Finding Joy in the day, Day 89 (Year 3) Feast of the Visitation

Seeing an lovely friend after way too long

'The passions of the soul's incensive power are more difficult to combat than those of its desiring aspect. Consequently our Lord has given a stronger remedy against them; the commandment of love.'

St. Maximos the Confessor

Finding Joy in the day, Day 88 (Year 3) Feast of St. Joan of Arc

Recognizing a great saint

"If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me." St. Joan of Arc

Finding Joy in the day, Day 87 (Year 3) Feast of Corpus Christi

Getting a little cleaning done

'Love cannot be checked, and if checked it is not pure and simple love.'

St. Catherine of Genoa

Finding Joy in the day, Day 86 (Year 3)

Morning baking

'Blessed the one who stands in the assembly and prays like an Angel from heaven, keeping his thoughts pure day by day, and has given no entrance to the Evil One to make his soul a prisoner, far from God his Saviour.'

St. Ephrem of Syria

Finding Joy in the day, Day 85 (Year 3)

Cute story

'The example of the saints is proposed to every one, so that the great actions shown us may encourage us to undertake smaller things.'

Ven. Louis de Granada

Finding Joy in the day, Day 84 (Year 3)

Coffee date

'Have courage, ye poor of Christ, because heaven is for the poor.'

St. Paul of the Cross

Finding Joy in the day, Day 83 (Year 3)

Thunder and lightning

'Let us never despair of the divine help; we would thereby do a serious injustice to the Father of mercies.'

St. Paul of the Cross

Finding Joy in the day, Day 82 (Year 3)

Reading another chapter in my book

'When a man has fallen he ought to acknowledge it in some such way as this: "Ah, if I had been humble I should not have fallen!"

St. Philip Neri

Finding Joy in the day, Day 81 (Year 3)

Getting into an appointment at the last minute

'An intelligent use of conceptual images and their corresponding physical objects produces self-restraint, love and spiritual knowledge; an unintelligent use produces licentiousness, hatred and ignorance.'

St. Maximos the Confessor

Finding Joy in the day, Day 80 (Year 3)

Pretty moon

'A person must be ready to endure, when through a virtuous motive he is mortified by others, and even when God permits him to be in bad odour with others, and regarded and driven away as an infected sheep.'

St. Philip Neri

FInding Joy in the day, Day 79 (Year 3)

Seeing the Basilica

'Be generous, and remember that you ought to walk in the footsteps of your Redeemer.'

St. Paul of the Cross

Finding Joy in the day, Day 78 (Year 3)

Getting to see mom and dad

'The sensible derives from the intelligible, by God's decree providing what is needed.'

St. Mark the Ascetic

Finding Joy in the day, Day 77 (Year 3)

Paid focus group

'If you pray truly, you will receive assurances of many things, and angels will come to you as they came to Daniel, and will enlighten you with understanding of causes, the wherefore of all things.'

St. Nilus of Sinai

Finding Joy in the day, Day 76 (Year 3)

Sunshine through the windows 

'In all your afflictions and interior desolations make frequent acts of total abandonment to the will of God. Recite the chaplet which St. Gertrude composed of these words only: Fiat voluntas tua - "May Thy will be done." At other times say, with sentiments of perfect conformity to the divine will, "Thou art just, O Lord! and all Thy judgments are just, and all Thy ways are mercy, and truth, and judgment." (Tobias iii. 2.)'

St. Paul of the Cross

Finding Joy in the day, Day 75 (Year 3)

Seeing a good friend after a while

'Just as the physical eye is attracted to the beauty of things visible, so the purified intellect is attracted to the knowledge of things invisible. By things invisible, I mean things incorporeal.'

St. Maximos the Confessor

Finding Joy in the day, Day 74 (Year 3)

Friend and family love and prayers

'Do not consider the magnitude of your trials; contemplate rather Jesus, your crucified Love, the King of sorrows and of anguish. If you do this, all your sufferings will be flavored with sweetness. Lift up your heart. Fix your heart on God. For the time being, you cannot, I admit, apply yourself to prayer or to other exercises of piety; but, with my confidence founded on Christ, I will give you a rule which will enable you to pray without ceasing: He prays always who lives well. Animate yourself with faith, I beg of you; keep yourself in the presence of God in all your actions.'

St. Paul of the Cross

Finding Joy in the day, Day 73 (Year 3) Feast of Pentecost

Thankful for a sunny Sunday with optimal temperatures and Starbucks from my sister again :)

'For God is not unjust, that he should forget your work, and the love which you have shewn in his name, you who have ministered, and do minister to the saints.'

Hebrews 6:10

Finding Joy in the day, Day 72 (Year 3)

Trying to read a new book

'If you are earnestly desirous of uprightness and perfection, examine continually and think well on your way of living. Notice how much you advance in virtue and how much you fall away. Examine into your conduct and the sentiments that inspire you. Look and see how like to God you are, -- and how unlike! How near to God, and alas, how far away from Him!'

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Finding Joy in the day, Day 71 (Year 3) Our Lady of Fatima

Getting a package mailed out efficiently

'Here is the difference between the joys of the world and the cross of Jesus Christ: after having tasted the first, one is disgusted with them; and on the contrary, the more one partakes of the cross, the greater the thirst for it.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

Finding Joy in the day, Day 70 (Year 3)

My amazing Dad- Happy 65 Daddio

'To him who hungers after Christ grace is food; to him who is thirsty, a reviving drink; to him who is cold, a garment; to him who is weary, rest; to him who prays, assurance; to him who mourns, consolation.'

St. Mark the Ascetic

Finding Joy in the day, Day 69 (Year 3)

A trip to a garage sale

'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 68 (Year 3)

Sun in the morning

'It is a most useful thing to say often, and from the heart, "Lord, do not put any confidence in me, for I am sure to fall if Thou dost not help me;" or, "O my Lord, look for nothing but evil from me."'

St. Philip Neri

Finding Joy in the day, Day 67 (Year 3)

Meeting a new baby

'It was revealed to St. Gertrude, that when any one repeats with devotion these words to the Virgin: "Turn, then, towards us, oh our advocate, thy pitying eyes," Mary never fails to listen to the prayer.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

Finding Joy in the day, Day 66 (Year 3)

Happy Mother's Day
BOGO at Caribou with a friend

'Affliction strengthens the vigor of our soul, whereas happiness weakens it.'

Pope St. Gregory the Great

Finding Joy in the day, Day 65 (Year 3)

Lilacs blooming

'Let the sick man enter into the Side of Jesus and His most holy Wounds; let him not be afraid, but combat manfully, and he will come forth victorious.'

St. Philip Neri

Finding Joy in the day, Day 64 (Year 3)

90+ temps oh yeah!

'I place you in the sacred wounds of Jesus, under the protection of Our Lady of Sorrows; yes, I place you there. I implore the holy Virgin to bathe your heart in her sorrowful tears, that she may impress on it a continual remembrance of the dolorous Passion of her Son, and of her own dolors. I implore her to obtain for you perseverance in divine love, and strength and resignation in suffering. Take, then, for your glorious protectress, Our Lady of Sorrows, and never cease to meditate on the Passion of Christ. May God, in His mercy, bless you! Ask Him to bless me also. Deo Gratias et Maria semper Virgini!'

St. Paul of the Cross

Finding Joy in the day, Day 63 (Year 3)

I get a kick out of the wording in today's Gospel

'Because eternal beatitude surpasses the natural state, especially since it has been deprived of original grace, it is the little number that are saved.'

St. Thomas Aquinas

Finding Joy in the day, Day 62 (Year 3)

Sitting outside at a coffee shop and not freezing!

'Men of rank ought to dress like their equals, and be accompanied by servants, as their state requires, but modesty should go along with it all.'

St. Philip Neri

Finding Joy in the day, Day 61 (Year 3)

Not getting stuck in rush hour traffic

'Again, grace may be hidden in advice given by a neighbor. Sometimes it also accompanies our understanding during reading, and as a natural result teaches our intellect the truth about itself. If, then, we do not hide the talent given to us in this way, we shall enter actively into the joy of the Lord.'

St. Mark the Ascetic

Finding Joy in the day, Day 60 (Year 3)

New dressers

'Long illnesses are the greatest favors that God confers on souls whom He loves most. . . Repose peacefully in the arms of your heavenly Spouse, Who loves you much; hold yourself on the cross of sickness as tranquilly and silently as is possible. If the cause of your illness be the wound of divine love which embalms your soul, it is well if you die under such a stroke: yours will be a death more precious than life.'

St. Paul of the Cross

Finding Joy in the day, Day 59 (Year 3) Feast of St. Joseph the Worker

Oh Yes! it's a sunny day!!!!!

'And as he spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd, lifting up her voice, said to him: Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed. This is as if He said: Blessed indeed is My Mother, and blessed the womb that bore Me. But not for this is she blessed: because she is My Mother. Neither is the womb blessed because it bore Me. But both are blessed because she heard the word of God, and hearing it, believed; and believing, she safeguarded it. For had she not done this, she would neither be blessed, nor My Mother.'

St. Bruno