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Ave Maria!– July’s Theme: Temptation “Take courage in the hour of trial. Jesus is with you always and fights with you and for you. Let the sweet and comforting thought of drawing from this trial the complete destruction of the kingdom of satan and an incorruptible crown of eternal joy in the Kingdom of God, encourage you to sustain the war that satan wages against you.” |
Ave Maria!– July’s Theme: Temptation 12- “Your temptations come from the devil, but your pains and afflictions are from God and from heaven: the mothers are from Babylon but the daughters are from Jerusalem. Despise the temptations and embrace the tribulations. […] Let the wind blow and do not think that the sound of the leaves is the sound of weapons.” 13- “Do not fight the little temptations with disputes and contentions, but rather with simple recourse to the Heart of Jesus Crucified, as if for love you were to go and kiss His side and His feet.” |
Ave Maria!– July’s Theme: Temptation “Be well aware: as long as the temptation displeases you there is nothing to fear. But why does it displease you if not that you do not want to feel it? These very inopportune temptations come from the malice of the devil; but the displeasure and the suffering that we feel come from the mercy of God Who, against the will of our enemy, draws from his malice holy tribulation, by means of which He purifies the gold that He wants to put into His treasures.” |
Ave Maria!– July’s Theme: Temptation “Do not let the temptations frighten you: they are the trials that God wants the soul to experience when He sees that it has the necessary strength to stand the battle and to weave with its own hands the garland of glory.” |
Ave Maria!– July’s Theme: Temptation “Temptation does not spare any of the elect. It did not even spare the apostle of the gentiles who, after being carried up to heaven [while still a pilgrim on this earth], was subjected to such a trial that satan arrived at even slapping him. My God! Who can read those pages without feeling his blood chill within his veins?! How many tears how many sighs, how many prayers did not that holy apostle raise up, so that the Lord would take this most painful trial from him?” |
Ave Maria!– July’s Theme: Temptation “Your innumerable temptations, from which you are continually assaulted, must not torment you because the Holy Spirit warns the devout soul, who prepares herself in the ways of God, to dispose herself, to prepare herself for temptation. Therefore, take courage, because the certain and infallible sign of the choice of health of a soul is temptation, to which the poor thing will be subjected as a sign of contradiction amidst so many tempests. Let the thought of the lives of all the saints, who were not exempt from this trial, encourage us to support our trial.” |
Ave Maria!– July’s Theme: Temptation “Do not […] trouble yourself too much about healing your heart, as your pain would render it even more infirm. Do not strain too much to overcome your temptations, as this violence would strengthen it; despise it and do not dwell on it, do not fix your attention on it.” |
Ave Maria!– July’s Theme: Temptation “Never fear the snares of satan which, however strong they may be, will never be able to budge a soul that keeps itself attached to the cross. Be vigilant and strengthen yourself ever more with prayer and with the beautiful virtue of humility: you will experience that you will not be submerged in the sea of the tempests.” |
Ave Maria!– July’s Theme: Temptation “The war that satan wages against you is the trial of the Divine will. All souls that are lovers of Jesus must be tried with the fire of temptations. St. Paul himself felt and experienced this hard trial in his pilgrimage. With sighs and with anguish he unceasingly asked to be freed from it, but he was answered by Jesus that His grace would be enough for him – the same voice He makes heard to all the souls that want to love Him with sincerity and purity of heart.” |
Ave Maria!– July’s Theme: Temptation “Do not listen to the devil, do not stop to listen to his suggestions; despise him as always and take care not to stop and talk directly with him. To stop and talk with this enemy (that is, intending to stop and talk directly with him to despise him), the soul, if it does not remain deceived, does not, however, always come out of it without receiving some burns.” |
Ave Maria!– July’s Theme: Temptation “Always trust and take courage; do not be frightened by the prolonged war of satan. Do not lose courage because of the weakness you feel within you, because the soul that fears, distrusts, watches and prays because it is weak, becomes strong as a God; just as, on the contrary, it infallibly happens to who trusts in himself, as if he were a God: it will not be long before he experiences his misery and his weakness.” |
Ave Maria!– July’s Theme: Temptation “Do not let your heart be frightened when it finds itself in battle with the devil; cast every one of your cares in God alone because He has supreme care of you, and His vigilant grace will always make you triumphant over all the evil arts of the enemy.” |
Ave Maria!– July’s Theme: Temptation “ ‘Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist ye, strong in faith’. Do not let the many snares of this infernal beast frighten you. Jesus, Who is always with you and Who fights with you and for you, will never permit you to be deceived and overcome.” |
Ave Maria Meditations
Could you not watch one hour with Me? (Mt. 14:34) The need for prayer in order to follow the Lord closely: Jesus looks at us with a gaze of expressive simplicity on that night. He looks into souls and hearts in the revealing light of Divine Wisdom. The spectacle of all men’s sins, of the sins of his brothers, files past before his eyes. He sees the deplorable opposition of so many who scorn the happiness he offers them, the uselessness of the generous sacrifice He will offer in vain for so many more. He feels great loneliness and moral pain because of this defiance and lack of response to such an outpouring of Divine love. Three times he looks for those three disciples of his to accompany him in prayer: “Watch with me, be at my side, do not leave me alone”, he has asked them. And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to answer him. Perhaps in that state of tremendous helplessness He seeks a little company, a little human warmth. But his friends abandoned the Friend … That was a night when they should have stayed awake, to have prayed. And they slept. They still did not love enough, and allowing themselves to be beaten by weakness and sadness, they left Jesus alone. In them the Lord found no support; they had been chosen for this and they had let him down … (more…) |
Homily #090408 ( |
Audio (MP3)