This book is a selection of extracts from the letters of Mary Aikenhead – one for every day of the year – containing wisdom inspiration and challenge, reflecting her deep spirituality. She founded the Religious Sisters of Charity in 1815 to work with the poor and most vulnerable people.
208 pp. Veritas Publications. To purchase this book online, go to www.veritas.ie
CONTENTS
Introduction
Introduction
In the course of her lifetime, Mary Aikenhead wrote many letters to friends, advisors, colleagues and to her Sisters. Many of the letters were written while she was confined to bed or to a wheelchair for thirteen years before her death in 1858. They reflect her own deep spirituality while at the same time offering advice, consolation, challenge and encouragement.
Today they continue to be a rich source of spirituality and contemplation for us. We are happy now to share them with a broader readership. The language, spelling, grammar and syntax of the original letters has been retained. We have made only very minor editorial changes where we felt this was essential.
We hope that all who read these daily ‘Sayings’ will find echoes of her vision, her energy, her sense of humour seeped through her suffering because her life was rooted in a steadfast commitment to Jesus Christ and to the service of the most weak and vulnerable people in society. We hope you will experience her spirit in the ‘Sayings’ we have chosen to share with you in this book.
Una O’Neill RSC
25 May 2007
January
1
May our Lord grant us grace to repent sincerely and to begin the New Year fervently.
2
May it be the Divine Will to grant peace. Amen.
3
The work of God cannot fail.
4
The ways of the omnipotent are admirable, may we ever bless and magnify his holy name.
5
May our Lord be praised for all his mercies to us and to ours.
6
May it be that all of us have so prepared our gifts and will have offered them with the holy Kings in the Crib of Bethlehem as to merit an increase of the Three great Virtues.
7
Let us adore and be grateful for the many proofs of the Sweet Providence of our heavenly father.
8
May our good God direct and strengthen you in all to his greater glory.
9
Now as to the tattle of folk, good, bad or indifferent, do not afflict or alarm yourself, nor do not repine.
10
When we have so much to praise the Lord for, we must not complain.
11
Each is in the hands of a loving and all powerful creator who knows our weakness and is ready to supply our wants.
12
May our Lord give us this his holy blessings and the aid of his holy light and Divine Grace.
13
It ought with us to be a glorious thing to live and to labour for God, and so Amen!
14
Continue in His Holy name to do your little best, with confidence that He will not allow the truly humble of heart who are diffident in themselves, and only confident in His assistance, to err or to do what would be injurious to the public good.
15
May we all try to eradicate all weeds so as to make the soil of our poor hearts fit to give room and growth.
16
I have ever found that a well-timed silence in the midst of a bustle prepares the way for a well-timed word of explanation, which, from those who say nothing but what is truthful, will be more effectual than any altercation when feelings are excited.
17
The clatter of tongues is painful.
18
Let what is good, and given to us from the hand of God and His Church, be prized and practised; time will prove its value.
19
Let us try that charity may abound in our hearts. Amen!
20
Time and steady perseverance in our duties will deserve the blessing of divine Providence and truth will triumph in the end.
21
May we learn to accept of what is bitter to nature, with equal conformity as when it pleases our heavenly father to visit us with what we feel to be blessings.
22
May you enter deeply into the secrets of that fervent love which redeemed you.
23
Thanks to our good God for all His blessings and truly they are not of trifling account or few, so we ought to be very holy and grateful with our whole hearts. And you so? Pray that I may be.
24
Prayer is in very truth miraculously powerful – we must be faithful in employing it.
25
Faith forbids us to repine at the ill will or evil reports of any one.
26
True affection is to rejoice in the happiness of our dear ones.
27
Never allow a sentiment of resentiment to enter into our hearts.
28
We must have patience and confide all to our Heavenly Father.
29
Pray, reflect and consult – and may the divine spirit direct all to God’s greater glory.
30
We should be wanting in gratitude to our good and merciful Lord if we did not entrust all our concerns with unlimited confidence.
31
We must try to imitate our divine model in all things, with the assistance of his all-powerful grace.
