Francis Xavier Lasance

“ There is one thought out of which a moderately cheerful man can always make some satisfactory sunshine, if not a sufficiency of it. It is the thought of the bright populous heaven. There is a joy there at least, if there is a joy nowhere else. There is true service of God there, however poor and interested the love of Him may be on earth. Multitudes are abounding in the golden light there, even if they that rejoice on earth be few. At this hour it is all going on so near us that we can not be hopelessly unhappy with so much happiness so near. Yet its nearness makes us wistful. ”

“ I find myself always talking about happiness when I am treating of kindness. The fact is the two things go together; the double reward of kind words is in the happiness they cause in others and the happiness they cause in ourselves. The very process of uttering them is a happiness in itself. Even the imagining of them fills our minds with sweetness, and makes our hearts glow pleasurably. Is there any happiness in the world like the happiness of a disposition made happy by the happiness of others? ”

“ Religious not only lead good Christian lives, but also practise heroic penance, austere mortification, complete self-renunciation; yet their hearts overflow with joy, they abound with mirth and innocent glee such as is quite unknown to the butterflies of " society," to those who seek their happiness in the gratification of self in the treasures and pleasures of the world.
A devout Christian life certainly implies self-denial and self-control.
Good is never done except at the expense of those who do it. ”

“ Kindness will flow from them, as it were, naturally, just as the flowers give forth their perfume, the birds their song, and as the sun shines down alike on good and bad as it goes on its daily circuit — because all this is of their very nature. In the most trivial things of daily life the spirit of kindness should render itself evident." ...
"Kindness is as the bloom upon the fruits — it renders charity and religion attractive and beautiful. Without it, even charitable works lose their power of winning souls ”

“ We hardly know in all this whether to be more disgusted with the meanness, or more indignant at the selfishness, or more sorrowful at the sin. The thoughts of the dying mother are all concentrated on her new-born child. It is a beautiful emblem of unselfish holiness. So also let us hide our pains and sorrows. But while we hide them, let them also be spurs within us to urge us on to all manner of overflowing kindness and sunny humor to those around us. When the very darkness within us creates a sunshine around us, then has the spirit of Jesus taken possession of our souls. ”

“ Visit, we beseech Thee, O Lord, this habitation, and drive far from it all the snares of the enemy: let Thy holy angels dwell herein, to keep us in peace, and may Thy blessing be always upon us. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. ”

“ I hope in Thee, because Thou art omnipotent, most merciful, and faithful to Thy promises; I hope to obtain the pardon of my sins, the grace to live a holy life, to die a happy death, and to obtain life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer. ”

“ Ambrose: 'God wishes all whom He creates to be saved; would to God, O men, that you would not fly and hide yourselves from Him; but even if you do He seeks you, and does not wish you to perish., It is more probable that though many can and will fight God to the end and be lost, they will be fewer far than those whom He will tenderly, and in His own way, bring home to Himself. God is not only the Creator but the Father of all men without any exception. ”

“ He, as the Head and Soul of the Body, is most intimate in His relation to the very least of the subject members; and the measure of His love for them is the measure of His own perfection and dignity — the measure, moreover, of that most just love which He bears toward Himself. For, quibble about it as we will, we only love others so far as we can recognize them as ours, as belonging to or connected with us in some way. Thus it follows that our love for others is only an extension or overflow of our laudable self-love. ”

“ There is a harmonious fusion of suffering and gentleness effected by grace, which is one of the most attractive features of holiness. What is more beautiful than considerateness for others when we ourselves are unhappy?
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To be subject to low spirits is a sad liability. Yet, to a vigorous, manly heart, it may be a very complete sanctification. What can be more unkind than to communicate our low spirits to others, to go about the world like demons, poisoning the fountains of joy? Have I more light because I have managed to involve those I love in the same gloom as myself? ”

“ And the greater we are in ourselves, the more godlike, the intenser our rightful self-love, so much the farther shall we stretch out beyond ourselves with an all-enfolding charity. For God's love has well been described as a sphere whose center is everywhere, whose circumference is at infinity or nowhere. ”

“ How much, then, we may believe has been lost to the world of all that is good and great and beautiful through the instrumentality of unkindness; and if it be thus, what developments, on the other hand, may we not expect, in the order of grace as well as of nature, in the hearts and minds of men beneath the genial sun of kindness.
"Even in the common things of life? and in the natural order, how striking are the results of the passage of this Heaven-sent missioner, this angel of light and consolation. ”

“ THE worst kinds of unhappiness, as well as the greatest amount of it, come from our conduct to each other. If our conduct, therefore, were under the control of kindness, it would be nearly the opposite of what it is, and so the state of the world would be almost reversed.
Kindness is the overflowing of self upon others. We put others in the place of self. We treat them as we would wish to be treated ourselves. We change places with them; For the time self is another, and others are self. Our self-love takes the shape of complacence in unselfishness. ”

“ We, collectively, are the Body of Christ and members in particular, and this fact is the basis of the doctrine of Christian charity. 'Lie not one to another,' 'defraud not one another? says St. Paul, 'because we are fellow members of one body.' Each member exists for its own sake and also for the sake of the whole body, the head and the fellow members. Each member tends directly to its own well-being and advantage, and thereby to the profit of all the rest, each by being what it should be, by doing what it should do — in a word, by its own perfection, perfects the whole. ”

“ If Christianity sends men to learn the solemn lessons of the grave and asks them to keep in view their eternal destiny and the salvation of their priceless immortal souls, this need not make them gloomy and morose, this should not and does not make them sad and depressed; it tends, in fact, to keep them in that state in which they will be able to "rejoice in the Lord always" to be glad and cheerful and hopeful and helpful also to others, no matter what may be their outward circumstances. The peace of God is with them always; interior joy is theirs both in adversity and prosperity. ”

“ One secret of a sweet and happy Christian life is learning to live by the day. It is the long stretches that tire us. We think of life as a whole, running on for us. We can not carry this load until we are three score and ten. We can not fight this battle continually for half a century. But really there are no long stretches. Life does not come to us all at one time; it comes only a day at a time. ”

“ We could not imagine such a father casting out, expelling from his home forever a child, until he had tried the proper means to keep him with himself — until the child deserts him, or, by wilful, obstinate, persistent disobedience to his father's will, necessitates his own expulsion. Such a father will do all he well can for the welfare of his children — do everything short of violence to enable his children to succeed in all that is for his own and their good. The dominant desire — wish — will — of such a father must be to make his children happy ”

“ I adore Thee with all the heavenly host, and love Thee with my whole heart above all things, and will love Thee for ever, Would that by the ardor of my love I could make up for the time in which I loved creatures too much! ”

“ Is it not pleasant to see the sun shining on the mountains, even though we have none of it down in our valley? Oh, the littleness and the meanness of that sickly appetite for sympathy which will not let us keep our tiny Lilliputian sorrows to ourselves I Why must we go sneaking about, like some dishonorable insect, and feed our darkness on other people's light? ”

“ We can meditate by considering all earthly things as types of holy truths. In trees, the wood of the cross, our Redemption; in dust, our origin. In the sky, heaven, our reward. In the stars, the heavenly mansions of those who by their glorious deeds have brought many to justice. In the moon, the Queen of heaven. In* the sun, the Son of justice. In the sea, the ocean of eternity. In the waves, the progress of time. In the seashore covered with the waters, our mortality. In the footmarks on the sand erased, fame. In the sudden darkness, mortal sin. In the bright light, God's grace. ”

“ This gentle saint was filled with so great a confidence in God that in the midst of the greatest disasters nothing could disturb the peace of his soul. "I can not but be persuaded," he often said, "that he who believes in an infinite Providence, which extends even to the lowest worm, must expect good from all that happens to him."
In the same spirit, St. Vincent de Paul exhorts us:
"Let us place our confidence in God and establish ourselves in an entire dependence on Him. Then fear not what men may say or do against us, all will turn to our advantage. ”

“ O God, Who by the resurrection of Thy Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, hast vouchsafed to make glad the whole world, grant, we beseech Thee, that, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His mother, we may attain the joys of eternal life. ”

“ If we reflect upon it, kindness is but the outcome and exemplar of the divine precept: Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. There is nothing we personally so much appreciate as kindness. We like others to think of us kindly, to speak to us kindly, and to render us kindly actions and in a kindly manner. Now, we should know how to put ourselves in the place of others, and thus we should testify to them that kindliness that we value so much ourselves. ”

“ It is by keeping alive and fostering in our own hearts the fire of God's love, the light of God's truth, that we shall most effectually diffuse light and warmth to others. Spontaneously, and without conscious effort on our part, the light will shine from us, and the warmth radiate from us, we shall make ourselves felt without knowing it ”

“ POUR forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that as we have known the incarnation of Christ Thy Son by the message of an angel, so, by His passion and cross, we may be brought to the glory of His resurrection ”

“ As they that are enamored with human and natural love have almost always their thoughts fixed on the person beloved, their heart full of affection toward her, their mouth filled with her praise, and when their beloved is absent they lose no occasion to testify their passion by letters, and on every tree they meet they engrave the name of their beloved ”

“ Holy Mass is the sacrifice of the true body and blood of Jesus Christ, really present upon the altar, under the appearances of bread and wine, and offered to God by the priest for the living and the dead. ”

“ The most pleasant things in this world are mingled with sorrow. The rose is a fair flower, but it puts me in mind of sin, for which the earth has been condemned to bring forth thorns."
My Prayer-Book aims to point out the brighter side of life — the silver lining to the cloud o'erhead — the sunshine that follows the rain — the sweet little wildflowers that grow by the wayside amid thorns and briers. ”

“ Father Rickaby says in his Conference, 'The Extension of Salvation': 'As to what proportion of men die in sanctifying grace, and what proportion in mortal sin, nothing is revealed, nothing is of faith, and nothing is really known to theologians. If ever you find a theologian confidently consigning the mass of human souls to eternal flames, be sure he is venturing beyond the bounds of Christian faith and of theological science. ”

“ There are other things than merely food and clothing, which make up a good home. Love and kindness are essential to a happy home; — not the mistaken love and the foolish kindness which give way to every selfish whim of childhood, but the patient, far-seeing virtues that look beyond the present to the child's future life here and hereafter. ”

“ Many find but a small measure of happiness in this life because they lose sight of their eternal destiny — the object of their creation — which is to know God, to love Him, to serve Him, and to be happy with Him. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself " (Matt. xxii. 37, 39) . The whole law depends on these two commandments; so Our Lord Himself assures us. The fullest measure of happiness even here on earth is attained by harmonizing one's conduct with the commandments of God, by doing well one's duties to God and man ”