Faith illustrated

{1} Once all villagers decided to pray for rain. On the day of prayer all the people gathered, but only one boy came with an umbrella.
That's FAITH.

{2} When you throw babies in the air, they laugh because they know you will catch them.
That's TRUST.

{3} Every night we go to bed without any assurance of being alive the next morning, but still we set the alarms to wake up.
That's HOPE.

{4} We plan big things for tomorrow in spite of zero knowledge of the future.
That's CONFIDENCE.

{5} We see the world suffering, but still we get married and have children.
That's LOVE.

{6} On an old man's shirt was written a sentence I am not 80 years old; I am sweet 16 with 64 years of experience.'
That's ATTITUDE.

- John Mangun

Work and Prayer (St. Thomas Aquinas)

Of St. Thomas Aquinas it may truly be said that he
laboured as if all depended on his own efforts and
prayed as if all depended on God.

p.8, Introduction to the Thought of St. Thomas Aquinas

HOW TO TELL IF YOU HAVE FAITH

That man is perfect in faith who can come to God in the utter dearth of his feelings and desires, without a glow or an aspiration, with the weight of low thoughts, failures, neglects, and wandering forgetfulness, and say to Him, "Thou are my refuge."

--George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons

It is very good to mistrust ourselves, but what good will that do unless we place all our confidence in God and await his mercy? And even if we do not feel such confidence, we must not cease to make acts of confidence and say, "Even though I have no feeling of confidence in you, I know that you are my God, that I am totally yours and have no hope except in your goodness; therefore I abandon myself entirely into your hands."

It is always in our power to make these acts, and even if we have difficulty in doing so, still, it is not an impossibility, and it is on these occasions and in these very difficulties that we give witness of our fidelity to God.

A thousand times a day cast your whole heart, your soul, your anxiety on God with great confidence, and say with the psalmist: "I am yours, Lord; save me."

(St Francis de Sales)

We have to abandon ourselves always in the Lord's hands, for nowhere else we will not find peace and security.

(St Josemaría, in Javier Echevarría, Memoria del Beato Josemaría, p 38)

By placing your hope in Me you will achieve higher sanctity. When you trust in your small possibilities, you live in your usual miseries. Your trust will be a homage to God and a proof of humility. ... Speak to Me of your soul with simplicity, sure to be heard, attended and loved.

(Locution to Gabriela Bossis, God's Spiritual Direction (Messages from Heaven). Transl. Fr Adolf Faroni, SDB. Manila: Don Bosco Press, 2000, pp 84-85)

'Give me your hand.' Say that to me often.

(Locution to Gabriela Bossis, God's Spiritual Direction (Messages from Heaven). Transl. Fr Adolf Faroni, SDB. Manila: Don Bosco Press, 2000, p 14)

How does hope make us holy?

1. On one hand, it draws us to God and on the other, detaches us from pride, power & wealth, and pleasure.
2. It makes our prayer efficacious (cf Mark 2:1-12--the paralytic lowered from the roof; Matthew 9:29--the blind man of Jericho; Matthew 15:28--the Cananean woman).
3. We honour God when we confide in his wisdom, goodness, power, and faithfulness.
4. It is a principle of fruitful activitiy:

• It begets holy desires.
• It increases our energies.
• It infuses courage and endurance.

(Cf Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life, pp 559-567)

Christians, where is your hope?

(St Hilary of Poitiers, Commentary on the Psalms 119(118):15,7)

If we want Bengal for Christ we have to pay with many sacrifices.--Now I really rejoice when something does not go as I wish--because I see that He wants our trust--that is why in the loss let us praise God as if we have got everything.

(Blessed Mother Teresa, The Private Writings of the "Saint of Calcutta")

14 Quoniam mihi adhaesit, liberabo eum;
suscipiam eum, quoniam cognovit nomen meum.
15 Clamabit ad me, et ego exaudiam eum;
cum ipso sum in tribulatione;
eripiam eum et glorificabo eum.
16 Longitudine dierum replebo eum
et ostendam illi salutare meum.

Because he clung to me, I shall free him:
I shall lift him up because he knows my name.
He will call upon me and for my part, I will hear him:
I am with him in his time of trouble.
I shall rescue him and lead him to glory.
I shall fill him with length of days
and show him my salvation.

(Psalm 91:14-16)

Friendship with Jesus is such a beautiful gift that it cannot be kept for oneself! Those who receive this gift feel the need to pass it on to others, and so when the gift is shared it is not reduced but rather is multiplied!

(Benedict XVI, Letter to the children of the Pontifical Missionary Childhood Society, Austria, 9 September 2007)

5 Haec dicit Dominus:
“ Maledictus homo, qui confidit in homine
et ponit carnem brachium suum,
et a Domino recedit cor eius;
6 erit enim quasi myricae in deserto
et non videbit, cum venerit bonum,
sed habitabit in siccitate in deserto,
in terra salsuginis et inhabitabili.

7 Benedictus vir, qui confidit in Domino,
et erit Dominus fiducia eius;
8 et erit quasi lignum,
quod transplantatur super aquas,
quod ad humorem mittit radices suas
et non timebit, cum venerit aestus;
et erit folium eius viride,
et in anno siccitatis non erit sollicitum
nec aliquando desinet facere fructum

5 Thus says the LORD:
"Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
6 He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.

7* "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose trust is the LORD.
8 He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit."

(Jeremiah 17:5-8)

2 Usquequo, Domine, oblivisceris me in finem?
Usquequo avertes faciem tuam a me?
3 Usquequo ponam consilia in anima mea,
dolorem in corde meo per diem?
Usquequo exaltabitur inimicus meus super me?
4 Respice et exaudi me, Domine Deus meus.
Illumina oculos meos, ne quando obdormiam in morte,
5 ne quando dicat inimicus meus: “ Praevalui adversus eum! ”;
neque exsultent, qui tribulant me, si motus fuero.
6 Ego autem in misericordia tua speravi.
Exsultabit cor meum in salutari tuo;
cantabo Domino, qui bona tribuit mihi.

1 How long, O LORD? Wilt thou forget me for ever?
How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
2 How long must I bear pain* in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;
lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;
4 lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed over him";
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
5 But I have trusted in thy steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.

(Psalm 13)