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There are both interior and exterior difficulties we encounter as we attempt to form a daily habit of prayer.  Interior difficulties: discouragement, dryness, heaviness of spirit and temptations.  These difficulties are overcome through patience and perseverance.  Exterior difficulties: fear of what others may think or say, and setting time aside.  These difficulties are overcome through humility and diligence (See Diary #147). Try to set a daily time for prayer and… Read More »Reflection 53: Difficulties in Prayer

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — When the Vatican’s wartime archives open to researchers March 2, it will be just the start of what should be a long, slow process of studying, analyzing and publishing findings, said the Vatican’s archivist and librarian. “We have to have the patience to wait and listen to the results” dozens of scholars are expected to produce over the coming years from what is known to be… Read More »Full look at Vatican wartime role will take patience, archivists say

“Remember that you are dust and into dust you shall return.” – Eccl. 1:20 “I’ve had this premonition,” my dad began musing as my family gathered together to share a holiday meal, “that when I die, it will be sudden, like in a car accident or heart attack.” My father has always been introspective and a deep thinker, but this caught everyone off guard. He isn’t the type to believe… Read More »Why Does Lent Call Us to Remember Death?

[*] “Suffer the little children to come unto me.” (detail) by Carl Bloch [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons The following story is true. It happened to me. I will never, ever forget it. I had been a Carmelite Sister for many years when this story occurred. It changed my life forever, and I came away from the experience with an explosion of faith bursting within my soul. To cut to… Read More »Before the Miracle, I Believed—But Now I Know. — Integrated Catholic Life™

We are called to be saints.  And if we walk down that road, we will be called to live heroic virtue.  Heroic virtue will not always be understood by others.  In fact, in the opinion of worldly wisdom, heroic and holy virtue is foolishness.  But we must not allow the opinions of worldly “wisdom” to confuse us, tempt us or distract us from the road of true virtue (See Diary… Read More »Reflection 49: Being Misunderstood – Daily Reflections on Divine Mercy

February 15, 2020 Daily Reading from the USCCB: Mark 8:1-10 https://www.franciscanmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/SW_021310_II.mp3   In today’s reading we see Jesus feeding the crowds–some four thousand people. This action was a repetition of God’s feeding His people with manna in the desert. It was also a sign of the Eucharist that was still to come, and of the final banquet in the kingdom of heaven. It is filled with meaning. Basically however, this… Read More »Sharing the Word for February 15, 2020

February 15, 2020 Claude de la Colombiere was beatified in 1929 and canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1992. Claude was born of noble parents in 1641 in Saint-Symphoriend’Ozon, which is between Lyons and Vienne in France. In 1659, he entered the Society of Jesus. After living the religious life for 15 years, Claude decided to make a vow to live as perfectly as he possibly could, observing faithfully… Read More »St. Claude de la Colombiere

Photo by Laura Allen on Unsplash “Sometimes the gifts God has in store for me are not the gifts I would have chosen for myself.” “He doesn’t do the things he used to do, like buy her flowers.”  A coworker was telling me about a friend of hers, who, after several years of marriage, was lamenting the changes in their relationship.  Their lives were now full of kids and work… Read More »What does his love look like? — Integrated Catholic Life™

Sometimes we do not feel like going to Mass or may be deeply distracted as we approach the Blessed Sacrament.  Perhaps one of the best things to do in this case is to live in holy obedience.  Jesus wants you to receive Holy Communion every Sunday and every holy day because He knows you need it.  He knows that this Food from Heaven is necessary for you to obtain happiness. … Read More »Reflection 45: Holy Communion – Daily Reflections on Divine Mercy

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Like so many of Pope Francis’ teachings and major documents, his apostolic exhortation on the Amazon is built on a call for conversion: a new way of seeing, thinking and doing. “We need to feel outrage,” he wrote, underlining his concern that the world has become too indifferent, too numb or too much in denial about what is happening to the environment, the world and the… Read More »In Amazon document, pope calls for action rooted in conversion of heart