My favorite prayer

Prayer, by St. Francis Xavier:

O God, I love Thee, I love Thee--
not out of hope of heaven for me,
nor fearing not to love and be
in the everlasting burning.

Thou, my Jesus, after me
didst reach thine arms out dying,
for my sake sufferedst nails and lance,
mocked and marred countenance,
sorrows passing number,
sweat and care and cumber,
yea, and death, and this for me.
And thou couldst see me sinning;
Then I, why should I not love thee,
Jesus, so much in love with me?

Not for heaven's sake; not to be
out of hell by loving thee,
not for any gains I see;
but just the way that thou didst me
I do love and I will love thee;
What must I love thee, Lord, for then?
For being my King and God. Amen

I love this prayer. . . I hope to say it every day from now on. . .

I believe it reflects the heart of our Catholic faith.  Amen!

Saturday Reflections

My friend Ryan shared a link to this website with me. I was navigating it and came across this article.  It's about being versus doing, and discusses balance in every day life.

Balance is something I have been struggling with lately, specifically, I have been really struggling with balancing my work, spirituality, and community life in a life-giving way.

This article really resounded with me. I believe I have a better understanding now of what a balanced life should include. I love this quote:

"Thus, external action should be derived from internal reality, and this requires a rhythm of solitude and engagement, restoration and application, intimacy with Christ and activity in the world."


The main point of the article, I thought, was to describe that first and foremost, we need to develop and foster a relationship with Jesus Christ who is God. 


"Our primary purpose is not to do something for Christ, but to know Him; our activities and abilities are useless for the kingdom unless He energizes them, and this will not happen if they take precedence over intimacy with Him. We become weary and exhausted when we attempt more public ministry than we can cover in private growth."


A very beautiful quote:

"It is easy to become more concerned with good causes than with knowing Christ. As Oswald Chambers notes, “Beware of anything that competes with loyalty to Jesus Christ. . . . The greatest competitor of devotion to Jesus is service for Him. . . . We count as service what we do in the way of Christian work; Jesus Christ calls service what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. . . ."

I feel very renewed after reading this article. It is liberating to know that I must first seek Jesus and all else will fall into place.

Here is the link to the site: Process Spirituality: Being Versus Doing


I encourage you to look at it.


I hope it fills you with hope as it did for me.


God Bless!

God is Love

Here's a shout out and thank you to God who reigns over Heaven and Earth, knows us perfectly and supports us unconditionally, who is mysterious and asks us to trust in His goodness, love, and absolute perfection as He has and always had a great and holy and perfect plan for each one of us, as we were created out of love for love and because of love.

Thank you God for life and love and free will and for loving us mercifully and unconditionally and perfectly and beyond our understanding even in our broken human condition. We are and always will be indebted to you and your literally fathomless mercy and love and compassion and holiness.

God you desire us all to be one with you because of your love for us.  It is you that desire to be one with us  to share with us your infinite and holy love.  Guide us always and enlighten our hearts to trust you every single step of the way to your perfect love.

God, give us strength in every moment and please inflame our little hearts with love and joy, faith and hope.
Amen.