Friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others. They are no greater than the beauties of a thousand other men; by friendship God opens our eyes to them. They are, like all beauties, derived from Him, and then, in a good friendship, increased by Him through the friendship itself, so that it is His instrument for creating as well as for revealing. – C.S.Lewis, The Four Loves

Let nothing disturb you
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.”

― Teresa of Ávila

Each of you has a personal vocation which He has given you for your own joy and sanctity. When a person is conquered by the fire of His gaze, no sacrifice seems too great to follow Him and give Him the best of ourselves. This is what the saints have always done, spreading the light of the Lord … and transforming the world into a welcoming home for everyone.” ― Pope Benedict XVI

In order to stand by the downtrodden, never to exclude but to include them in our lives, we need to be freed from our compulsive needs to succeed, to have power and approbation. We also need to be free from past hurts that govern our lives and cut us off from some people. We all need to grow in freedom. – Jean Vanier, Becoming Human

When a person responds to the call of the Spirit … the sisters will welcome [her] with joy as enriching the community with her presence and talents. They will encourage her by their love and the witness of their lives…. …. She has come to be formed in the fullness of Christian life lived … through the [vows]… seeking God to whom she has given herself… a personal love of Christ, zeal for the apostolate, and the …humility …to be receptive to community….

– Sisters of Bon Secours Constitutions #60

For grace to be grace, it must give us things we didn’t know we needed and take us places where we didn’t know we didn’t want to go. As we stumble through the crazily altered landscape of our lives, we find that God is enjoying our attention as never before. ”
― Kathleen Norris

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

…. Does God have a set way of prayer, a way that He expects each of us to follow? I doubt it. I believe some people– lots of people– pray through the witness of their lives, through the work they do, the friendships they have, the love they offer people and receive from people. Since when are words the only acceptable form of prayer?” ― Dorothy Day

“If a little flower could speak, it seems to me that it would tell us quite simply all that God has done for it, without hiding any of its gifts. It would not, under the pretext of humility, say that it was not pretty, or that it had not a sweet scent, that the sun had withered its petals,or the storm bruised its stem, if it knew that such were not the case.”
― Thérèse de Lisieux, Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux

Small yet strong in the love of God, like Saint Francis of Assisi, all of us, as Christians, are called to watch over and protect the fragile world in which we live, and all its people. – Pope Francis