What if love wasn’t just a feeling, but a way of being? What if it had a shape, a rhythm, a pulse that echoed through every moment of your life?
Continue reading “Recognizing Real Love”Recognizing Real Love
Author: Smitten With Goodness
The Gift of Spiritual Companionship
“If you do not have someone to guide you, to hold onto you during the times of not knowing, you will normally stay at your present level of growth.” —Father Richard Rohr
Continue reading “The Gift of Spiritual Companionship”The Scandal of Grace
In the parable of the laborers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1–16), Jesus tells of a landowner who hires workers throughout the day—some at dawn, some at noon, some just before sunset—and then pays each the same wage. To our modern sensibilities, this feels unjust. Shouldn’t those who bore the heat of the day earn more? Isn’t fairness the bedrock of justice?
Continue reading “The Scandal of Grace”When A Soul Forgets to Move
“A soul which does not practice the exercise of prayer is very like a paralyzed body which, though possessing feet and hands, makes no use of them.”
— St. Alphonsus Liguori
Why Daily Prayer Matters
Prayer is mysterious. It doesn’t always come with fireworks or clear answers. Often, it feels intangible, like silence or stillness. But without it, something vital begins to fade. We lose contact with Jesus, not just His teachings, but His presence. The One who sees us, loves us, and longs to guide us through every joy and sorrow.
Continue reading “Why Daily Prayer Matters”More Doesn’t Mean Whole
The mass readings today are very relevant. Amos condemns those who exploit the poor and manipulate sacred time for profit. It’s a mirror to our own world, where wage theft, housing insecurity, and consumerism still trample the vulnerable. The poor are bought and sold—now through low wages and predatory loans.
Continue reading “More Doesn’t Mean Whole”Christ Beside Us
We’ve all walked that road.
Not the dusty path outside Jerusalem, but the one paved with questions, heartache, and quiet longing. The road where hope feels distant and God seems silent. And yet—like the disciples in Luke’s Gospel—we’re not alone. Someone walks beside us.
Continue reading “Christ Beside Us”The Perfect Measure
We live in a world where sin is committed boldly, without shame, without fear, under the watchful gaze of Heaven. And yet, what’s even more astonishing is not our audacity before God, but our demands of Him. We ask for mercy while showing none. We expect indulgence from the Most High, while refusing the smallest slight from our neighbor.
Continue reading “The Perfect Measure”Knowing Ourselves by Knowing God
In a world that urges us to “find ourselves,” St. Teresa of Avila offers a strikingly different path: we come to know ourselves not by gazing inward alone, but by lifting our eyes to God.
Continue reading “Knowing Ourselves by Knowing God”Guarding the Flame: Protecting Our Human Spirit
“You know well that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them.”
— St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Story of a Soul
Smitten With Goodness 