"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Jesus for you." I Thessalonians 5:18 ( Read more... )

Today's Lenten reading comes once again from St. Therese de Lisieux's Story of a Soul. Just to provide a very brief bit of context here, this is from Chapter X of the book (a book she was ordered to write under obedience), where she describes the very dark night of faith she has entered. Therese had her entire life enjoyed the most intimate ( Read more... )

Today's Lenten reading comes from Pope Benedict XVI's second encyclical letter, Spe Salvi:

39. To suffer with the other and for others; to suffer for the sake of truth and justice; to suffer out of love and in order to become a person who truly loves-these are fundamental elements of humanity, and to abandon them would destroy man himself. Yet once ( Read more... )

Today's Lenten reading comes from one of my favorite spiritual works, St. Catherine of Siena's The Dialogue. The following excerpt takes the form of God the Father speaking to St. Catherine:

I have shown you, dearest daughter, that in this life guilt is not atoned for by any suffering simply as suffering, but rather as suffering borne with desire ( Read more... )

Today's Lenten reading comes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his great work, The Cost of Discipleship:

The cross is not adversity, nor the harshness of fate, but suffering coming solely from our commitment to Jesus Christ. The suffering of the cross is not fortuitous, but necessary. The cross is not the suffering tied to natural existence, but the ( Read more... )