Leo Wong

20140209 The “next life” is already “this life” for those who have died.

“I [the archpriest, a grave and serious priest, told me] – eyewitness to the frenetic enthusiasm of the five, six thousand people shouting ‘miracle’, crowding around him who had received the grace and parting to let him through, so as to form a double living wall around him – got an idea of what must have happened when our Lord performed real miracles before the crowds who acclaimed him!” Msgr Rossi, in Francesco Castelli, Padre Pio Under Investigation, 2011, 85.

20140206 Because believers are not good, some think they are good because they don’t believe.

2014 0130 I believe because I sin.

“The saints themselves do not perform miracles; this is done by God at their request.” Piers Paul Read

“‘You p-p-persist in your error, my son,’ Father Joe tells him. ‘Contemptus’ does not mean ‘contempt’. It means ‘detachment’”. Piers Paul Read

20140129 Prayer is active non-doing.

“The fine line between proper devotion and fanaticism is not difficult to cross.” Vittorio Messori, Foreword to Francesco Castelli, Padre Pio Under Investigation, [Italy, 2008], 2011, xxi. Still, approach that line.

“We priests are the butchers of Jesus during the Mass, while all of Paradise descends on the altar.” Padre Pio, in Fr. Tarcisio of Cervinara, Padre Pio’s Mass, 45.

20140124 If my left hand does not know it, why should the Internet?

Don’t be surprised if you are tempted to do something damnable.

In prayer, words embody the Word.

20140123 When we are in heaven there will not be much call for compassion.

20140121 Salvation of souls. Not because souls love God, but because God loves souls.

20140120 “The only thing that distinguishes a saint from other people on earth is his capacity for love.” Houselander, Guild, 142.

“The most striking thing … is the willingness to suffer.” Guilt, 134.

20140117 “Lay an egg or purr on [or?] something and you’ll soon feel yourself again, I assure you.” Andersen, “The Ugly Duckling”

In the world we are Ugly Ducklings, but in heaven we shall be as swans.

“But in spite of his learning the mole had no liking for the sun or for the pretty flowers. He spoke ill of them, although he had never seen them.” Anderson, “Thumbelina”

A little child is less conscious of itself than of its parents.

We are that which God loves." Houselander, Guilt, 156.

“What is the neurotic asks is exactly man is created for; to be love illimitably [beyond deserving].” Houselander, Guilt, 159.

“Whatever God can possibly spare his child he will spare him.” Houselander, Guilt, 184.

The matter of prayer is the words.

Should I pray for the rich? Does anyone pray for the Devil? What id Abraham say to Dives? Pray for the persons you cannot help praying for. Involuntary love is best.

“It is of interest that Rimbaud, too, was followed in his restless wandering life by the prayers of his devout and rather dull little sister, and in the end it was her tide of grace that drew his soul across the river Styx to God.” Houselander, Guilt, 271.

[Since we are most of us dull, shouldn’t most of us pray?]

La fièvre la quitta.

20140113 The Church persecuted its greatest saints: Padre Pio, St. Joan, Jesus.

It is not I who pray, but the Holy Spirit.

20140113 The Church persecuted its greatest saints: Padre Pio, St. Joan, Jesus.

20140112 The answer is not necessarily the solution.

Not I but Jesus brought you [me?] to Jesus.

It is [would be?] easier – though still difficult – for me to to be Setsuka Hara than to be Jesus to you.

“Whatever is worth doing is worth doing badly.” This applies to some things, like prayer, but not to [some] other things, like mountain climbing.

Better to be a saint than talk about sanctity.

If the Mass is the greatest prayer, what is the Mass badly done? Shall we agree with Fr. Jaki that the Mass is often an invitation to suffer?

Many people speak and read aloud so badly that it is better if they spoke and read in a language we do not know, so we would be unaware of how badly they sound.

If Setsuko Hara (in Ozu’s films) is less sinful than any other person I know, then it is wise for me to pray to Jesus that I be more like Setsuko Hara. For for me to be more like Jesus in the Gospels is out of the question and for me to be more like Jesus in books would not be to be more like Jesus but to be more like [what] authors say is Jesus. Better for me to smile and cry and be quiet and be nobody that anybody takes too seriously. Besides, I know Noriko, whereas I only know about Jesus. To say that I know Jesus would only make an author, and an author I am not.

I have never met a person who reminded me of Jesus. Is this not proof that I don’t know Jesus? True, I have never met a person that reminded me of Noriko, but I have seen Noriko.

The first commandment first.

Beauty that does not wish to impress.

How much better it is to say φίλο or amo and not have to say I

Guard against self-improvement.

We are commanded to ask. We are not commanded to meditate or contemplate.

20140110 Not that dog loved me, but that I loved dog.

At the Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah, not Pharaoh and Ahab.

20140109 If I knew my sins I would confess them.

Resolve – and prepare – to go to Confession at [before?] Easter.

“The more guilty we are, the less guilty we feel.” Caryll Houselander, Guilt, 1951, 2.

‘Man cannot love himself as he really is, … self-love compels him to love the self that is not real." Houselander, 51

This is why loving one’s neighbor as oneself is the 2nd commandment, out of the knowledge that the God whom we must love first made both us and our neighbor.

The Church needs priests who call a sin a sin.