Category: Words of Wisdom

What is a perfect day? It is a day in which the heart is filled with gratitude for the infinite love of God.

This is the day that the LORD has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it!
-Psalm 118, WEBBE

Sometimes the perfect day isn’t really the kind of day we imagine it to be. It isn’t about taking the best trip somewhere we’ve only dreamed of. It isn’t about filling our stomachs to the full, eating exotic dishes, feasting among the most luxurious hosts. It isn’t even about winning an award or achieving the recognition we felt we long deserved.

Sometimes the perfect day is just doing the most ordinary things. Things like waking up in the morning, early enough to catch a glimpse of the sunrise or smell the garden all fragrant with dew. Things like seeing an old friend again and being able to catch up over a cup of your favorite coffee. Things like being able to take some time off from work and spending the day with your loved ones, just taking everything in, knowing how much you are valued and loved.

The perfect day need not be too far away. Sometimes we only need to see the blessings we are given each day and receive each God given gift with love.

If we judge another person for one instance of sin or weakness, we may in truth be judging and condemning ourselves. Before we pass judgment on others, let us try to know them better. Maybe we’d realize that we were not so different from them after all.

If you judge people, you have no time to love them. – Mother Teresa

Therefore be merciful, even as your Father is also merciful. Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned. Set free, and you will be set free. – Luke 6, WEB

We become judgmental whenever we fail to realize that we may just be one fatal step away from those we look down upon. Are we really that far away from the darkness we dread? Can we really be so secure where we stand that we won’t find ourselves falling the next moment or so?

May we remember that it is only God’s grace that is able to uphold us every moment of our lives. It is not our mere human strength or our personality. It is not our intelligence or temperament. It is not the wisdom we thought we have acquired on our own.

One wrong decision can turn our lives around in such a way that we become the very people we despise. One false step can open up our vulnerability for others to take advantage of.

Not that our lives must be ruled by fear or that we lose hope when we fall. But that we must be more compassionate with those who have fallen, thinking it could have been us in their place. We could have been the ones in darkness, needing as much help as we could get to be brought back into the light.

For who makes you different? And what do you have that you didn’t receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? – 1 Cor. 4, WEB

Prayer is the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself.
-St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney

Pray without ceasing. – 1 Thessalonians 5, WEBBE

Prayer is not just asking God for the things we need or reciting some prayer we think we ought to regularly say. Prayer is spending time with the One Friend who loves you most. It is seeking His Presence whereby we find consolation, hope and strength. It is catching a glimpse of His face and thereby finding all that is beautiful and good and true. It is going back to what’s real, away from the distracting noise of the world that can never give us peace. It is connecting to everything that gives meaning to our lives.

Prayer is knowing we are not alone and there is Someone who understands all our hurts and our fears. When we pray, our souls find true rest as though it were returning to a home where there is warmth, acceptance and compassion. Without prayer, we’d feel empty and we’d eventually run out of strength. But with prayer, our burden becomes lighter, and even though we may still have to face the difficult tasks ahead, we find the faith we need to overcome our troubles. Prayer is a fountain of grace where God always waits for us so He can shower us with countless blessings.

My little children, your hearts, are small, but prayer stretches them and makes them capable of loving God. Through prayer we receive a foretaste of heaven and something of paradise comes down upon us. Prayer never leaves us without sweetness. It is honey that flows into the souls and makes all things sweet. When we pray properly, sorrows disappear like snow before the sun. – Saint John Vianney