Pondering Tidbits of Truth is my simple and inadequate way of providing nuggets
of spiritual wisdom for you to chew on from time to time.
St. Francis de Sales
"God has signified to us in so many ways and by so many means that He wills all of us to be saved, that no one can be ignorant of this fact...Although all men are not saved, this will that all should be saved still remains God's true will, for He acts in us according to the condition of His own nature and of ours. His goodness moves Him to communicate liberally to us the help of His grace so that we may come to the joy of His glory, but our nature requires that His liberality should leave us at liberty to use it for our salvation or to neglect it to our damnation."
(From Finding God's Will For You)
Cardinal Albino Luciani
(Pope John Paul I)
“In this same society there is a
terrible moral and religious void. Today all seem frantically directed toward
material conquests: make money, invest, surround oneself with new comforts,
live the 'good life' Few think also of 'doing good'.
God - who should fill our life -
has, on the contrary, become a very distant star, to which people look only a certain
moments. People believe they are religious because they go to church, but
outside of church they want to lead the same life as many others, marked by
small or big deceits, acts of injustice, sins against charity; and thus they
totally lack coherence.' This is not the way to render to God the things that
are God's.”
(From Illustrissimi, The Letters of Pope John Paul
I)
St. Francis de Sales
"Many men keep the commandments in the way sick men take medicine: more from fear of dying in damnation than for the joy of living according to the Savior's will."
(From Finding God's Will For You)
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So glad to see the quote from Pope John Paul I. It is, even after forty years, still so true. We have done nothing to turn the tide of materialism back. Father John Hardon said on some tapes I have that Catholics who go to church on Sundays and do nothing more will not get to heaven. That statement still scares me.
ReplyDeleteThe last quote by St. Francis de Sales is funny, true, and tragic. Today we don't bother to fear hell because we don't believe it exists and so we go about our lives doing just as we please. But we can change the world only by changing ourselves.