Articles

We can only be happy by making others happy, and letting them make us happy. It’s more blessed to give than to receive, but those who are self-indulgent are dead even while they live.

Giving pleasure is not a guaranteed sign of love. Neither is taking away all pain. The best guaranteed sign of love is taking away excessive burdens and leaving manageable ones.

It’s far better to be friends with God, the angels, and saints, and have no friend on earth, than to be friends with those who don’t truly love you and only want to use you. St. Faustina said that Jesus was her only true friend, though she loved everyone.

Don’t use religion as a weapon. Don’t condemn or proselytize anymore. World peace is only possible at the Resurrection. It’s unrelated to church attendance. Let religion make you a better person and help you to do good.

Don’t set your happiness on whether others convert to your religion or believe in God. If you tie your feet to theirs, them falling into hell will be your certain doom. Have compassion for their souls, but don’t attach your fate to their free will.

Don’t panic over your loved ones going astray. It’s the end of their life that counts. They may turn to God. Or maybe you’re panicking over nothing, and you just misunderstand their soul. Pray for them, want good for them, and trust it all to God.

You can’t convert people with arguments, reason, logic, or facts. These are for those who are already converted and need to clear away the brush. But those enslaved to sin and lies can only be set free by prayer and fasting. And even then, they may still reject it, but God will still give it to someone else.

Beware of those who call themselves the remnant or the only true believers, and who use fear to convince others to join them. This is a very certain sign that they are from the devil. The true religion produces calm, peaceful, and holy men and women.

Don’t argue with people who seem to need to argue with you. The truth shouts loudly in their ears, but since it has no form, they can’t argue back. So they find people to argue against. Pray and fast for them in secret, they need this.

After you see a handful signs of a person lying to you, gas-lighting you, and manipulating you, even if only in small ways, cut that person out of your life if at all possible. If you can’t, at least keep them at a distance from your heart. Do not try to change them, prove them wrong, or defend yourself.

Don’t let bad people guilt you. The devil uses this as a tactic to control people, or at least demoralize them completely. When you realize someone has bad character, and their insults seem untrue and unjust after sincere reflection, then recognize within yourself that their insults are truly compliments.

Never lie. But only tell the truth that you have to tell in the moment, and only to those who legitimately need to hear it.

Work out your salvation in fear and trembling, but count the forbearance of the lord as salvation. For as long as you’re alive, he is still trying to save you. Take it seriously, but trust him.

It’s not enough to hate sin. Even the damned souls in hell hate sin. There are an infinite number of alternatives to God, but only one true God. We must love him and his principles above all else, or we risk going from one blindness to another.

God prefers to work through people, order, and natural laws. He reveals himself to us through the world we can interact with, such as nature, logic, history, and especially the Church.

God does miracles, but only when no other alternatives are left, and when the outcome is truly necessary. He probably isn’t doing miracles through you or those you know. Demons very often do false miracles to lead gullible people into error.

God wants us to do things in the ordinary way. When something feels weird or wrong, or when it makes others unnecessarily uncomfortable, it’s almost definitely not in God’s will.

Nature is God’s masterpiece, humanity is his crowning work, and female is the glory of humanity. Art and music are necessary for life. Sing and dance often.

If your will is purely to do God’s will, trust in his Divine Providence like St. John Bosco did. He often bought houses for orphans without having the money, and the hour he needed it, someone donated to him exactly the amount needed.

If you need to bring someone to justice for the sake of protecting others, do so. If you feel the need to be vindicated against someone but no one will listen, wait until God reveals the truth about what happened on Judgment Day.

Don’t stress over protecting your reputation, that almost always backfires. St. Francis de Sales once said, I aspire to have exactly as much reputation as God wills, no more and no less.

Never hurt a reputation without extremely serious need. St. Francis de Sales says hurting a reputation is as bad as murder, and the fact that it can cause someone to go homeless without the ability to earn their bread proves this true.

Apologize for doing wrong when you can, but only when it’s good and won’t cause more harm to you or others. Sometimes it’s just not prudent, and you have to entrust a situation to God.

God gave you talents. Discover and cultivate them. Follow your natural joys and interests, this is a safe and happy way to do so. One day he will make it clear why he gave them to you.

God is the pure, spotless Lamb. Demons are called unclean spirits. Purity and cleanliness of body and soul may be signs that you are close to God, and are ways to get closer to God.

You are what you consume. The content of the world is filled with the spirit of the world. The more you consume, the more you will be transformed by the spirit of the world.

Likewise, the more you read the Bible, or meditate on the mysterious events of the gospels according to the method of the Rosary, or listen to the dramatized New Testament audio book called Truth and Life, and the more you read the lives of the Saints, and watch holy movies, and listen to holy music, the less weighed down your soul will be on its journey.

Suffering is the fuel for grace. The holy martyrdoms of the first centuries caused Christianity to explode. No one can convert unless someone pays for their soul. The Crucifixion is the fuel for all sacrifices. But as we carry our crosses united to His, his grace put in action through us can pay for souls. We are the Body of Christ, and we must remain crucified.

If you find yourself falling into sin regularly, it’s likely a sign that you are running away from God’s will for yourself. Don’t panic about it, but pray and ask God to enlighten your mind to know the truth. Especially ask him in Adoration.

If you find yourself doing something very well and elegantly, especially something you don’t usually do, it could be a sign that God is with you and helping you do it.

If you want to be sure God will help you, figure out what his plan is and help him do that. It’s not guaranteed he will help you with your ideas, but he will definitely help you do his own plans, because they’re his own plans, so of course he wants to.

To love God more, love your neighbor. Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to God. See the potential good in that person, especially the more sinful they are, and love them with the same love you would have for the innocent and holy Jesus.

Do acts of mercy. While some people still need acts of physical mercy such as feeding the hungry, most people today need spiritual acts of mercy such as praying for them, consoling them in their sorrow, teaching them the truth, etc.

Don’t listen to those who tell you there’s no sin, or who try to cause you to give up avoiding sin, or who give you permission to redefine sin. Your good pricks their guilty consciences.

Ignore scholars who try to discredit the Bible and cast fear and doubt on it, even if they have a Ph.D. and 1m followers. These are the false prophets of old. Compare their lives to the lives of the countless Saints, and decide which to follow.

Obedience is from God and disobedience is from the devil. Don’t follow rebellious, disobedient people, even in religion. They’re following the devil. The exception is when it comes to obviously evil things, for those who are quickly obedient to sin are not from God just because they’re obedient.

Reflect daily on your conscience, see what you could have done better, thank God for what you did well, trust in his mercy, and ask him to help you do better tomorrow.

Start and end your day with God, or you will quickly lose sight of him and fall into error and sin. For this purpose do a few minutes of prayer and a few minutes of reading a book that lifts your soul up to heaven after you wake up and before bed.

Pick a few devotions. There are countless devotions in the Church, for every personality type, and it’s impossible to practice them all. Don’t adopt one just because someone says it’s the best or is absolutely necessary. Pick ones you feel drawn to.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart, the Precious Blood, the Blessed Sacrament, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Name of Jesus, and Blessed St. Joseph are universally useful and especially powerful. The Auxulium Christianorum is powerful.