To be enlightened is to know that heaven is not ‘coming to me.’ Heaven is here. We have simply not been able to realize that yet because, like King Arthur and his search for the Holy Grail, we look in all the wrong places, worship all the wrong idols, get fixated on all the wrong notions of God. We are always on our way to somewhere else when this place, the place in which I stand, wherever it is, is the place of my procession into God, the site of my union with the Life that gives Life.

-Anonymous

I don’t believe that my life is a long row of randomly chained incidents and accidents of which I am not much more than a passive victim. No, I think that nothing is accidental but that God molded me through the events of my life and that I am called to recognize his molding hand and praise him in gratitude for the great things he has done for me. I wonder if I really have listened carefully enough to the God of history, the God of my history, and have recognized him when he called me by my name . . . Maybe I have been living much too fast, too restlessly, too feverishly, forgetting to pay attention to what is happening here and now . . . Just as a whole world of beauty can be discovered in one flower, so the great grace of God can be tasted in one small moment.

– Henri Nouwen

By justice, Jesus Christ once risen should have ascended at once to the glory of the right hand of the Father . . . And yet we know very well that for forty days he wanted to be seen as risen. And why? To affirm, as St. Leo says, by such an excellent mystery, the good news of our faith . . . These forty days before our ascent to heaven will pass for us too. Perhaps they will not be days, but months and years. I wish you, my brothers and sisters, a long and prosperous life full of heavenly and material blessings. But finally this life will come to an end. And then we will be happy, if we have assured for ourselves the joy of a happy transit to eternity. Then our resurrection will be complete. There will be no more danger of losing the grace of God. There will no longer be any suffering, no more death, but instead everlasting life with our Savior, Jesus Christ in heaven. May the Lord confirm with his blessings these wishes of mine, for your happiness is very close to my heart and I work and pray continuously for this end.

– St. Pio of Pietrelcina

For me, there is no greater image than the Holy Face of Jesus because it embodies the physical and spiritual suffering of Christ, the Redeemer. In the Holy Face, the sick person sees how suffering can and should be accepted. By imploring the Lord to sanctify his suffering and make it similar to Jesus’, it becomes redemptive for the soul and purifying for one’s existence . . . The Holy Face of Jesus is beautiful. Look at it.

– Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini

If Christ be not risen, our faith is in vain. (I Corinthians 15:14) But he is risen. The tomb is empty. . .It is the emptiness that matters. He is not here. He has risen. All the chambers of my heart, of my being, need to be emptied, even of beautiful images, of holy images, if the reality is going to enter in and wholly possess me. But I can’t empty myself by any of my efforts. My very efforts fail me. I need to let the risen Lord come in with all his radiance, his enlightenment, which will disperse all my dark shadows and homemade images and totally fill me with the reality. . .Christ is risen.

–Father Basil Pennington, O.C.S.O.

We make a quiet act of faith; we believe in God, we believe in God’s interest in us, and we believe that he sees and hears us. We accept his will in all its details, especially in the dereliction which we experience. We put our whole reliance on the prayer of Christ of whom we are members, and with whom we have all things in common, especially his prayer. We rely on the spirit of Christ, who is within us and prays in us in an ineffable way. In other words, we quietly and gently begin to abandon ourselves, and to unite ourselves to Christ, by relying on him alone. He is our all . . . He is working for our detachment from all creatures – even from ourselves. All his providence is directed to that end. We can be just as much attached to our spiritual goods and attainments, to our spiritual joys and powers, as we can be to the temporal. For complete union with God, and for the bearing of ‘more fruit’ these attachments must be purged.

– Father Eugene Boylan, O.C.S.O.

There is no holiness, Lord, if you withdraw you hand. No wisdom is of any use if you no longer guide it. No strength can avail if you do not preserve it. No purity is safe if you do not protect it. No watchfulness on our part can affect anything unless your holy vigilance is present with us. If you abandon us, we sink and perish; but if you come to us, we are raised up and we live.
– Thomas à Kempis

Padre Pio Devotions is happy to announce that Pray, Hope and Don’t Worry: True Stories of Padre Pio Book I is now available as an audio book in Audible:
Pray, Hope, and Don;t Worry: True Stories of Padre Pio Book 1

To be enlightened is to know that heaven is not ‘coming to me.’ Heaven is here. We have simply not been able to realize that yet because, like King Arthur and his search for the Holy Grail, we look in all the wrong places, worship all the wrong idols, get fixated on all the wrong notions of God. We are always on our way to somewhere else when this place, the place in which I stand, wherever it is, is the place of my procession into God, the site of my union with the Life that gives Life.

-Anonymous

The best preparation I can make for death is to live the reality of the Paschal mystery as fully and as deeply as possible in union with Christ, because Christ will re-live that mystery in me at the hour of my death. If I am following the spirituality of the Paschal mystery, I expect to die and rise again many times in the course of my monastic life, in my daily tasks and duties, in unexpected events and circumstances, and in my life of interior prayer. . .I expect to have to let go and give up again and again, discovering a new richness of life each time. . .I will learn to trust more and more this Father into whose hands I shall one day, freely and gladly, hand over my life. On that day my final act of dying will be inserted irrevocably into the saving death and resurrection of Christ my Lord.
– Father Charles Cummings O.C.S.O.

Pray, Hope, and Don’t Worry: True Stories of Padre Pio Book I is now available as an audio book on Audible. For more info click on this link: “Pray, Hope, and Don’t Worry: True Stories of Padre Pio Book I”

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