Loneliness, Grief, and Growth

Our Lord offers His Blood; Our Lady offers her tears. The two offerings flow together, but because of the intimate union between Our Lord and His Mother, their source too is in a certain sense one. In her apparition to St. Brigid of Sweden, Our Lady recalls that “when He looked down at me from the Cross, and I looked up at Him, tears streamed from my eyes like blood from veins. . . Therefore I boldly assert that His suffering became my suffering, because His Heart was mine.” From the one Sacred and Immaculate Heart flow tears and blood. Perhaps the mixing of water into the Offertory wine recalls this mystery of Our Lady’s com-passion.

The mystical union between Our Lady’s sacrifice of tears and Our Lord’s sacrifice of blood is the subject of a painting of Our Lady of Sorrows by sacred artist Gwyneth Thompson-Briggs.
(13 Minute Read)

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St. Leonardo Murialdo – Servant of the Poor, the Young, and Workers

All Saints & Martyrs Blog dedicated to Our Lord, for His Glory

"God has chosen me! He has called me, he has even forced upon me the honour, glory, and ineffable happiness of being his minister, of being "another Christ'.... And where was I when you sought me, my God? At the bottom of the abyss! I was there, and there God came to find me; there he made me hear his voice." - St. Leonardo

He was appointed as Rector of the “Collegio Artigianelli (young craftsmen)”, an institution opened in 1849 by Fr. John Cocchi with the aim of giving assistance, Christian education and vocational training to  poor boys, orphans and  abandoned children.

Accepting this appointment Murialdo had to say a heroic “yes”. In fact, the organization, management and educational difficulties of the institution, and above all the total change of life that was requested of him humanly worked against a positive answer to that proposal.

St. Leonard Murialdo, instead, saw in it the will of God, and, accepting the appointment, he spent 34 years of his life as man, as a priest and as an apostle in a situation not comfortable to his character, his formation and sensitivity and among boys; as himself said, rich in “ignorance, rudeness and vices”. In spite of this, he devoted himself, with all his strength and with a style rich in mercy to their Christian education, improving the educational methods and developing the teaching and vocational training organizations.
(16 Minute Read)

“Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself.”
– Jn 5:25-26

Why Good Men Should Go to Bed Lonely

Patrick Thomas Contributor to TheYoungCatholicWoman blog

The pain of lack or longing we feel in our hearts when we aren’t in the relationship we desire is not itself an evil. Nor is it something to run from. Longing for Love is in fact itself a gift He’s already given us. Being someone who actively dates doesn’t replace the fulfillment of marriage. As a man who’s pursuing an eventual relationship with a faithful Christian woman by actively dating I’ve experienced this. I’ve been put through the wringer by some of those good women, and certainly done the same to some of them. There are plenty of lonely men with girlfriends, and lonely women with boyfriends. There are lonely men with wives, there are lonely women with husbands.

And here’s where you might be worried I’m going to drop the “SO YOU NEED JESUS IN YOUR LIFE AND ALL OF THIS MAGICALLY GOES AWAY” bomb and make you feel like an awful person and like you’ve wasted your time reading all this in the first place. I’d probably feel that way on the other side right now. But I can guarantee loving and knowing Jesus doesn’t prevent you from feeling sad or lonely in human relationships. But He does teach you how to face it.
(12 Minute Read)

Well would you like at the time ⏰

A.M.D.G.