Today, The Marian Room is posting another quote from Fr. Francis X. Lasance’s prayer book, My Prayer Book. This quote is on the effect of Catholic pictures in a home. I think you will find it to be thought provoking:
“A Room with good Catholic pictures in it and a room without such pictures differ as much as a room with windows and one without these necessities. Pictures, and I mean only good, pure pictures, are consolers of loneliness, and a relief to the troubled mind. They are windows to the imprisoned heart, books, histories, sermons which we can read without the trouble of turning over the leaves or straining the eyes. They make up for the want of many other enjoyments to those whose life is mostly passed amid the smoke and din, the bustle and noise of a large city. Pictures of Our Lord and His saints inspire us, give us courage and induce us to bear our cross with Christian resignation.” ~31 My Catholic Prayer-Book
“Pictures of Our Lord and His saints inspire us, give us courage and induce us to bear our cross with Christian resignation.” (from above)
Fr. Lasance must have found this to be true in order to have gone to the effort to keep, and publish, this quote. Fr. Lasance did not lead an easy life; in fact, it was a life filled with continual sickness and pain, as seen here (source noted at end):
“Lasance knew suffering. For most of his adult life, the Cincinnati priest endured debilitating headaches that restricted him to a sickbed and sent him to Europe in search of relief. This kind of untreatable chronic pain might have driven another person mad, but Fr. Lasance persevered and grew in holiness. Through decades of constant pain, he kept the example of the saints before him; men like St. Alphonse Liguori, the great Doctor of the Church. ‘Let us be convinced that in this vale of tears,’ Liguori wrote, ‘true peace of heart can not be found except by him who endures and lovingly embraces sufferings to please Almighty God.’
It is difficult to quantify how much Fr. Lasance suffered across more than 63 years of priesthood. He described the headaches as torture. His irritated nerves caused immense physical pain. Even a slight draft could bring agony, so he kept the windows closed in church, even in the heat of summer. There was no self-pity in him, though, and he quietly carried this cross on his slight 5 foot 8 inch frame. He rarely spoke of his travails, except when asked by his archbishop and a few close friends.
Out of such struggles came great spiritual riches. The fruit of Lasance’s suffering came through his writing — a steady stream of more than 40 devotional books and missals across five decades that, quite literally, taught much of the world how to pray. Seventy-five years after his death, a growing collection of Fr. Lasance books is in print once more — a resplendent treasury of the Catholic faith waiting for new generations to discover.
‘By suffering we become like to Christ and His Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Sorrows,’ Lasance wrote in My Prayer-Book, one of his most popular titles. ‘Suffering was the lot of all of the saints. Suffering is very meritorious. Suffering intensifies our love of God. Suffering has a refining influence upon our character. Suffering tends to free us from selfish motives and purifies our aspirations.’ Every trial in life, he wrote, ‘can be turned into a blessing by the will of the Christian sufferer.’
Despite his infirmities, Fr. Lasance maintained a positive, upbeat attitude. He promoted virtues like patience, humility and kindness. He wrote in poetic tones of the need to focus on happiness. Perhaps his most beloved work, My Prayer-Book, ‘aims to point out the brighter side of life — the silver lining to the cloud o’erhead — the sunshine that follows the rain — the sweet little wildflowers that grow by the wayside amid thorns and briers,’ he wrote in the introduction.” ~From source
As summer is winding down, and children are beginning their studies, may God bless our world, and each of us.
~SCF
