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For Christ is our peace, he who has made the two peoples one, destroying in his own flesh the wall – the hatred – which separated us. He abolished the Law with its commands and precepts. He made peace in uniting the two peoples in him, creating out of the two one New Man. He destroyed hatred and reconciled us both to God through the cross, making the two one body.

~ Ephesians 2:14-16 (Christian Community Bible) ~
Apostle St Paul, El Greco, 1610-14 (Web Gallery of Art)

 

From a letter Sister Thérèse carried on her heart on the day of her profession, 8 September 1890:


Basilica of St Thérèse in Lisieux
May I never seek nor find anything but Yourself alone. May creatures be nothing for me and may I be nothing for them, but may You, Jesus, be everything! May the things of earth never be able to trouble my soul, and may nothing disturb my peace. Jesus, I ask You for nothing but peace, and also love, infinite love without any limits other than Yourself; love which is no longer I but You, my Jesus.

~ St Thérèse of Lisieux, Story of a Soul (translated by John Clarke OCD, p275) ~


The First Movement of the Dance with God

Let me be your dance master for a while! The first movement is forgiveness. It’s a very difficult movement. But, then, all beginnings are difficult, and there is so much forgiving to do. We have to forgive our parents for not being able to give us unconditional love, our brothers and sisters for not giving us the support we dreamt about, our friends for not being there for us when we expected them. We have to forgive our church and civil leaders for their ambitions and manipulations. Beyond all that, we have to forgive all those who torture, kill, rape, destroy – who make this world such a dark place. And we, ourselves, also have to beg forgiveness. The older we become, the more clearly we see that we, too, have wounded others deeply, and are part of a society of violence and destruction. It is very difficult to forgive and to ask for forgiveness. But, without this, we remain fettered to our past – unable to dance... Forgiveness enables us to take the first step of the dance.

~ Henri J. M. Nouwen, The only necessary thing: living a prayerful life, compiled and edited by Wendy Wilson Greer ~



Fr Henri J.M. Nouwen (1932 – 1996) ending a talk on The Life of the Beloved.

 

 

Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI


‘It is not by sidestepping or fleeing from suffering that we are healed, but rather by our capacity for accepting it, maturing through it and finding meaning through union with Christ, who suffered with infinite love.’

~ Pope Benedict XVI, Saved in Hope: Spe Salvi ~


My intense desire and longing is to make others love Jesus and to draw them to His Sacred Heart. Recently at Mass I have found myself at the Dominus Vobiscum opening my arms wide with the intention of embracing every soul present, and drawing them in spite of themselves into that Heart which longs for their love. ‘Compel them to come in’, Jesus said. Yes, compel them to dive into that abyss of love. Sometimes, I might say nearly always, when speaking to people I am seized with an extraordinary desire to draw their hearts to God. I could go down on my knees before them and beg them to be pure and holy, so strong do I feel the longing of Jesus for sanctity in everybody; and since I may not do this, I try to do what I find hard to describe in words--to pour out of my heart any grace or love of God there may be in it, and then with all the force of my will to draw their hearts into the Heart of Jesus.

Fr William Doyle SJ (3 March 1873 – 16 August 1917, killed in action as a chaplain in World War I)


Fr. William Doyle, S.J.

 



Marianne Moore (1887 – 1972)

The Fight That Conquers War

By Marianne Moore (1887 – 1972)

The world's an orphans' home. Shall
we never have peace without sorrow?
Without pleas of the dying for
help that won't come?

O quiet form upon the dust, I cannot
look and yet I must. If these great patient
dyings--all these agonies
and wound bearings and bloodshed--
can teach us how to live, these
dyings were not wasted.

Hate-hardened heart, O heart of iron
iron is iron till it is rust.
There never was a war that was
not inward: I must
fight till I have conquered in myself what
causes war; but I would not believe it.

 

O Lord, increase my sufferings and my patience!

~ St Pius V (1504 – 1572) ~



St Pius V as depicted in an early missal