St. Thomas Aquinas

Grant me, O merciful God, ardently to desire the things that are pleasing to Thee, prudently to study them, truthfully to acknowledge them and perfectly to carry them out to the praise and glory of thy name. Put my house in order, O Lord, and grant me to know what thou dost require me to do; grant that I may then do it for the salvation of my soul.

O Lord my God, grant that I may not fail in prosperity and adversity so as not to be inflated by the one nor depressed by the other. Let nothing gladden me or sadden me except what leads me to Thee or separates me from Thee. May I desire to please and fear to displease no one but Thee.

Let all passing of earthly things cheapen in my sight, O Lord, and all eternal things be precious. Let joy that is without Thee bore me and let me not desire anything outside of Thee. May the labor that is for Thee, O Lord, delight me; and all rest that is without Thee weary me.

Grant me, O Lord my God, to direct my heart to Thee and ever to sorrow for my sins and make amends for them.

Make me, O Lord my God, obedient without any back-talk, poor without abjection, pure without puritanism. Make me patient without repining, humble without being a fraud, happy without being fractious, mature without being a bore, keen without being frivolous; let me fear Thee without despair, be truthful without double-talk; let me do good without presumption, correcting my neighbor but not pompously, supporting him by work and example without flattery.

Give me, O Lord, a watchful heart which no curious thought can wean from Thee; a noble heart which no unworthy affection can seduce; give me a righteous heart which no sinister intention can twist away from Thee; a firm heart which no tribulation can break; a free heart which no violent affection can claim for itself.

Grant me, O Lord God, intelligence to know Thee, diligence to seek Thee, wisdom to find Thee, conversation to please Thee, perseverance faithfully to await Thee and confidence finally to embrace Thee.

Grant me, that through penance I may accept Thy punishments, through grace I may employ Thy blessings and through glory enjoy Thy heavenly delights. Who livest and reignest God forever and ever. Amen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzTxyM3r_Q0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu6LfLiff-I

…we are called to be Church in, to, and for the world; to the culture, and the society in which we find ourselves.

This does not mean that we have to reject everything about our modern culture.  It does mean that we have to look at it critically, and unmask the reality of the way we live, and in particular, how the way we live has consequence for others.  Arise Together in Christ.  Season 3: In the Footsteps of Christ.

No Man is an Island

“The Church is Catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all.  When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for the child is thereby connected to that head which is my head too, and ingrafted into the body whereof I am a member.  And when she buries a man, that action concerns me; for all mankind is of one author and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated.  God employs several translators; some lives are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some lives by justice, but God’s hand is in every translation, and His hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall open to one another…..

No man is an island, entire of himself, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.  If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manner of thy friend’s or of thine own family were.  Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”  —John Donne (1572-1631) from Meditations XVII taken from the Arise booklet quoted above.