What's in your prie-dieu, Sister?

We mentioned in a previous post the great aid spiritual reading is to the religious in her consecrated life. In thanksgiving for these treasures and in keeping with our charism of "magnifying Jesus Christ by communicating the Beauty, Goodness, and Truth," in the coming months, we wish to share with you the gold mines contained within the pages of our library books!

We pray that Our Lord may nourish your soul through His Holy Spirit by means of these holy authors. 

(If you are interested in acquiring any of the books mentioned for your own spiritual growth, we have linked those book which are still available for purchase. Thankfully, a lot of "golden oldies" are being republished.)

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Regarding the Annunciation: "Why had [Our Lady] held her acceptance of God's will unspoken until this moment? Not because she had to be persuaded God's will was sufficient for her - she actually used a stronger word than 'handmaid;' she said, 'Behold the slave of the Lord.' She waited before uttering her consent, surely, because she felt that if God sent her a message, she owed it to Him to understand it." - F. J. Sheed: To Know Christ Jesus

"The most heroic hearts are those which have been wrought on the anvil of the wound in Christ's side and in the furnace of His Heart." - Fr. Matteo: Jesus King of Love

"If there is only sentiment in the heart, the life of the soul will not be the life of faith and love, but of mood. The will cannot be expected to bear the twofold burden of an unreasoning intellect and a sentimental heart." - Dom Hubert Van Zeller: The Yoke of Divine Love

From The Practice of the Vows by Louis Colin, C.S.S.R:
"After the offering of the bread and wine, the priest consecrates them, 'This is my Body - this is the Chalice of my Blood.' Prodigious words which brings down upon the Altar Christ, the Victim

"'I vow Poverty, Chastity and Obedience.' Is not this formula, too, an act of consecration? Such are the creative words which transform the Christian into the Religious, making of him a spiritual victim and a consecrated host.

"By giving himself, the religious consecrates himself to the service of God: and God in His turn, ratifies and confirms the consecration to all eternity. It has been rightly said that profession is at once the works of man, and that of God. Taking as it were into his hands this soul which offers itself to Him, God blesses it, and this blessing is more than a mere word; it is an act, a work of sanctification, a consecration. On might well reflect on the fine prayers of the Pontifical on the Benediction and Consecration of Virgins. 'Do not wonder that whereas a simple prirest can give you the religious habit, your profession, or at least, the imposition of the veil which is its public symbol, remains a pontifical act, i.e. one ordinarily reserved for the bishops. The bishop alone is the perfected priest: therefore, he alone can perform perfected works. The priest prepares: he baptizes, blesses; the bishop perfects; he confirms, ordains, and consecrates. You are, then, consecrated; and all in you in consecrated; your eyes, lips, ears, hands, feet, knees, your whole body; your mind, heart, will, powers, life, strength and time."