Memorial Day

"Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? or distress? or famine? or nakedness? or danger? or persecution? or the sword?
(As it is written: For Thy sake we are put to death all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.)
But in all these things we overcome, because of Him that hath loved us.
For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord"
--.Romans 8:35-39 (Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition)
   

Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary

"O Queen of the world, most worthy Mary, virgin perpetual, intercede on behalf of our peace and safety, thou who didst bring forth Christ the Lord, the Saviour of us all."

--from the Mass of Our Lady Virgin and Queen

His will

"God for His service needeth not proud work of human skill; they please Him best who labour most in peace to do His will."
- William Wordsworth

Saint Joan of Arc

"She was the bravest of the brave."
                        Andrew Lang comparing Joan to William Wallace and other brave leaders. 

Saint Joan of Arc, pray for us.

Ember Saturday--"Comfort"

Speak low to me, my Saviour, low and sweet
From out the hallelujahs, sweet and low
Lest I should fear and fall, and miss Thee so
Who art not missed by any that entreat.
Speak to me as to Mary at thy feet!
And if no precious gems my hands bestow,
Let my tears drop like amber while I go
In reach of thy divinest voice complete
In humanest affection - thus, in sooth,
To lose the sense of losing. As a child,
Whose song-bird seeks the wood for evermore
Is sung to in its stead by mother's mouth
Till, sinking on her breast, love-reconciled,
He sleeps the faster that he wept before.
--Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Ember Friday--"Consolation"

All are not taken; there are left behind
Living Belovèds, tender looks to bring
And make the daylight still a happy thing,
And tender voices, to make soft the wind:
But if it were not so—if I could find
No love in all this world for comforting,
Nor any path but hollowly did ring
Where 'dust to dust' the love from life disjoin'd;
And if, before those sepulchres unmoving
I stood alone (as some forsaken lamb
Goes bleating up the moors in weary dearth)
Crying 'Where are ye, O my loved and loving?'—
I know a voice would sound, 'Daughter, I AM.
Can I suffice for Heaven and not for earth?
--Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Whit Thursday

“Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.”

--Saint Francis de Sales

Ember Wednesday

"Have patience to walk with short steps until you have wings to fly.”

--Saint Francis de Sales

Whit Tuesday

"Be kind, be kind, and you will be saints."

--Ruysbroeck

Whit Monday

A sense of wonder is the way of understanding with a child's heart that all that's true and good has come from God; and all the beauty that we see is but a glimmer of His majesty.

Pentecost Sunday

"Suddenly there came a sound from Heaven, as of a mighty wind coming from where they were sitting, alleluia:  and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, speaking the wonderful works of God, alleluia."

--from the Mass of Pentecost Sunday, Acts 2. 2, 4
*Click on the picture to view a larger version.

To A Butterfly

I've watched you now a full half-hour,
Self-poised upon that yellow flower;
And, little Butterfly, indeed!
I know not if you sleep or feed.
How motionless!--not frozen seas
More motionless! and then
What joy awaits you, when the breeze
Hath found you out among the trees,
And calls you forth again!

This plot of orchard-ground is ours;
My trees they are, my Sister's flowers;
Here rest your wings when they are weary.
Here lodge as in a sanctuary!
Come often to us, fear no wrong;
Sit near us on the bough!
We'll talk of sunshine and of song,
And summer days when we were young;
Sweet childish days that were as long
As twenty days are now.

--William Wordsworth

Some rain

"Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall."
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Be not afraid

"My child, we must not be afraid of doing good, even if it costs us something."

--Saint Jean Vianney

Into joy

"It is possible that God wants of you some extraordinary self-dedication;  it is far more probable that He wants you only to turn the ordinary everyday troubles and crosses of life into joy."

--Reverend Gerald Vann, O.P. in Heart of Compassion

The Heart of God

"In the Heart of God there is but love."

--Saint Jean Vianney

Captivated

 "Yes, when a soul has allowed herself to be captivated by the inebriating fragrance of Thy perfumes, she could not run alone: all the souls whom she loves are drawn after her; this is a natural consequence of her attractions towards Thee."

--Saint Therese of Lisieux

Arrival

“If we really think that home is elsewhere and that this life is a 'wandering to find home,' why should we not look forward to the arrival?”

--C. S. Lewis

Ascension Thursday

"I have glorified Thee on the earth;  I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do; and  now glorify Thou Me, O Father, with Thyself, with the glory which I had before the world was, with Thee."
--Saint John 17. 1-11.

 (It is also the 93rd anniversary of the first apparition of Our Blessed Mother at Fatima, Portugal.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.)

Argent by the Tiber: Places of Beauty

Here is a link worth following:
Argent by the Tiber: Places of Beauty

Dream house

"He that planteth a tree is a servant of God, he
provideth a kindness for many generations, and
faces that he hath not seen shall bless him."
  --Henry Van Dyke

Gifts

"Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration."

-Saint James, Chapter 1, verse 17.

Love

“Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.”

--C.S. Lewis

Mother

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us.

Faith

"Faith is that which, knowing the Lord's will, goes and does it; or, not knowing it, stands and waits, content in ignorance as in knowledge, because God wills -- neither pressing into the hidden future, nor careless of the knowledge which opens the path of action."

--George MacDonald

Made of love

"The soul is made of love and must ever strive to return to love. Therefore, it can never find rest or happiness in other things. It must lose itself in love. By its very nature, it must seek God, Who is love..."

--Saint Mechtilde

Twinned lambs...

"We were as twinned lambs that did frisk i' the sun,
And bleat the one at the other: what we changed
Was innocence for innocence; we knew not
The doctrine of ill-doing, nor dreamed
That any did."

-- from William Shakespeare' s The Winter's Tale

Seldom

"Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken."

--Jane Austen

Feast of Saint Monica

"For my mother, Your faithful servant, wept for me before You more than mothers
weep when lamenting their dead children. By the ‘faith and spiritual discernment’
(Gal 5:5) which she had from You, she perceived the death which held me, and
You heard her, Lord. You heard her and did not despise her tears which poured
forth to wet the ground under her eyes in ever place where she prayed."
.
--Saint Augustine in Confessions.

Saint Monica, pray for us that our prayers for our children may be answered as were yours so that God may be glorified in their salvation.

Two wings

 "The two wings of our souls, immune to any gust of wind, are true love and faith."

--Stanislas Xavier-Touchet