Category: Words of Wisdom

For each man will bear his own burden. – Galatians 6:5, WEB

We were never meant to carry the cross of other people. We were meant to carry only our own. When we become overly responsible for others, we fail to love ourselves enough, and we also fail to love others by not helping them to grow and to be strong.

Let us never forget that no matter how well intentioned we may be, we can only do so much. There are some things we can accomplish, and there are some things we cannot. There are some things we are responsible for, and there are some things that are already the responsibility of other people.

In the end, God is the One who bears the burden of the whole world. Even though our strength is often insufficient, even though we make many mistakes along the way, we can have faith in the God who makes the sun to rise each day and who makes all the stars to shine through the night. Nothing will happen without His consent. Not one hair of yours or mine shall fall without His will.

Do not be overly anxious then as though you were the only one who can do something, as though the world would fall without your care. God honors us by giving each one of us a burden meant for us alone. Let us carry it with love and leave all else to Him who has counted the stars and knows each one by name.

“What I can do, you cannot; what you can do, I cannot. But together we can do something beautiful for God.” – Mother Teresa

I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins. – Isaiah 43:25, WEBBE

We can get so used to doing our very best that we can feel a bit of suffocation sometimes when we run out of strength and we make mistakes along the way.

We may feel then that the eyes of everyone have suddenly turned towards us, ready to cast a blame, even ready to condemn us just for that one error we never wanted to commit.

Have all our prudence come to nothing? Wasn’t it enough to have tried and given everything we’ve got?

When that time comes, remember that love, if it be true, leaves enough room for understanding and forgiveness also. Love knows how much we’ve tried, and love accepts us both in times when we’re radiant as well as in times when we’re really miserable.

Love has left a room even for your mistakes, even for your sins. Love goes with you not only when you stand, but even when you fall, especially when you fall. It does not laugh. It does not cast a look of sarcasm.

Love instead casts a look of faith and is ready to help you rise again.

Genuine forgiveness is participation, reunion overcoming the powers of estrangement… We cannot love unless we have accepted forgiveness, and the deeper our experience of forgiveness is, the greater is our love. – Paul Tillich

If I, His poor little creature, feel so tenderly towards you when you come back to me, what must pass through Our Lord’s Divine Heart when we return to Him? Far more quickly than I have just done will He blot out our sins from His memory. . . . Nay, He will even love us more tenderly than before we fell. – St. Therese of Lisieux

If therefore there is any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassion, make my joy full by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind; doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself… – Philippians 2, WEBBE

It is never those who boast that draws our hearts. It is never those who are proud.

But we are drawn to those who never think too highly of themselves. Those who can always seem to think of something good in others around them.

It is not lack of confidence. It isn’t low self-esteem.

But it is in a soul that doesn’t even need to lift oneself up or to gain the regard of others. It is in that kind of confidence that doesn’t even need to think of oneself too often or too much.

Instead of focusing on themselves, they are intent on finding the good in others, too. They are keen to see their beauty.

They are those who are not afraid to praise other men, those who are not afraid to admit that someone can be better in this or that skill, or in this or that virtue.

Love occupies their hearts so much that there isn’t room for that kind of fear. What’s present is much room for thanksgiving and appreciation, and much room indeed for trust in God from whom all good things come from.

Here is your harvest. To believe oneself imperfect and others perfect – this is true happiness. Should earthly creatures think you devoid of holiness, they rob you of nothing, and you are none the poorer: it is they who lose. For is there anything more sweet than the inward joy of thinking well of our neighbor? – St. Therese of Lisieux