Forward in Joy

A little online space to collect inspiration for my vocation as a Secular Ursuline

[cvbarroso]

"In the Year of Our Lord" (En el año de nuestro Señor) by George Henry Grenville Manton (1914)

[mariam-en-christo]

It has been pointed out before, but I would like to put my own take on this. The Gospel calls us to have a "childlike faith," and likewise, the Church has instructed us towards this sort of faith for centuries. Still, the genuine meaning of "childlike faith" can be quite cloudy for many people.

The primary mistake is believing that to be childlike is to be naive and unquestioning. In reality, anyone who has been around children for more than an hour knows well that children ask "Why?" constantly. Curiosity is ingrained into them by nature and by the Lord, that they might learn the workings and nature of the world around them.

Crucially, these questions are asked earnestly and from a place of trust. Children are painfully sincere in their asks, and they ask because:

They trust that you know what they are asking.

They trust that you will tell it to them truthfully.

If a parent arrogantly dismisses the questions of a child, the questions cease, not because curiosity has faded - it's actually likely their curiosity will only be stoked by a deficit of answers - but because the trust has faltered.

In this relationship of curiosity and trust we see an icon of the relationship between a person and God. God ordains in the human spirit a driving curiosity that we never lose, and it is God who we can trust most fully to answer the questions we have. When we have a question of the workings of the spiritual, we need only to go to Him: to His Word, to His Church, or to Him directly in prayer. And when we have a question of the workings of the material, we go to His Creation and study it to behold His ordering through the sciences like many saints have: St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Isidore of Seville, St. Bede the Venerable, St. John Damascene, and more. It is through this questioning that we signify that we trust that the Lord knows all, and that the Lord is Truth.

[slowlikehoney1996]

If your lover lives in Hong Kong and cannot get to Chicago, it will be necessary for you to go to Hong Kong. Perhaps you will spend your life there, and never see Chicago again. And you will, I assure you, as long as space and time divide you from anyone you love, discover a great deal about shipping routes, airlines, earthquake, famine, disease, and war. And you will always know what time it is in Hong Kong, for you love someone who lives there. And love will simply have no choice but to go into battle with space and time and, furthermore, to win.

James Baldwin, Nothing Personal

[psalmlover]

“O life so dull and monotonous, how many treasures you contain! The grace which is given me in this hour will not be repeated in this next.” - St Faustina Kowalska, The Diary, 62

[awfullybigwardrobe44]

Why don’t you go for a walk with God in the cool of the day and maybe you’ll calm down

[smol-catholic-bean]

I thought of this meme during adoration and am very comforted by it

[ahopefulbromantic]

Yes yes yes I love it you get it!!! And also:

this every time I receive the Holy Communion (especially if it's y'know, on hand) 💗💗💗

[tiaochan]

God Speaks to the Soul by Mechthild of Magdeburg, trans. Oliver Davies

[blessedbeyondallbelief]

[blessedbeyondallbelief]

[icaseybaybee]

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Philip Hermogenes Calderon (British, 1833 - 1898) Ave Maria, c. 1858

[timotey]

At the Window, art by Hans Olaf Heyerdahl (1881)

[roratecaeli]

Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Guido Reni, circa 1606

[viktoronko-deactivated20260413]

The only one who doesn't misunderstand me is the Lord

[icaseybaybee]

[biblicalgirl]

"𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐧, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐦... 𝐌𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐧, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭, 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐨𝐝, 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞. 𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐬 𝐇𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫, 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨𝐨."

- St. Cosmas of Aetolia

[luckism]

A Franciscan monk taking a break from tending to the fields to pet a cat (2004)

Captured by photographer Steve McCurry at the Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Foresta in Rieti, Italy.