Give the credit to God The Syrian abbot Chaeremon tells St. John Cassian that we can’t give ourselves the credit for something even if we worked hard for it. God alone deserves the credit, since without God’s mercy we would not have been able to do anything. The exertions of the worker can do nothing without God’s aid. The farmer, for example, when he has taken great care in cultivating the ground, cannot immediately ascribe the produce of the crops... Read more
PETE: For those who have not yet read your book Soul of Christ: Meditations on a Timeless Prayer, the book focuses on the Anima Christi prayer. Could you tell us a little about your personal connection to this prayer and why you chose to write an entire book on it? SISTER MARIE-PAUL CURLEY: I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know and love the Anima Christi, but after I entered the Daughters of Saint Paul, I learned that our Founder, Blessed... Read more
Be humble from the start “Everyone who glories shall be humbled,” says Aphrahat—and then he gives a very persuasive list of famous boasters who were indeed humbled by God. Everyone who glories shall be humbled. Cain gloried over Abel his brother and slew him. And he was cursed and became a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. Again the Sodomites gloried over Lot, and there fell upon them fire from heaven and burned them up and their city was... Read more
Sow on earth, reap in heaven Mercy, says St. Ambrose, is a virtue that makes us like our Father in heaven. When you give to someone who is poor, you get back far more than you gave. Mercy, also, is a good thing, for it makes us perfect, in that it imitates the perfect Father. Nothing graces the Christian soul so much as mercy—mercy as shown chiefly towards the poor, in which you treat them as sharers in common with... Read more
Learn to forgive St. Augustine reminds us that if we are so hard-hearted that we cannot forgive even someone who sincerely repents, we can’t have any expectation that our own sins will be forgiven. If anyone seeks forgiveness from someone he has sinned against— prompted by his sin to ask for it—that one should not be thought of as an enemy anymore, and now it should not be as hard to love him as it was when he was really... Read more
This week publisher Pauline Books and Media sponsors the giveaway. One lucky winner will receive one copy of Soul of Christ: Meditations on a Timeless Prayer by Sister Marie Paul Curley (you can read my review here). I use Rafflecopter to run my giveaways which makes it simple for you and me! Enter below. The contest starts at midnight tonight EST and will end 12AM EST 4/10 with a winner being announced later that day. Good luck! a Rafflecopter giveaway Read more
Listen to your conscience Even your own father might have given up on you if you had never listened to him, says St. John Chrysostom. But God has given you a conscience that isn’t willing to give up. It will keep after you until you confess your sins. Even if you do not confess, God is not ignorant of the deed, since he knew it before it was committed. Why then do you not speak of it? Does the transgression... Read more
The Anima Christi Prayer is one that has been around for a very long time. It dates back to the early fourteenth century with an authorship that is uncertain. St. Ignatius of Loyola is sometimes mistakenly attributed as its author due to his inclusion of it in his Spiritual Excercises. The prayer is widely used by many after receiving communion. Thanks to Sister Marie Paul Curley it can now be used as a beautiful source of meditation in her book... Read more
Weep, and find joy Weeping for our sins is the route to joy, says St. John Chrysostom. Real remorse and confession cleanse the soul, and God rewards our tears with peace. Much as after a violent burst of rain there is a clear open sky, so when tears are powering down, a calm follows, and peace, and the darkness that goes with our sins completely disappears. And as we were cleansed by water and the Spirit, so by tears and... Read more
Keep your soul light as a feather The abbot Isaac told St. John Cassian that we can compare the soul to a feather. If nothing weighs it down, a feather can be carried up into the sky by the slightest breeze. But weighed down by impurities, it falls to the ground and is buried. We can very fittingly compare the nature of the soul to a very fine feather or very light wing. If it has not been damaged or... Read more
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