Three streams flow ceaselessly from Jesus’ divine heart. The first is a stream of mercy for sinners, giving them a spirit of contrition and repentance. The second is a stream of charity, which brings help to all in need, especially to those who seek perfection and need help overcoming difficulties. The third is a stream of love and light, which flows into those with whom our Lord wants to share his knowledge and commandments so that they, each in their own way, may devote themselves wholly to promoting his glory.

– St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

God has made us and takes responsibility for what he has created. He takes responsibility for the history of this world and even for every single person’s life. He has enveloped us in his grace, his love, and his faithfulness. When we bring our past and our worries, with all our foibles and weariness, into the new year, our faithful and merciful God goes with us. . . So, let us say goodbye to the past year. It was a year of the Lord, a year of grace, a year of inner growth, even if we did not feel it. After all, God’s strength achieves victory in our weakness. Thus, we really can praise God at the end of the year, and thank him, and give him honor, for he is good and his mercy is everlasting.

-Karl Rahner

John Paul II’s words to the world, ‘Do not be afraid,’ echo the words of Jesus. These words reveal something of the Pope’s awareness of the precariousness of life and the need for a compass, which is the Lord . . .Our lives are small. It was Moses to whom God spoke, from a small wind. The wind has been silent a long time.The winds may seem overwhelming and beyond our control to calm them. But it is then and perhaps only then, that the wind will speak again, calming all about us, and urging us to move on and not be afraid. We will need to be still and listen – listen with the heart. The heart – a small thing. It does not occupy much space but holds something of the eternal. It guides us through what is necessarily vast and of mystery. Like a compass, it contains all directions and yet points to the One that is necessary.

– Father James Behrens, O.C.S.O.

You who are beyond time, Lord, you know what you are doing. You make no mistakes in your distribution of time to men. . .But we must not lose time, waste time, or kill time, for time is a gift that you give us. . .The time that you give me, the years of my life, the days of my years, the hours of my days, they are mine to fill and to offer to you. I am not asking you Lord for time to do this and then that, but your grace to do conscientiously, in the time that you have given me, what you want me to do.

– Father Michel Quoist

You know that God is everywhere . . . that is to say, wherever God is, there is heaven. Remember how St. Augustine tells us about his seeking God in many places and eventually finding him within himself. Do you suppose it is of little importance that a soul which is often distracted should come to understand this truth and to find that, in order to speak to its Eternal Father and to take its delight in him, it has no need to go to heaven or speak in a loud voice? However quietly we speak, he is so near that he will hear us; we need no wings to go in search of him but have only to find a place where we can be alone and look upon him present within us . . . We must talk to him very humbly, as we should to our father, ask him for things as we should ask a father, tell him our troubles, and beg him to put them right.

– St. Teresa of Avila

Death and eternity are the two faces of one great destiny. Nothing is in vain; nothing dies. Our life on earth is completed, crowned, and perpetuated in heaven. Earthly life is beautiful and worthy when it is lived in the service of God. All that is beautiful and good in us and around us on earth and in the universe is a mere pallid image of the kingdom of God. The higher one rises toward heaven, the more he understands the great mystery of life which has as its aim: goodness, happiness, God.

– Giorgio Berlutti

Nothing is more essential than the love of God. It is the first of all virtues, a virtue so necessary, that without it we shall never get to heaven; and it is in order to love God that we are on the earth . . . But the misfortune is that we lavish our love upon objects unworthy of it, and refuse it to him alone who deserves to be infinitely loved. Thus my children, one person will love riches, another will love pleasures; and both will offer to the good God nothing but the languishing remains of a heart worn out in the service of the world . . . God alone . . . deserves that we should love him above all things; more than our possessions,because they are earthly; more than our friends, because they are mortal; more than our life, because it is perishable; more than ourselves, because we belong to him. Our love, my children, if it is true, must be without limit, and it must influence our conduct.

– St. John Vianney

Trials are not only good for us, but necessary for our spiritual growth, especially if endured with the right disposition. During hard times, God helps us see that control is really an illusion. We’re not in charge. Our lives don’t even belong to us. We would cease to exist if the Holy Spirit stopped actively sustaining our existence, even for one second . . . God is more responsible for our lives than we are. Our job is to listen, humble ourselves, work hard and not get in his way.

– Anonymous

Remember always that the Son of God remained unrecognized. That is our aim, and that is what he asks of us now, for the future, and for always, unless he shows us, by some method of his which we cannot mistake, that he wants something else of us. Pay homage to the everyday life led by our Lord on earth, to his humility, his self-surrender, and his practice of the virtues such a life requires. But chiefly pay homage to the limitations our Divine Master set on his own achievements. He did not choose to do all he might have done, and he teaches us to be content to refrain from undertakings which might be within our power, and to fulfill only what charity demands and his will requires.

– St. Vincent de Paul

We are called to love God above all things with our whole heart and soul and mind. . .Love is choosing. I have to choose to love God when my conscious being feels no attraction save for what is here and now desirable. . .I am loving much when I pour out my love over the feet of Jesus in his brethren. I have to bring before my mind all sorts of reasons for doing this. . .But there are other powerful incentives that perhaps have to precede the loving preoccupation with Jesus: consideration of the brevity of our life span, its mysteriousness, what it is for, its gravity, and the appalling danger of wasting it. All day long, if we take the trouble, we can glean in the field of our lives, abundant motives for surrendering ourselves to life’s whole meaning – God.
– Sister Ruth Burrows

Padre Pio Devotions is happy to announce that Pray, Hope, and Don;t Worry: True Stories of Padre Pio Book 1 is now available as an audiobook on Audible.