Heard at church today

Avé Maria, cheia de graça,
o Senhor é convosco.
Bendita sois vós entre as mulheres;
bendito é o fruto do vosso ventre, Jesus.
Santa Maria, mãe de Deus,
rogai por nós, pecadores,
agora e na hora da nossa morte. Amen

Caryll Houselander

The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin

Prayer

Mary,
Immaculate Love,
   we bless you.

Because, though rooted in earth
   as we are,
you opened your heart to God;
   expanding and opening wide
   to the heat of the sun
   in your sinless heart,
you opened our hearts
   to the light.

All generations bless you,
flower of our race.

We are crowned
   in you,
Queen of Heaven,
   crowned with stars
   by the hands of Christ.

+ + +

[From The Essential Rosary (Sophia Institute Press, 1996), p. 59]

Msgr Romano Guardini

When is heaven truly and completely present? It is when all heaviness is gone; when all sluggishness has been overcome, all wickedness, coldness, pride, irritation, disobedience, and covetousness; when there is no danger anymore of falling away; when grace has made one's whole being open up, body and soul, to the ultimate profundities, when there is no further danger that it will all close in again, become hardened in ways of evil; when all work to be done on earth is finished, and all guilt has been paid by repentance.  What all this means is:  after death.

After death -- when time is no longer; when everything is in the everlasting now; when nothing can change anymore, but the creature stands illuminated by the light of eternity, before God -- at that time, everything will be open, and will remain so.  That is being in heaven ...

This is how we properly understand heaven.  It is that close presence wherein the Father stands in relation to Jesus Christ.  And heaven for us will be participation in this intimacy of love.  This condition is already beginning; it approaches closer; now in peril, it is fought over, lost, and won back again.  So it goes with our Christian life.

[Via Magnificat, November 2011, pp. 275-6.  From Msgr Guardini's book The Inner Life of Jesus]

Blessed John Paul II

Despite the suffering that invades my soul, I feel empowered, even obliged, solemnly to reaffirm before all the world what my predecessors and I have repeated so often in the name of conscience, in the name of morality, in the name of humanity, and in the name of God:

Peace is not a utopia, nor an inaccessible ideal, nor an unrealizable dream.

War is not an inevitable calamity.

Peace is possible.

And because it is possible, peace is our duty: our grave duty, our supreme responsibility.

[From Breakfast with the Pope: Daily Readings (Charis/Servant Publications, 1995), meditation 7]

St Francis de Sales

One form of gentleness we should practice is toward ourselves.  We should never get irritable with ourselves because of our imperfections.  It is reasonable to be displeased and sorry when we commit faults, but not fretful or spiteful to ourselves ...

All irritation with ourselves tends to foster pride and springs from self-love, which is displeased at finding we are not perfect.

We should regard our faults with calm, collected, and firm displeasure.  We correct ourselves better by a quiet persevering repentance than by an irritated, hasty, and passionate one.

When your heart has fallen raise it gently, humbling yourself before God, acknowledging your fault, but not surprised at your fall.  Infirmity is infirm, weakness weak, and frailty frail.

[Via In the Footprints of Loneliness by Catherine Doherty (Madonna House Publications, 2003), p. 81]

And now, brethren,

all that rings true, all that commands reverence, and all that makes for right; all that is pure, all that is lovely, all that is gracious in the telling; virtue and merit, wherever virtue and merit are found -- let this be the argument of your thoughts.

Philippians 4:8, trans. Msgr Ronald Knox