Use well the days

Round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though I have passed them by
A day will come
I will take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon and East of the Sun...
--J.R.R. Tolkien/Annie Lennox (Click here to see why Annie Lennox is billed with Tolkien.)

Thank you, Oliver!

Time

Time heals what reason cannot.

--Seneca

The beauty of the soul

As love grows within you, so beauty grows; for love is the beauty of the soul.
--Saint Augustine

A true friend

A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably.  

~William Penn

The gift

“Blessed are they who have the gift of making friends, for it is one of God's best gifts. It involves many things, but above all, the power of going out of one's self, and appreciating whatever is noble and loving in another.”

 

--Thomas Hughes

God's Love

“Though our feelings come and go, God’s love for us does not.”

--C. S. Lewis

Faith

“Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.”

-Rabindranath Tagore

The way we are

“God loves us the way we are, but too much to leave us that way.”

--Leighton Ford

Teaching

“By learning you will teach, by teaching you will learn.”

--Latin proverb

Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

"My heart hath uttered a good word:  I speak my works to the King."
--from the Introit of the Mass of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

"The Queen, the Queen, she is so beautiful!"
--Emmanuel Marcovitch (RIP)

(Happy birthday, Mary K.!)

True friends

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.  

~Elisabeth Foley

Clover

It's all I have to bring today –

This, and my heart beside –

This, and my heart, and all the fields –

And all the meadows wide –

Be sure you count –

should I forget

Some one the sum could tell –

This, and my heart, and all the Bees

Which in the Clover dwell.
--Emily Dickinson

A very small field

"We cultivate a very small field for Christ, but we love it, knowing that God does not require great achievements but a heart that holds back nothing for self."
-- St. Rose Philippine Duchesne

(Happy birthday, Emilie!)

Time enough

“The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.”

--Rabindranath Tagore

One word

"One word or a pleasing smile is often enough to raise up a saddened and wounded soul."
--Saint Therese of Lisieux

Good people

"What a great favor God does to those He places in the company of good people!"
-Saint Teresa of Avila

The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

"All glory be to Thee, Jesus, born of the Virgin, with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
The Holy Mother of God is lifted up on high, above the choirs of angels into the kingdom of Heaven."
--from First Vespers for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Angels

“Make friends with the angels, who though invisible are always with you. Often invoke them, constantly praise them, and make good use of their help and assistance in all your temporal and spiritual affairs.”
--Saiint Francis de Sales

Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The meaning of this painting: The Blessed Virgin Mary has fallen asleep for the last time on earth: she has not died, for death cannot touch the body which was the first dwelling place of the Word made flesh. Our Lord Himself comes to carry her to Heaven in His arms, even as His Mother first held Him in her arms in Bethlehem: look just behind the head of the sleeping Virgin in this painting and you will see Mary pictured as an infant in the arms of Our Lord.  The Apostles, gathered together by God's grace, witness this amazing sight and rejoice at the Blessed Virgin's wondrous transport from this world. Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints!

Two solitudes

“Love consists in this, that two solitudes protect and touch and greet each other”

--Rainer Maria Rilke

Nothing but Heaven

Nothing but Heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend.  

--Plautus

A letter

A letter always seemed to me like immortality because it is the mind alone without corporeal friend.  

--Emily Dickinson

Feast of Saint Lawrence

"The principle part of faith is patience."
--George MacDonald

Words

“Do not assume that she who seeks to comfort you now, lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good. Her life may also have much sadness and difficulty, that remains far beyond yours. Were it otherwise, she would never have been able to find these words.”

--Rainer Maria Rilke

Sunday Snippets

Sunday Snippets-A Catholic Carnival is a forum wherein Catholic bloggers are invited to share their posts with others. Here is a page from my own virtual book of days, A Trail Of Flowers, originally posted last Sunday: it is entitled Reward.  May you all have a lovely week filled with the priceless reward of God's grace.

Faith

“Faith is not simply a patience that passively suffers until the storm is past. Rather, it is a spirit that bears things - with resignations, yes, but above all, with blazing, serene hope.”

--Corazon Aquino

Love is...

“Love is…
something like the clouds that were in the sky before the sun came out.
You cannot touch the clouds, you know…
but you feel the rain and know how glad the flowers and the thirsty earth are
to have it after a hot day.
You cannot touch love either…
but you feel the sweetness that it pours
into everything.”
--Anne Sullivan

Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ

“Life is this simple: We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and God is shining through it all the time. This is not just a fable or a nice story. It is true. If we abandon ourselves to God and forget ourselves, we see it sometimes, and we see it maybe frequently. God shows Himself everywhere, in everything - in people and in things and in nature and in events. It becomes very obvious that He is everywhere and in everything and we cannot be without Him. It's impossible. It's simply impossible. The only thing is that we don't see it."

--Thomas Merton

Every moment

“Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul.”

--Thomas Merton

Patience

"Patience is the art of hoping.”

--Marquis de Vauvenargues

Feast of Saint Dominic

"You are my companion and must walk with me. If we hold together, no earthly power can withstand us."
--words of Saint Dominic addressed to Saint Francis of Assisi upon their first meeting.
Saint Dominic and Saint Francis, pray for us.

Wings

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

--Saint Francis de Sales

All is well

"Everything is a grace because everything is God's gift.  Whatever be the character of life or its unexpected events--to the heart that loves, all is well."

--Abbe Combes from The Spirituality of St. Therese

Reward

“Love seeks one thing only: the good of the one loved. It leaves all the other secondary effects to take care of themselves. Love, therefore, is its own reward.”

--Thomas Merton