Desert Legacy

"Persevere in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving." (Col 4:2)

"Ceaseless prayer is the ideal of the monastic life developed by Saint Anthony. Its goal is purity of heart, that is, a heart so filled with love for God and neighbor that there is room for nothing else. Its tool is discernment, that is, the habit of watchfully testing the inner movements of the heart, following those which are from God and ignoring those which are not. It is the desert legacy to all who seek God in any walk of life."
--from Magnificat, January 2012, p. 254-5

Ordinary Time

Command over Unclean Spirits

       I am begging you, since it is so delightful, never let any trouble or temptation the devil might give you make you look back;  never let your soul give in to sadness or discouragement, for the devil would like nothing better.  He likes to give us lots of annoyances and different sorts of struggles, and suggest false judgments against what we are commanded in obedience.  He doesn’t do this thinking we will fall at the first stroke, but only to lead us to unreasonable sadness and spiritual discouragement.  For once he has brought us to sadness and discouragement, we become frustrated with ourselves and abandon our spiritual practices, thinking God must not be pleased or satisfied with what we have been doing, since we are experiencing so much darkness and coldheartedness.  We seem to have lost the warmth of charity, and so we think it better to let go of these practices than to keep them up.  Then the devil is happy, because he sees we are ready to be led into despair – and this is the one way he can get us.

         For if all the sins there are were collected in my one body, and I still had true hope and lively faith in infinite mercy, nobody would be able to keep me from receiving and sharing in the fruit of the blood of God’s Son.

St. Catherine of Siena, quoted in Magnificat, January, 2012 p. 141

Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus

Nothing restrains anger,
curbs pride,
heals the wounds of malice,
bridles self-indulgence,
quenches lustful passions,
checks greed and
puts unclean thoughts to flight
as does the name of JESUS.
--St. Bernard of Clairvaux