Meditation for the Feast of All Saints

 

Jesus Christ alone is singly to be loved; for He alone is found faithful above all friends. For His sake, and in Him, let enemies as well as friends be dear to thee; and for all these you must pray to Him, that all may know and love Him.

--from The Following of Christ.

Feast of All Saints

Love is not loved

Love wins? 

Yes, He does, at the end of the world. But, for now, while the world grows darker by the day, I can only echo the words of Saint Francis of Assisi which explain so much about the world as it now appears: "Love is not loved." And, alas, in that we all have some part.

--Kindred Spirit

 We shall steer safely through every storm, so long as our heart is right, our intention fervent, our courage steadfast, and our trust fixed on God.

--Saint Francis de Sales

Happy 28th birthday, Kollin.

Velvet Shoes

Let us walk in the white snow

          In a soundless space;

With footsteps quiet and slow,

          At a tranquil pace,

          Under veils of white lace.

I shall go shod in silk,

          And you in wool,

White as white cow's milk,

          More beautiful

          Than the breast of a gull.

We shall walk through the still town

          In a windless peace;

We shall step upon white down,

          Upon silver fleece,

          Upon softer than these.

We shall walk in velvet shoes:

          Wherever we go

Silence will fall like dews

          On white silence below.

          We shall walk in the snow. 

--Elinor Wylie

Light

                                                                                    

 "...you don't have to know just what people are doing and feeling to be of assistance to them. Your own life seems to you like a very small lighted room, with great darkness all around it, and you can't see out into the darkness and know what is happening there. But light and warmth from your room can go out into the darkness--if you don't have the windows selfishly curtained, keep a brave fire burning, and light all the happy candles you can.”

 --Elizabeth Goudge in Gentian Hill

Robin Song

I heard the robins singing

in frozen, snowy trees;

And I wondered how,

in bitter cold,

with Spring so far away,

such hope could move those tiny hearts

to sing for joy unseen.

--Kindred Spirit

Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord

" A child is born to us, and a son is given to us: Whose government is upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called the angel of great counsel."

--Isaiah 9, 6

Feast of Saint Edmund Campion

I have no more to say but to recommend your case and mine to Almightie God, the Searcher of Hearts, who send us His grace, and set us at accord before the day of payment, to the end we may at last be friends in Heaven, when all injuries shall be forgotten.

--Saint Edmund Campion

Saint Edmund Campion, pray for us!

Saint Thomas Edmund, pray for us!

Feast of All Saints

 Our Church is the Church of the saints. If one approaches her with distrust, one sees only closed doors, barriers and fences, a sort of spiritual police force. But our Church is the Church of the saints. To become a saint, what bishop would not give up his ring, his mitre and his crozier; what cardinal his purple; what pope his white robe, his chamberlains, his Swiss Guard and all his temporal power? Who would not want to have the strength to embark on this wonderful adventure? It is indeed the only adventure. --George Bernanos

Feast of Saint Mary Magdalen

  

Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can the floods drown it: if a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing.

--Canticles 8:7 

Happy 20th birthday, Stephen.

The future

But the future must be met, however stern and iron it be. 

--Elizabeth Gaskell

Our earthly trials

I daresay it seems foolish; perhaps all our earthly trials will appear foolish to us after a while; perhaps they seem so now to angels. But we are ourselves, you know, and this is now, not some time to come, a long, long way off. And we are not angels, to be comforted by seeing the ends for which everything is sent.

--Elizabeth Gaskell

Thankful

As she realized what might have been, she grew to be thankful for what was.

--Elizabeth Gaskell

Rightly

How easy it is to judge rightly after one sees what evil comes from judging wrongly!

--Elizabeth Gaskell

Deeds

Good actions ennoble us, and we are the sons of our deeds.

--Miguel de Cervantes

Friendship

Friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others. They are no greater than the beauties of a thousand other men; by friendship God opens our eyes to them. They are, like all beauties, derived from Him, and then, in a good friendship, increased by Him through the friendship itself, so that it is His instrument for creating as well as for revealing.

--C.S. Lewis

Blessed

Blessed is the influence of one truly loving human soul on another.

--George Eliot

Patience

The principle part of faith is patience.

--George MacDonald

Gratitude

Gratitude is the memory of the heart. 

 --Jean Baptiste Massieu