Readings from Fr. John Furniss

[Patricia]

If you have not a chapel or an altar in your house, make one: so your house will become the house of God.

I have made a little altar on my dresser in my bedroom. I have Our Lady's statue, a crucifix, St. Philomena's picture, a little oil lamp, rosary beads, holy water etc.  I would go by Fr. Furniss's suggestions and do what he has recommended.  Very good .

[Shin]

If you have not a chapel or an altar in your house, make one: so your house will become the house of God.

I have made a little altar on my dresser in my bedroom. I have Our Lady's statue, a crucifix, St. Philomena's picture, a little oil lamp, rosary beads, holy water etc.  I would go by Fr. Furniss's suggestions and do what he has recommended.  Very good .

Happy and beautiful in grace St. Philomena!

[Shin]

GOD IS JUST

1. "God will render to every man according to his works." Matt. xvi.

He rewards the just even for the least little good work they do for his sake.

In the Temple of Jerusalem there was a box. When the people went into the temple, many of them put money into this box for the use of the temple. Some put a pound in the box, some a shilling, some six pence or less. One day there came into the temple an old woman, who was a widow and very poor. She was so poor that all in the world she had but one farthing. When she passed the box, she took out of her pocket her one only farthing, and for the love of God she put it into the box. Now what do you think was the value of this poor little farthing work in the sight of God? Its value was so great that you could not reckon it, even if you covered all the Earth over with figures. If you go to Heaven, you will see there that farthing work shining like the sun, and the reward which that widow will get for it will last for ever. Then, my child, first have no mortal sin on your conscience. Secondly, do your works to please God, saying always, "My Jesus, I do this for the love of you." Then every little thing you do will shine like the sun before God. Eccus. xvii.; and for every work you will have a reward such as the "eye hath not seen, the ear hath not heard, nor the heart of man understood." Cor. ii.

2. God punishes the wicked.

He cannot bear to see a sin; it looks frightful to his eyes. (II Peter ii.) "The sinner brings upon himself swift destruction."

For one willful mortal sin, which lasts but for the twinkling of an eye, he is burnt for ever and ever in the fire of Hell. it is just that it should be so, because the wicked sinner dares, in the presence of God and before his eyes to break his commandments. When the sinner commits a mortal sin, he, as it were, thrusts a black, frightful sin, as frightful as the Devil, and as terrible as Hell, into the very midst of the Sanctity of God, which dwells in his heart.

It is doing the same as that wicked man did, who dared to lift up his hand, and to give Jesus Christ, the Son of God, a blow on the face. Besides, the sinner knows very well, God has told him beforehand, that if he commits that mortal sin, he must go to Hell. So the sinner "makes a covenant with Hell," ii Is. xxviii. -- and puts himself into Hell by his own free will. For the least little sin, an idle word, Matt. xii., you must burn for a long time in Purgatory. We cannot now understand the judgements of God. Sometimes "a wicked man liveth a long time in his wickedness," -- Ecc. vii., -- committing thousands and thousands of mortal sins; sometimes a sinner is cut off "in the midst of his days," and sent to Hell directly after his first mortal sin.

There was a little child, says St. Gregory. The father of this child was taking a walk with it in his arms. Suddenly this child began to blaspheme God. As soon as the blasphemy had come out of its mouth, the Devil came and snatched the child out of the father's arms and carried it down to Hell, to burn there for ever and ever for this one blasphemy. But God is always good to his creatures. Perhaps he saw that if this child had lived longer, it would have committed many more sins, and he would have had to punish it more in Hell, "Yea, O Lord, just and true are thy judgements." Apoc. xvi. 7. Sometimes when a man has spent all his life in good works and serving God, when he grows old, he commits a mortal sin, and he dies in it, and is lost forever in Hell.

There was a certain man in Egypt who had led the life of a saint for many years. his days were spent in prayer and fasting and all kinds of good works. in his old age he fell into a mortal sin, instead of repenting, he went directly and threw himself down a precipice and was killed. "How unsearchable are God's judgements." Rom. ii. 33. Sometimes, but very seldom, it happens that a man who has passed all his life in committing sins, at the end of his life is converted and is saved. The poor thief who was crucified along with Jesus, had been a great sinner; but a few minutes before he died, he repented and became a friend of Jesus, and the same day his soul was in Paradise. We cannot understand these things now; but we shall understand them all at the day of judgement, and then we shall say: "Thou art just, O Lord, and all thy judgements are just." All we can do is live all our days in the fear of God -- to fear him who can cast both body and soul into Hell, and to try to work out our salvation in fear and trembling. Say also sometimes, "My God, may I never, never commit a mortal sin; may I die rather than commit a mortal sin." Pray often for those who are in mortal sin. It grieves God to have to punish his creatures; but there is one thing he loves to do.

GOD IS MERCIFUL

1. Almighty God loves to have pity on his poor creatures, and his tender mercies are over all his works. Ps. cxliv. 9. So the Son of God took a body and soul and a heart like ours. Then he let all the pains and sorrows of every one of his poor creatures come into his own heart, that he might know them, and feel how hard it is to bear them. Never was there any heart so full of sorrows and miseries as the heart of Jesus Christ. He took into his heart all the pains, labors, and fatigues and wearinesses, and disgusts, and anxieties, and heart-breakings, of every afflicted creature that shall have lived from the days of Adam till the end of the world, and he made them all his own. Every sigh of distress, every groan of misery that has been, or shall be, went into the heart of Jesus Christ. "So he bore our infirmities, and carried our sorrows." -- Isais liii. When Jesus was on the Cross, he looked and saw all the pains and sorrows of his creatures, and he felt them all, and they pressed on the sacred heart of Jesus like a great heavy weight, and the strong heart of Jesus Christ could not bear the sight of them any longer, and he died of grief. So now if you have a pain or a suffering, you can go to Jesus and say: "My dear Jesus, I have a heavy pain to bear, and you know how hard it is to bear it, because you felt this very pain yourself; so, my sweet Jesus, give me patience." When you are on the bed of sickness, or when you are hungry or cold, and you cry for it, Jesus looks on you so kindly and sorrowfully, and he cries along with you. When the pain goes away, an you are glad, Jesus is glad with you.

[Patricia]

Every sigh of distress, every groan of misery that has been, or shall be, went into the heart of Jesus Christ. "So he bore our infiermities, and carried our sorrows." -- Isais liii. When Jesus was on the Cross, he looked and saw all the pains and sorrows of his creatures, and he felt them all, and they pressed on the sacred heart of Jesus like a great heavy weight, and the strong heart of Jesus Christ could not bear the sight of them any longer, and he died of grief. So now if you have a pain or a suffering, you can go to Jesus and say: "My dear Jesus, I have a heavy pain to bear, and you know how hard it is to bear it, because you felt this very pain yourself; so, my sweet Jesus, give me patience." When you are on the bed of sickness, or when you are hungry or cold, and you cry for it, Jesus looks on you so kindly and sorrowfully, and he cries along with you. When the pain goes away, an you are glad, Jesus is glad with you.

Comforting words . He feels my pain.

[Brigid]

And whenever you have pain that is hard, due to gender, to understand that He felt, look to Mary.
Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genitrix.

Almighty God loves to have pity on his poor creatures, and his tender mercies are over all his works. Ps. cxliv. 9. So the Son of God took a body and soul and a heart like ours. Then he let all the pains and sorrows of every one of his poor creatures come into his own heart, that he might know them, and feel how hard it is to bear them.

Benedicamus Patrem, et Filium, cum Sancto spiritu: laudemus et superexaltemus eum in saecula.

[Shin]

Amen! May the Holy Trinity be praised and exalted forever and ever! 

[Shin]

2. But above all, God has great pity on poor sinners, "neither will he have a soul to perish," -- II Kings xiv. 14: and he tries so much to convert them.

He knocks at the door of a sinner's heart, and says: "Poor sinner, why will you go to Hell? Be converted to me and by my friend. I am your Creator. I cannot tell how much I love you. Do you not remember that I died on the cross to save you? So change your life, and be good. you will find it so easy to be good; and you will be so happy; and after you have been good for a little time, I will come and take you to Heaven. For as I live, says Almighty God, I desire not the death of a sinner, but that he should be converted and live."

Then the wicked sinners says, "No, Almighty God, I do not want to be converted; Go away from me." Then God does not get angry with the sinner, and send him to Hell as he deserves; but he is very sorry for the poor sinner, and says: "I must have patience with this poor creature, for he is very blind, and does not know what is for his good; so I will go away now and after some time I will come back again."

Then the Almighty God goes away, and after a time he comes back again, and he whispers into the sinner's heart, and says: "My dear sinner, have pity on your poor soul. The time of your death is drawing very near. You are standing on the brink of Hell. I cannot bear to think of your losing your soul forever. I should be so sorry. It breaks my heart to think that after a little time, all must be over for you, and I shall never be able to love you any more." So God comes to the sinner again, and again, and again. Then God says, "This poor sinner will not listen to me, although he knows that I love him so much: so I will try some other way. I will send him some pain, and perhaps then he will be converted; or I will send his angel guardian to put good thoughts into his heart; or, I will send the priest to talk to him. I will bid every creature to speak to his heart to convert him. The thunder, and lightning, and wars, and famines, and earthquakes, and disease, and death, and pains, and sorrows, shall tell him of the torments of Hell. The trees of the Earth, and the beasts of the fields, and the birds of the air, which do my will, shall give him an example that he may do my will. His hands and feet, which serve him, shall teach him to serve me. Sometimes when he is talking with others, he shall hear words that are not meant for him; but I mean them for him, to strike into his heart and awaken him out of the sleep of death."

When God sees that the sinner is always obstinate, and that he is obliged to call him out of the world without repenting, it is more bitter to him than if he had to die on the cross again. So God has mercy and pity on his poor creatures. II Esdras x. 17. "Thou art a forgiving God, gracious, and merciful, long-suffering and full of compassion."

It is wonderful to see what care God takes of his creatures. Will a mother forget her own dear little child? If she does, God will not forget you.

[Shin]

When I think of the poor sinner in this passage, I think about blindness and I think about the relationship between sin and death.

'The sleep of death'

God is so merciful! Even when we do not wish to turn away from sin.. He returns and returns, urging us to do so.. Knocking, knocking..

'The time has come: you must wake up now.'

Romans 13:11

No more vice, but instead virtue.. No more self, but instead, the service of God..

[Brigid]

No more vice, but instead virtue.. No more self, but instead, the service of God..

Yes, if we truly love Him.

[Patricia]

How merciful God is and ever patient with our follies . He calls out to the sinner as long as he is alive and there is a chance of repentance. 

[Shin]

THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD

1. Nobody knows how God loves his creatures. "God has loved you with an everlasting love." Jer. xxxi. 3. He loves you before the world was made. he loved you before you were born, and when you were born. He loved you all your life. You love your parents, but you are not loving them every moment; for example, when you are asleep you are not thinking of them, so you are not loving them. Through all the great eternity, which never had a beginning, God never stopped loving and thinking about you for one single moment, just the same as if he had nobody else to think about and love except you; so God's love for you is "above all understanding." Eph. iii. 19. If God loves you, be sure that he will take care of you.

2. A little boy had a garden, with rose-trees in it. You would have been surprised to see how diligent this boy was in taking care of the garden. He dug up the earth all around the rose-trees. When the weather was dry he fetched water from the well, a long way off, and poured it over the rose-trees. If a sharp frosty wind was blowing, he set up boards to make a shelter. If he saw a caterpillar eating the leaves, he killed it. He was always watching till the rose came into flower; and when the rosebuds began to open, he went every morning to see how much they had opened during the night. but how great was his joy when the roses were become large, beautiful flowers, with colors as bright as the rainbow! Why, then, did this boy take so much care of his roses, for many other people passed the garden, and they cared nothing at all about the roses, and did not even look at them? Because they were his own roses, he loved them, and took care of them. This little boy had sense enough to take care of his own; and the all-wise God has he not wisdom enough to take care of his creatures, the work of his hands? This little boy had something in his heart which made him love his own roses: and do you think that God, who loved you from all eternity, now, when the time for you to live is come, loves you no longer?

3. Oh! If you only knew how God loves and takes care of all, even of his least little creatures, and he "rejoices to do good to them all." Jer. xxxii.  God does not forget the very stones of the earth; but he watches over them, and gives to them their strength and hardness. The little flower in the woods, which perhaps nobody ever saw, God loves it, and gives to it colors so beautiful, that no king in all his glory was ever so beautiful. The birds which fly in the air do not work or labor, and yet they eat every day as much as they like; and who is it that takes care to feed them? It is Almighty God, who scatters grains about the Earth for them to eat. The little gnat which flies in the air, and is so small that you can scarcely see it, is not forgotten by God: but he takes care of it, and gives it wings to fly with: and he loves to see it happy and flying in the sunshine. The poor worm which creeps in the earth, God takes care of it and feeds it. Does God then take so much care of the stones, and the flies, and the grass, -- and you, my child, God's greatest work, his very image and likeness, will he take no care of you?

4. Little child, I will show you what care the good God takes of you. "All things are yours." - I Cor. iii. 22. He has made the Earth for you to walk on; he has made the winds and the air that you might have breath to breathe, He made the sun, and the moon, and the stars, to shine upon you, -- and he makes their light to come to your eyes, so that you may see; he makes the sound comes to your ears, that you may hear. He made the stones and clay of the Earth, that you might have a house to live in: and the beasts, that you might have clothes to wear and keep you warm. He made the plants, and the things which grow on the Earth, that you might have food to eat. So "all things work together for your good." Rom. viii. Every time you move your hand or your foot, God is there to help you, putting strength into your arm every time you lift it. If God forgot for only one moment to help you, in that moment you would become nothing. The Lord must direct your steps. Prov. xvi. It is God who puts thoughts into your mind; and if he did not, you would become a fool and an idiot. "So God is kind to all, even to the unthankful." Luke vi. 35.

5. Near the river Jordan, and about a mile or so from Jericho, there was a monastery in which St. Gerasimus lived. One day this saint, being out of the monastery, saw a large lion on the road. He was surprised to see that it walked only with three of its legs -- the other leg did not touch the ground: it seemed to be lame. When the lion saw St. Gerasimus, it came quickly up to him, and lifted up one of its legs, and roared aloud, as if it wanted to let him know that it was in great pain. St. Gerasimus took hold of the lion's foot, and looking at it saw that a large thorn had gone into it, and that it was bleeding. He was very sorry to see the poor lion's foot bleeding; so he took hold of the thorn, and drew it out of the flesh; then he wiped away all the blood and matter, and washed it with water, and taking a nice piece of clean linen, he tied it round the lion's foot. When he had done the lion this service, he went on his way, thinking no more about it; but, happening to turn round, he saw that the lion was following him. When he came home he shut the door. The lion did not go away, but stopped at the door; and form that moment it never went away, and it became as tame as a cat or dog. It never made anybody afraid, but learnt to do a great many things for the service of the house, like the other tame beasts. Whenever the saint went out, it always followed him, and never left him for a moment. After five years St. Gerasimus died; then the lion looked very sorrowful, and went and lay down on his grave; and there it stopped for three days and three nights, during which it would neither eat nor drink. After the three days the poor lion died. So grateful was the lion to the saint, because he had taken the thorn out of its foot.

6. Learn from this lion to be grateful to him who takes away sickness from you.

[Brigid]

 

God never stopped loving and thinking about you for one single moment, just the same as if he had nobody else to think about and love except you;

[Shin]

God never stopped loving and thinking about you for one single moment, just the same as if he had nobody else to think about and love except you;

 

I love the story of the lion. 

[Brigid]

I thought that the first part was part of Aesop's Fables, I guess not.

[Shin]

I thought that the first part was part of Aesop's Fables, I guess not.

There's a similar story in Aesop's too! 

[Patricia]

You love your parents, but you are not loving them every moment; for example, when you are asleep you are not thinking of them, so you are not loving them. Through all the great eternity, which never had a beginning, God never stopped loving and thinking about you for one single moment, just the same as if he had nobody else to think about and love except you; so God's love for you is "above all understanding." Eph. iii. 19. If God loves you, be sure that he will take care of you.

I must repeat this everyday. God will take care of you.