Happy St. Andrew's Day!

I took these pictures of St. Andrew's foot in the church of Saint-Saveur in Aix-en-Provence, France. This foot climbed into the boat with Jesus! This foot climbed out of the boat to follow Him when He said, "Come, I will make you fishers of men."



And this is a hunk of the cross on which St. Andrew was martyred. I photographed it in the Abbey of St. Victor in Marseilles, France.



The Telegraph UK reports:

"Today is St Andrew's Day (or in Scottish Gaelic 'Là Naomh Anndrais'), marking the country's patron saint.... 

"Who was St Andrew? St Andrew, according to Christianity's teachings, was one of Jesus Christ's apostles, the twelve followers chosen by him....He was revered in Scotland from around 1,000 AD but didn't become its official patron saint until the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320.

"Like Jesus, Andrew died a martyr, and was crucified in Greece on an X-shaped cross in 60 AD, rather than the 'T' shape cross that Jesus was crucified on. This type of cross is also known as a saltire - the symbol that makes up the Scottish flag.

"St Andrew's links with Scotland come from the Pictish King Oengus I, who built a monastery in what is now the town of St Andrews - where the Scottish university now stands - after the relics of the saint were brought to the town in the eighth century.

"But he was made the patron saint of Scotland after the king's descendant, Oengus II, prayed to St. Andrew on the eve of a crucial battle against English warriors from Northumberland, around 20 miles east of Edinburgh.

"Legend has it that, heavily outnumbered, Oengus II told St. Andrew that he would become the patron saint of Scotland if he were granted victory. On the day of the battle, clouds are said to have formed a saltire in the sky, and Oengus's army of Picts and Scots were victorious....

"The Saltire flag - a white cross on a blue background - is said to have come from this divine intervention and has been used to represent Scotland since 1385."

This story (in quotes) is credited to Telegraph Reporters. The entire story is published here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/st-andrews-day-patron-saint-scotland-day-celebrated-today/.

(Sailing in New York Harbor)

 "It doesn't do to make the pursuit of happiness our main concern. There is the danger that we may not know it when we've got it. We can't help wanting it, but as to our having it, that is God's affair. For us to get on with the business of living. Happiness is a by-product."

~ Dom Hubert van Zeller, OSB, "We Live with Our Eyes Open," imprimatur 1949.

Let us raise our sails, and go where the wind of the Holy Ghost leads us. But let us not seek for earthly happiness as our final destination. God's Will should be our goal: God's perfect plan for our lives...and ultimately perfect happiness in Heaven. If we find some earthly joys along the way, then that is the sunshine glinting on the waters of our hearts....bringing brightness and beauty, but not ultimate happiness.

Today is the feast of St. Catherine Laboure. This statue is located in the Shrine of the Miraculous Medal in Germantown (Philadelphia), Pennsylvania, but I was unable to discover the photographer of the image. This shows what it was like the first time that Our Lady appeared to St. Catherine Laboure. The Blessed Mother sat in a chair (which is still revered in Paris) and St. Catherine knelt beside her and talked to her of everything in her heart.

Throughout Catherine's life:

"Everything she did bore the stamp of cheerful joyousness and ardent love for God and His Blessed Mother. She believed in the maxim that 'if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well.' She supernaturalized that maxim by adding the motive of doing everything for God; and the way she judged whether or not a thing was worth doing at all was whether or not God willed it."

~ Edward J. Farren, from the chapter on Catherine Laboure in Heroines of Christ edited by Joseph Husslein, SJ, Ph.D., imprimatur 1939.

The Last Day

We don't know when our last day will be, but this last day of the Church Year is a great day to reflect on it. Death is a serious thing, but it shouldn't terrify us. Death is a profound thought, but it shouldn't panic us. "Remember death, and thou shalt never sin."

Fr. Daniel Lord, SJ, wrote out his retreat notes when he knew he was dying of cancer. These were published in 1969 as Letters to My Lord by Fr. Daniel Lord.

He wrote:

"No one has even attempted to describe the moment when arriving in eternity the soul knows that the shell is broken, its limitations are dissolved, there will be sight without straining and sound without confusion and knowledge without effort and love without disillusion."

That is my thought for today. After the last moment of this life, comes the first moment of the next, so aptly described above by someone who was about to face it.

(I'm sorry, I don't know the artist, but I photographed this print in Oregon...)

"It is not sufficient to say: 'My God, I have confidence in You.' You must make the interior act of freeing yourself from all anxiety, and rest on My Heart...like St. John, the Beloved Apostle. I await this confidence from every soul."

~ Our Lord is believed to have said these words to Sister Mary of the Trinity. Quoted in "Words of Love" compiled by Fr. Bartholomew Gottemoller, OCSO.

Our Lord Jesus Christ asks our trust...He asks us to remember always that He is in control...that His Providence is perfect...and that He will take care of everything for those who love and trust Him.

Let us trust today.

Trust often.

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

"If there is so great a lack of joy in human life today this is owing to the fact that thankfulness has in great measure been excluded from many hearts, having been willfully and deliberately drowned in the floods of bitter discontent. Thankfulness and joy are near of kin; and ingratitude is the root of much unhappiness. St. Paul, the Apostle, a keen psychologist, well knew what he was saying when to his earnest exhortation, 'Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice,' he immediately added an exhortation to 'prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.'"

~ Rt. Rev. Paul Wilhelm von Keppler, "More Joy", imprimatur 1914.

We always have a choice in life...sometimes it's merely a choice of attitude: I'm not sure who said that, but it's very true. And there's another cliched saying about choosing an attitude of gratitude.

Whether we can think of a new, original way to express this or not, 😉 we don't want to be like the Chosen People of Old who were never grateful for what God had given them. They always seemed to be whining for whatever they didn't have. God performed miracles for them, getting them out of Egypt and away from their captors; and all they could think of to say was, "Yeah, but we're hungry."

Most of us in the United States of America on Thanksgiving Day at this time of the evening are anything but hungry, LOL, but maybe we have other things to whine about. Let's not. Let's remember what we're grateful for...even when it isn't Thanksgiving Day. God has done so much for us, from the moment He gave us life in the womb to this present moment. 

Deo gratias. Thanks be to God.

I'm sorry I didn't post anything yesterday due to illness...

St. Jane de Chantal often made acts of abandonment to God's Will. This was difficult for her, because she had a very ardent nature and naturally wanted to run things. But, while doing everything that she was supposed to do, she abandoned everything else to God. She once wrote to St. Francis de Sales:

"Ought not the soul, after it has thus surrendered itself into Our Lord's Hands, lose sight, as far as possible, of everything else by the continual remembrance of God, and rely upon Him alone with sincere and full confidence?"

Her saintly director replied:

"Yes, you ought, for God's sake, to forget whatever is foreign to God, and rest in peace under His Divine guidance."

These quotes were recorded by Monseigneur Bougaud, Bishop of Laval, in his St. Chantal and the Foundation of the Visitation, 1895.

(Tomb of St. Jane de Chantal, Annecy, France)

Can't you just see God's paintbrush at work on this little inmate of the Denver Zoo?

Today the Catholic Church celebrates the fact that the Virgin Mary was presented in the Temple to serve God when she was but three years old. In a chapter about this feast, Don Gaspar Gilli, in his The Month of Mary, According to the Spirit of St. Francis of Sales, discusses the question of what we should do if we have not always perfectly served God from our earliest childhood. 

"It is the present time, the present moment, that we should turn to profit; because the past has escaped us, and the future is not in our power. But you ask, How can we repair lost time? You can do it by the use of fervor and diligence during the time that remains for your pilgrimage upon earth. Stags do not always run at an extraordinary speed, but yet, when pursued by the hunter, they quicken their movement and seem rather to fly than to run. This is a model for us. We must not only run, but fly in the way of perfection."

So if we need to make up for lost time, all the more reason for us to "take flight" like this little bird, and fly Heavenward by constant acts of love and self-sacrifice!

"From the brief splendor of the passing thought or wish which prompts to repentance or lights the way to higher virtue, even to the undimmed and steady radiance of the holiest soul's highest sanctity, all come from the fire kindled by the Heart of Christ."

~ Fr. Francis P. Donnelly, SJ, "The Heart of the Gospel", imprimatur 1911.

I'm experiencing technical difficulties in uploading a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. But He knows everything, and He is allowing this because it is best. Maybe it is better for us to imagine the Love in His Eyes as He extends His Arms to us...to imagine the warm, rich sound of His Voice calling to us...to imagine the beautiful smile that plays about His Lips, as He invites us to come to Him. 

St. Ignatius wanted to "set the world on fire"...let us set the world on fire with the flames of love kindled by the Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

A corner of the Atlantic Ocean in Maine...all the oceans in the world can't compare with 

the Ocean of His Love.

St. Paul prays for us in his epistle, that we might be able to grasp the height, depth, length and breadth of the Love of the Heart of Jesus. It is a wonderful subject for meditation. 

"God had said: 'Let there be light, and light was made.' In the Incarnation He may be considered to have said, 'Let there be love, and the Heart of Christ was made.'...Into the Heart of Christ was poured the ocean of God's Love and out of It has flowed every drop of grace which has exercised an effect in this world."

~ Fr. Francis P. Donnelly, SJ, "The Heart of the Gospel", imprimatur 1911.

Which of His graces specifically have exercised an effect on your life?

(The view nowadays from the Cave of Mary Magdalen in southern France)

You might think that I scour old books looking for quotes about St. Mary Magdalene, :) but the truth is that because I love reading about the spiritual and temporal life of this saint, I often find writings about her when I'm not even looking for them! I find, in her transformation from sinner to saint, a wealth of meditation and comfort for the rest of us poor sinners.

"Sorrow for sin is consoling...Who will believe that the tears of Magdalene which fell so fast upon the Feet of Christ were signs of desolation, and not rather proof of her abundant love, gushing out with the fullness and refreshing softness of a 'long day's raining'? The tears of penitence are rather the overflow of God's grace...Let the heart...turn from what it before chose, and undo, as far as it can, the past; let it turn to God with an apology -- for contrition is an apology of the heart to God -- then the barrier is lifted and God's grace rolls in with a cleansing flood, and the pent-up heart finds relief in tears. Magdalene was in desolation, perhaps, as, dry-eyed, she faced the staring guests at the banquet. Magdalene was in consolation when she gazed upon Our Lord with tearful eyes. There is a rainbow of hope in every sky looked at through the shower of penitent tears."

~ Fr. Francis P. Donnelly, SJ, The Heart of the Gospel, imprimatur 1911.

 (Statue of St. Martha in Aix-en-Provence, France)

Here is another reflection from Miriam of Magdala by Katherine F. Mullany, published in 1906. When Our Lord said, "Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and troubled about many things," to the one who was busily engaged in trying to serve Him, this author opines that these words hurt Martha's pride. Mary Magdalen had been the one to "wander from righteousness" and now she was held up as an example to the faithful Martha, who had always obeyed the Jewish law. She was being told that "Mary had chosen the better part." How hard this must have been for the future Saint Martha!

"The eyes of Jesus gazed upon her troubled countenance lovingly, while self-love and pride battled with her nobler nature, and grace won under the power of that sweet glance."

Holy Scripture doesn't tell us Martha's reaction, but this author says that Martha humbly apologized, and her sister Mary got up and helped her...which sounds plausible. :)

But I wonder how often Our Lord turns that same loving, sweet glance on us, understanding our struggles, as we undergo spiritual battles daily, trying to decide between grace and pride!

They're waiting for us!

Today is the feast of St. Gertrude. I think one of the reasons that I love reading the lives of the saints, and their words and writings, is that I look forward with great joy to meeting them all someday. These are our heavenly friends, and not only do we long to meet them in person, but they long to meet us too!

"Oh, if we knew how, from His throne above, Jesus longs for us! If we knew how all the Saints, sharing His desires, await with impatience -- as He said to St. Gertrude -- the moment when we shall go to increase their number, how we should despise this earth! How our thoughts would rise to Heaven, and our hearts and desires be fixed on high, where all our treasure is! But while awaiting the time when it may be given us to possess Jesus in Heaven, let us desire to do His will, to gain His Heart, to unite ourselves to His Cross."

~Very Rev. Andre Prevot, Love, Peace and Joy: Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus according to St. Gertrude, imprimatur 1911.

(The Calvary scene at the Cave of Mary Magdalen in France) 

We usually think of the Roman soldiers and the head-shaking Pharisees being present on Calvary...we think of Our Blessed Mother, and Mary Magdalen and the other holy women, and St. John...but there was probably a multitude of other mourners who silently wished that they could help Him...remembered what He had done for them...and were saddened by His sufferings and His death. After all, His carrying of the cross and crucifixion had been a terribly public event...many, many people had seen what was happening. What were their thoughts?

Katherine F. Mullany wrote a book of spiritual effusions called Miriam of Magdala: A Study in 1906. It wasn't solely about Saint Mary Magdalen; it talks a lot about the Passion of Our Lord. But this part struck me...

"But for that Central Sufferer [of the three crosses on Calvary], so quiet in His Agony, so uncomplaining in His torture, many eyes were weeping and many hearts were aching, as they watched Him slowly dying. For three years, He had been known to them as the young Prophet of Nazareth: the sweetest influence their lives had ever experienced; the Consoler of their sorrows; the Healer of all their ills. His preaching had lifted their souls heavenwards in holy aspirations; His teaching had softened hearts, and sweetened minds, and smoothed away difficulties between friends. He had healed their sick, and cured affliction, and even raised the dead to life; His Heart ever pitying their troubles of whatever kind. Never had His Lips uttered aught but kindly words; never were His deeds but those of love and mercy. In His footsteps sprang up blessings for those who followed Him. His time was given to them without limit, and none there were, who appealed to Him for help in vain."

And remember...Jesus Christ is the same - yesterday, today, and forever! (Hebrews 13:8)

When should we love God most...

amid the roses, or amid the thorns?

(Roses in Annecy, France, hometown of St. Francis de Sales)

Of course, we should love Almighty God with all our minds, with all our hearts, and with all our strength at all times, but St. Francis de Sales offers us this beautiful meditation:

"Love Him well...in the retreats which you make to pray and adore; love Him when you receive Him in Holy Communion; love Him when your heart is inundated with His holy consolations; but, above all, love Him when you meet with trials, aridities, and tribulations; for thus He loved you in Paradise, but He testified more love in your regard amid the scourges, the nails, the thorns, and the darkness of Calvary."

When did Our Lord testify the most love for us? When He suffered for us. Let us testify our love for Him, by suffering our trials and tribulations patiently - for Him!

This quote was excerpted from Consoling Thoughts of St. Francis de Sales on the Trials of an Interior Life by Rev. Pere Huguet, available from TAN/St. Benedict Press.

"One of the Greatest Trials of Saints"

I was just chatting with someone the other day about how good people down through the ages have disagreed and squabbled. I recalled St. Paul "beseeching" Evodia and Syntyche to get along with each other and stop bickering. (Philippians 4:2 - I beg of Evodia, and I beseech Syntyche, to be of one mind in the Lord.) I remembered the good priests that opposed the work of St. John Bosco with the poor street boys of Turin, or the Archbishop who opposed St. Francis de Sales' Visitation nuns visiting the poor and sick instead of staying in their convents. Good people...who will probably all be in Heaven together, yet here on earth disagreeing and squabbling because they're blinded by - something. Prejudice? Rash judgment? Pride? Envy? Most of the time they don't even know what is influencing them to act the way they do. They just think the other person is wrong, and it's their job to oppose that person and/or that project.

This beautiful quote sheds a sweeter light on this very common and unfortunate difficulty. David Lewis, M.A., in his booklet on the life of St. Teresa of Avila, says that Our Lord personally directed Teresa's soul by allowing her this tribulation:

"He prepared and directed her Himself through the furnace of that which was in reality the persecution or contradiction of good men, which is one of the greatest trials of saints."

If you or someone you love is encountering the persecution or contradiction of good men, be of good heart, this is one of the greatest trials of saints! :) Not, on the other hand, that this should make us prideful, but rather, as a good priest I know says in the confessional, "Take courage"!

(One of the gates to the walled city of Toledo, Spain, that St. Teresa probably entered)

Statue of Saint Joseph near Madrid, Spain

"The Saints knew that efforts, to be permanent, must be joyful efforts; that without great courage and an unshaken confidence we shall find it very difficult to persevere."

~Fr. Aloysius Roche, "A Bedside Book of Saints"

Sometimes it helps me to go through my day repeating inspirational phrases like the ones above -

 Joyful efforts! Great courage! Unshaken Confidence! 

Painting of St. Jane entering Heaven, with St. Francis de Sales to welcome her, 

St. Francis Church, Annecy, France

Reading the words of St. Francis de Sales is soothing and peace-inducing, yet somehow motivating at the same time. Imagine what it would have been like to receive his personal advice on your spiritual life! A couple of times, St. Jane de Chantal had to leave her convent to go settle the estates of her children (remember, she was a widow. Her husband died in a hunting accident when she was in her 20's). When her father and then father-in-law passed away, they left large castles and estates to be settled in her children's favor. During that time, St. Francis de Sales wrote these reassuring, yet stimulating words to his spiritual child:

"I beg you, my dearest daughter, to keep close to Jesus and Mary in all that you have to do, that the multiplicity of business matters may not trouble or their difficulty astonish you. Do one thing at a time as well as you can, faithfully giving it your attention, but sweetly and gently. If God allows you to succeed in it, we shall bless Him for it; if not, we shall still bless Him....Treat of earthly affairs with your eyes fixed on Heaven."

~ St. Francis de Sales, in a letter to St. Jane de Chantal

One of God's children leaps with joy on the coast of Oregon

When was the last time you rejoiced in just being alive? Rejoiced in being God's created child...rejoiced in the fact that God made this whole wonderful big world for you? When was the last time you leaped into the air with gladness? When you were five years old, you say? Well, let us rejoice today in all the Lord has given us!

"Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye just, and glory, all ye right of heart."

~ Psalms 31:11

The Basilica of Our Saviour in Rome, commonly called St. John Lateran

What a joy to see these beautiful edifices raised to the honor and glory of God! Today the Catholic Church celebrates the dedication of the above church, many centuries ago. It is known as St. John Lateran because it honors Our Lord the Savior, with St. John the Apostle and St. John the Baptist on either side of Him. (Lateran - taken from the Latin word for "side").

"I know, my God, that Thou provest hearts, and lovest simplicity, wherefore I also in the simplicity of my heart, have joyfully offered all these things; and I have seen with great joy Thy people, here present, offer Thee their offerings."

~ 1 Paralipomenon, 29:17

(Phoenix, Arizona)

It is election day here in the United States of America. It is a day of hope mixed with fear, or perhaps fear mixed with hope. My little girl is worried that "that lady who will kill more babies" will be elected. Maybe she will. Maybe she won't. But we will pray. We will vote. And we will hope.

I offer you a quote from 1924, when people in this country were recovering from one World War and dreading a second....

"Most are quick to perceive and conscientious to confess faults against the virtues of faith and charity; but few advert to the possibility of committing sin by perversity or sluggishness of will in the matter of HOPE. ...One may easily sin against hope. How? Why how else but by willfully dwelling on things which discourage us; by indulging the temptation to tolerate, if not actually to entertain, the devils of moodiness and depression and melancholy and sadness; by refusing to take such measures, physical, mental and religious, as will help us throw off sentiments like this that are favorable to sin and weakening to virtue....  

[Instead, remember that] to such as love God, all things work together unto good."

~ Fr. Joseph McSorley of the Paulist Fathers, 

Be of Good Heart: A Plea for Christian Optimism, imprimatur 1924.

November marks one year that I've been sending out daily "Words of Encouragement". In August of this year, the Words of Encouragement became a blog. I'd like to borrow the words of St. Teresa of Avila at the conclusion of her book, The Interior Castle. (The words in brackets are my own.)

"If you find anything in the plan of this treatise [or in these Words of Encouragement] which helps you to know God better, be certain that it is sent by His Majesty to encourage you, and that whatever you find amiss in it is my own. In return for my strong desire to aid you in serving Him, my God and my Lord, I implore you, whenever you read this, to praise His Majesty fervently in my name and to beg Him to prosper His Church...and to pardon my sins...."

That doesn't mean I'm drawing this project to a conclusion... By the grace of God, I will keep going, but I wanted to selfishly ask that you pray for me! Thank you, and God bless you...

An outdoor Mass on Croagh Patrick, Co. Mayo, Ireland. 

Photo credit: Nicole Moynihan

"It matters very little if you approach the Sacraments with sensible fervor, provided that you replace this with deep and sincere humility. Without this humility there is nothing more despicable in God's Eyes than ourselves, but with it we can go to Him without fear, certain that He will deign to look on us with infinite mercy."

~ St. Claude de la Colombiere, The Spiritual Direction of St. Claude de la Colombiere, translated and arranged by Mother M. Philip, IBVM.

With humility, we can go to Him with love and not in fear, because He looks on us with mercy....

Be ye not troubled!

Peaceful scenes (and memories) like Aughnahoory Road, Kilkeel, County Down, help...

It's so easy to fill our minds with worries and distresses...they come unbidden, flowing in like ocean waves, that sometimes feel like they will drown us. But St. Teresa says that this keeps us from doing the best we can for God. Let us pray and offer our worries to God!

"The devil, who gains greatly by it, is delighted to see a soul troubled and distressed, knowing how this hinders it from employing itself wholly in loving and serving God."

~ St. Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle

(Reliquary in the Cave of Mary Magdalen in France, containing a lock of her hair)

I wish that this photo had come out more clearly, but you can certainly make out the hair of the one who dried His Feet with her locks.

St. Teresa of Avila brings out a very interesting point about what happens when Our Lord speaks. What He says happens. His words *are* actions. A leper said to Him, I know that if you will it, Lord, I will be cured of my leprosy. Our Lord said, "I will. Be thou made clean." And it happened! When Almighty God said, "Let there be light," it was there, instantly. So when He said to the Apostles, "Peace be to you" or to Mary Magdalen "Go in peace", their souls were instantly filled with peace. It wasn't just a fond hope, a nice wish. The peace was THERE, because He said it.

"Peace be to you." "I think this salutation of Our Lord contains far deeper meaning than the words convey, as also His bidding the glorious Magdalen to 'go in peace.' Our Lord's words act within us, and in these cases they must have wrought their effect in the souls already disposed to banish from within themselves all that is corporal and to retain only what is spiritual, in order to be joined in this celestial union with the uncreated Spirit. Without doubt, if we empty ourselves of all that belongs to the creature, depriving ourselves of it for the love of God, that same Lord will fill us with Himself."

But she also brings out the point that the Apostles and Mary Magdalen were ready to *receive* that peace, because they were ready to give up the world (in Mary Magdalen's case, a life of sin) and receive His peace and His grace. When we go to Confession, we too can receive His peace and His grace, if we are ready.

Have you read anything good today?

"You will not see anyone who is truly striving after his spiritual advancement who is not given to spiritual reading."

~ St. Athanasius

For those of us who love to read, this admonition is easy to observe. For those who don't, maybe you can plod through one page of reading a day, like eating your vegetables, or getting exercise, or other things that you may not like to do but that are good for you. :)

We are blessed with a plethora of good spiritual books, particularly old Catholic ones that can be found through online booksellers (or dusty bookstores in your hometown). So many saints and other excellent spiritual writers have written on each subject (there are hundreds of different books on Saint Therese alone, for example), that everyone is sure to find one that appeals to him/her. Keep looking!

Are you a man, a woman, a child, a teen, an elderly person? There is a spiritual book for you. Are you an avid reader of intellectual books, or prefer lighter "fluffier" books? Either way, there is a spiritual book for you! Are you discouraged by lengthy treatises, and need something short and to the point? There is a spiritual book for you!

I'd like to make some recommendations here, but I'm running short on time...duty calls!

All Saints' Day Memories from Years Past

(Innocent little ones, dressed as saints, tell their pastor what they know about their saint at an 

All Saints' Day Party)

Won't it be wonderful to socialize with the saints in Heaven? The saints we've read about, and loved, and asked to intercede for us? I particularly can't wait to meet Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Jane de Chantal! And St. Philomena, and St. Therese, and St. Joan of Arc!

And won't it be wonderful to spend time with those we loved in this life! I most of all want to see my sister who went to Heaven in 1989. God is the One we most want to see, but all our other loved ones will make our eternity in Paradise all the sweeter.

"Human nature will remain in Heaven. We shall love our kinsfolk and friends with a particular love. We shall know them from others. As Our Lord, after His Resurrection, had, in His impassible flesh, the same dear Face so often gazed on by His disciples with adoring love; so each one of us will be recognizable above by those who have known us on earth. Our Lord's voice had the same tone and accent, His step the same footfall; and so with all who shall rise after His model. We shall know and rejoice in the company of each other. These lesser joys in Heaven will mingle with the greater, and will not disturb the harmonic tone; for joy in God will be the grand chord with which all the rest will blend in sweetest concert."

~ Rev. Father Collins, Heaven Opened; or, Our Home in Heaven, and the Way Thither, imprimatur 1880.

Who is your favorite saint?

(Statue of St. Philomena in Aix-en-Provence, France)

Happy All Saints' Day! Who is *your* favorite saint? One of mine is definitely the Greek martyr Saint Philomena. Another is St. Therese, another is St. Francis de Sales. Father Michael Lee, in his book, Novena to St. Therese of Lisieux, published in 1941, offers this explanation of why we love to read about the saints:

"Could we but see ourselves as we really are, we would know ourselves, as after death we shall know ourselves, hungry and lonely and crying out for Beauty and for Love. That is why moral beauty as in a saint draws us so powerfully."