PathToHoliness

Have you thanked God for your guardian angel today? The angels that God has given us are meant to guide, protect and intercede for us, but they can also become our best companions! One is never too old to speak to one’s guardian angel as one would an old and dear friend. For that matter, one is also never too old for this timeless prayer:

Angel of God my guardian dear,
To whom God’s love commits me here,
Ever this day be at my side
To light, to guard
To rule and to guide.
Amen.

As I was just watching EWTN, I was reminded by Fr. Mitch Pacwa that we can also pray to other peoples’ guardian angels. Every single person has a guardian angel, even our worst enemies, and we can also pray to these angels for the salvation of souls.

Besides Our Lady, I think St. Therese, whose feast day was today, has had the biggest impact on my spiritual life. Early on in my spiritual journey I was encouraged to read her biography, Story of a Soul, and I fell in love. Never before had the spiritual life been shown, or explained, in such a real way. If you have not read it yet, I HIGHLY recommend it! I have read it twice now, and I’m sure will pick it up again.

This little saint is best known for articulating what she called her “Little Way” of spiritual childhood, which is what made her a Doctor of the Church. Here is an excerpt from her autobiography that I think gives a beautiful vision of this little way.

I look upon myself as a weak little bird, with only a light down as covering. I am not an eagle, but I have only an eagle’s EYES AND HEART. In spite of my extreme littleness I still dare to gaze upon the Diving Sun, the Sun of Love, and my heart feels within it all the aspirations of an Eagle.

The little bird wills to fly toward the bright Sun that attracts its eye, imitating its brothers, the eagles, whom it sees climbing up toward the Divine Furnace of the Holy Trinity. But alas! the only thing it can do is raise its little wings; to fly is not within its little power!

What then will become of it? Will it die of sorrow at seeing itself so weak? Oh no! the little bird will not even be troubled. With bold surrender, it wishes to remain gazing upon its Diving Sun. Nothing will frighten it, neither wind nor rain, and if dark clouds come and hide the Star of Love, the little bird will not change its place because it knows that beyond the clouds its bright Sun still shines on and that its brightness is not eclipsed for a single instant…

Jesus, I am too little to perform great actions, and my own folly is this: to trust that Your Love will accept me as a victim. My folly consists in begging the eagles, my brothers, to obtain for me the favor of flying toward the Sun of Love with the Divine Eagle’s own wings!

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As our Father, God wants to do everything for us and we must rely on Him for absolutely everything. Even our good works are not our own. The best thing we can do is offer our Lord our empty hands so that He may fill them with good works. My favorite quote from Therese: “Sanctity consists in suffering.” I also wrote about Therese on my post about darkness and the spiritual life.

Books you should read:
Story of a Soul
St. Therese of Lisieux, Her Last Conversations

Yes, today is my birthday – number 25. It’s always pretty sobering when I think that when I was conceived, my mother had the legal choice to have me killed before I was born. Thanks, Mom, for choosing life!

I share this birthday with the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. Mary shared in the sufferings of Christ (Lk. 2:35) and stood by Him on the cross (Jn. 19:25). Besides our Lord, Mary is the greatest example of perseverance in suffering and is a constant source of strength and inspiration for me in my own sufferings.

On this feast day it is appropriate to reflect on the seven sorrows of the Blessed Virgin:

* at the prophecy of Simeon;
* at the flight into Egypt;
* having lost the Holy Child at Jerusalem;
* meeting Jesus on his way to Calvary;
* standing at the foot of the Cross;
* Jesus being taken from the Cross;
* at the burial of Christ.

Please say a prayer for my parents who will be on their way to Japan tomorrow morning.

“May I never boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!” (Galatians 6:14). Today we celebrate the glory and the triumph of the cross of our Savior. In today’s Office, the reading from St. Andrew of Crete says:

Had there been no cross, Christ could not have been crucified. Had there been no cross, life itself could not have been nailed to the tree. And if life had not been nailed to it, there would be no streams of immortality pouring from Christ’s side, blood and water for the world’s cleansing. The legal bond of our sin would not be canceled, we should not have obtained our freedom, we should not have enjoyed the fruit of the tree of life and the gates of paradise would not stand open. Had there been no cross, death would not have been trodden underfoot, nor hell despoiled. Therefore the cross is something wonderfully great and honorable.

Even our own crosses are occasions to rejoice because we can unite our sufferings to Christ, fulfilling His calling to us to take up our cross and follow Him. From the Imitation of Christ:

Why are you afraid, then, to take up the cross when through it you can win an eternal kingdom? In the cross is salvation; in it is life; in it is protection from your enemies; in it is heavenly sweetness; in it is strength of mind; in it is joy of spirit; in it is the highest virtue; in the cross is perfect holiness. Take up your cross and follow Jesus, and you will merit eternal life.