“So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God.

Mark 16:19

” And they went to a place which was called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, ‘sit here while I pray’ ” Mark 14:32

Holy Week is here. If your Lenten journey has been difficult, remember that it’s meant to be that way. Giving of ourselves in the midst of our suffering and self-denial brings us closer to loving like Christ, who suffered and poured himself out unconditionally on the Cross for all of us. – Pope Francis

The yearning for holiness remains alive today. We live with a sense that we can be more than we are. We fee the pull of the transcendent and live with the call to be the person God intended.

– Laura Swan, The Forgotten Desert Mothers

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.’  – Matthew 16:24

For the Church to grow it needs the “witness associated with attitudes which are uncommon: generosity, detachment, sacrifice, self-forgetfulness in order to care for others…. This is the witness, the ‘martyrdom of religious life’. Religious should be men and women who are able to wake up the world.” –Year of Consecrated Life in 2015 (a year dedicated to promotion of religious life)

-Announcement by Pope Francis

“Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken. But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering. What we desire most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure for it.” -Henry Nouwen

Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand

-Simone Weil

The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind. –   Khalil Gibran

I appreciate that both the church and my city (New York) are greater than the sum of their flaws, that at their best they are both places that inspire good. They are fluid, with people coming and going all the time – looking for new starts, hiding from old hurts, finding comfort. People think, I’m going to be a new person here. – Kerry Weber, Mercy In The City