There's only one new year's resolution worth making. That is: resolve to pray by using more silence and stillness. You will not be good at it, at first. Stick with it. It will change you because God will be able to reach you. Meditate upon Him and He will gift you with Himself in contemplation. #MeditativePrayer #meditation #God #ContemplativePrayer #Conversion #Discernment

Except during the few days between Christmas and the new year, the world demands great speed from us at work, at home, at school, on the roads, through entertainment, and everywhere else we can hear, see and feel. Why is it so easy to forget what we gain during this time? And why don't we demand more of it? Slow and steady are good, true and beautiful. They let us focus. They let us see and hear and feel that which is eternal. Slow and steady breed the silence and stillness needed to meditate. Meditation opens up our minds, bodies, and spirits to contemplation. Let God invade you. Eternal happiness comes from slow. #Discernment #MeditativePrayer #ContemplativePrayer #continualprayer #meditation #God

The Savior was offered a cave in which He was born. This is scandalous, of course, because the child Christ, His Mother Mary, and His adoptive father Joseph should never have been dishonored by lying in a dirty, forgotten place. This is also glorious because it makes a point about the necessity of humility. But this story is about something far more important than emotional responses to aesthetical facts. To put it simply, our surroundings mean little in the context of understanding God, His love, His mercy, His wisdom, and His will. In other words, the facts of Jesus' birth teach us that all things begin and end with a contemplation of God. So ask yourself: do I pray? Do I know how to be quiet and still? Will I let God invade me like Mary? Will I allow Him to rest in my heart all the days of my life? Find your cave and contemplate the one who creates, redeems, and sanctifies. #Mary #MotherofGod #Theotokos #JesusChrist #ContemplativePrayer #continualprayer #God

St. Ambrose, good shepherd of Milan and doctor of the Church, please pray for us so we have the courage to defend the Most Holy Trinity, the divinity of Christ, the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, and the Virgin Mary as the Mother of God. Help us to shun secular attitudes, reject false doctrines, and accept our sufferings in the name of the one, true God. Teach us how to become more intimate with the Lord through prayer and the sacraments. Amen. #StAmbrose #Trinity #JesusChrist #HolySpirit #Discernment #prayer #Sacraments #Mary #MotherofGod #Theotokos

St. Nicholas, please pray for us so that we can contemplate the gift of God incarnate. Help us to shun unnecessary activity, resist consumerism, and avoid anger. Teach us to be a gift to others by revealing to them the light and love of Christ. Amen. #StNicholas #prayer #ContemplativePrayer #Sin #Discernment #luminousdarkness

"The Virgin's gift to us of 'the Word of God' was different from that of the prophets, and the relationship that was formed and endured between her and the Word of God was unique. The prophets were vessels who bore the divine word for a time, but then it left them and they became once again strangers to the word of life. But the Virgin was bound to the Word of God as His mother, just as He was bound to her as her Son, and she is eternally the mother of the Son of God in so far as the Son of God continues to be the Son of Man." - St. Matthew the Poor, The Communion of Love, p. 208. #MatthewthePoor #Mary #MotherofGod #Theotokos #Sin #ContemplativePrayer

There is a great difference between teaching about Christ and embodying Him. This is the difference between Mary and the rest of us. She allowed Christ to grow within her. Now, this doesn't mean that Christ will be physically born from any of the rest of us. But it does mean that if we let go of our persistent sins and reject the corruptions of the world, the Holy Spirit can envelop us. When this happens, our very being and therefore, our countenance, will be suffused with the mystically present Christ. Ask yourself: do I teach about Christ? Or do I embody Him? Pray for each other that this can happen in all of us. #God #JesusChrist #HolySpirit #Mary #MotherofGod #Theotokos #continualprayer #ContemplativePrayer

"Servitude here is the servitude of love for God and it is a fruit of freedom. No one can serve God freely in fullness of spirit, heart, and mind unless he has been freed of the corruption that is characteristic of this world and of the passions and pride of the self, by the effective, purifying indwelling of the Word of God in the depths of his mind and heart." - St. Matthew the Poor, The Communion of Love, p. 207. #Discernment #God #Sin #Freedom #MatthewthePoor #continualprayer

Humility is the only way that we grow in union with God. #humility #theosis #ContemplativePrayer

"According to this covenant that she took upon herself, she became, as far as she herself was concerned, committed to virginity, and as far as the world was concerned, she became the supreme example of purity, and as far as God was concerned, she became a slave, completely owned by Him and living for Him alone. Her heart, which God made his possession through the Holy Spirit, beat now only for the sake of the holy Word of God that was born of her." - St. Matthew the Poor, The Communion of Love, p. 206. #Mary #MotherofGod #Theotokos #MatthewthePoor #ContemplativePrayer #Discernment

Mary "gave herself to God as His handmaid, or slave, in the sense that she committed herself totally to Him, body, soul, and spirit. By this commitment, which took the form almost of an oath or everlasting covenant, the Virgin consecrated her whole life to God after the mystery had taken place in her." - St. Matthew the Poor, The Communion of Love, p. 205. Ask yourself: am I open to the mystery of God? Have I made an everlasting covenant with Him? #MotherofGod #Mary #Theotokos #JesusChrist #God #MatthewthePoor

Overjoyed by God's gift of a daughter, Mary's parents, Joachim and Anna, brought her into the Jerusalem Temple when she was about three years old. They asked God to make His will known to her, and to give her the love and strength to follow it. In simpler terms, they presented to God the gift He had given, and asked Him to consecrate it (her). This story, which comes to us through the Protoevangelium of James, is as instructive to us as it is indicative of the life of the Mother of God. As a response to the grace offered, Mary gave herself perfectly to God, asking that all in her life be done according to His word (Luke 1:38). His word. Not our word. Ask yourself: do I present myself to Him? Do I give all of myself to Him? Let us pray for the strength to do so. Help others do the same. #Mary #MotherofGod #Theotokos #StLuketheEvangelist #JesusChrist