I’ve often heard people saying “I’m truly blessed”, or “God blessed me.”
Does that mean other people weren’t blessed? 
If God causes the sun to shine both on the good and the bad, will He withhold His blessings to some and give it only to a few?
Who are we to say that some people are less fortunate [...]

Surrender is a mighty powerful word.
Sometimes we wonder why God had to wait until we’re tired and worn out, until we’ve finally given up before He gives us what we want.
And the answer is that we have made Him wait that long before we allowed Him to carry on His work and give us what [...]

It is God who pursues us
who uplifts us
and protects us
and provides for everything we need
It is God who loved us first
who showers us with every good thing
we do not even know
All that is required of us
is the faith to believe
that He is there
that He is our Greatest Lover
the source of all that’s wonderful
there is in [...]

One can test whether a thing is good or not in this way:
If it causes you to lose interest in life
and thereby wish to cease in existence,
such a thing is not good for you.
If it gives you interest and enthusiasm,
if it ignites in you the desire
to live your life as you have never lived before,
such [...]

 Pain and pleasure, both seems to tempt us
distracting us from our true and lasting joys.
Pleasure alone, brought by the senses
cannot make us truly happy,
they accompany us for a while,
but are soon forgotten
and we weep not for loss of their memory.
Pain on the other hand inflicts our soul
and we cry out for justice,
shouting upon us
what doubts [...]

There are some things you love
imperfect though as they are;
sometimes you wish you can improve them,
that in one way or another
you can somehow make them perfect;
but then you realize
that even if these things happen,
they will no longer be the same ones
that you have loved;
you realize that you love them more
just being the way they were,
with [...]

How do you wash your soul clean
at the end of each day?
First, you rest unto the strong arms of Jesus
you gaze upon his kind and shining face
Then you take his gentle hand
and you allow His peace to flood over you
like a soft cool breeze that touches your heart
And you cry your pain away
and you cry [...]

I’ve heard once more about the on-going persecution of Christians in China.  Hearing the testimony of the victims, how they were subject to the most gruelling conditions in prison, two ideas could easily come into mind of believers.  One, that there is really a God whom these people serve with all their heart and whom [...]

Very few realize what burdens geniuses carry their whole lives - what of Van gogh, of Edgar Allan Poe, of the mathematician John Nash?
Very few realize how hard it might have been to constantly manage and control that great power that they possess, to undertake it all alone, ostracized by the society that fails to [...]

Not all are called to be artists in the specific sense of the term. Yet, as Genesis has it, all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece.
-Pope John Paul II