"The song is love..."

Always believe in love

and always sing in thanksgiving!

~Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity

In my life I will praise the Lord:

I will sing to my God as long as I shall be.

~Psalm 146:2

Our life, our sweetness, and our hope!

Heart of Mary...

vessel of the Holy Spirit...

shrine of the Trinity...

home of the Word...

pray for us!

Bl. John Henry Newman

Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven

Now have salvation and power come,

and the Kingdom of our God

and the authority of his Anointed One.

~Revelation 12:10

The Feast of the Assumption is a day of joy. God has won. Love has won. It has won life. Love has shown that it is stronger than death, that God possesses the true strength and that his strength is goodness and love.

Mary was taken up body and soul into Heaven: there is even room in God for the body. Heaven is no longer a very remote sphere unknown to us.

We have a mother in Heaven. And the Mother of God, the Mother of the Son of God, is our Mother. He himself has said so. He made her our Mother when he said to the disciple and to all of us: "Behold, your Mother!". We have a Mother in Heaven. Heaven is open, Heaven has a heart.

~Pope Benedict XVI, 8/15/05 Homily for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

My soul magnifies the Lord

and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.

~Luke 1:39

Our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:29

I have come to set the earth on fire,

and how I wish it were already blazing!

~Luke 12:49

Your Lord is a fire:

do not let your heart be cold,

but burn with faith and love.

~St. John of Kronstadt

Our Lady of Tenderness

I am the mother of fair love,

and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope.

~Sirach 24:24

Sweet Mother, hold me close to your heart.

It pulsates with the life and love of your Beloved Son, Jesus.

Its every beat proclaims Him, its every throb glorifies Him.

I want to live like this ~ like you! ~ but I am selfish and afraid.

Hold me close, dear Mother, and show me

how to be a living sacrifice of praise for Him!

Amen.

"The secret to joy..."

The secret to joy: never suppress positive curiosity;

get involved, because life is meant to be lived.

~Pope Francis, 8/2/16 Tweet

How great are thy works, O Lord?

Thou hast made all things in wisdom:

the earth is filled with thy riches.

~Psalm 104:24

Feast of the Transfiguration

“This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, listen to him.”  ~Matthew 17:5

“This is my Son,” who does not take away from me my Divinity, nor does He divide power, nor eternity.

“This is my Son,” — He is not adopted, but really, not indeed created, but generated from me, no different in nature and made similar unto me. But He is of my very being and was born equal to me.

“This is my Son”, through whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made” (Jn 1.3): all that I do he also does it (Jn 5.19) and as I work, he works with me without a difference. In fact, the Father is in the Son just as the Son is in the Father (Jn 10:38), and our unity never separates. And though I the one who generates is different from the one generated, it is not however allowed to have a different opinion about him that one can have of me.

“This is my Son,” who did not count equality of with me something to be grasped at (Phil. 2.6), or to usurp, appropriating it for himself; rather, while remaining in the condition of his glory, he, to complete the design of the restoration of mankind, brought to humility the immutable Divinity to the condition of a servant.

To Him, therefore, in whom is all my pleasure, and whose teachings I manifest, whose humility glorifies me — listen to him without hesitation, for he is truth and life (Jn 14.6), he is my strength and my wisdom (1 Cor 1.24).

“Listen to Him,” he whom the Mysteries of the Law announced; whom the voice of the prophets sang about.

“Listen to Him,” he who has redeemed the world with his blood, who has chained the devil and who has snatched away the spoil (Mt 12:29), who has torn up the document of our debts (Col 2:14), and the covenant that oppressed us. 

“Listen to Him,” he who opens the way to heaven, and with the agony of the cross, prepares there the stairs leading up to the Kingdom. Why are you afraid of being redeemed? Why are you afraid of being dissolved from your chains? Let it happen that, what I wish, Christ also wills. Throw away that carnal fear and arm yourself with the constancy that inspires faith. It is unworthy of you, in fact, to be afraid of what in the Lord’s passion you would not fear in death, with his help.

~St. Leo the Great, excerpt from Sermon 38, 4

"Let me see your face,

let me hear your voice,

for your voice is sweet,

and your face is comely."

The Song of Solomon 2:14