Finding Joy in the day, Day 28 (Year 4)

Communicating with a friend

'The person who in his actions shows that he prefers his body to his soul, and the world to God, is a pathetic creature.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan

'I must be burnt alive.'

St. Polycarp of Smyrna

Finding Joy in the day, Day 27 (Year 4)

Coloring some postcards

'Prayer is the best weapon we possess, the key that opens the heart of God.'

Padre Pio

Finding Joy in the day, Day 25 (Year 4)

Tears of sadness and love

'He will have a special love and care for you, if you keep yourself interiorly humble, and strive to be gentle and steadfast in suffering abjection in humiliations, which are often the harder to bear the more trifling they are.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Finding Joy in the day, Day 26 (Year 4)

Support of friends

'The greatest help to perseverance in the spiritual life is the habit of prayer, especially under the direction of our confessor.'

St. Philip Neri

Finding Joy in the day, Day 24 (Year 4)

Very heartwarming words

'Blessed the one who has not been made drunk by wine like a prodigal, but has been made glad each day by the memory of the Lord, in whom all the Saints rejoice continually.'

St. Ephrem of Syria

Finding Joy in the day, Day 23 (Year 4)

Mom and Dad's help

'As for the aversion that people express for you, their mockeries, their derisions, and so forth, you should receive them with gratitude to God, for as oil is consumed by the flame, so ought charity consume its victim.'

St. Paul of the Cross

Finding Joy in the day, Day 22 (Year 4)

Getting some cooking done

'God never so abandons His Church that worthy servants of the altar in sufficient numbers are not to be found, if only the worthy are ordained and the unworthy debarred from ordination.'

St. Thomas Aquinas

Finding Joy in the day, Day 21 (Year 4)

Seeing my dear friend J, too long dear friend too long

'He who has recourse to God, so that He may enlighten him on whatever he asks of Him, whether for a choice of a state of life, or for any other spiritual interest, ought first to lay aside his own will and preference, then place himself unreservedly in the hands of the Divine Majesty, with a full determination of accomplishing whatsoever His holy will may make known to him.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

Finding Joy in the day, Day 20 (Year 4)

Today's day done babysitting

'Everything depends on prayer well made; but in order to pray well, one must be very recollected and mortified.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Finding Joy in the day, Day 19 (Year 4)

An intimate friendly coffee date

'Let us make up for lost time. Let us give to God the time that remains to us.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

Finding Joy in the day, Day 18 (Year 4)

Feeling better currently

'Maintain a regular level of ascetic practice and do not break your rule unless forced to do so.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan

Finding Joy in the day, Day 17 (Year 4)

New hair stuff

'I guard you in advance against beasts in the form of men, whom you must not only not receive, but if it is possible not even meet, but only pray for them, if perchance they may repent. . .'

St. Ignatius of Antioch

Finding Joy in the day, Day 16 (Year 4)

Seeing my dear dear friend

'Let us go forward in peace, our eyes upon heaven, the only one goal of our labors.'

St. Therese of Lisieux

Finding Joy in the day, Day 15 (Year 4)

Seeing my friend at just the right time

'He who, on account of the duties of his state of life, cannot devote much time to prayer, need not be troubled; the exact fulfilment of his duties, with a pure intention, having only God in view, is an excellent prayer.'

St. Paul of the Cross

'All ought to make the holy will of God the center and lever of all their actions, and His Divine qualities the only object of their discourse, the only end of their hopes.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

Finding Joy in the day, Day 14 (Year 4)

A little more sleep then I expected to get

'Be not judge in your own case, but distrust yourself, and adore the Father of lights in spirit and in truth. It is written: Happy the man who always fears!'

St. Paul of the Cross

Finding Joy in the day, Day 13 (Year 4)

Getting some pretty good news

'Yet you are not the sole author of the evil, but there is also another most wicked prompter, the devil. He indeed suggests, but does not get the mastery by force over those who do not consent.'

St. Cyril of Jerusalem

Finding Joy in the day, Day 12 (Year 4)

Trying a new fun recipe

'But it was not so much the sorrows of his Passion which saddened and embittered the life of our Redeemer, as the sight of all the sins which men would commit after his death. These were the cruel executioners which made him live in continual agony, oppressed by such an overwhelming grief that pain alone would have been enough to make him die of pure sorrow. Father Lessius says that the sight alone of the ingratitude of mankind would have been sufficient to make Jesus Christ die of grief a thousand times.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

Finding Joy in the day, Day 11 (Year 4)

Sunny day

'You must be indifferent to all created things and especially to the impulses prompted by your self-love and your own will. This self-will He wishes you to sacrifice as often as He gives you the opportunity thereof, by breaking and thwarting it, until it is wholly destroyed and extinct, in order that the Will of His divine Heart, alone, may reign in you.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Finding Joy in the day, Day 10 (Year 4)

Getting home safe despite the snow
Snowflakes that look like diamonds
A better day for me and my sister

'The grace of the Holy Ghost be ever with you. Amen.'

St. Paul of the Cross

Finding Joy in the day, Day 9 (Year 4)

Getting to spend time in WI

'I have my weaknesses also, but I rejoice in them...It's so good to feel that one is weak and little.'

St. Therese of Lisieux

Finding Joy in the day, Day 8 (Year 4)

Fun new coffee shop

'So blessed are you if you persevere in doing good, neither seeking nor desiring any consolation, for as St. Bernard says: To serve God is nothing else than to do good and suffer evil, and the rule of the true servant of Christ is never to receive consolation except in time of great necessity. This is the secure way; for whoever wants to go to God through sweetness and consolation is deceived.'

St. Catherine of Bologna

Finding Joy in the day, Day 7 (Year 4)

Seeing my niece on her birthday

'You do wrong to complain of your crosses and sufferings. Believe me, you know not what it is to suffer. God preserve you from suffering even one day what has been endured by a certain soul, whose name I must not disclose!'

St. Paul of the Cross

Finding Joy in the day, Day 6 (Year 4)

Safe drive and less wind today

'Though I find myself in so wretched a condition that I feel as if I no longer possess faith, hope, or charity, nor even that natural light which other men enjoy, so that I seem to be like an animal, even then, were I asked of what I was thinking, I could truthfully say that in the depth of my soul I have God alone present with me.'

St. Paul of the Cross

Finding Joy in the day, Day 5 (Year 4)

Putting things together

'Sursum corda, then; let us lift up our hearts and generously serve our great God and Our Lord Jesus in faith and pure love. Amen.'

St. Paul of the Cross

Finding Joy in the day, Day 4 (Year 4)

Carwash

'My greatest happiness is to be before the Blessed Sacrament, where my heart is, as it were, in Its center.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Finding Joy in the day, Day 3 (Year 4)

A little change

'"Shun evil and do good" (Ps. 34:14), that is to say, fight the enemy in order to diminish the passions, and then be vigilant lest they increase once more. Again, fight to acquire the virtues and then be vigilant in order to keep them. This is the meaning of "cultivating" and 'keeping" (cf. Gen. 2:15).'

St. Maximos the Confessor

'When we receive with an entire and perfect resignation the afflictions which God sends us they become for us favors and benefits; because conformity to the will of God is a gain far superior to all temporal advantages.'

St. Vincent de Paul

Finding Joy in the day, Day 2 (Year 4)

Seeing a friend after a missing her lately

'Let us offer ourselves without delay and without reserve to Mary, and beg her to offer us herself to God.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

FInding Joy in the day, Day 1 (Year 4)

Beginning a new year to find reasons for hope and thankfulness

“We shall never learn to know ourselves except by endeavoring to know God; for, beholding His greatness, we realize our own littleness; His purity shows us our foulness; and by meditating upon His humility we find how very far we are from being humble.”  (St. Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church)

Finding Joy in the day, Day 365 (Year 3)

When I think about all that has taken place over the last 3 years I can't believe where I have all been all that I have been able to find to be grateful for, some key things I want to recognize---
My new nephews Lucas and Henry
My new nieces Amelia and Vivian
And my new future brother in law Brad
A few new friends with hearts of Gold- H, J, B, T, and L
An experience of living at Philomena House for the past year
Living to experience all these treasures
For my super amazing and generous sister who has read and commented on I think every day over the last 1000+ days- Thank you MB
Thank you God for all these blessings

'Though Jesus [in His Sacred Humanity] is solitary in the Blessed Sacrament, He is always communing with God. Therefore, in order to be conformed to Him, I will make a solitude in my heart, so that everywhere I may converse alone with Jesus.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Finding Joy in the day, Day 364 (Year 3)

Wow a day away from 3 yrs. hard to believe, thank you God for being with me throughout

'Jesus invited us to be like Him, humble of heart. But what is humility of the heart? It consists in receiving humiliations from God with a submissive love, in accepting one's state of life and one's duties whatever they are, and in not being ashamed of one's condition.'

St. Peter Julian Eymard

Finding Joy in the day, Day 363 (Year 3), Ash Wednesday March 1, 2017

Getting to church

'Unite all your works to the merits of Jesus Christ, and then offer them up to the eternal Father if you desire to make them pleasing to Him.'

St. Teresa of Jesus

Finding Joy in the day, Day 362 (Year 3)

Sleeping in a lot

'Some call men intelligent because they have the power of discernment on the sensible plane. But the really intelligent people are those who control their own desires.'

St. Mark the Ascetic