Monday Musings - Holy Poverty

 

(Often quoted by Catherine Doherty, Servant of God and founder of Madonna House Apostolate)

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - May 7. 2020

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.

 

Dom Lorenzo Scupoli

“…in order to attain it [Christian perfection] you must resolve on a perpetual war with yourself and begin by providing yourself with four weapons without which it is impossible to gain the victory in this spiritual combat. These four things are: distrust of one’s self, confidence in God, proper use of the faculties of body and mind, and the duty of prayer.”

(From The Spiritual Combat and a Treatise On Peace of Soul)

Paul Evdokimov

“St. Teresa of Avila used to say that to pray is to treat God like a friend. The essence of prayer is to hear not only the voice of Christ, but the voice of each person I meet, in whom Christ also addresses me. His voice comes to me in every human voice, and his face is infinitely varied. It is present in the face of the wayfarer on the road to Emmaus; it is present in the gardener speaking to Mary Magdalen; and it is present in my next-door neighbor. God becomes incarnate so that man might contemplate God’s face in every face. Perfect prayer seeks this presence of Christ and recognizes it in every human face. The unique image of Christ is the icon, but every human face is an icon of Christ, discovered by a prayerful person.”

(From The Struggle With God)

St. John XXIII

“Let men make all the technical and economic progress they can, there will be no peace nor justice in the world until they return to a sense of their dignity as creatures and sons of God, who is the first and final cause of all created beings.”

(From Mater Et Magistra)