From Facebook, Instagram, and X this week:
You must be simple, affable, and kind… Be human, charitable, and always joyful. You must always laugh, even in saying the simplest things. I, as you can see, laugh all the time, showing my bad teeth. Laughter sets the other person at ease. It brings people closer together and helps them better understand one another. It cheers a gloomy atmosphere—it’s a charity. — Saint Charles de Foucauld
Contemplation must bear fruit for our neighbour, even if it should oftentimes dispense with exterior works. This fruit is the Savour of God that we come to know in loving every creature with a love of charity, in forgetting ourselves, to remember only God who is in all, who does not despise anything he has made, who suffers patiently our offences, who corrects us only in love. No defense of self. No discouragement above all. No abandoning of prayer. — Raïssa Maritain
Love is defined by its formal object, and, when it has God for its object, it necessarily receives the form of Christ’s Passion, and it is configured as such from the Last Supper to the Cross. — Louis Massignon
Contemplation is a science of love. It is an infused, loving knowledge of God. — Saint John of the Cross
Contemplative in the Mud 