Romano Guardini: “Preparation for prayer is necessary and it is generally true to say that the prayer will be as good as the preparation for it”

Today’s first reading reminds us – Don’t be sluggish

If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

From Matins today – by Saint Ignatius of Antioch

Have faith in Christ, and love Try to gather together more frequently to give thanks to God and to praise him. For when you come together frequently, Satan’s powers are undermined, and the destruction that he threatens is done away with in the unanimity of your faith. Nothing is better than peace, in which all warfare between heaven and earth is brought to an end.

Love vs Lust
by June Hunt

Lust is temporary
Love is enduring

Lust is sudden
Love is gradual

Lust is selfish
Love is unselish

Lust is untrustworthy
Love is trustworthy

Lust is impatient – can’t wait to get
Love is patiebt – can’t wait to give

Lust is unctonrolled desire
Love is controled desire

Lust is emotioanlyl shallow
Love is emotioanlyl deep

Lust is fantasy
Love is reality

Lust is full of emotion
Love is full of devotion

Lust is driven by one’s passion
Love is driven by the will

Lust focuses on external looks
Love focuses on internal character

Lust is established on faulty reasoning
Love is established on solid reasoning

Lust is set on getting “happiness”
Love is set on giving happiness

Lust is eager to get
Love is eager to give

Lust is cheap
Love is sacramental

From Matins today:

“God’s blessing must be our objective and the way to win it is our study. Search the records of ancient times.” St Clement I, pope

“The prayer of the righteous man is powerful indeed” Jas 5:16