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He Gave His Only Son

"Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

John 21:29

• There should be less talk. A preaching point is not a meeting point.


• The dying, the cripple, the mental, the unwanted, the unloved-- they are Jesus in disguise.


• In the West there is loneliness, which I call the leprosy of the West. In many ways it is worse than our poor in Calcutta. (Commonweal, Dec 19, 1997)


• It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.


• The poor give us much more than we give them. They're such strong people, living day to day with no food. and they never curse, never complain. We don't have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them.


• I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?


• I do not pray for success. I ask for faithfulness.


• Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.


• If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

~Mother Teresa~

In our lives we tend to worry a lot about things we cannot control. The bible has many passages on worry and how we are not supposed to do this. Here are a few:

Matthew 6:34
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Luke 12:22
Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.

Matthew 6:28
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.

Mark 13:11
Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.

Below is a prayer that I came across once and has helped me in some difficult times.

On awaking, raise your whole soul to God, and filling yourself with his divine presence, do homage to the Blessed Trinity in imitation of the great Saint Francis Xavier: "I adore you, God the Father, who created me; I adore you, God the Son, who redeemed me: I adore you, O Holy Spirit, who have so often sanctified me and are still sanctifying me. I consecrate to you my whole day for the pure love of you and for your greater glory. I do not know what is to happen to me today, whether troublesome things or pleasant ones, or whether I shall be happy or sad, in consolation or in grief. It will all be as you please. I abandon myself to your providence, and I submit to all your wishes.

We should pay great attention to what strikes us most forcibly at the beginning of the day, and to what God's grace inclines our hearts, pondering over it quietly. We should begin our prayer with this, and then abandon ourselves with simplicity to the Spirit of God and stay like this for as long as it pleases him. Imitate the good woman who used to say: "My God since you will not give us bread, at least give us patience." Those who are still in the ordinary ways of prayer, in which the intellect is chiefly employed, must recall the subject of meditation which was prepared the night before, because if they let themselves be distracted by all sorts of thoughts at the beginning of the day, the whole day will be upset. It is like a clock which, having been wrongly set at the beginning, remains wrong the whole day.

Nature seeks self in everything, even in virtues and the holiest practices of piety, as likewise in the actions dictated by the necessities of life. This is what used to make the saints grieve unceasingly and keep themselves as their most mortal enemy. We must keep a careful watch especially on things for which we feel an attachment, in order that we may be ready to sacrifice what pleases us, to comply with the legitimate desires of our neighbor, and above all to practice obedience. God's will must always take precedence of our own desires, however holy these may appear to us.

Fr. Jean-Pierre De Caussade, S.J.

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