Category: Words of Wisdom

“God is more anxious to bestow His blessings on us than we are to receive them.” – St. Augustine

God’s answer isn’t always what we expect it to be. It may not even arrive at the time we thought it would. One thing is certain however, that God’s answer will always be in response to His love.

He who loves much always wants what’s best for his beloved. He cannot turn a deaf ear to her pleas. He cannot delay without reason. He cannot remain silent unless silence is the answer itself. To someone who loves much, it is better to suffer than to see his beloved suffering. It is better to die so he can give life to the one he loves.

God’s answers will often astound us. We may not see it now, but we will realize later on how they truly worked for our good. God’s answers are far generous than we could ever deserve and exceedingly beyond what we could have ever hoped for!

For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened. Or who is there amongst you, who, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, who will give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! – Matthew 7:8-11, WEB-BE

“In a world in which we risk relying solely on the efficiency and power of human means, we are called to rediscover and to witness to the power of God which is communicated in prayer…” – Pope Benedict XVI

“Love is patient and is kind; love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” – 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, WEB-BE

There are many kinds of love:

A love that is brought about by sentimentality.
A love that is invoked by feelings of pleasure or excitement.
A love that is based on what is popular or well accepted.

But there is another kind of love:

A love that is able to see what’s true.
A love that is patient and strong.
A love that endures and thinks about the good of the other instead of oneself.

The world needs more of that kind of love today. Not a partial love, or a selfish love, or a foolish love. But a love that is heroic. A love that is willing to suffer with one’s beloved and to make a sacrifice. A love that isn’t afraid even of death because it knows that what it has is far stronger. It knows that it cannot fail because we can never really fail when we find that kind of love that is TRUE.

“It is not by sidestepping or fleeing from suffering that we are healed, but rather by our capacity for accepting it, maturing through it and finding meaning through union with Christ, who suffered with infinite love.”– Pope Benedict XVI, Saved in Hope: Spe Salvi

“Joy is prayer – Joy is strength – Joy is love – Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.” – Mother Teresa

The circumstances in life do not always bring about happiness. But this doesn’t mean that we cannot find joy where we are. Ours is the greatest joy in knowing God Himself came down from heaven, suffered, died and lived again for our sake, to give us eternal happiness. And so in whatever situation we may be, we have joy, if not in actual possession of it, in our certain hope that it will be ours.

Joy is with us always,
in our hearts and in our hands,
in our triumphs and in our failures,
in our fullness and in our emptiness.

For how can we be far away from it
How can we ever be so far?
Joy can be found where God is,
And God is always where we are.

I will tell you what my joys are –

in suffering, it is Christ
in sickness, it is healing
in dying, it is the thought of new life

in defeat, it is in future triumphs
in silence, it is prayer
in confusion, it is wisdom

in calamity, it is being able to repent
in poverty, it is the charity I may give and receive
in sacrifice, it is the presence of love

in blessings, it is my gratitude
in uncertainty, it is hope
in happiness itself, it is the thought of
far greater joys and of eternal bliss

Joy is here
Joy is in my tomorrows
Joy always
And always, JOY!

“Go your way. Eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared, for today is holy to our Lord. Don’t be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” – Nehemiah 8:10, WEB-BE

“If you follow the will of God, you know that in spite of all the terrible things that happen to you, you will never lose a final refuge. You know that the foundation of the world is love, so that even when no human being can or will help you, you may go on, trusting in the One that loves you.”- Pope Benedict XVI

How can you hope against all hope? How can you continue to believe that there will be a way even when there seems to be none? How can you see joy when your eyes are full of tears?

Only in love can we find that hope. Only in love can we continue to believe. And only in love can we see.

For love is light and life and power. Love is the way that cannot be blocked, the river that cannot be stopped from flowing.

Love can break down the strongest walls. It can overcome death itself with its consuming fire.

Love is the very foundation of the world. Everything else may cease and fail, but not love.

“Set me as a seal on your heart,
as a seal on your arm;
for love is strong as death…
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
a very flame of the LORD.
Many waters can’t quench love,
neither can floods drown it.”
-Song of Solomon 8:6-7, WEB-BE

“The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.” – George Washington Burnap

We may not realize it, but everyday, we wake up with hope in our hearts. We HOPE for something to happen. We HOPE for things to get better. We HOPE for certain problems to go away.

Without hope, we soon lose our away. We lose our dreams. We lose interest in living.

Why do we lose our hope?

We lose our hope when after we’ve worked so hard for our dreams, we’re still unable to reach it.

We lose our hope when we see that hope is dashed all around us by things we cannot control.

We lose our hope when the best people we put our hopes upon disappoint us.

In the end, we find out that we lose our hope because we have put our hope in all the wrong things and in all the wrong people who could never keep it alive.

Where is your hope?

If you wish to be truly happy, you have to put your hope where it cannot be overcome. You have to put it where not even the gloomiest of days could defeat its light.

Put not your hope in a given timetable. Put it rather in the fullness of time when you will realize your greatest dreams.

Put not your hope in people behaving in a certain way. Put it rather in that blessed moment where love will be fully realized in them and you will know how deeply you have been loved.

Put not your hope in this life only. Put it rather in the God’s Hands where this life is but a moment and where eternity far exceeds your grandest desires.

Let your hope be inextinguishable. Let its flame give light to your joy, a joy that no one could ever take away from you.

“We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope: and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts…” – Romans 5:2-5, WEB-BE