🌹Monday's with Blessed Mary🌹= St. Francis of Assisi
🧀The Cheese & Crackers = Quotes by C.S. Lewis, Christopher Blum and Balthasar Gracian
🍆TheVeggies = My 2💰
🍟The Potatoes = Article "How to Read the Bible – A Three Step Plan" by Dr, Taylor Marshall.
🍗The meat = "Few will be saved", quotes from a variety of saints: St. Leo of Patara, St. Anselm, Doctor of the Church, St. Robert Southwell, St. Regimius of Rheims, St. Benedict Joseph Labre, Bl. Sebastian Valfre, St. Veronica Giuliani, St. Anthony Mary Claret, St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Doctor of the Church
🍧The Dessert = YouTube video: "St. John of the Cross - Talk # 3", Fr. Mark Goring, CC
🍛"And to know oneself is an essential first step to knowing the world. After all, we come to know the world through our senses, but our senses, if undisciplined, merely agitate us rather than instruct us. If we would learn from our senses, we must first bridle them and lead them, gently but forthrightly, into the paths of knowing. Such self-possession is no accident. It must be intended, chosen, and gained by many small victories of self-command. For that work to go forward, we must first take stock of our sensory and cognitive habits and measure them against what wisdom and virtue require". By Christopher Blum
🌑"What a misfortune for our age that it regards virtue as a stranger and vice as a matter of course! If you are wise, live as you can, if you cannot live as you would. Think more highly of what fate has given you than of what it has denied". By Balthasar Gracian
The first inspiration concerns a weekly observance, and of course it's related to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Inspired to read something every Saturday pertaining to the Blessed Virgin. Next coming to mind was the daily habit. Thinking it would be a good idea to try and pray the Jesus prayer every hour or 24 times in one day. The Church Fathers prayed it hundreds of times daily and knew it was a way to pray constantly and something essential to spiritual growth. How powerful is the name of Jesus.
Regarding what is to be the rule for the month or the year, no clarity at this moment about those areas. Surely the Holy Spirit will be right on time as the days roll along, it’s for me to stay spiritually engaged. Thoroughly convinced that we do not grow or make progress, or end up weighed down to the natural, when we have access to sources of supernatural graces from above to move beyond, because we do not authentically engage in the reception of the Holy Sacraments well or pray from the heart. Added to this is a lack of studying, Scripture reading, distractions from unnecessary and unhealthy sources, and not learning from the saints. By partnering up with the Holy Spirit, pious practices will then glorify God and not be self serving. Sometimes people are bent on saying that "we are just human", but so were the saints. They hit the heights, therefore, we have no excuses. The models are before us, so it's to step it up, if we so will. Like Richard said, we need to choose life:
Complete article at this site: http://taylormarshall.com/2013/09/how-to-read-the-bible-a-three-step-plan.html?utm_source=Taylor+Marshall%2C+PhD&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=b9b64238bd-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_term=0_64accbc3c7-b9b64238bd-59118113
“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” – Saint Jerome
It’s a running joke that if you want to find a Bible verse, you ought to ask a Protestant and not a Catholic. Protestants read the Bible, Catholics not so much. I think the answer lies in the fact that we Catholics go to Mass. The Holy Mass has at least two Bible readings every time. If you pray the Breviary or Liturgy of Hours, multiply that several times. This raises the question: Why Don’t More Catholics Read the Bible? I think the answer lies in the fact that we Catholics go to Mass. Joe Catholic says to himself, “Why should I study the Bible? I go to Mass. I hear it there. Check and check.” There is something beautiful in this. For Catholics, Bible reading is liturgical. Hence, Bible reading remains chiefly a community experience.
A Three Step Plan to Kick It Up a Notch
It’s good to listen to the readings from the Bible at Holy Mass. However, we also need a personal (even private) encounter with God in the pages of Sacred Scripture. All of the saints breathed Sacred Scripture. Scripture served as the grammar for their souls. They couldn’t communicate without it. Here are some basic spiritual needs that you have every single day of your life:
🙌🏼Praise – Voicing your delight in God and His provision for your life. Gratitude destroys discouragement.
🦉Wisdom – You need practical advice to navigate the complexities of life.
🔐Challenge – You need to be lifted higher. You need to grow in your faith. You need to be inspired. You must be an intentional Christian.
So when you wake up tomorrow, do the following:
Doing these three readings will take you only 3-5 minutes. That’s the time of a commercial break. It will change your life for good. I promise. It takes 21 days to make a habit, so give it 21 days and see if you aren’t hooked. Put the Bible on your night stand and read it in the mornings. Start fresh.
“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” – Saint Jerome, Doctor of the Church
"Yellow card" info: A Soccer player is shown the yellow card if he commits any of these offences: is guilty of unsporting behavior, shows dissent by word or action, persistently infringes the Laws of the Game, delays the restart of play, fails to respect the required distance when play is restarted with a corner kick or free kick, enters or re-enters the field of play without the referee's permission, deliberately leaves the field of play without the referee's permission. If a player receives two yellow cards in a match, he is given a red card and ordered to leave the field. Also Known As: Caution”
Clara is the reason for this Meat dish being served up. In October of 2013, this was journaled, but consider it pulled from the freezer, thawed, and still tasty to those who care to indulge. She sent me a video about the topic of everyone going to heaven. Expect to experience that Dessert one day.
A.B. Fulton Sheen: "The truth is the truth even if nobody believes it, and a lie is still a lie, even if everybody believes it."
Lord Have Mercy, have mercy, have mercy. Jesus Christ save me/save us/save the world. My dear Jesus, please save US from the fires of Hell. Just sharing what the Lord is putting on my heart, what He is stressing to me. For sure, we don't want to lose out and share the lot of the "many" right?
☄️'I see around me a multitude of those who, blindly persevering in error, despise the true God; but I am a Christian nevertheless, and I follow the instruction of the Apostles. If this deserves chastisement, reward it; for I am determined to suffer every torture rather then become the slave of the devil. Others may do as they please since they are. . . reckless of the future life which is to be obtained only by sufferings. Scripture tells us that "narrow is the way that leads to life" . . . because it is one of affliction and of persecutions suffered for the sake of justice; but it is wide enough for those who walk upon it, because their faith and the hope of an eternal reward make it so for them. . . On the contrary, the road of vice is in reality narrow, and it leads to an eternal precipice.' St. Leo of Patara
☄️'If you would be quite sure of your salvation, strive to be among the fewest of the few. Do not follow the majority of mankind, but follow those who renounce the world and never relax their efforts day or night so that they may attain everlasting blessedness.' St. Anselm, Doctor of the Church
☄️'The path to Heaven is narrow, rough and full of wearisome and trying ascents, nor can it be trodden without great toil; and therefore wrong is their way, gross their error, and assured their ruin who, after the testimony of so many thousands of saints, will not learn where to settle their footing.' St. Robert Southwell
☄️'Oh how much are the worldlings deceived that rejoice in the time of weeping, and make their place of imprisonment a palace of pleasure; that consider the examples of the saints as follies, and their end as dishonorable; that think to go to Heaven by the wide way that leadeth only to perdition!' St. John Southwell
☄️Among adults there are few saved because of sins of the flesh.' St. Regimius of Rheims
☄️With the exception of those who die in childhood, most men will be damned.'
St. Regimius of Rheims
☄️'Woe to you who command others! If so many are damned by your fault, what will happen to you? If few out of those who are first in the Church of God are saved, what will happen to you? Take all states, both sexes, every condition: husbands, wives, widows, young women, young men, soldiers, merchants, craftsmen, rich and poor, noble and plebian. What are we to say about all these people who are living so badly? The following narrative from Saint Vincent Ferrer will show you what you may think about it. He relates that an archdeacon in Lyons gave up his charge and retreated into a desert place to do penance, and that he died the same day and hour as Saint Bernard. After his death, he appeared to his bishop and said to him, "Know, Monsignor, that at the very hour I passed away, thirty-three thousand people also died. Out of this number, Bernard and myself went up to heaven without delay, three went to purgatory, and all the others fell into Hell."'
☄️'Yes, indeed, many will be damned; few will be saved.' St. Benedict Joseph Labre
☄️Meditate on the horrors of Hell which will last for eternity because of one easily-committed mortal sin. Try hard to be among the few who are chosen. Think of the eternal flames of Hell, and how few there are that are saved.' St. Benedict Joseph Labre
☄️'I was watching souls going down into the abyss as thick and fast as snowflakes falling in the winter mist.' St. Benedict Joseph Labre
☄️'I fear that Last Day, that day of tribulation and anguish, of calamity and misery, of mist and darkness, that Day on which, if the just have reason to fear, how much more should I, an impious, wretched, and ungrateful sinner!' Bl. Sebastian Valfre
☄️'Cast a look round the world, just observe the manner of living, of speaking, and you will see immediately whether the evil of sin is known in the world or whether any attention is paid to it. Not to speak of those who live decidedly irreligious and wicked lives, how few are those who pass for good and who approach the sacraments are aware of the great evil that sin is, and the great ruin it brings with it. It must necessarily happen that, on account of this certainly culpable ignorance in which most men live, an enormous number will come to be damned, because no sin is pardoned which is not detested, and it is impossible to detest sin properly if it is not known as such.' St. Joseph Cafasso
☄️The number of the damned is incalculable.' St. Veronica Giuliani
☄️'A multitude of souls fall into the depths of Hell, and it is of the faith that all who die in mortal sin are condemned for ever and ever. According to statistics, approximately 80,000 persons die every day. How many of these will die in mortal sin, and how many will be condemned! For, as their lives have been, so also will be their end.' St. Anthony Mary Claret
☄️'The great deluge at the time of Noe was the cause why all mankind perished, with the exception of eight persons who were saved in the Ark. In our time a deluge, not of water, but of sins, continually inundates the earth, and few persons escape it, especially among seculars. . .' St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Doctor of the Church
☄️'Everyone desires to be saved but the greater part is lost.'
image.gif'It is certain that we absolutely require the divine assistance, in order to overcome temptations. . . Whoever prays obtains this grace; but whoever prays not, obtains it not, and is lost. And this is more especially the case with regard to the grace of final perseverance, of dying in the grace of God, which is the grace absolutely necessary for our salvation, and without which we should be lost forever. St. Augustine says of this grace, that God only bestows it on those who pray. And this is the reason why so few are saved, because few indeed are mindful to beg of God this grace of perseverance.' St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Doctor of the Church
Video link:
youtu.be/KwOjEQUp8JQ