Raise your hand if you’re feeling overwhelmed, or not doing anything worthwhile.
With the terrible weather prolonging a seemingly endless winter, it’s no wonder people are starting to feel bluer than usual. If you made New Year’s resolutions, odds are you’ve given up by now, adding to the melancholy. If you’re single, last week’s St. Valentine’s Day festivities certainly didn’t help, either. If it’s particularly bad, you may have noticed it affecting your spiritual life, too. What’s a faithful Catholic to do?
Well, pray.
I realize it’s easy to say, and hard to do. Anything else you can do? How about some advice and comforting words from our heavenly friends?
If you think you’re not doing enough:
“The ordinary arts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest.” – St. Thomas More
“Think well. Speak well. Do well. These three things, through the mercy of God, will make a man go to heaven.” – St. Camillus
“It is not the actual physical exertion that counts towards a man’s progress, nor the nature of the task, but by the spirit of faith with which it is undertaken.” – St. Francis Xavier
“Everyone who breaths, high and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman, has a mission; has a work. We are not sent into this world for nothing; we are not born at random… God sees every one of us; He creates every soul… for every purpose. He needs, he deigns o need, every one of us. He has an end for each of us; we are all equal in his sight.” – St. John Neumann
“Our perfection does not consist of doing extraordinary things, but to do the ordinary well.” – St. Gabriel Possenti
Don’t dismiss the little things:
“Start by doing what is necessary; then do what is possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” – St. Francis of Assisi
“Know that the greatest service that man can offer to God is to help convert souls.” – St. Rose of Lima
“The deeds you do may be the only sermon some people will hear today.” – St. Francis of Assisi
“A word or a smile is often enough to put fresh life in a despondent soul.” – St. Therese of Lisieux
“You are rewarded not according to your work or your time but according to the measure of your love.” – St. Catherine of Siena
“Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smile, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.” – St. Therese of Lisieux
If life seems too chaotic:
“Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.” – St. Francis de Sales
Don’t forget your self-care:
“There is a state of resting in God, an absolute break from all intellectual activity, when one forms no plans, makes no decisions and for the first time really ceases to act, when one simply hands over the future to God’s will and ‘surrenders himself to Fate.’” – St. Benedicta of the Cross
“It is a requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes.” – St. Thomas Aquinas
Be grateful for what you do have:
“The secret to happiness is to live moment by moment and to thank God for what he is sending us every day in his goodness.” – St. Gianna Beretta Molla
Whatever obstacle or hardship you’re experiencing, remember to not be too hard on yourself. If you look at the saints and think, “Man, I’ll never reach that level of holiness” just remember what St. Philip Neri said, “Never say ‘What great things the saints do’ but ‘What great things God does in his saints.’”
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