“He took what is mine in order that He might impart to me what is His.
He took it not to overturn it but to fill it.”
St. Ambrose
(Cades Cove, TN / Julie Cook / 2015)
We must animate ourselves by the thought that God is always with us,
that he only allows this trial for our greater good,
and that we have not necessarily lost his grace because
we have lost the taste and feelings of it.
St. Ignatius of Loyola
“It is part of the discipline of God to make His loved ones perfect
through trial and suffering. Only by carrying the Cross can one reach
the Resurrection.”
Archbishop Fulton Sheen
(a rose still covered by the morning dew / Julie Cook / 2021)
“O my God, teach me to be generous, to serve you as you deserve to be served,
to give without counting the cost, to fight without fear of being wounded,
to work without seeking rest, and to spend myself without
expecting any reward,
but the knowledge that I am doing your holy will.
Amen.”
St. Ignatius of Loyola
“He who carries God in his heart bears heaven with him wherever he goes.”
St. Ignatius of Loyola
(one of my first Sunday School homemade ornaments circa 1961 / a picture from ourn tree 2014)
God would have given us something greater if he had something greater than Himself.
St. John Vianney
“O my God, teach me to be generous, to serve you as you deserve to be served,
to give without counting the cost, to fight without fear of being wounded,
to work without seeking rest, and to spend myself without expecting any reward,
but the knowledge that I am doing your holy will.
Amen.”
St. Ignatius of Loyola
(fallen fungi / Julie Cook / 20202)
(fallen fungi / Julie Cook / 20202)
(fallen fungi / Julie Cook / 20202)
(fallen fungi / Julie Cook / 20202)
“Whoever confesses his sins…is already working with God.
God indicts your sins; if you also indict them, you are joined with God.
Man and sinner are, so to speak, two realities: when you hear ‘man’ –
this is what God has made; when you hear ‘sinner’ –
this is what man himself has made.
Destroy what you have made, so that God may save what he has made…
When you begin to abhor what you have made,
it is then that your good works are beginning,
since you are accusing yourself of your evil works.
The beginning of good works is the confession of evil works.
You do the truth and come to the light.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1458
An Excerpt From
Catechism of the Catholic Church
“It is in the company of Jesus that you work for the glory of God.”
St. John Baptist de la Salle
(the sedum begin to get a tinge of color / Julie Cook / 2020)
“Man was created for a certain end.
This end is to praise, to reverence, and to serve the Lord his God and by this
means to arrive at eternal salvation.
All other beings and objects that surround us on the earth were created for the
benefit of man and to be useful to him, as means to his final end;
hence his obligation to use, or to abstain from the use of, these creatures,
according as they bring him nearer to that end, or tend to separate him from it.”
St. Ignatius of Loyola,
p.18
An Excerpt From
The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius
“Act as if everything depended on you;
trust as if everything depended on God.”
St. Ignatius of Loyola
(Christ the Redeemer, Michealangelo / Santa Maria sopra Minerva / Julie Cook / 2018)
“Our Blessed Lord, bound like a thief,
is conducted through the public streets of Jerusalem accompanied by a large body of soldiers
who indulge their rage and hatred by ill-treating Him in every possible way,
and surrounded by a multitude of people who overwhelm Him with insults and maledictions,
and rejoice over His misfortunes. Jesus advances,
His feet bare, and His strength utterly exhausted by all His mental and bodily sufferings,
offering up the ignominy and tortures He is now enduring, to His Eternal Father, for the salvation of my soul.
The soldiers render His position still more painful,
by inviting people to approach and see their renowned prisoner,
while Jesus proceeds on His way in the midst of them, with a humble demeanor and with downcast eyes,
to teach us what value we should set on the esteem and honor of the world, and the applause of men.
But a few days previously Jesus had passed through these same streets,
applauded and honored by the crowd as the Messiah, and now, abandoned even by His disciples,
He is followed only by perfidious enemies who seek His death,
and unite in deriding and insulting Him as a malefactor, and the last of men.
Such is the duration of the honors and praises of the world!
Learn hence to seek the good pleasure of God alone, to labor for the acquisition of a right
to the immortal honors of Paradise, and to practice patience under humiliation,
from the example of Jesus.”
Fr. Ignatius of the Side of Jesus, p. 79-80
An Excerpt From
The School of Christ Crucified
“A word or a smile is often enough to put fresh life in a despondent soul.”
St. Therese of Lisieux
(St Dominic at the base of the cross, with my reflection in the protective glass, also at
the foot of the cross / Freco by Fra Angelico / The Convent of San Marco / Florence, Italy
“The beatitude of the saints is immutable, like that of the Son of God. . .
Add ages to ages; multiply them equal to the sand of the ocean or the stars of heaven;
exhaust all numbers, if you can, beyond what the human intelligence can conceive,
and for the elect there will be still the same eternity of happiness.
They are immutable, and this immutability excludes weariness and disgust.
The life of an elect soul is one succession, without end,
of desires ever arising and ever satisfied, but desires without trouble, satiety or lassitude.
The elect will always see God, love God, possess God and always will wish to see Him,
love Him and possess Him still more.
This beatitude is the end destined for all;
God has given us time only in order to merit it, being and life only to possess it.
Reflect seriously on this great truth, and ask yourself these three questions
at the foot of the crucifix:
What have I done hitherto for heaven?
What ought I to do for heaven?
What shall I do henceforward for heaven?”
St. Ignatius of Loyola, p. 179
An Excerpt From
Spiritual Exercises
cookiecrumbstoliveby 