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