Waving the Red Flag

     “Occasions do not make man weak, but they do show what he is. When we commit a fault, we must not attribute it to a physical cause, such as illness or the weather, but we must attribute it to our own lack of perfection.”                                                                                                                                                                                                               St. Therese of Lisieux

     The blame game started long ago in the Garden of Eden. Adam blamed it on Eve and Eve pointed to the serpent – maybe he blamed it on the weather! We have a difficult time recognizing, let alone, owning our faults and imperfections. There is no difficulty for us in seeing the faults of others. We could write a long list without much trouble. It is our own imperfections that we run and hide from, denying or pretending they don’t exist!

From Bitter To Sweet

     “By accepting the sufferings ‘offered’ by life and allowed by God for our progress and purification, we spare ourselves much harder ones. We need to develop this kind of realism and, once and for all, stop dreaming of a life without suffering and conflict. That is the life of heaven, not earth. We must take up our cross and follow Christ courageously everyday; the bitterness of that cross will sooner or later be transformed into sweetness.”                                    Fr. Jacques Phillipe



     A wise and holy priest once stated, “Remember, Jesus did not tell us to pick up our picnic baskets each day and follow Him – He said to pick up our cross everyday if we want to be His disciples.”    Although that is a verse from scripture of which we are very familiar, it is one that we often forget when we are bemoaning the hardships of this life. We forget that we are wayfarers and sojourners on the way to heaven and expect instead, a rosy path.