Category Archives: Spirituality

By the Power of Your Grace

 

By the Power of Your Grace

Grace is the presence of God’s presence!

Guide me Lord,

May Thy will be done.

I feel confused and lost.

I  need FAITH.

Lift my anxiety Lord…

Grant me FAITH.

By the Power of Your Grace.

 

The world is chaotic, Lord.

Help me to see Your face.

Especially in dark and trying times, Lord

I want to trust in You.

Grant me Hope…

By the Power of Your Grace.

 

Perhaps I am anxious

because I need to ask

for Your forgiveness.

You are Love.

You are Mercy.

Grant me your Love and Mercy Lord…

By the Power of Your Grace.

 

FAITH, HOPE and LOVE

All three do I need.

I hear You say..

“Be not afraid!”

Heal my heart, Lord

that I may do Thy will always.

Grant that I may

grow old gracefully…

By the Power of Your Grace.

 

Author’s Pick…Book Review #1…Prayer Styles

 

Their is a different prayer style for each person.  Each of the saints also prays in a way that is special to that saint  If you are searching for the type of prayer that works for you a wonderful book to read is Six Ways to Pray from Six Great Saints by Gloria Hutchinson.

 

This book introduces you to six different saints:  St. Francis of Assisi (Franciscan), St. Clare ( Poor Clares), St. Teresa of Lisieux (Carmelite), St. Therese of Avila (Carmelite), St. John of the Cross (Carmelite ) and St. Ignatius of Loyola (Jesuit).   You will learn not only their story but also their prayer style.

Each chapter contains exercises to help you  discover what type of prayer works best for you.  When I read this book, I learned about the “Prayer of Detachment” taught by St. John of the Cross.  The exercises helped me to practice and meditate in a way I had never tried before.  I encourage everyone to read it and discover their own prayer type.

 

 

https://www.catholiccompany.com/six-ways-pray-six-great-saints-i104691/

 

Six Ways to Pray from Six Great Saints

 

 

 

Twenty Five Quotes for Peace from the Saints

 

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; I do not give to you as  the world gives. Do no let not your heart be troubled, and do not  be afraid.” John 14:27.

Quote of Jesus

Peace and serenity of heart are difficult to acquire.  The world is a chaotic place to live. Our emotions can make us feel quite helpless.  How do we find peace?  How do we live in peace?  Faith is a gift.  With faith, we can pray for peace.   The following quotes of the saints are ‘pearls of wisdom’ to help us in our journey.

 

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  1. Lord, Make me an instrument of Thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

 St. Francis of Assisi

 

2.  Keep your soul at peace, in order to be able to be attentive and very faithful to the inner movement of the Holy Spirit.

St. Peter Julian Eymard

 

3.  Who except God can give you peace? Has the world ever been able to satisfy the heart?”

St. Gerard Majella

 

4.  Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.

St. Francis de Sales

 

5.   From humility of heart proceed serenity of mind, gentleness of conduct, interior peace, and every good.”

 St. Paul of the Cross

 

6.   While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it more fully in your heart.

Saint Francis of Assisi

 

7.   If you want peace, work for justice.
If you want justice, defend life.
If you want life, embrace truth.

St. John Paul II

 

8.  Joy, with peace, is the sister of charity. Serve the Lord with laughter.

St. Padre Pio

 

9.  Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy.

St Faustina

 

10.  Go forth in peace, for you have followed the good road. Go forth without fear, for he who created you has made you holy, has always protected you, and loves you as a mother. Blessed be you, my God, for having created me.

St. Jane Frances de Chantal

 

11.  Let us not be justices of the peace, but angels of peace.

St. Therese of Lisieux

 

12.  But above all preserve peace of heart.  This is more valuable than any treasure.

St. Mary Margaret Alacoque

 

13.  Peace in the society depends on peace in family.

St. Augustine

 

14.  Be at Peace.  What God has started He will finish.

St. Faustina

 

15.  Let peace be your quest and  aim.

St. Benedict

 

16.  Be peace loving.Peace is a precious treasure to be sought with great zeal.  Live your life that you may receive the blessings of the Lord.  Then the peace of God the Father will be with you always.

St. Francis of Paola

 

17.  Maintain a spirit of peace and you will save a thousand souls.

St. Seraphim of  Sarov

 

18.  Be at peace with your own soul, then heaven and earth will be at peace with you.

St. Jerome

 

19.  The only way to peace is forgiveness.

St. John Paul II

 

20.  What can you do to promote world peace?  Go home and love your family.

St. Teresa of Calcutta

 

21.  Abide in peace, banish cares, take no account of all that happens, and you will serve God according to His good pleasure and rest in Him.

St. John of the Cross

 

22.  If you remain constant in faith in the face of trial, the Lord will give you peace and rest for a time in this world and forever in the next.

St. Jerome

 

23.  We shall steer safely through every storm, so long as our heart is right, our intention fervent, our courage steadfast, and our trust fixed on God.

St. Francis de Sales

 

24.  Strive to preserve your heart in peace; let no event of the world disturb it.

St. John of the Cross

 

25.  Peace demands four essential conditions:  Truth, Justice, Love, and Freedom.

St. John Paul II

 

 

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Prayers for Peace and Healing

 

 

Prayer for Peace and Healing

Advent Wreath

May I be at Peace

May my heart remain open.

May I be aware of my true nature.

May I be healed.

May I be a source of healing for others.

May I dwell in the

Breath of God.

St. Teresa of Avila

 

 

O Blessed Jesus,

give stillness of soul in You.

Let Your mighty calmness reign in me.

Rule me, O King of Gentleness, King of Peace.

St. Teresa of Avila

And I saw a river over which every soul must pass to reach the Kingdom of Heaven, and the name of that river was suffering.and then I saw a boat which carried souls across the river, and the name of that boat was Love.

St. John of the Cross

 

May today there be peace within.

May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.

May you use those gifts that you have received and pass on the love that has been given to you.;

May you be content knowing you are a child of God.

Let this presence settle into your bones and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, prais and love.

It is there for each and every one of us.

St. Therese de Lisieux

 

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

St. Francis

 

Prayer for Peace of Mind

Fortify me with the grace of Your Holy Spirit and give Your peace to my soul that I may be free from all needless anxiety, solicitude and worry.

Help me to desire always that which is pleasing and acceptable to You so that Your will may be my will.

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini

Sacred Heart of Jesus,

I pray for Your healing touch upon my body, mind and spirit.
I beg You to remove any fear or anxiety.
Fill me with the Peace that You alone can give.
I place myself completely in Your hands.

O my Lord Jesus, trusting in Your care and love for me, may my recovery be swift, my strength be renewed, and my health restored.

I lift up all my afflictions in Your hands, Lord, for You are the Divine Healer with Divine Mercy.
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I put my trust in You.
Amen.

Remembering St. Teresa of Calcutta through pictures, quotes and prayers




Mother Teresa Public domain Image
Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa will soon be officially declared a saint!

The day before the feast day of Bl. Mother Teresa Pope Francis will proclaim that she is a saint. Her feast day is celebrated on Sept. 5. The world remembers her as a “living saint”.

St. Teresa of Calcutta was born to parents Nikola and Drana Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1916 in Skopje of Macedonia and named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. She was baptized on August 17, 1910 in Macedonia. She was the third child in her family, following sister Aga and a brother, Lazar. Her father, Nikola died, when she was eight years old. Her father was a traveler, an extrovert, and a businessman who spoke five languages. Her mother, Drana, was extremely pious, adopting several orphans. She was known as Gonxha (pronounced gon’KHA) which means “flower bud”.

Gonxha desired early to become a missionary. At the age of eighteen, she joined the Sisters of Loreto. Here she took the name of Sister Mary Teresa after St. Therese of Lisieux. She was sent to Calcutta, India to teach at St. Mary’s High School for Girls, which was run by the Sisters of Loreto. On May 24, 1937, she took her final Profession of Vows to a life of poverty, chastity, and obedience. She then became known as Mother Teresa. In 1944, she became principal of the school.

Mother Teresa received a second calling while on a train. Christ spoke to her, asking her to work in the slums of Calcutta, caring for the sickest and poorest of the people. Pursuing this calling changed her life forever. In one year, she received approval to do the work she was being called to do. After six months of basic medical training she went to the slums to aid the needy and dying. Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity with 12 members, most of them students from St. Mary’s. She established a leper colony, an orphanage, a mission house, and several health clinics.

In 1971, Mother Teresa visited New York City, where she opened a soup kitchen and a home to care for HIV/AIDS sufferers. In 1979, she received the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1983, Mother Teresa suffered her first heart attack. After suffering from lung, kidney and heart problems for several years, she died on Sept. 5, 1997, which is now her feast day. At the time of her death her Missionaries of Charity numbered over 4,000. She had 610 foundations in 123 countries.

Mother Teresa was beatified on October 19, 2003, after confirmation of her first miracle. The miracle was reported that a woman who had a large and very visible tumor, had stayed with the Missionaries of Charity. After she and the Sisters had prayed for Mother Teresa’s intercession, the growth, six to seven inches in length, had disappeared within several hours. Finding no other medical explanation for the sudden cure it was declared her first miracle. Over 3500 other reports are being investigated as possible miracles.

After accepting a second miracle, Pope Francis cleared the way for Mother Teresa to be declared a saint. Pope Francis signed a decree declaring that the inexplicable 2008 recovery of a Brazilian man who suddenly woke from a coma caused by a viral brain infection was due to the intercession of the Albanian nun, who died in 1997.

The Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, the postulator spearheading Mother Teresa’s canonization case, stated that the man fully recovered following his wife’s prayers and he has since returned to work as a mechanical engineer. The couple also have had two children.

In 2003, Mother Teresa’s private correspondence revealed she had experienced a “dark night of the soul”… feeling abandoned by God and lacking in faith. This lasted unusually long; for fifty years. Many saints have experienced such feelings, described by John of the Cross, in his book Dark Night of the Soul. She was filled with loneliness, and torture, due to this lack of consolation from God.

Each image in the following list is accompanied by a quote or prayer of Mother Teresa. The images are all public domain images.

As we celebrate the sainthood and feast day of St.Teresa of Calcutta on Sept. 5, let’s remember the remarkable things she did and said.

 

 

 

Sisters of Charity Public Domain Image
Sisters of Charity

Prayer of Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Dear Jesus, help us to spread your fragrance
everywhere we go.
Flood our souls with your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly
that our lives may only be a radiance of yours.
Shine through us and be so in us
that every soul we come in contact with
may feel your presence in our soul.
Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus.
Stay with us and then we shall begin to shine as you shine,
to shine as to be light to others.
The light, O Jesus, will be all from you.
None of it will be ours.
It will be you shining on others through us.
Let us thus praise you in the way you love best
by shining on those around us.
Let us preach you without preaching,
not by words, but by our example;
by the catching force –
the sympathetic influence of what we do,
the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you.

Amen

 

Mother Teresa with Child Public Domain Image
Mother Teresa with Child/Associated Press

Mother Teresa: Smile

“Let us always meet each other with a smile for the smile is the beginning of love.”

“Peace begins with a smile.”

“Every time you smile at someone it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”

Mother Teresa

 

Mother Teresa Public Domain Image
Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa: God and Faith

“We are nothing without God, but if we put our lives in God’s hands miracles happen.”

“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”

“Faith in action is love, and love in action is service. Byt transforming that faith into living acts of love, we put ourselves in contact with God Himself, with Jesus our Lord.”

“I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.”

Mother Teresa

 

 

Mother Teresa with Pope John Paul II Public Domain Image
Mother Teresa with Pope John Paul II

Mother Teresa: Prayer

The fruit of silence is prayer.

The fruit of prayer is faith.

The fruit of faith is love.

The fruit of love is service.

The fruit of service is peace.”

Mother Teresa

 

Young Mother Teresa Public Domain Image
Young Mother Teresa

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhju (Mother Teresa)

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.

Life is beauty, admire it.

Life is a dream, realize it.

Life is a challenge, meet it.

Life is a duty, complete it.

Life is a game, play it.

Life is a promise, fulfill it.

Life is sorrow, overcome it.

Life is a song, sing it.

Life is a struggle, accept it.

Life is a tragedy, confront it.

Life is an adventure, dare it.

Life is life, fight for it.

Mother Teresa

 

Mother Teresa Public Domain Image
Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa: Abortion

“Any country that accepts abortion, is not teaching its people to love but to use any violence to get what it wants.”

“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”

“There are two victims in every abortion: a dead baby and a dead conscience.”

Mother Teresa

 

Mother Teresa Public Domain Image
Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa: Love and Forgiveness

“It is not how much we do, but how much love we put into the doing. It is not how how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.”

“I have found the paradox that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”

“If we really want to love we must learn to forgive.”

Mother Teresa

 

 

Mother Teresa Public Domain Image
Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa: Helping the Sick

“Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely, and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.”

“Yesterday is gone, tomorrow has not come, we have only today. Let us begin.”

Mother Teresa

 

 

Mother Teresa Public Domain Image
Mother Teresa in service

Mother Teresa: Service

“If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives; be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies; succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank people may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous, be happy anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God, it was never between you and them anyway.”

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa Praying Public Domain Image
Mother Teresa Praying

Mother Teresa: Prayer

“Love to pray. Feel often during the day the need for prayer and take trouble to pray Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God’s gift of Himself. Ask and seek, and your heart will grow big enough to receive Him and keep Him as your own.”

“Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.”

Mother Teresa

 

Mother Teresa Public Domain Image
Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa: Silence

“We need to find God and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature; trees, flowers, grass, grow in silence. See the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls.”

“In the silence of the heart God speaks.”

Mother Teresa

 

Mother Teresa Public Domain IMage
Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa: Love

“Love has a hem to her garment

that reaches the very dust.

It sweeps the stains from

the street and lanes,

and because it can, it must.”

Mother Teresa

 

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