We’re all yearning for a wedge of sky, aren’t we? I suspect God plants these yearnings in us so we’ll at least try and change the course of things. We must try, that’s all.”

–Sue Monk Kidd

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…

Saint Francis of Assisi

Call on Mary with devotion, and she will not leave your needs unattended, since she is merciful, indeed, the Mother of Mercy.

–St Bernard of Clairvaux

Nancy Sylvester, July 6, 2016 | Global Sisters Report

As I write this it is one of those perfect Michigan summer mornings — temperature in high 70s, low humidity, sun shining and the flowers fully blooming in all their rich colors. One of the sisters with whom I live is our gardener, and she has created a most splendid banquet of myriad flowers whose colors were profuse this morning.

I so needed this “chapel” within which to pray. These past weeks have been filled with the violence of the massacre at the gay club in Orlando, Florida; the vote by the United Kingdom to leave the European Union and what that signifies; and International Refugee Day, which confronted us with the reality of over 65 million refugees in 2015. (more…)

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Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

–Mahatma Gandhi

Then, overcome by joy, I cried, ‘Jesus, my love. At last I have found my vocation. My vocation is love. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and then I will be all things.”
― Thérèse de Lisieux

“What we would like to do is change the world…by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, of the poor, of the destitute. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world.”
― Dorothy Day

But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits without inconsistency or insincerity. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.

James 3:17-18

Merciful God,lead me to a path of generosity of heart and mind. Lead me to use the gifts you have given me in support of our brothers and sisters who suffer in our world today. Lead me to follow Jesus’ example of compassion, healing and liberation.

Sisters of Bon Secours, Moments in Solitude

I am quite happy to be called an optimist, but my opinion is not of the utopian variety. It is based on hope. What is an optimist? I can answer for myself in a very simple fashion: He or she is a person who has a conviction that God knows, can do, and will do what is best for mankind.

–Padre Arrupe,SJ: One Jesuit’s Spiritual Journey