Common place book entries

Charlotte Mason suggests keeping a Common place book.  This book is where students (young and old) write down in beautiful handwriting quotes that they find inspiring, helpful.

Before I knew about Charlotte Mason, I was keeping a common place book.  It wasn't all hand written quotes.  Sometimes I would find a quote inspiring in a magazine or newspaper and cut it out and paste it in my common place book.   Sometimes I would add a few words of my own narration about the book I was quoting.  I have six beautifully covered (mostly spiral bound) common place books full of lovely wonderful ideas.

Sometimes in the past, I've returned to these books looking for a quote that inspired me and wanting it to awaken in me some of what once was...

Today I have been reading Strangers to the City: Reflections on the beliefs and Values of the Rule of Saint Benedict by Michael Casey.  

"Leisure is not idleness or the pursuit of recreational activities.  It is, above all, being attentive to the present moment, open to all it's implications, living it to the full.  This implies a certain looseness in lifestyle that allows heart and mind to drift away from time to time.  Monastic life is not a matter of shoehorning the maximum number of good works into a day.  It is more important ...to do a few things well, being present to the tasks they undertake, leaving room for recuperation and reflection, and expecting the unexpected.  Leisure allows openness to the present." 

Saints for Suffering

It's Lent.  Everyone seems to be carrying some kind of suffering these days.  I found a few quotes that bring me consolation.  Perhaps you might find comfort in them, too.  

If you really want to love Jesus, first learn to suffer, because suffering teaches you to love.  St. Gemma Galgani

If you seek patience, you will find no better example than the cross. Great patience occurs in two ways: either when one patiently suffers much, or when one suffers things which one is able to avoid and yet does not avoid. Christ endured much on the cross, and did so patiently, because when he suffered he did not threaten; he was led like a sheep to the slaughter and he did not open his mouth.    St. Thomas Aquinas  This is a reference to Isaiah 53:7.

if we only knew the precious treasure hidden in infirmities, we would receive them with the same joy with which we receive the greatest benefits, and we would bear them without ever complaining or showing signs of weariness.   St. Vincent de Paul

As much as I am able, every day, I will ensure that my child will:
* Live the Liturgy.
* Experience loveliness.
* Breathe deeply: Fresh air and exercise
* Serve others
* Listen to, contemplate, and exchange ideas.
* Develop expressive skills.
* Practice logical reasoning. Math.
* Receive focused attention and affection.

found this on my old computer and should have kept a note of where I found it...do you know?  She deserves credit for this...It's inspirational for me.

Edited to add: Elizabeth Foss credit.  

Make me this day a sharer in Thy mystical supper, O Son of God, for I will not reveal Thy mysteries to Thine enemies, nor betray Thee with a kiss, as did Judas, but like the Thief, I confess Thee: remember me, O Lord, in Thy kingdom.

Taken from an old translation (1958) of the sung Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom printed in Belgium.

Persevere in reading while dwelling in stillness, that your mind may be drawn toward the wonders of God at all times.
St Issac the Syrian

Rebellion to tyrants
is obedience to God.
Benjamin Franklin

O My God, Trinity Whom I adore!  Help me to become utterly forgetful of self, that I may bury myself in Thee, as changeless and as calm as though my soul were already in eternity.  May nothing disturb my peace or draw me out of Thee, O my immutable Lord! but may I at every moment penetrate more deeply into the depths of Thy mystery!

St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

It is better to have little knowledge with humility and a weak understanding, than greater treasures of learning with self-conceit.

Thomas a Kempis

Faith needs fuel if it is to stay alive; and the fuel God gives it is hope.
Father Anthony Giambrone, O.P.

Wealth consists not in having great possessions but in having few wants.
Esther DeWaal from Seeking God: the Way of St. Benedict

When the morning falls on the farthest hill,
I will sing his name.  I will praise him still.

When dark trials come and my heart is filled
with the weight of doubt,
I will praise him still.

Fernanado Ortega song

I find myself in the primordial
lostness of night, solitude,
forest, peace, a mind
awake in the dark... In the
formlessness of night and silence
a word then
pronounces itself: Mercy.

Thomas Merton

Virtue is nothing without the trial of temptation,
for there is no conflict without an enemy,
no victory without strife.
Pope Leo the Great

When something distasteful or unpleasant comes your way,
remember Christ crucified and be silent.
St. John of the Cross

Through grace we are made participators of what God is by nature,
except that we remain creatures.  St. Symeon the new Theologian (1022)

Dear God,
I wish to know the way that leads to Heaven.
Philip Neri

Sepernere mundum,
spernere nullum,
spernere seipsum,
spernere sperni.

Think little of the world,
think little of no person,
think little of oneself,
think little of being thought little of.
--St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Our lives are like shaker snow toys in which things are only seen clearly when nothing is happening.

Thankfully God can do miracles even when it's "snowing" in our lives and we can't see the why or how of what he is doing.

Take time to enjoy the snow in your life.  God is there working.  And there just might be a little sparkle in that snow.

The trouble with people who talk too fast is
that they often say something they haven't thought of yet.
--Celia Coggins

"He who guards his mouth and his tongue, guards his soul from troubles."  Proverbs 21:23

A holy life is a voice:
it speaks when the tongue is silent.

"if you are wise, live a life of steady goodness, so that only good deeds will pour forth"  James 3:13