Illuminated By Joy

 J.M.J.  Hello, my friends!  Do you ever keep track of quote-worthy lines in books you read? I've had a notebook since I was 12 where I've recorded "Important Things to Remember from ...". It's an easy way to sort of reread books from my past spiritual reading (and see how my handwriting has changed!). One of my favorite books is Story of a Soul: Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux , so I thought I'd share some of my favorite quotes from her writing. I also highly recommend it to everyone, no matter your stage in life!  (credit) *Emphasis is my addition* "He wants me to love Him because He has forgiven me, not much, but everything. He did not wait for me to love Him with a great love, like Magdalene's, but made me see that He had loved me first, with an infinite providence, so that now I may love Him in return even unto folly" (57-58).  " 'The world is but a ship, and not thy home' " (61).  "...Our Lord does not come fr...

 Hey everyone! I've been listening to the Bible in a Year podcast a lot lately. In the process, I listened to so many books that gave profound advice, but that hardly anyone knows about. It just made me want to spread this wisdom to everyone.  So, I thought I would share a few quotes from one of these books, called Sirach (Ecclesiasticus if you read the Dhouay-Rheims Version) with you all to reflect on. It is a deuterocannonical book, or one of the books that Catholic Bibles have, but non-Catholic Bibles don't. The format is basically a father giving advice to his son. So many of the teachings are rules we should all live by, including some really good social precepts. I pray that as you read these, you will hunger for more great Wisdom from our Heavenly Father.  I used the Dhouay Rheims Version because it is in the public domain, but included the citation for the New American Bible as well. "Advise not with fools, for they cannot love but such things please them. "Be...

Hello everyone!  Sorry for my long absence. It's been difficult for me to write for a couple reasons, but hopefully that's better now.  I know I have exams coming up, and I'm sure some of you do too. So, I thought I would post some encouragement saint style! St Vincent Ferrer:  Do you desire to study to your advantage? Let devotion accompany all your studies, and study less to make yourself learned than to become a saint . Consult God more than your books, and ask him, with humility, to make you understand what you read. Study fatigues and drains the mind and heart. Go from time to time to refresh them at the feet of Jesus Christ under his cross. It's crucial to not overstudy which exhausts your mind. It isn't good for your spiritual, social, or school life. Also, remember that while studying and doing your school well is important, your spiritual life is infinitly more .  St Benedict:  Whenever you begin any good work you should first of all make a most pres...

Tomorrow begins the season of Lent: a time to reflect on the Passion of our Lord and turn back to Him through fasting and penance. It is a time to walk with Jesus and strengthen our relationship with Him. However, I know that many people, including me, might not look forward to this season very much. I admit, it is a very hard thing to reflect on the passion of our Lord. We don't want to suffer. We just want to keep life as it is and not think about it. But if we truly wish to follow Jesus, we must be loyal. Even contemplating His passion can show how truly loyal we are. We can be like Mary, John, and Mary Magdalene, who stayed at the foot of the Cross. Even that simple act took tremendous courage. They could have been killed or walked away at any time, but they were so loyal that they stood by until Jesus took His last breath. Are we as loyal as them? Usually not. But even if we haven't been loyal, there is still hope and a call to repent. That was the case with Peter, Dismas,...

 Happy new year everyone! Personally, I am glad to leave 2022 behind, although a little sad too. It had it's good moments, but all in all it was a hard year for me.  At the start of last year things went downhill and I went through a hard time basically the whole year. I'm hoping this year will be a new start for me.  I hope to repeat the good things, a beautiful growing friendship, progress on crafts like knitting, a few wonderful events.  But there are many more things I hope not to repeat. I'm not going to make a few small resolutions for this new year, I'm going to go for a complete overhaul of my life, and hope I can finally summon up the courage to do it.  I'm aiming for change in four aspects of my life:  Family School Spiritual Social I have learned quite a lot about myself though, and also about hope. I'm a very hopeful person. Giving up at something goes against the grain for me. I may be hopeless for a short amount of time, but soon enough hope r...

 Hello all! Sorry I've been absent for a while. Luckily Ava has still been posting, so you haven't been entirely deserted.  Happy Advent! Anyway, today's post isn't directly about Advent, but it is related to it.  Advent is the beginning of the Liturgical year, and so it is a time of spiritual regeneration. Here are my four tips to grow in the spiritual life based on my own experience.  1. Pray the Rosary often and well.  I found that praying the Rosary every day, though it can be hard to stick to, very beneficial to the spritual life. But especially saying it well, as it was meant to be said,  meditating on the particular mystery associated with the decade as you say it. It might be hard at first, but it will get easier as you go on. (Warning: Don't break your habit of saying the rosary every day no matter what, or else you will lose the habit. I've learned this the hard way.) 2. Recieve Holy Communion often and very well.   This is so  important...

On the evening of May16, 2020, I received a text from a friend asking me if I wanted to join a prayer group. I said yes, and I am definitely glad I made that decision. She created the group with me and a few other friends the following day. It was hard to manage things at first-- we had to find a time that worked for everyone, what prayers we said at the end of the Chaplet or Rosary, and what some of our "customs" were-- but eventually we came through.   I always looked forward to the sessions every day except for Sunday. We video chatted and prayed a rosary or chaplet (it depended on the circumstances of each day) and we concluded with our closing prayers, a litany of our patron saints, and our motto: "Pray, hope, and don't worry." ~St. Padre Pio We were able to continue the group for more than two years, and it helped me in so many ways. It gave me a chance to get to know my fellow members better, and a community I could turn to if I needed support. We were a...

     We all have to pray. Prayer is a very basic requirement for Christian life, and besides, we wouldn't last very long without it. But what are some ways we can pray? And how do we know which way is right for us?      Below are some different forms of prayer that are good for different purposes. They all have their strengths and weaknesses, but they can all be very effective in bringing us closer to Christ. Daily examen      This form of prayer requires five steps:       1.) Become aware of God's presence       2.) Thank God for the ways He has blessed you in since the last time you prayed       3.) Reflect on the ways that God was present in your life since the last time you prayed       4.) Ask forgiveness for all of the sins you've committed       5.) Choose one area to improve on in the future       This can be very he...

Hello everyone!  Sorry about the lack of posts. I've been stuck on a post that's taking me ages to write, so I'm taking a break from it and writing other stuff.  Now, to give you some background before the tips, a few years ago I started developing a deeper spiritual life due to just one talk I heard when I was eleven or so. It was a talk by a priest about the Eucharist. Now, he talked about the parallels the Eucharist has in the Old Testament and Jewish Law but that part didn't really effect me. At the end he asked us (I was with a group of girls) how we prepared for Holy Communion and thanked our Lord after. I usually said a couple prayers after that were in my missal, but I didn't prepare, and left as soon as Mass was over with my family. He told us about the amount of preparation and thanksgiving we should do, and said they were equally important. He said that we should stay in church 15-20 minutes if we could after receiving Jesus, because it is only after that...

 I believe - we say those words at each Mass, at the beginning of every rosary. In fact, we say that phrase frequently in everyday life: "I believe in you", "I believe in this cause", etc. But when we say "I believe" at the start of the Apostles' Creed what do we mean? It's not enough to simply believe that God exists, that Jesus Christ, His Son, died for us, that He established the Catholic Church.  We might superficially know this to be true, but not really believe .  This is where the theological virtues come in. Faith is believing in God and everything He promised and commanded, hope is acting on that belief in our lives, and charity is what makes it pleasing in God's sight.   When we say "I believe" we need to renew with our whole hearts, our faith, hope and charity. We need to believe with everything. Faith is nothing without hope, hope is nothing without charity.  It's easy to believe 2+2=4, we know that by logic, it's...

  If you've ever weeded a garden before, you know that some weeds pull out much more easily than others. Some only need a little tug, and they are out, roots and all. But others, like dandelions, have deep roots and don't come out well. If you pull hard, the leaves break and the root of the plant remains in the ground.  If you want to dig it out you usually need to use a shovel and slowly dig around it until you can finally pull that stubborn root out.  Well, sometimes sins are like that. Some are easy to root out of your life. Just one quick pull. But with others, you pull and pull and finally you break the leaves and stem off. It seems like that sin is gone from your life. You can't see it anymore. It appears to be gone. But the root still remains, hindering spiritual growth in the soul.  The only way you can finally exterminate this sin is by carefully probing until push it out at last by the shovel of your will, which is pushed down by God's grace.  We can n...