— Thomas Merton
Sometimes when it gets suspiciously quiet, I turn around to see Hazel looking at me like this. And then I look into those compassionate, seemingly empathetic puppy dawg eyes and say, “qirl! chu lookin at?!?!” And then we frolic and play for 40 seconds before I neglect her at my desk again. 🐶👵 #shejustgetsme #BiFFles
— Ernest Hemingway
(Source: aquaticwonder, via jececilia)
How do you keep your faith so strong in this kind of society? she asked… and I told her exactly how. I told her that I continually take the sacraments and that I pray ceaselessly, even just in my mind; I told her that it’s a daily conversion and decision to follow Christ. She gave me a nod that looked as if she had either heard it a thousand times or heard something she had been searching for for a really long time. But when I went home I regretfully wished I had just asked her, how do you keep anything strong?
How do you keep your body strong? Your relationship strong? Any skill, ability, or habit? Ya keep at it… you use your God-given will to discipline yourself and then ask Him to fill the gaps with His graces. You persist. One day of a full workout doesn’t keep our bodies fit for the rest of our lives, one day of being absolutely loving and selfless for our beaus won’t establish a lifelong bond, and anything we stop doing for a long period of time we will diminish in ability. What makes our relationship with God any different? And if we can go to Him for strength in anything and everything else, why not ask for strength in pursuing Him? Praying for the strength to pray seems silly and a little ironic but I’m pretty sure that us doing that is inherently God-willing because if there’s one thing He’s given us and we’ve abused to its fullest, it’s the ability to ask for stuff.
So let’s stop abusing all the wrong things and focus on abusing the one thing that will actually get us places: prayer. Shameless, ceaseless, authentically selfish prayer.
— Saint Maximus the Confessor
These two are undoubtedly in my Top 10 most beautiful girls in the world. 🌎 #YGfamily #smallinnumber #biginheart 💚💙💚
I once believed that the world was just becoming more and more broken and corrupted as it approached its ultimate doom but now I believe that God is granting us easier access to Him by giving us countless (Gee, thanks G) ways to see how much we need Him in every aspect of our lives. Love seems especially hard to understand and preserve in the kind of world we live in but maybe it’s because we’re called to a higher kind of love. And maybe we need to fail drastically at the lower kind to become equipped to achieve the higher. Maybe…
— Fr. James Martin, Between Heaven and Mirth
Ma and pa shooting their own low budget kdrama by talking in front of the rain while playing sad Islamic Mass music?? 🎶☕ Hazel confirming that she has acquired my obnoxious personality by photobombing this picture at the very last moment… Morning! 🌻
