Month: December 2018

“The grass may be greener on the other side of the fence, but there’s probably more of it to mow.” – Lois Cory

“You can’t clear your own fields while counting the rocks on your neighbor’s farm.” – Joan Welch 

“Be a good finisher and never claim a victory prematurely. The greatest assassin of dreams is haste, the desire to reach things before the right time.” – John Mason, Let Go of Whatever Holds You Back

“There is a time to let things happen and a time to make things happen.” – Hugh Prather

“The first law of success is concentration – to bend all your energies to one point and go directly to that point, looking neither to the right nor to the left.” – William Mathews

“Sometimes, when we see the troubles, difficulties and wrongs all around us, we are tempted to give up.  It seems that the promises of the Gospel do not apply; they are unreal.  But the Bible tells us that the great threat to God’s plan for us is, and always has been, the lie. The devil is the father of lies. Often he hides his snares behind the appearance of sophistication, the allure of being modern, like everyone else. He distracts us with the promise of ephemeral pleasures, superficial pastimes. And so we squander our God-given gifts by tinkering with gadgets; we squander our money on gambling and drink; we turn in on ourselves.  We forget to remain focused on the things that really matter. We forget to remain, at heart, children of God. That is sin: to forget at heart that we are children of God.  For children, as the Lord tells us, have their own wisdom, which is not the wisdom of the world.” – Pope Francis

“Real love is about loving and letting yourself be loved. It’s harder to let yourself be loved than to love. That is why it is so difficult to come to the perfect love of God. We can love Him but we must let ourselves be loved by Him. Real love is being open to the love that comes to you. The love that surprises us. If you only have information you are not surprised. Love surprises because it opens a dialogue of loving and being loved. God is a God of surprise because He loved us first. God awaits us to surprise us. Let us allow ourselves to be surprised by God. Let us not have a computer psychology that makes us think we know it all. All answers on computers – but no surprises. The challenge of love. God reveals himself through surprises.” – Pope Francis

“So many of you have lost everything. I don’t know what to say to you. But the Lord does know what to say to you. Some of you have lost part of your families. All I can do is keep silent and walk with you all with my silent heart.This is what comes from my heart. Forgive me if I have no other words to express myself. Please know that Jesus never lets you down.” – Pope Francis

“It is important to dream in the family. All mothers and fathers dream of their sons and daughters in the womb for nine months. They dream of how they will be. It isn’t possible to have a family without such dreams. When you lose this capacity to dream you lose the capacity to love, the capacity to love is lost. I recommend that at night when you examine your consciences, ask yourself if you dreamed of the future of your sons and daughters. Did you dream of your husband or wife? Did you dream today of your parents, your grandparents who carried forward the family to me? It is so important to dream and especially to dream in the family. Please don’t lose the ability to dream in this way. How many solutions are found to family problems if we take time to reflect, if we think of a husband or wife, and we dream about the good qualities they have. Don’t ever lose the memory of when you were boyfriend or girlfriend. That is very important.” – Pope Francis

“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.” – Seneca