Finding Joy in the day, Day 238 (Year 2)

Good day with lots of family

'There are said to be five reasons why God allows us to be assailed by demons. The first is so that, by attacking and counterattacking, we should learn to discriminate between virtue and vice. The second is so that, having acquired virtue through conflict and toil, we should keep it secure and immutable. The third is so that, when making progress in virtue, we should not become haughty but learn humility. The fourth is so that, having gained some experience of evil, we should "hate it with perfect hatred" (cf. Ps. 139:22). The fifth and most important is so that, having achieved dispassion, we should forget neither our own weakness nor the power of Him who has helped us.'

St. Maximos the Confessor

Finding Joy in the day, Day 237 (Year 2)

Warmer day

Last of the fall walk with a few deer and some turkeys 

'The rich ought to reach that degree of perfection of possessing the riches of which they are the masters, with out allowing them to possess them.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

Finding Joy in the day, Day 236 (Year 2)

Working heat in my car

'If you wish to overcome impassioned thoughts, acquire self-control and love for your neighbor.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan

Finding Joy in the day, Day 235 (Year 2)

Finding articles for Facebook

'He who asks of God in faith things needful for this life is sometimes mercifully heard and sometimes mercifully not heard.'

St. Prosper of Aquitaine

Finding Joy in the day, Day 234 (Year 2)

Blessed Bartholomew feast day
Short walk in the fall

'Often tell Jesus that you love him very much, and that you wish to die for love of him. Behold our love, Jesus; behold our life, Jesus; behold our all, Jesus. Let us accompany Jesus in all his ways. When we are alone, let it be with Jesus in the solitude of Bethlehem when we are traveling, let us think that we are with Jesus in Palestine or on the way to Calvary; when we are lashed by biting criticisms, behold us scourged with Jesus; when we are fixed to the cross, behold we are crucified with Jesus.'

St. Gaspar del Bufalo

Finding Joy in the day, Day 233 (Year 2)

Good temps at the end of October 

'I have touched my Spouse, and already I am pure. To awake a virgin, O tree of life, I must sleep first, and suffer or die.'

St. Margaret of Cortona

Finding Joy in the day, Day 232 (Year 2)

Sharing time with family
Hugs from nieces

'You must practice, at one and the same time, interior and exterior mortification; but with this difference, that you must give yourself up to the first particularly, always, and without exception; to the second, on the contrary, only as far as circumstances and the particular condition of persons and occasions will permit.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

Finding Joy in the day, Day 231 (Year 2)

New windshield wipers
Flat repair

'The best of all prayers is that in which we ask that God's holy will be accomplished, both in ourselves and in others.'

St. Louis de Blois

Finding Joy in the day, Day 230 (Year 2)

Great saint feast yesterday (St. JPII, pray for us)
Nice phone chat

'I can hardly express my joy at seeing the increase of devotion to the Sacred Heart of my Saviour. I seem to live for that alone. Sometimes such an ardent desire to make It reign in all hearts is kindled within me that there is nothing I would not do and suffer to bring this about.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Finding Joy in the day, Day 229 (Year 2)

My life alive

'My very dear daughter in Jesus crucified, I invite you to Calvary, to assist at the obsequies of Our Saviour. Ah! would that we could, for once, remain there, wounded by divine charity - wounded so deeply as to die of love and sorrow over the Passion and death of our only Good!

I will celebrate the divine mysteries during these holy days, and each time I do so I will place the heart of this spiritual daughter whom God has given me in the most pure and agonizing Hearts, of Jesus and Mary. Do likewise for the poor spiritual father whom divine Providence has given to you. Adieu, my daughter; may Jesus bless you, and inflame you with divine love.'

St. Paul of the Cross

Finding Joy in the day, Day 228 (Year 2)

Winning 2 prizes

'God was pleased to ransom us, to suffer ignominy to glory us, to choose poverty to enrich us, to die in the disgrace and agony of one condemned to secure for us everlasting life in the happiness of Heaven.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

Finding Joy ini the day, Day 227 (Year 2)

5 deer sighting on nature walk

'When it is all over you will not regret having suffered; rather you will regret having suffered so little, and suffered that little so badly.'


St. Sebastian Valfre

Finding Joy in the day, Day 226 (Year 2)

Trying a hand at drawing

'Patience is necessary for the servant of God, and we must not be distressed at trouble, but wait for consolation.'

St. Philip Neri

Finding Joy in the day, Day 225 (Year 2)

Seeing the reliquary of St. Maria Goretti
Seeing a baby

'We must not leave off our prayers be cause of distractions and restlessness of mind, although it seems useless to go on with them. He who perseveres for the whole of his accustomed time, gently recalling his mind to the subject of his prayer, merits greatly.'

St. Philip Neri

Finding Joy in the day, Day 224 (Year 2)

Red leaves on the sidewalk

'An intellect that has acquired spiritual love does not have thoughts unworthy of this love about anyone.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan

Finding Joy in the day, Day 223 (Year 2) Feast of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Friend and baby time
Ergo baby, wearing a babe

'May the holy cross of Christ remain ever planted in our heart! May our mind be grafted on this tree of life, and may it produce worthy fruits of penance, through the merits of the death of the true Author of life!'

St. Paul of the Cross

Finding Joy in the day, Day 222, (Year 2)

Neat quote images on FB
Good chat with my friend

'O Jesus you who were forsaken have become the refuge of forsaken souls. Your love teaches me that I must gain the strength I need to endure being abandoned by seeing how you were abandoned. I am persuaded that the most terrible abandonment I could experience would be to have no part in yours. By your death, you gave me life; you delivered me from the suffering I deserved by suffering in my place. Because of what you endured on the cross, our Heavenly Father will not desert me. He is never closer to me through His mercy than when I am most united with you in your abandonment.'

St. Bernadette Soubirous

Finding Joy in the day, Day 221 (Year 2)

A different task to keep me busy

'Seeing that this divine Shepherd has taken so many steps seeking you, you will return Him thanks for it and, uniting all your steps to His, ask His help to walk henceforth only in the way of His love. Say often to Him: O my kind Shepherd, detach me from all earthly things and from myself, that I may be united to Thee.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Finding Joy in the day, Day 220 (Year 2)

Crunchy fall walk

'No one will have any other desire in heaven than what God wills; and the desire of one will be the desire of all; and the desire of all and of each one will also be the desire of God.'

St. Anselm of Canterbury

Finding Joy in the day, Day 219 (Year 2)

New niece born

'He said: This is my Body; therefore the Eucharist is not the figure of his Body and Blood, as some have said, talking nonsense in their stupid minds, but it is in very truth the Blood and Body of Christ.'

St. Macarius the Great

Finding Joy in the day, Day 218 (Year 2)

Enjoying time with family
Watching Green Bay game- and a Win

'A crooked and rough trunk of a tree, if it could think, would never believe that it could become a statue, a master-piece of sculpture: it would not wish to place itself under the chisel of any one who, by his art, sees well what he could make of it. Thus many people, hardly living as Christians, are far from imagining that they could become great Saints, if they allowed the grace of God to act in them and not resist its influence.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

Finding Joy in the day, Day 217 (Year 2)

Good coffee date with mom and sister

'Now, my dearest brothers, listen carefully to what I tell you.

All those throughout the world who are numbered as Christian and who truly acknowledge the Christian faith know and believe that the blessed Peter, the prince of the apostles, is the father of all Christians and, after Christ, the first shepherd, and that the holy Roman Church is the mother and teacher of all the churches.

Therefore, if you believe this and hold to it without hesitation, I ask you and enjoin upon you by Almighty God - I your brother and unworthy teacher as I am - to support and assist your father and your mother if you wish to have, through them, the remission of all your sins, along with blessings and grace in this world and in the life to come.

May almighty God, from whom all good things come, continually enlighten your minds and fill them with love for him and for your neighbor, so that by your devotion you may deserve to make this father and mother of whom I have spoken your debtors and enter without shame into their company.

Pope St. Gregory VII

Finding Joy in the day, Day 216 (Year 2)

Beautiful fall colors
Coffee with a far away friend

'When a man is out of the right way the more quickly and impetuously he advances, the more he errs.'

St. Augustine

Finding Joy in the day, Day 215 (Year 2)

A little glimpse of the sun on a cloudy, rainy day

'According to St. Bonaventure, all the angels in heaven unceasingly call out to her: "Holy, holy, holy Mary, Virgin Mother of God." They greet her countless times each day with the angelic greeting, "Hail, Mary", while prostrating themselves before her, begging her as a favour to honour them with one of her requests. According to St. Augustine, even St. Michael, though prince of all the heavenly court, is the most eager of all the angels to honour her and lead others to honour her. At all times he awaits the privilege of going at her word to the aid of one of her servants.'

St. Louis Marie de Montfort

Finding Joy in the day, Day 214 (Year 2) Feast of The Most Holy Rosary

A little structure

'I ought to burn of love for God out of gratitude for the kindness that He has shown me.'

St. Paul of the Cross

Finding Joy in the day, Day 213 (Year 2)

Warmer day

'If he lose shame and modesty, he will remain in sin.'

St. Jerome

Finding Joy in the day, Day 212 (Year 2) Feast day of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska

Feast day of a favorite saint
Green Bay win

"If we return to him like prodigal son, he has to pardon us. He has to console us in our trials. He has to sustain us in the way a father like this must. For, in effect he must be better than all fathers in the world because in him everything must be faultless. And after all this he must make us sharers and heirs with you." St. Teresa of Avila

Finding Joy in the day, Day 211 (Year 2)

Fun time dying lil sisters hair with kool-aid 

'In order the better to gain souls, in visiting the sick, we ought to imagine that what we do for the sick man we are doing for Christ Himself; we shall thus perform this work of mercy with more love and greater spiritual profit.'

St. Philip Neri

Finding Joy in the day, Day 210 (Year 2)

Catching up on a few things today
Quality sleeping time

'The best remedy for dryness of spirit, is to picture ourselves as beggars in the presence of God and the Saints, and like a beggar, to go first to one saint, then to another, to ask a spiritual alms of them with the same earnestness as a poor fellow in the streets would ask an alms of us.'

St. Philip Neri

Finding Joy in the day, Day 209 (Year 2) Feast of Guardian Angels

Patience of my mother

'The keeping of God's commandments generates dispassion; the soul's dispassion preserves spiritual knowledge.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan

Finding Joy in the day, Day 208 (Year 2) Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux

Peach iced tea from mom

"Be not afraid to tell Jesus that you love Him even if it be without feeling" St. Therese of Lisieux