Monday, October 1

If you've not yet seen it, allow me to recommend the Weekly Standard's new website. They're putting all of the articles from the magazine online as well as web-only content on a daily basis. Good stuff, as you would expect.
Thanks so much to Lisa and the other Catholic moms at...uh...Catholic Mom, for selecting my Loyola Kid's Book of Saints for their book club to read during the month of October. If you've not been to that site, drop by and check it out. Lots of helpful info and good columns!
Time flies.... and it's time for all good churchy types to order their Advent/Christmas stuff. May I suggest Creative Communications for the Parish? May I suggest my contribution to the cause, called Prepare for Joy, a booklet of family Advent activities? The page for it from the Creative Communications catalog is here. . Warning: it's a .pdf file, requiring Adobe Acrobat, which I don't care for, but it's not my catalog.
Another good quote from St. Therese:

Everything is a grace, everything is the direct effect of our father's love—difficulties, contradictions, humiliations, all the soul's miseries, her burdens, her needs—everything, because through them, she learns humility, realizes her weakness. Everything is a grace because—everything is God's gift. Whatever be the character of life or its unexpected events—to the heart—that loves, all is well.

A good website for St. Therese : The Society of the Little Flower

Amazon page for The Story of a Soul.

The Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux

Prayer is, for me, an outburst from the heart; it is a simple glance darted upwards to Heaven; it is a cry of gratitude and of love in the midst of trial as in the midst of joy! In a word, it is something exalted, supernatural, which dilates the soul and unites it to God. Sometimes when I find myself, spiritually, in dryness so great that I cannot produce a single good thought, I recite very slowly a Pater or an Ave Maria; these prayers alone console me, they suffice, they nourish my soul.
Story of A Soul, Chapter X

St. Therese, one of the most popular saints of modern times, has much to teach us.

When we are tempted to think of spirituality as a complex thing, as one more skill to master, she reminds us of its essential, necessary simplicity.

When we dedicate ourselves to the goal of being something great: rich, famous, powerful or influential, she humbles us. As an adult, St. Therese never left her convent, but her life and words have helped bring millions closer to God.

When we give into the deception that the only things worth doing are the things that bring us attention or make us a profit, she calls us to the "little way" of infusing every single action of every minute of our days with love. That is enough.

My life is an instant,
a fleeting hour.
My life is a moment,
which swiftly escapes me.
O my God, you know that
on earth I have only today
to love you.