Category: Words of Wisdom

I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, the power, and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ has come; for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night. – Revelation 12, WEB

Who is it that accuses and brings false charges against you? That troubles you and wearies you and points out every wrong and imperfect thing he could find in you? That brings before you again and again your past disgrace, your every folly, your bitter shame? Who is it that wants to humiliate you and discourage you and suck out every breath of hope that is still left in you? Who is it that wants you to be damned?

Certainly, not God.

For though God is just and holy, and has nothing to do with any wickedness or sin, He loves you and desires only your good. He came not condemn, but to save and to give hope, to give light where there is darkness, life where there is death.

He is the voice of justice, but He is ever also the voice of mercy and infinite love! Our repentance is not one therefore that should bring us to despair, but to hope, and to trust in the One who never gives up on His children.

Whenever you hear the voice that curses you to despair, cast it away! Go forth at once into the presence of Him whose mercy is boundless and whose love for you knows no end.

“The spirit of God is a spirit of peace, and also in the case of grave sin, it makes us feel tranquil sorrow, humble, confident, and this is due precisely to His mercy. The spirit of the demon, on the contrary, excites, exasperates, and makes us in our sorrow feel something like anger against ourselves, whereas our first charity must be to ourselves, and so if certain thoughts agitate you, this agitation never comes from God, who gives tranquility, being the Spirit of Peace.” – Padre Pio

In order that you may know at least some of My pain, imagine the most tender of mothers who has great love for her children, while those children spurn her love. Consider her pain. No one is in a position to console her. This is but a feeble image and likeness of My love. – Jesus (Divine Mercy in My Soul, 1447)

God’s love can also be likened to a mother’s love, a mother that cares deeply for her children and would do everything in her power to protect them.

It is a love that is willing to give all and to sacrifice all for the sake of her children. It is a love that will never give up no matter what the cost.

Who can truly understand the depths of a mother’s love who bore her child in her own womb? Who can feel her anguish when her child is lost and away from her love? To a mother, the most painful suffering is not her own but of her child’s, and the greatest disappointment is whenever any of her children refuses to receive her love.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem… How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not! – Matthew 23, WEB

To discover that you are loved is the center of all existence. And when we are filled with this total and delirious love, little by little, we grow and love in turn. That gradualness in our journeys is a sign of the infinite tenderness of God. – Chiara Corbella Petrillo, A Witness to Joy

Love has a certain element of tenderness, which alone pierces through the heart and binds us more intimately than any force in the universe ever can.

It isn’t violence that can break through our hearts. It isn’t force that binds us and keeps us together. Only tenderness has the power to accomplish what the fullness of love desires to do. Tenderness that approaches us little by little, and handles our feelings with the deepest affection and delight. Tenderness that is willing to wait for the right time until we are ready and we are no longer afraid.

O, the great tenderness of God that seeks and that patiently waits for His beloved. The kind of love which alone can touch us in our frailty and in our brokenness, mending our wounds, healing our deepest pains.

God’s love is quiet, yet it is strong. And its strength moves in its tenderness that never fails.

“Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. I will give her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she will respond there, as in the days of her youth… It will be in that day,” says the Lord, “that you will call me ‘my husband,’… I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in loving kindness, and in compassion. – Hosea 2, WEBBE

Only love can heal our desire for vainglory because only by being secure in God’s love can we finally stop from seeking the praise of men. – Jocelyn Soriano

Criticism from other people may cut through our heart even more painfully than physical wounds. Hurtful words echo long after they have been spoken. And the hurt they cause remain long before we are healed.

Humiliations can cause us terrible sufferings in that they remind us of the shame we feel within. Shame for our weaknesses. Shame for all our wrongdoings.

No wonder then that we often try to cover up our imperfections so we can avoid being shamed again. We try to lift up our self-esteem, to gain the praise of men, to convince everyone that we are worthy of approval and honor.

Sadly, such attempts only last for a while. Sooner or later, someone says a careless word and all the glory we have sought instantly disappears. As we were brought high, so were we cast down ever more painfully.

We need to find true healing for our lack of self-worth and our desire to be accepted and loved. And the solution is not so much as to pretend to be who we are not, but to know that God already loves us for who we truly are.

It is not our self proclaimed righteousness and perfection that would claim for us the affection we desperately want. We need only to look at the One who has compassion for our weakness, and who alone can lead us to gain the beauty we desire.

“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.” – Luke 6, NRSVCE

Let us look at ourselves in Jesus, my dear, as our mirror, in Jesus who led a hidden life. All His infinite majesty was hidden in the shadows and silence of that modest little workshop in Nazareth. So let us, too, make every effort to lead a completely interior life, hidden in God.– Padre Pio

There are some good things we must do openly so that men may see and praise God. There are deeds that must be done in the light so we can reach those who are in the dark.

But there are some deeds that are better done in secret, good deeds that need to be seen by the holy eyes of God alone. For it is in being hidden that their value is preserved and their purity is unstained, and they become worthy of God’s reward and praise.

When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Most certainly, I tell you, they have received their reward. But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. – Matthew 6, WEB