Aggie Awakening [4th Day]

"How come we so rarely seem to experience the fruit of prayer? We have the impression that we come out of prayer like we entered into it; no one answers us with even one word, gives us anything at all; we have the impression that we have labored in vain. But what does the Lord say in the gospel? “Stop judging by appearances and make a just judgment.” (Jn 7 :24) What is a just judgment other than a judgment of faith? For “the just man shall live by faith.” (Gal 3:11) So follow the judgment of faith rather than your experience, for faith does not deceive, whereas experience can lead into error." -St Bernard

"What does the sea indicate but the present age, which is disturbed by the uproar of circumstances and the commotion of this perishable life? What does the solidity of the shore signify but the uninterrupted continuance of eternal peace? Therefore since the disciples were still held in the waves of this mortal life, they were laboring on the sea. But since our Redeemer had already passed beyond his perishable body, after his resurrection he stood on the shore as if he were speaking to his disciples by his actions of the mystery of his resurrection: 'I am not appearing to you on the sea, because I am not with you in the waves of confusion' (Mt 14,25)"
-St Gregory the Great

“The sisters do not say, “Lord, come and heal him.” They merely explain that Lazarus is ill, they say, he is sick. This is to remind us that, when we are dealing with a friend, it is enough to make known our necessity, we do not need to add a request. For a friend, since he wills the welfare of his friend as he wills his own, is as anxious to ward off evil from his friend as he is to ward it off from himself. This is true most of all in the case of Him who, of all friends, loves most truly. The Lord keepeth all them that love him (Ps. cxliv. 20).”
-St Thomas Aquinas

“Now the divine house which Joseph ruled with the authority of a father, contained within its limits the scarce-born Church. From the same fact that the most holy Virgin is the mother of Jesus Christ is she the mother of all Christians whom she bore on Mount Calvary amid the supreme throes of the Redemption; Jesus Christ is, in a manner, the first-born of Christians, who by the adoption and Redemption are his brothers. (Rm 8:29)”
-Pope Leo XIII

“As fire can give out nothing but heat and is incapable of giving out cold; and as the sun gives out nothing but light and is incapable of giving out darkness, so God is incapable of doing anything but good. For he is infinite goodness and light, a sun giving out endless light, a fire producing endless warmth. “He has done all things well.”
-St Lawrence of Brindisi

“Why are you downcast? See. Someone's hands are filthy; a little oil makes them clean. How much more can God's compassion purify you. For just as you have no difficulty in washing your garment, in the same way - and even more - it is not difficult for the Lord to wash you clean from all reproach even if each day you naturally have to experience temptation. Indeed, the instant you say: "I have sinned against the Lord", the response is given you: "Your sins are forgiven" (Mt 9:2). "It is I who wipe out and remember no more" (Is 43:25 LXX). "As far as the east is from the west so far has he removed your sins. As a father has compassion on his children, I have had compassion on you" (Ps 102[103], 12-13 LXX).”
-John of Karpathos, The Philokalia

"Only do not keep away or distance yourself from He who has chosen you to sing and pray, but all your life long remain close to him either through pure confidence or by a holy audacity and courageous confession. The he will hear and purify you. Is he not God who has justified us in his love for human souls? Who will condemn us? (cf. Rm 8:33). If we invoke the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, our conscience is easily purified and nothing separates us from the prophets and other saints." -John of Karpathos, The Philokalia

The Christian Super Bowl Ad They SHOULD Have Made | He Saves Us A group known as 'He Gets Us' released an advert during the Super Bowl which, whilst perhaps well intentioned, failed to convey anything of the gospel to the...

"We fast for three reasons:
-As St. Jerome says, “ Without Ceres, and Bacchus, Venus would freeze,” as much as to say that lust loses its heat through spareness of food and drink.
-That the mind may more freely raise itself to contemplation of the heights. We read in the book of Daniel that it was after a fast of three weeks that he received the revelation from God (Dan. x. 2-4).
-To make satisfaction for sin. This is the reason given by the prophet Joel, Be converted to me with all your heart, in fasting and in weeping and in mourning (Joel ii. 12)" -St Thomas Aquinas

A blessed and restful Lord’s Day to you.
—from “A Father Who Keeps His Promises” bit.ly/2LRFZNA

"Mary is the image of the Church, the image of believing man, who can come to salvation and to himself only through the gift of love—through grace. . . She does not contest or endanger the exclusiveness of salvation through Christ; she points to it. She represents mankind, which as a whole is expectation and which needs this image all the more when it is in danger of giving up waiting and putting its trust in doing, which—indispensable as it is—can never fill the void that threatens man when he does not find that absolute love which gives him meaning, salvation, all that is truly necessary in order to live."

Joseph Ratzinger, "Introduction to Christianity"