What does poverty of spirit mean? It is my awareness that I cannot save myself, that I am basically defenseless, that neither money nor power will spare me from suffering and death’¦.Poverty of spirit is my awareness that I need God’s help and mercy more than I need anything else. Poverty of spirit is getting free of the rule of fear, fear being the great force that restrains us from acts of love. Being poor in spirit means letting go of the myth that the more I possess, the happier I’ll be. It is an outlook summed up in a French proverb: When you die you carry in your clutched hand only what you gave away. Poverty of spirit is letting go of self and of all that keeps you locked in yourself.
-Jim Forest

We are happy to announce Padre Pio Devotions Newest Book:
They Walked with God Book 2: St. Teresa of Calcutta, St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe, St. John Bosco

Little by little we are able to hear the still, small voice in the hurricane, the earthquake, or the fire. God is hidden in difficulties. If we can find him there, we will never lose him. Without difficulties, we do not know the power of God’s mercy and the incredible destiny he has for each of us. We must be patient with our failures. There’s always another opportunity unless we go ashore and stay there. A no-risk situation is the biggest danger there is. To encounter the winds and the waves is not a sign of defeat. It is a training in the art of living, which is the art of yielding to God’s action and believing in his love no matter what happens.

-Father Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O.

Solitude is not a solution but a direction. The echo of this direction is heard in the prophet Elijah, who did not find God in the mighty wind, or the earthquake, or the fire, but in the still, small voice . . . Every time we enter into solitude, we withdraw from our windy, tornado-like, fiery lives and we open ourselves for the great encounter, the meeting with Love. But first in our solitude is the discovery of our own restlessness, our drivenness, our compulsiveness, our urge to act quickly, to make an impact, and to have influence . . . But when we persevere with the help of a gentle discipline, we slowly come to hear the still, small voice and to feel the delicate breeze, and so come to know the presence of Love. This Love goes straight to the heart, making us see the truth of who we really are. We are God’s beloved children.

– Henri Nouwen

Dear Lord, help me to remove from my mind every thought or opinion which you would not sanction;every feeling from my heart which you would not approve. Grant that I may spend the hours of the daygladly working with you according to your will. Help me just for today and be with me in it:, in the long hours of work, that I many not grow weary or slack in serving you; in conversations, that they may not be to me occasions of uncharitableness; in the day’s worries and disappointments, that I may be patient with myself and with those around me; in the moments of fatigue and illness, that I may be mindful of others rather than of myself; in temptations, that I may be loyal; so that when the day is over I may lay it at your feet, with its successes which are all yours, and its failures which are all my own, and feel that life is real and peaceful and blessed when spent with you as the guest of my soul. Amen

Being holy means living exactly the way our Father in heaven wants us to live. You will say that it is difficult. It is. The ideal is a very high one. And yet it is also easy. It is within our reach. When a person becomes ill, there may be no appropriate medicine. But in supernatural affairs, it is not like that. The medicine is always at hand. It is Jesus Christ, present in the Holy Eucharist, and he also gives us his grace in the other sacraments which he has established. Let us say again, in word and in action: ‘Lord, I trust in you; your ordinary providence, your help each day, is all I need.’ We do not have to ask God to perform great miracles. Rather, we have to beg him to increase our faith, to enlighten our intellect, and strengthen our will.

– St. Josemaria Escriva

The little way is only for the very small. It is not for those who draw their support from their own strength, but for those who draw support from the strength of the Lord. The road is short because it is a straight road. Do not let a single chance go by for a small sacrifice, not a glance, nor a word – to take advantage of all the little things and to do them out of love.

– St. Therese of Lisieux

We must learn to trust God, because this is what Christ taught. He told us to live in the present. His whole teaching stresses that idea. He tells us not to save up, or make any provision for the future, to live in the moment. But we seldom do so. . . No, we grieve because of what tomorrow may bring . . . But trust does not mean believing that God will spare us from suffering . . . To trust God means that we must know that whatever comes to us comes from his hand . . . Christ says, Take no thought of tomorrow. He also says, Take up your cross daily. There is no need, in accepting sorrow, to look ahead, to imagine tomorrow, to ask for more or less, but just as we receive our joy day by day, so can we receive our sorrow day by day, and it will be measured day by day, by the love of God and our own littleness . . . To look for God’s gift in the moment is the way to learn to trust.

Caryll Houselander

For most people, daily life in the secular world is the place where transformation in Christ is worked out. Like the Pharisee, one can be in religious life and not be transformed. So, what is it that makes the difference between the daily transformed life and the religious untransformed life? It’s the hidden action of the Kingdom of God that works not so much through external circumstances as through a radical change in our attitudes. This is what transformation is. It is not going on pilgrimage or entering a special state of life. It is how we live where we are and what we do with those circumstances,

– Father Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O.

Unite yourself with him, then, in all that you do. Refer everything to his glory. Set up your abode in this loving Heart of Jesus and you will there find lasting peace and the strength both to bring to fruition all the good desires he inspires in you, and to avoid every deliberate fault. Place in this Heart all your sufferings and difficulties. Everything that comes from the Sacred Heart is sweet. He changes everything into love . . . Let us belong to him without reserve, because he wants all or nothing. And after we have once given him everything, let us take nothing back.

– St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

     Though Christ called himself “the way,” in another sense he’s our end, our destination. Don’t settle down somewhere on the way so that you never come to the end. Whatever else you come to on life’s journey, pass on by it, until you come to the end, Christ himself. Some seek money. Don’t let it be your end. Pass on by, like a traveler in a foreign land. For if you love money, you’ll be entangled by greed. And greed will be like chains on your feet. You won’t be able to make any more progress along the way. . .You seek honors. Perhaps you seek them in order to accomplish something that pleases God. If so, don’t love the honor itself. Otherwise, you might stop there. Do you seek praise? If you seek God’s praise, then you do well – but not if you seek your own praise. You’re stopping short along the way. See, brothers and sisters, how many things we pass on life’s journey that aren’t the end. These we may make use of along the road, taking a break – but then we must travel on.
-St. Augustine