When My Eyes Are Heavy

'My dearest Jesus, look with pity on me, your poor, weak child. My heart is cold, and my eyes are heavy; I really cannot pray, for I am so tired I can scarcely keep awake. 

You, too, were often weary during Your life on this poor earth of ours, so I know You understand just how I feel. Lord, if You will, You can keep me wide awake when I long to talk to You. 

You know I really do love You, and want You to set my heart aflame with a love so strong and tender, that even while my eyes close and my head droops and a drowsiness overpowers me, I shall find comfort in the thought that I am struggling and working for You.'

(from The Living Pyx of Jesus by A Religious, Pelligrini, 1941, pp.383-384)

Room for the Likes of Him

 
                    'I gave the keys of my heart to Love - to Love on a blood-stained tree,
                    Whose Heart and Hands and Feet were pierced as a purchase-price for me,
                    Whose Head hung heavy beneath the crown which marked Him King of Grief.
                    I gave the house of my heart to Love as hospice for His relief.
                    And yet, when He comes to claim His own, to shelter Himself with me,
                    How often I fail to pierce the guise of the King Whose Throne was a tree.
                    How often I ask that He garb Himself with raiment befitting my whim -
                    How strange that I keep Him waiting to know if there's room for the likes of Him.'

(from The Living Pyx of Jesus by A Religious, Pelligrini, 1941, p. 57)

Painting: Fra Angelico

O Hermitage! Delight of Holy Souls

'The hermitage is a paradise of delight where the fragrant scents of the virtues are breathed forth like sweet sap or glowing spice-flowers. 

There the roses of charity blaze in crimson flame and the lilies of purity shine in snowy beauty, and with them the humble violets whom no winds assault because they are content with lowly places; there the myrrh of perfect penance perfumes the air and the incense of constant prayer rises unceasingly. 

But why should I call to mind these in particular? For the lovely buds of all the holy virtues glow there many-coloured, and graces flourish in an undying greenness - beyond the power of words to describe. 

O hermitage! Delight of holy souls, unfailing in your inner sweetness.'

St. Peter Damian

A Powerful Prayer

Painting: Gari Melchers, Joan of_Arc

This Unchosen Cloister

You may have noticed that lately I've been absent from behind these cloister walls. I wish I could say I've been away on a long vacation, but the truth is far less glamorous. I've spent the last few weeks in a cloister not of my own choosing... within the little "cell" of a hospital room.

I hope to tell you more, soon, about this adventure. (I know you won't be able to wait). In the meantime, this is just to say "Hi! I'm back!" And I hope you're having a blessed Easter season.

'Thank God, there still remains one sanctuary, the sacredness of which no earthly power may violate…  It is the sanctuary of the human heart.  It needs no fixed place for its confines, no stated time for the opening of its gates, no particular hour of silence for its prayer.  A thought, a word, a moment of reflection, and by faith and by love, the soul is within the blessed refuge, and the gates are closed on the confusion of life with all its noise and tumult. It is secure against the bitterness and the pain of persecution, or hardship or trial, or hurt of body, or wound of earthly pride, or failure of worldly ambition, for there she is inviolable, sacred, impregnable in the fortress of her own spirit.' (From The Living Pyx of Jesus, Pelligrini and Co, 1941, p.101) 

'We cannot go to Jesus in the Tabernacle at every moment of the day, but we can turn inward to the Triune God at any moment, even in the midst of our day's worst difficulties.' (The Living Pyx of Jesus, Pelligrini, 1941, p. 27)