Morning Briefings

I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.

– Abraham Lincoln

Rule #110: Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.

– George Washington
George Washington’s 110 Rules of Civility

We acquire our true valentines through time, nurturance and experience. Unknown to us, we acquire them every single day.

– Gina Moffa, Opinions Columnist, The Greyhound, the student newspaper of Loyola University Maryland
Valentine’s Day is just another day of the year

Mardi Gras, literally ‘Fat Tuesday’ has grown in popularity in recent years as a raucous, sometimes hedonistic event. But its roots lie in the Christian calendar, as the ‘last hurrah,’ before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. That’s why the enormous party in New Orleans, for example, ends abruptly at midnight on Tuesday, with battalions of street sweepers pushing the crowds out of the French Quarter toward home.

–
AmericanCatholic.org

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

– Proverbs 4:23

Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.

– Luke 10:23-24

Advent has two feasts of Our Lady: 8 December — The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary; 12 December — Our Lady of Guadalupe.

– Margaret R. Miles
Maiden and Mother

“We don’t use money in heaven,” Guardian Angel Clarence explained to despondent businessman George Bailey who replied, “Oh yeah? Comes in pretty handy down here, Bub.”

– Henry Travers as Clarence, James Stewart as George
It’s a Wonderful Life

Chanukah–the eight day festival of light that begins on the eve of Kislev 25–celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, of purity over adulteration, of spirituality over materiality.

– Chanukah in a Nutshell
Chabad.org

December’s gifts–custom, ceremony, celebration, consecration–come to us wrapped up, not in tissue and ribbons, but in cherished memories. This is the month of miracles. The oil that burns for eight days, the royal son born in a stable, the inexplicable return of Light on the longest, darkest day of the year. Where there is love, there are always miracles.

– Sarah Ban Breathnach
Simple Abundance