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Taken from sixty-nine canonized saints and ninety holy priests, religious, and lay people, each one of the more than 800 passages in this book comprises a most potent salve with which to treat and heal the wound of weariness. That salve is hope. “The Christian motto is Hope!” declares St. Theophane Vénard. “Hope on! Hope ever! O Christian hope, how beautiful thou art! How thou dost satisfy the heart of man, the creature of a day, and yet created for an eternity of bliss!” We are not made for this world. We are here for a brief moment only, a day in via. Heaven awaits us, and we would do well to remember the fact more often. “Dear mystery of [heavenly] glory!” Fr. Faber exclaims,
Why do we not call thee to mind more often than we do? Surely we stand in need of it. How weary we grow in well-doing. What a strange life is the spiritual life; to overcome one obstacle is only a guarantee that a worse one will be given us to overcome; labor leads to labor and away from rest. A temptation vanquished is only the miraculous multiplication of temptations; and the devils, like the flies, come in greater crowds the more we beat them away. How long can we go on? It seems desperate, an affair of moments, like the struggles of a drowning man to keep himself on the surface. The longer we persevere the more impossible does perseverance seem. Of many things it may be true that the first blow is half the battle: who will dare to say it is so with the spiritual life? Yet sometimes we turn from the thought of glory as if it were a selfish and unworthy thought, a not loving God for His own sake, nor an exclusive seeking of His sole glory. But is this wisdom? Is this humility? Not such was the lowly wisdom of the Psalmist, I have inclined my heart to perform Thy justifications for ever, because of the retribution! Set but the thought of Heaven to fight with the sight of earth, and we ourselves in our inmost souls shall have peace to think of God. (The Blessed Sacrament, 103–104)
Would we but think on Heaven, how well we would realize—defeatism is not an option.
We all experience disappointments, frustrations, sorrows, and other assorted kinds of pain in this life of exile from our blissful heavenly homeland, often leading us to the brink of discouragement or perhaps even despair. It is at (or approaching) this perilous precipice that we most need to be arrested with the pull-back of encouragement, simply in order to persevere. In a word, we need hope. This book Spes Nostra contains, in its various sectional categories, wise advice and counsels excerpted from the luminous meditations of numerous illustrious spiritual writers. The text thus becomes a veritable pharmacopeia of remedies applicable to the various problematic contexts and situations in which we might find ourselves. It is therefore highly recommended for random reference, periodic perusal, or even a regular daily consumption of preventative medicine in sequential doses for those seeking continual uplift and edification. —Dr. David Lang, adjunct professor of logic at Boston College and adjunct professor of systematic Thomistic philosophy at Our Lady of Grace Seminary.
On the long and dusty road of life, which is not without its sorrows, tragedies, and betrayals, it is easy to feel beleagued, beaten down, ready to give up. Often, all it takes is a timely word of truth, of hope, of strength, of comfort, to refresh us like a drink from a cool spring. For that purpose, this book is truly a godsend. It more than lives up to its subtitle, Profound Words of Encouragement and Consolation for Weary Members of the Mystical Body. Its pages remind us, with a well-selected abundance of ‘power quotes’ from the saints, that our heavenly Father holds us lovingly in His hands; the Lord Jesus is with us always, as He promised; and our compassionate Mother accompanies us with her attentive prayers. A treasure-trove of Christian wisdom, sparks for igniting meditation, ammunition for the daily battle—this book could not have come at a better time! —Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, Tradition and Sanity
