Your Cloister, the City Streets
from The Cloistered Heart
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A Cry of Charity
Most people don't realize who they're quoting when they speak of catching more flies with honey than with vinegar. I was well into adulthood when I learned that this bit of wisdom had come from one of my favorite saints. "You can catch more flies with a spoonful of honey than with ten barrels of vinegar." (St. Francis de Sales) I often think of this in connection with another quote from this Doctor of the Church. "It is an act of of charity to cry out against the wolf when he is among the sheep" (St. Francis de Sales) These two thoughts may not appear to have much to do with one another. But in my mind, they work together. In fact, I often strive to "navigate between them," as one might drive between two lines painted on a highway to keep vehicles moving safely.... (continue...)
Where Lions Wait
I have never faced the challenge of praying where lions wait. I've never been like Daniel, prohibited from praying, and I haven't endured threats of hungry animals waiting to feast on me if I did ... (....continue....)
At Least Your Hair
"...Take patiently the petty annoyances, the trifling discomforts, the unimportant losses which come upon all of us daily; for by means of these little matters, lovingly and freely accepted, you will give him your whole heart, and win His. I mean the acts of daily forbearance; the headache, or toothache, or heavy cold; the tiresome peculiarities of husband or wife..." (continue...)
A Morning Habit
Nuns and monks dress anew in their habits every morning, usually turning even the act of dressing into an opportunity to renew their consecrations to Christ. And what about those of us who do not wear the pieces of a habit? I find great richness in the following morning prayer... (continue...)
Ourselves the Garments
"Let us spread before His feet, not garments of soulless olive branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but ourselves clothed in His grace, or rather, clothed completely in Him. We who have been baptized into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before Him...." (continue...)
