The Care of God for Me - Fr Considine

"Lose no opportunity in bringing home to yourself Our Lord's particular individual love of you, shown in even the smallest details of your life.

It is God's peculiar prerogative, because He alone is infinitely wise and all-powerful, to be able so to direct and rule each single life as if that person alone was the centre of the universe, and all things else were ordered for her advantage, solely and entirely.

When I rise in the morning I can say with truth, 'This day, in all its circumstances, with all its consequences, has been appointed and fashioned to help me love and serve God better'. Then you have only to fall in with your changes of duties, or with the state of your health, or with the conduct of others towards you (which all has been foreseen and allowed for by God), secure in the knowledge that you are travelling along the path whereby God Himself wishes you to approach Him.

What peace, what courage, what an increase of love this thought should give us!"

(Words of Encouragement)

Monotony - Fr Considine SJ

"We must fight against our natural dislike of monotony by not casting our thoughts forward and thereby making the temptation stronger, foreseeing that tomorrow will be the same as today, and the next day the same as tomorrow, and so on.

Rather let us throw ourselves heartily inti the work in hand, reminding ourselves that we know very little about the future, or even if we shall have a future, and making each day stand by itself as if it were the last one. God intends us to find life monotonous, for otherwise we should become too fond of it. It is one of His ways of bringing home to us our need of Him, and we should look on it and welcome it as a part of our education. The best cure for monotony in out own lives is to try and make life for others bright and cheerful."
(Words of Encouragement)

God is lovable - Fr Considine SJ

"The first thing necessary in loving Our Lord is to believe Him lovable. What are the sort of persons one loves? First, they must be easy to get on with. How many in their heart of hearts think Our Lord easy to get on with? We think Him touchy, unapproachable, easily annoyed or offended. And yet all this fear of Him pains Him very much. Would our father wish us to hang our heads, be shy and shrinking in his presence? How much less so our Heavenly Father? He has an almost foolish love for us. Never was a mother so blind to the faults of her child as Our Lord is to ours. He makes allowances  to an almost extravagant degree. He is infinitely quicker to pity and help than to blame and punish. Whatever attracts you in your fellow-creatures is His gift, and possessed by Him in a higher sense. And yet how many ascribe to Him mean and petty ways, trying to catch us out, to be ungenerous, conduct we would not tolerate in human friendship. There is nothing easier than to love God, because there is nothing unlovable in Him. God is love, He asks our love in return. Oh, mu God, fill my heart, my soul, my whole being with the fire of Your Divine Love. You, oh my God, are the God of my heart, and my portion forever."
(Words of Encouragement)

Nerves and austerity - Fr Considine SJ

"In the days of great austerity nerves did not exist. They are a product of our time. Nerves are the austerities we have to bear today. Bear with yourself, your depression, gloom, moods, variability of temper. To bear with one's self is an act of great virtue."
(Words of Encouragement)

Despondence for sin - Fr Daniel Considine SJ

"Often the despondence caused by sin is more wrong, and keeps one away from God more than the sin itself. Don't waste time being discouraged. Get up and go to God. Draw near to Him. Do not stand back hanging your head."
(Words of Encouragement)