These quotes are such an inspiration! Thank you for sharing them, George. They make me realize just how far I have to go. There is still so much self love in me, that there is barely any room for Our Lord. What a pitiful state to be in!

Precious Blood of Jesus, save us! Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us! Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us! 

Thank you so much for posting this, Paul. I have been trying to find more information on this issue, and your post explained it perfectly.

No, thank you for the insights, and for the spiritual puzzle!

My grandfather, Lee, is very ill and has been for the last few months. He is deteriorating quickly, and is now bound to a wheelchair.

Please pray for him, not only that his illness may be eased if God wills it, but that he will have a conversion of heart. He is a self professed atheist and, last I checked (I have not asked about it recently) he was a Mason. It is my hope that he will turn back to God in this final hour, that his soul may be saved. I am afraid for him as things stand. He is a good man and has been a wonderful grandfather to me, he is just horribly misled.

Thank you so much, and may God richly bless you for your prayers.

Oh, that's a tough one!

Temptations come from the devil (and from our own flawed nature), so the birds represent demons?

Who knows what birds can symbolize? Any thoughts?

I believe he is saying that in the same way that he needs to chase the birds away from the hard won fruit of the palm tree, so he also needs to chase the evil thoughts and temptations that we all face daily away from the spiritual fruits he has grown through piety and contemplation. Should one of those birds (temptations) make it through and begin to devour the fruit, he would lose all of the merits that he had worked so hard to cultivate.

At least that's what I get from it. 

Yes! Virtues are like plants in a garden - it is impossible to have a healthy garden if you are only growing one kind of plant. Your plants will quickly become infested with pests and blighted with disease. But if you are careful with your planting and are sure to include several varieties of complimentary flora, your garden will thrive, and bear much fruit.

Oh, there almost nothing more soothing than sitting by the ocean! I've never lived by the ocean, but I've always loved to visit the shore. I used to collect buckets of shells to take home when I was a child. But the sound of the waves have always been my favorite part of visiting the beach...that and the seagulls!

Did you just endure a storm where you are? I hope that there isn't too much damage!

That is a brilliant quote, Shin!

Good afternoon, Shin! 

That is such a wonderful quote, and so very true, especially when it comes to those closest to us.

I adore the Golden Arrow prayer! 

I have never prayed the St. Michael chaplet...even though I have one hanging around the house somewhere that I picked up from a thrift store because it was such an interesting find. Terrible, I know! I'll have to give it a try!

queenofheaven,

I don't know the full story, as the opening post was already edited when I got here, but I wanted to share my experience with this very issue.

My fiancé's family is Protestant. He was raised Protestant, and later converted to Catholicism. They are some of the nicest people I've ever met, but every time I meet up with his parents it turns into an Apologetics battle. The only way to get anywhere is to remain calm and collected, to carefully (but firmly!) state your case, and to allow no room for error. We shouldn't argue just for the sake of "being right", but when someone challenges your faith it is always prudent and charitable to correct them where they are wrong, in a kind manner, and to stand your ground.

I am not a confrontational person at all, so I understand how hard it can be to be challenged in such a direct manner by friends/relative/inlaws/random people on the street. Such is our life here in exile. Please don't allow it to disturb your peace too much, they are simply misguided or ill informed, as we all have been at one time or another.

(Edited for grammar.)

Saint Philomena, health of the sick and infirmed, pray for us!

Saint Philomena, health of the sick and infirmed, pray for us!

Saint Philomena, health of the sick and infirmed, pray for us!

'Without love the soul of man cannot exist. Her affections must be fixed on God or on creatures: if she love not creatures, she will certainly love God. Hence, the Holy Ghost exhorts us to guard our hearts with the utmost vigilance against all affections which have not God for their object: With all watchfulness keep thy heart, because life issueth out from it. While the heart loves God, the soul shall have life; but if the heart transfer its affections to creatures, spiritual death will be the inevitable consequence. In order, then, to become a saint, the spouse of the Lamb must expel from her soul what soever has not God for its end and object.

When any one demanded admission into the Society of the Fathers of the Desert, they answered him by the following question: "Do you bring a vacant heart, that it may be filled by the Holy Ghost?" Justly did they require a soul detached from earthly goods; for a heart in which the world dwells cannot be replenished with the love of God. Whoever brings to the fountain a-vessel replete with sand, will labor in vain to fill it with water unless it be first emptied of its contents.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

This quote is quite sobering, but also holds a very beautiful truth well worth striving for.
 

This is a wonderful thread. Thank you, everyone, for the quotes.

As a former pagan, this is one of my favorites:

I do not hold to the voice of birds, or any luck on the earthly world, or chance or a son or a woman. Christ the Son of God is my Druid; Christ the Son of Mary, the great Abbot; the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. My estates are with the King of Kings; my order is at Cenacles and Moen.

-St. Columba