"Do not be afraid of what God asks of you!

It is worth saying "Yes" to God."

In Him we find joy.

Pope Francis

World Youth Day, Rio de Janeiro, 28/07/2013

May the Lord support us all the day long,

'til the shadows lengthen and the evening comes,

and the busy world is hushed,

and the fever of life is over,

and our work is done.

Then in His mercy may He give us

a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last.

St. John Henry Newman

"Dear Brothers and Sisters, Never resort to war! Never war! Above all, I think of all the children who are robbed of their hope for a better life and a decent future. Killed children, wounded children, mutilated children, orphans, children who play with remnants of war, instead of toys. Children who don't know how to smile. Please stop! I ask you with all my heart. It's time to stop. Stop it please!"

Pope Francis, 27/07/'14

Praying for Peace with St. Oliver Plunkett

Glorious Martyr, St. Oliver, who willingly gave your life for your faith, help us also to be strong in faith. May we be loyal like you to the See of Peter. By your intercession and example may all hatred and bitterness be banished from the hearts of Irish men and women. May the peace of Christ reign in our hearts, as it did in your heart, even at the moment of your death. Pray for us and for Ireland.

Amen

 "When the lord tells us to 'pray constantly', he is obviously not asking us to recite endless prayers, but urging us never to lose our inner closeness to God.  Praying means growing in this intimacy.  So it is important that our day should begin and end with prayer; that we listen to God as the Scriptures are read; that we share with him our desires and our hopes, our joys and our troubles, our failures and our thanks for all his blessings, and thus keep him ever before us as the point of reference for our lives."

(Pope Benedict XVI)

  Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28 

 The everlasting God has in His wisdom foreseen

from eternity the cross that He now presents to you

as a gift from His inmost heart.

This cross He now sends you He has considered with His all-knowing eyes,

understood with His divine mind, tested with His wise justice,

warmed with loving arms and weighed with His own hands

to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for you.

He had blessed it with His holy Name, anointed it with His consolation,

taken one last glance at you and your courage,

and then sent it to you from heaven,

a special greeting from God to you, an alms of the all-merciful love of God.

Your Cross, by St. Francis de Sales

JOURNEY OF LIFE

For each of us life is a journey. Birth is its beginning,

Death is not its end.

It is a journey that take us from youth to age,

from innocent to awareness, from ignorance to knowledge,

from foolishness to wisdom,

from weakness to strength and often back again,

from offence to forgiveness, from pain to compassion,

from fear to faith,

from defeat to victory and from victory to defeat,

Until, looking backward or ahead,

We see that victory does not lie at some high point along the way,

But in having made the journey, Stage by stage.

Adapted from an old Hebrew Prayer

Act of Faith and Self-Dedication

 My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor did I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will

does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.

And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road

though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem

to be lost in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,

and will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Thomas Merton

"Happiness is something we all want, but  one of the great tragedies in this world is that so many people never find it, because they look in the wrong places. The key to it is very simple - true happiness is to be found in God. We need to have the courage to place our deepest hopes in God alone, not in money, in a career, in worldly success, or in our relationships with others, but in God. Only He can satisfy the deepest needs of our hearts."