"...we learn to be conscious of the simple and small things as signs of God's presence and tokens of His love...We all have the tendency to long for peak experiences, but we are invited to receive God int he drab little things of everyday life." page 8
My home office is currently sharing the space with the dining room. I have a lovely bay window behind me that at certain points in the early morning allows rays of sunlight to dance across my screen. It is really peaceful. This is God's presence.
"It is our immense privilege as Christians that God lives in us as in His own home. We are the temples of the most Holy Trinity, our dignity couldn't care less. God lives in them, and they are busy with all kinds of other things - meetings, vacations, social media. You name it, they do it...The Trinity is a mystery of prayer...these abominations and dishonorable actions and evil deeds which we sinners commit are done within the palace itself - that is, within God." pages 10-11
"We can adore the Father together with His Son. In faith, we can use the contemplative gaze of the Son and look upon the Father and give Him glory and thanks." page 12
When I look at Jesus, I see God of the Old Testament. When we don't understand the Old Testament, we see a vengeful God and it can be difficult to reconcile the contradictions between Jesus and God. If we hold space for our understanding and that we might not have a true vision of God, and that by seeing Jesus, we see the heart of our Lord then the love of God in the Old Testament will become a true testament.
"...so close to God that is is transformed into a flame of love, in which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are communicated to it..." page 12
I burn for God because I am filled with his presence. I am a flame of love.
"...we can take all of these various perspectives and become aware of God everywhere. In everything happening, inside and outside, I can encounter God Who is always acting in time and history." page 22
A prayer by Charles de Foucauld:
"Father, I abandon myself into Your hands. Do with me what You will. Whatever You may do, I thank You. I'm ready for all. I accept all. Let only Your will be done in me and in all Your creatures. I wish no more than this, O Lord. Into Your hands I commend my soul. I offer it to You with all the love of my heart, and so need to give myself, to surrender myself into Your hands without reserve, for I love You, Lord, and with boundless confidence, for You are my Father. Amen."
Such a perfect prayer!
"When Therese speaks about God, she usually says - as the French do - le Bon Dieu ("the Good God"). This, in my opinion, is not only a pious way of speaking. It is what she believes with all her heart and what she want to proclaim to the world." page 28
I am have some difficulties with Mary and Joseph and think I need to practice this in particularly to them. I also love the idea of addressing God by a title particularly meaning to me at that time. My redeeming Lord. My redeeming God. My blessed Mother, Ever Virgin. St. Joseph the Loyal.
"But if we stand before the Lord in prayer, somehow all these people are with us, and we can give them to Him. Therese of Lisieux had infinite confidence in God's fatherly love, and that's why she could always bring all these people to the Lord. And so we are reminded of our own vocation to have a constant trust in the Father because He is the Father of all of us, even of those prodigal sons and daughters that have gone astray." page 34
Christ is "...a father to the fatherless..." page 49. What a comfort that is to so many of us that are fatherless because our biological fathers weren't in our lives or we are fatherless because our biological fathers weren't emotionally available to us.
"So when we realize that we are not praying, we can try to transform our thoughts into an act of thanking God. We can thank Him for everything, even for our distracted thoughts, because they can make us humbler, especially if we have the tendency to think that we are pious, prayerful people." page 60
"...there is a read danger that we Christians may become too preoccupied thinking about the Church and forget to look upon Christ, our Bridegroom." page 71
"Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love!" page 80
"In our time of materialism and secularization, only holy Christians will be able to survive and transmit the Faith." page 81
"Adoration is so important in Christian life. 'The most precious of all gifts is to disappear into the tremendous poverty which is the adoration of God,' Thomas Merton said." page 115
"Life could be so simple - and, really, it is simple enough. The problem is that we are not that simple. But we can always learn this fundamental simplicity of our existence. We must simply go down on our knees and adore. Nothin is simpler and more natural. Everything existing is meant to glorify its Source and Origin." page 117
"...so that a contemplative is always doing the same thing all day and all night. He is praying or having breakfast or talking or working or amusing himself, but he is principally conscious that he is doing God's will." page 118
"To adore God means that we also adore Him in our fellow men. We see the traces of Jesus in every single human being. We adore His adorable face in every human face. Adoration brings us closer to those in need. We can recognize Jesus, the Poor One, in every poor person we see." page 119
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