From within

A snippet from this morning's second reading at Vigils that caught my ear (see, sometimes I'm awake!).

Instead of looking for outward events to change our course of life, be sure of this, that if our course of life is to be changed, it must be from within. God's grace moves us from within; so does our own will. External circumstances have no real power over us.

Let us understand that nothing but the love of God can make us believe in him or obey him; and let us pray him, who has "prepared for them that love him, such good things as pass man's understanding," to pour into our hearts such love toward him, that we, loving him above all things, may obtain his promises, which exceed all that we can desire.

-- Cardinal John Henry Newman