Christianity is not simply a doctrine: it is an encounter in faith with God made present in our history through the incarnation of Jesus.
Try by every means to make this encounter possible, and look towards Jesus who is passionately seeking you. Seek him with the eyes of the flesh through the events of life and in the faces of others; but seek him too with the eyes of the soul through prayer and meditation on the Word of God, because "The contemplation of Christ's face cannot fail to be inspired by all that we are told about him in Sacred Scripture."
To see Jesus, to contemplate his Face, is an unquenchable desire, but it is a desire that man unfortunately may also deform. This is what happens with sin, because it is the very essence of sin to draw our eyes away from the Creator and to turn them towards what he has created.
To be truly free means having the strength to choose the One for whom we were created and accepting his lordship over our lives. You perceive it in the depths of your heart: all that is good on earth, all professional success, even the human love that you dream of, can never fully satisfy your deepest and most intimate desires. Only an encounter with Jesus can give full meaning to your lives: "for you made us for yourself, and our heart finds no peace until it rests in you." Do not let yourselves be distracted from this search. Persevere in it because it is your fulfillment and your joy that is at stake.
--Pope John Paul II, March 2004

Memorial of St. Vincent de Paul

We should learn of Jesus Christ to be meek and humble of heart, and ask Him unceasingly for these two virtues. We ought, particularly, to avoid the two contrary vices which would cause us to destroy with one hand what we seek to raise with the other.
-St. Vincent de Paul

One of the best marks of the goodness of all inspirations and especially the extraordinary is peace and tranquility of heart in those who receive them, since the Holy Spirit is indeed violent but with a violence that is gentle, mild, and peaceful. He comes “like a violent wind” and like thunder from heaven, but He does not overthrow them, nor does He trouble them. The fear seizing them at His sound is momentary and is immediately followed by a sweet assurance.
–St. Francis de Sales

“To love God is something greater than to know Him.”
St. Thomas Aquinas

October Meeting

Date: Thursday, October 11

Time: 7:30 pm

Location: Archdiocese Vocations Office (map)
Topic: Dominican Spirituality
Speaker: Sister Maria Christi, OP

Please join us for this meeting and meet Sister Maria Christi of the Dominican Sisters of the St. Cecilia Congregation (Nashville Domincans). Come meet other college-aged and young adult women and hear Sister's wonderful talk!

Questions? Email us at: sttheresesociety@gmail.com!

People travel and wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of rivers, at the vast compass of the oceans, at the circular motion of the stars, and they pass themselves without even wondering.
—St. Augustine of Hippo

Feast of St. Matthew

"Jesus saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office, and said to him: follow me. And he rose and followed him."

There is no reason for suprise that the tax collector abandoned earthly wealth as soon as the Lord commanded him. Nor should one be amazed that neglecting his wealth, he joined a band of men whose leader had, on matthew's assessment, no riches at all. Our Lord summoned Matthew by speaking to him in words. By an invisible, interior impulse flooding his mind with the light of grace, he instructed him to walk in his footsteps. In this way Matthew could understand that Christ, who was summoning him away from earthly possessions, had incorruptible treasures of heaven in his gift.
--St. Bede the Venerable

Memorial of St. Andrew Kim & Companions

The martyrs have offered much to all people. The Lord used their courage – which he had given them – in such a way that he wished to make the penalty of death and the torment of the cross not a source of dread to any of his own, but a pattern to be imitated by many. No good people are good only for themselves, and wisdom does not benefit only the person who has it. True virtues have this nature, that they lead many away from shadowy error (which becomes clear by their light). If this is so, then no instance of any such virtue has more usefulness for instructing the people of God than martyrdom. Eloquence may be suitable for exhortation, reason may be effective in persuasion, but examples are more forceful than words, and it is better to teach by deeds than by words.
--St. Leo the Great

Blessed are those who for love of the Lord plunge headlong into trials and troubles without anger or sadness; when they escape they soon reach safety in the harbor of the divinity, and through their good works come to God’s home and have rest from their troubles, rejoicing in their hope. Those who run the race of life in hope are not frightened by the trials on the way, nor do they cease from following it; on reaching the end of their course they see the Lord, and praise him for having saved them from perdition and from the many adversities they suffered in their ignorance.
--John Moschus

Love was meant to be a sign, a symbol, of the Divine. No man is the final goal of any woman, nor is any woman the ultimate purpose of any man. God is the end of both. Each person has the Infinite within him; it is that we are after. The body can reach a point where it has enough food and enough passion, but the soul never says “enough”…Only the universal can give us contentment, but all we find below is the particular. We want the garden and yet all we eat are the little green apples. The Peace is in realizing that all human love is a spark from the Flame which is God.
--Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Every vocation to the apostolate springs from familiarity with God’s word and involves being sent to communicate that word to others. These "others" can be people who already know the language of the revealed word. But they can also be people who do not yet know that language, as happens in the case of the missionary vocation. The word of God is unknown to some because they have not yet heard it. Others have forgotten it, or have abandoned what they once heard. No matter what the difficulties, the apostle knows that he is not alone: "I am always with you." I pray every day that the Catholic young people of the world will hear the call of Christ and that their response will be what the Responsorial Psalm says: The Lord is "my allotted portion... I set the Lord ever before me; with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed."
--Pope John Paul II, January 1995

Feast of the Exultation of the Cross

Obedience is a whole burnt offering in which the entire man, without the slightest reserve, is offered in the fire of charity to his Creator and Lord…Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to him, and if they were to allow his grace to mold them accordingly.
--St. Ignatius of Loyola

Memorial of St. John Chrysostom

For the cross destroyed the enmity of God towards man, brought about the reconciliation, made the earth Heaven, associated men with angels, pulled down the citadel of death, unstrung the force of the devil, extinguished the power of sin, delivered the world from error, brought back the truth, expelled the Demons, destroyed temples, overturned altars, suppressed the sacrificial offering, implanted virtue, rounded the Churches. The cross is the will of the Father, the glory of the Son, the rejoicing of the Spirit, the boast of Paul, "for," he says, "God forbid that I should boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."
The cross is that which is brighter than the sun, more brilliant than the sunbeam: for when the sun is darkened then the cross shines brightly: and the sun is darkened not because it is extinguished, but because it is overpowered by the brilliancy of the cross. The cross has broken our bond, it has made the prison of death ineffectual, it is the demonstration of the love of God. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that every one who believes in Him should not perish."
--St. John Chrysostom

In the mind of the Church the Heart of Mary is the ideal of the Christian Heart. I will explain...We also live in the divine, but we scarcely realize it in our minds and in our hearts, that is to say, we hardly ever discover its full reality. We were baptized and we knew nothing of it. Baptism imparted to our soul a divine life. God Himself came to dwell in us by His ineffable Presence; we were incorporated with Jesus; but how many there are for whom these wondrous truths do not seem to exist. How many inconsistencies do we not find even in those who believe and ponder these truths. What difficulty we have in living according to our belief, in putting our conduct in harmony with the supernatural!
Comparing Mary's manner of acting with ours, Our Lady always lived in the world motivated by the Invisible as if she had seen it; she did realize it in her heart. When she said that the Most High had done great things to her, she was keenly aware of these great realities. She was in incessant communication with these ineffable realities in the intimacy of her soul; she steeped herself in them; she lived on them, or rather we should say, she lived them.
--Father Banivel

Men can use no better arms to drive away the devil, than prayer and the sign of the cross.
--St. Teresa

"God has a special purpose, a special love, a special providence for all those he has created. God cares for each of us individually, watches over us, provides for us. The circumstances of each day of our lives, of every moment of every day, are provided for us by him . . . [This] means that every moment of our life has a purpose, that every action of ours, no matter how dull or routine or trivial it may seem in itself, has a dignity and worth beyond human understanding. No man's life is insignificant in God's sight."
—Fr. Walter Ciszek, S.J.

First Friday

“Just as a little drop of water mixed with a lot of wine seems entirely to lose its own identity, while it takes on the taste of wine and its color; just as iron, heated and glowing, looks very much like fire…and just as air flooded with the light of the sun is transformed into the same splendor of light so that it appears not so much lighted up as to be light itself; so it will inevitably happen that in saints every human affection will then, in some ineffable manner, melt away from self and be entirely transfused into the will of God.”
—St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Marriage is a preview of eternal love. The couple shares in the creative love of God, the Father. For it is true that not only have they been created by Him, they also create with Him in completing and perfecting each other; and of all created love only theirs is generative of a person.
They share in the redemptive love of God, the Son. For it is true that not only have they been redeemed by Him, but they also redeem with Him in every sacrifice of self they make for each other or for their children.
They share in the sanctifying love of God, the Holy Spirit. For it is also true that not only have they been sanctified by Him, but they also sanctify with Him, since every gift of love they make is a "bond of perfection."
The great wonder is, I suppose, that God loves us. The great gratitude is that He does, since as creatures where would we be without His love. An even greater wonder should be that He calls us, as His Image and Likeness, to love as He loves.
Speaking of married love there is not only the wonder, there is also present, as St. Paul says, "a great mystery."
--Msgr. John Knott

“Faith in action is love, and love in action is service. By transforming that faith into living acts of love, we put ourselves in contact with God Himself, with Jesus our Lord.”
Blessed Mother Teresa

Let us strive for purity of heart, poverty of spirit, and for the character of little children, and we will be threefold blessed.
--Blessed Peter Favre

Memorial of St. Gregory

Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed. There is here a particular reference to ourselves; we hold in our hearts one we have not seen in the flesh. We are included in these words, but only if we follow up our faith with good works. The true believer practices what he believes. But of those who pay only lip service to faith, Paul has this to say: They profess to know God, but they deny him in their works. Therefore James says: Faith without works is dead.
-- St. Gregory the Great