Moses, who eagerly seeks to behold God, is now taught how he can behold Him: to follow God wherever he might lead is to behold God (…). Someone who does not know the way cannot complete his journey safely in any other way than by following behind his guide. He who leads, then, by his guidance shows the way to the one following. He who follows will not turn aside from the right way if he always keeps the back of his leader in view. For he who moves to one side or brings himself to face his guide assumes another direction for himself than the one his guide shows him. Therefore God says to the one who is led: “My face is not to be seen”, that is, “Do not face your guide”. If he does so, his course will certainly be in the opposite direction (…). You see how it is so great a thing to learn how to follow God (…). No longer does any offense which comes about through evil withstand the one who thus follows him.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

The Church has the right and the duty to appeal to the God of mercy “with loud cries” (Heb 5:7). These “loud cries” should be the mark of the Church of our times, (…) cries that implore mercy according to the needs of man in the modern world. (…) With this cry let us, like the sacred writers, call upon the God (…) who is faithful to Himself, to His fatherhood and His love. And, like the prophets, let us appeal to that love which has maternal characteristics and which, like a mother, follows each of her children, each lost sheep, even if they should number millions, even if in the world evil should prevail over goodness, even if contemporary humanity should deserve a new “flood” on account of its sins, as once the generation of Noah did. Let us have recourse to that fatherly love revealed to us by Christ in His messianic mission, a love which reached its culmination in His cross, in His death and resurrection. Let us have recourse to God through Christ, mindful of the words of Mary’s Magnificat, which proclaim mercy “from generation to generation.” Let us implore God’s mercy for the present generation (…). Let us offer up our petitions, directed by the faith, by the hope, and by the charity which Christ has planted in our hearts. This attitude is likewise love of God, whom modern man has sometimes separated far from himself, made extraneous to himself, proclaiming in various ways that God is “superfluous.” This is, therefore, love of God, the insulting rejection of whom by modern man we feel profoundly, and we are ready to cry out with Christ on the cross: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:24). At the same time it is love of people, of all men and women without any exception or division: without difference of race, culture, language, or world outlook, without distinction between friends and enemies.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

One of the most precious results of the life of union with God is the keeping alive of the fire of love in the soul, not only the fire of divine love but also of charity towards our neighbor. By frequent contact with the furnace of substantial love the soul is set on fire for God’s interests and glory and for the extension of Christ’s reign in hearts. The true inner life makes us give ourself to souls as well as to God: it is the fount of zeal. When one truly loves God, one desires that he be loved, that his name be hallowed, his kingdom come in souls and his will be done in us, “may his name be hallowed, his kingdom come in souls, his will be done in everyone” (cf. Mt 6:9-10). The soul that truly loves God deeply resents the injuries that are done to the object of its love: “a fainting takes hold of it because of the wicked that transgress the divine law” (Ps 118:53 Vg.) It suffers at seeing the empire of the prince of darkness extended by sin, for Satan “as a roaring lion goes about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pt 5:8); he has accomplices into whom he breathes an incessant ardor, a zeal of hatred against the members of Jesus Christ (cf. Ps 68:10 Vg.) What, in fact, is zeal? It is an ardor that burns and is communicated, that consumes and is spread abroad; it is the flame of love — or of hatred — manifested by action. The soul inflamed with holy zeal spends itself for the interests of God without counting the cost, it strives to serve them with all its powers. And the more glowing this inward fire is, the more it radiates outwardly. This soul is animated with that fire which Jesus Christ came to cast upon earth and so ardently desires to see kindled in us (cf. Lk 12:49).
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team

[Saint Catherine heard God say to her]: Whether the world wills it or not, it offers me glory. True, the people of the world do not offer me glory in the way they ought, by loving me above all things. But I for my part draw from them glory and praise for my name. For my mercy and the fulness of my charity are reflected in them because I lend them time and do not order the earth to swallow them up for their sins. No, I look on them and order the earth to give them a share of its fruits, and I command the sun to warm them and give them its light and heat, and I order the sky to move above them. In all created things made for them I employ my mercy and love, nor do I withdraw these because of their sins. I give to sinners as I give to the just — and often more to sinners than to just, because the just are ready to suffer, and I will deprive them of earthly goods in order to give them more abundantly of the goods of heaven. So my mercy and love shine on my servants sometimes in the persecutions the world’s servants inflict on them, proving in them the virtues of patience and charity. By offering constant, humble prayer my suffering servants turn it into glory and praise for my name. So whether the wicked will it or not, they offer me glory in this even though their intent is to insult me.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team