Militant Atheist Becomes Catholic Deacon After Reading the Catechism - His Incredible Journey

"I let go of my last objections; nothing brings more tranquility and joy than doing the will of God."

There may be some hope for the situation with my family but I really need all of your prayers. Please, please, ask God for a miracle with them. I am so hopeful and trusting that He will provide for me but a lot of grace will be needed for my family to come around. Please keep praying!

on a slightly serious note, i got a prayer request

ive been discerning the priesthood/religious life for about two years now, and have made an unofficial visit to a seminary for the religious order I want to join back in April. I’m supposed to meet the director of vocations in order to follow up on the visit and discuss next steps but havent heard a word from him yet. Please pray for me to grow in patience and peace since ive been getting anxious about it, and for continued discernment for me, i would greatly appreciate it <3

now back to my regular late night vibing

"The Spirit moves us to see God in the littleness and vulnerability of a baby, yet we at times risk seeing our consecration only in terms of results, goals, and success: we look for influence, for visibility, for numbers. This is a temptation. The Spirit, on the other hand, asks for none of this. He wants us to cultivate daily fidelity and to be attentive to the little things entrusted to our care. How touching is the fidelity shown by Simeon and Anna! Each day they go to the Temple, each day they keep watch and pray, even though time passes and nothing seems to happen. They live their lives in expectation, without discouragement or complaint, persevering in fidelity and nourishing the flame of hope that the Spirit has kindled in their hearts."

-- Pope Francis

The Clothing of the Soul

"The clothing of the soul is holiness through the grace of God. This is bestowed on us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, through whom we possess also peace, charity, goodness, humility, patience, concord, meekness, and the like. These form our interior store of riches, to which we are always adding by good deeds & the practice of virtues.

But if we are in the habit of bickering, murmuring, or quarreling, we deprive ourselves of these good things, since virtues cannot exist with their contraries. "A little leaven corrupteth the whole lump." So each one must examine herself and carefully consider how much is wanting to her, if she indulge in these faults. Let her think what a loss she sustains if she forfeits these elements of true blessedness for the sake of matters of so little moment."

-Hugh of St. Victor in his commentaries on the Rule of St. Augustine

Pinterest Saved Photo Dump ❤️

The things that come to mind when it's past 1am and I for some reason just don't want to go to bed.

I haven't dusted my altars in a couple of months. Oh damn.

It is officially one month until Perpetual Vows!!! So this month I’m going to share my memories of Mercy and some of many cheering things of being a Sister of Mercy!!

Starting with our prayer book and this evening’s beautiful prayer!

Desert Nuns

A reflective journal that i wrote on the 19th of September, 2021.

'hope of salvation, & thoughts on ascetic life in prayer'

~ I have acknowledged that I am a sinner and I have fallen to, and still am committing sin perpetually, same as before and after being illumined of the gravity of the sin and the urgency to have it ridden off.

After countless tries and while still at it, never have I felt more helpless whenever I find myself falling, then struggling to stand back up again to continue my spiritual battle; thinking that I am stuck in this loop of falling to temptations, over and over again, sinning.

Never have I felt so mortified that at the end of my life, finding myself before everyone in Judgment, that I'll be deemed unworthy and my soul be damned for eternity.

But I am certain that my hope stands still, for I am still given by God His grace of the gift of life that I enjoy daily to this day.

So I've come to terms with myself to always look forward to what I can, to do better on the things I did worse yesterday. To try to do, see, and be on the good and truth at all times, and to make sure it is for the greater glory of God.

Every Catholic Christian should aim to be a Saint. I myself could only wish to be, for I know I am no saint, for reasons of my struggle to sin at the beginning of this writing. Right now I don't see myself breaking through my habitual sin, and I've accepted it might be the cross I have to carry for my whole life, a "thorn that was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me" -2 Cor 12:7.

Thus, realizing I won't be going out of this life like Saints do,I figured that my best hope for salvation would be in the purification of my soul in purgatory. With that said. I have the utmost respect and gratitude to people who spend their lives in contemplation and prayer, may they be from the Clergy or Laymen.

But especially the monks, as for me they are the ones who practice the most detachment, living in seclusion and isolation solely to give themselves to God, and even more so respectable to me that they do this as lay people.

With the ascetic and monastic life, I think monks are living as if already purging themselves in this life, but only with the privilege and indulgence of praying and being heard, and that their prayers reach out for everyone, both for the living on earth , and the dead in purgatory.

I don't see myself going into a vocation of religious life nor do I plan to, but if I am to choose to live a religious life, there would be nothing nobler than to lead a monastic life.

Only religious community in the world for sisters with Down syndrome seeks American sisters

Les Petites Sœurs Disciples de l’Agneau, or The Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb, live of prayer in the Indre region of southern France. | The Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb

Please pray for the receptivity of my family to my religious vocation, and the conversion of their hearts. I want them to be even more in love with God than I am, but I despair a bit that it could ever happen.

The best thing that's happened to me in several weeks has just happened. I've been asked to join my synagogue's about-to-be-revived music committee. I have a lot of strongly-held views on this subject, many of which are not universally or even widely shared, and I've been warned that it will be necessary for the committee to honor all constituencies, so I will undoubtedly have to hold my tongue sometimes. Still, this is definitely good.

And now I need to go warm up!

HOMILY for the 4th Sat per annum (I)

Heb 13:15-17,20-21; Ps 22; Mark 6:30-34

Jesus today has advice for his apostles, to those who minister in the Lord’s vineyard by preaching and teaching the Gospel. As such, he is speaking to us priests first of all, but since a priest is first of all a Christian and a disciple like you, then what Jesus says to us, to his apostles, can also be applied to every one of us Christians gathered here today. So the Lord says to us after we have been engaged in work and ministry and the service of the Gospel: “You must come away to some lonely place all by yourselves and rest for a while”. 

Many of us in the world today fear loneliness; we fear being alone, or having no one around us. But to be in a lonely place all by ourselves, as Jesus put it in the Gospel, is not to become isolated and without support and friendship. The Greek word for the lonely place is eremos, that is to say, a place that is uninhabited, where nobody else is present. So, it is a place of solitude, and Jesus calls us to be by ourselves so that we can truly be ourselves, taking off our masks and our ‘brave faces’ which can be the cause of so much anxiety and stress. All of us will know, I think, that in our dealings with other people, whether as priests, or as mums, or nurses, or teachers, or shop assistants, people come to us looking for help, advice, or sometimes to offload their grievances, or to ask questions. Not infrequently, I think, we have to think on our feet, and speak in our ‘professional’ capacity, even if we don’t really have the answers. And so we put on a persona, one that is projected onto us, or which is somehow expected of us; we put on a brave face and a facade for others to see as we go about our work. 

Perhaps this is what the apostles had been doing, as they went out on their mission of preaching and exorcism and healing – after all, they hadn’t been trained for any of this, but they just went and did what they could, trusting in the Lord who had called them and sent them out, and hoping for the best. We know that when they returned they were often amazed and elated at the fact that God worked through them, frail and weak vessels that they were. As St Paul would say: “we have this treasure in earthern vessels” (2 Cor 4:7)

The Lord, full of mercy and compassion, knows our weaknesses, and that we often have to adopt a persona in carrying out our work. And what does he say, then? “You must come away to some lonely place all by yourselves and rest for a while.” Why? Because, in a place of solitude, where nobody else is present, we can be ourselves, we can let our guard down, we can relax. But we are never really alone. For God is present, God is with us. So Christ is calling us to follow his example, and to go off to be alone in prayer with God. Prayer, therefore, must be authentic: we can be ourselves, we can speak freely, openly, and honestly to God, and we must lower our barriers, our pretence, our facades so that we can allow God to look upon us, and to shine his grace and light on our face. Prayer, then, is coming away from the world and from work, in order to be with God, and indeed, to rest in God. Thus St Augustine says, “our hearts are restless, O Lord, until they rest in you.” 

Jesus, knowing what the human heart needs, and knowing what we long for, thus calls you and I to retreat in prayer, and to find rest in God. It is God who will restore us, and heal us, and strengthen us; He will love us after the knocks and bruises and negligence that hurt us in our daily interactions with others. And this is what we need: to rest in God. 

The Gospel tells us that, however, Jesus is followed by a crowd who he teaches. But what about the apostles? Are they there too, hard at work again? The next verse which is not included in today’s passage suggests that they were not. So, Jesus himself ministered to the people, and he also ministered to his apostles by making sure they were able to steal away and be by themselves, and so find rest in God. Hence, I found the advice of Pope Francis, given on 2 February to the priests and seminarians and religious of the Democratic Republic of the Congo very timely, and he gives us some practical reminders on how we can follow Jesus’s command to go away to a lonely place. 

The Holy Father said: “The Presentation of the Lord, which in the Christian East is called the “feast of the encounter”, reminds us that the priority in our life must be our encounter with the Lord, especially in personal prayer, because our relationship with him is the basis of everything we do. Never forget that the secret of everything is prayer, since the ministry and the apostolate are not primarily our own work and do not depend solely on human means. You are going to tell me: yes, true enough, but commitments, pastoral priorities, apostolic labours, fatigue and so on risk leaving us with little time and energy for prayer. That is why I would like to share a few pieces of advice. First of all, let us remain faithful to certain liturgical rhythms of prayer that mark the day, from the Mass to the breviary. The daily celebration of the Eucharist is the beating heart of priestly and religious life. The Liturgy of the Hours allows us to pray with the Church and with regularity: may we never neglect it! Then too, let us not neglect Confession. We always need to be forgiven, so as then to bestow mercy upon others.

Now, a second piece of advice. As we all know, we cannot limit ourselves to the rote recitation of prayers, but must set aside a time of intense prayer each day, to remain “heart-to-heart” with the Lord. It may be a prolonged time of adoration, in meditation on the word, or with the Holy Rosary, but a time of closeness to the One whom we love above all else. In addition, even in the midst of activity, we can always resort to the prayer of the heart, to short “aspirations” – which are a real treasure – words of praise, thanksgiving and invocation, to be repeated to the Lord wherever we find ourselves. Prayer takes the focus off ourselves, it opens us up to God, and it puts us back on our feet because it puts us in his hands.”

hot take, apparently:

married catholics are called to be fruitful and multiply, which means having children to raise them in the faith, which means having sex. this is literally commanded by God.

most people are not called to a josephite marriage. if you are that determined to never have sex, you should probably consider religious life.

something about the parallels between transitioning and entering religious life. something about dying to yourself so you can be reborn as a better version of yourself. something about taking up a new name, taking up a new identity, still being yourself, just yourself unleashed. something about the stares you get from people. something about the hate you get from people. and the kindness, too.