Oh, how I like those little mortifications that are seen by nobody, such as rising a quarter of an hour sooner, rising for a little while in the night to pray! 501 St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney
Remember that men change easily, and that you can not place your trust in them; therefore attach yourself to God alone. 502
St. Teresa of Jesus
It avails nothing to subdue the body, if the mind allows itself to be controlled by anger. 503
Pope St. Gregory the Great
There is nothing more pleasing to God, than to see a soul who patiently and serenely bears whatever crosses it is sent; this is how love is made, by putting lover and loved one on the same level. . . A soul who loves Jesus Christ desires to be treated the way Christ was treated--desires to be poor, despised and humiliated. 504
St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori
Pray and work. 505
St. Benedict
My daughter, justice has already been done to God the Father for your sins, and full satisfaction made to him already for everything, according to the demands of justice. For if you have offended God with all the limbs of your body, I have suffered for your sins and those of the entire human race in all the limbs of my body. For if you have offended with your hands and feet, my hands and my feet were fixed with harshest nails to the wood of the cross. If you have offended with your head, my head was lacerated most painfully with thorns. If with your eyes, my eyes were bound and covered with a blindfold. If with your ears, my ears heard blasphemies and revolting insults. If with your tongue, my tongue was sprinkled with strong vinegar and torn. If with your heart, my heart was pierced with a lance. If you have offended God with your entire body, my entire body has been scourged, so that from the soles of my feet to the top of my head there could be seen in me no trace of wholeness (Is 1:6). You can therefore see, daughter, that suitable satisfaction has been most justly done to God the Father for your sins. Truly, I have borne in my heart the languors of every sin and their sorrows - I who did no sin, nor was any guile found in my mouth (Is 53:9). 506
(The Lord Jesus Christ to St. Elizabeth, from 'The Revelations of St. Elizabeth of Toss')
If we would advance in virtue, we must not neglect little things, for they pave the way to greater. 507
St. Teresa of Jesus
Our works are of no value if they be not united to the merits of Jesus Christ. 508
St. Teresa of Jesus
May I not come before You with empty hands, since we are rewarded according to our deeds. 509
St. Teresa of Jesus
All those who belong to Jesus Christ are fastened with Him to the cross. 510
St. Augustine
He who knows well how to practise the exercise of the presence of God, and who is faithful in following the attraction of this divine virtue, will soon attain a very high degree of perfection. 511
St. Vincent de Paul
Read good and useful books, and abstain from reading those that only gratify curiosity. 512
St. Vincent de Paul
A little drop of simple obedience is worth a million times more than a whole vase of the choicest contemplation. 513
St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi
Anxiety arises from an unregulated desire to be delivered from any pressing evil, or to obtain some hoped-for good. Nevertheless nothing tends so greatly to enchance the one or retard the other as over-eagerness and anxiety. Birds that are captured in nets and snares become inextricably entangled therein, because they flutter and struggle so much. Therefore, whensoever you urgently desire to be delivered from any evil, or to attain some good thing, strive above all else to keep a calm, restful spirit, - steady your judgment and will, and then go quietly and easily after your object, taking all fitting means to attain thereto. By easily I do not mean carelessly, but without eagerness, disquietude or anxiety; otherwise, so far from bringing about what you wish, you will hinder it, and add more and more to your perplexities. 514
St. Francis de Sales
We should be cordial and affable with the poor, and with persons in humble circumstances. We should not treat them in a supercilious manner. Haughtiness makes them revolt. On the contrary, when we are affable with them, they become more docile and derive more benefit from the advice they receive. 515
St. Vincent de Paul
Prayer ought to be humble, fervent, resigned, persevering, and accompanied with great reverence. One should consider that he stands in the presence of a God, and speaks with a Lord before whom the angels tremble from awe and fear. 516
St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi
Whoever looks in the Church for something other than Christ is a mercenary. 517
St. Augustine
Know for a certainty that if men understood how terrible is even one solitary sin, they would rather be cast into a heated furnace, and there remain, living both in soul and body, than to support such a sight. And if the sea were all fire they would cast themselves therein and never leave it, if they were certain of meeting the sin on doing so. 518
St. Catherine of Genoa
How about the sin, then, of a husband and wife, of a brother and sister, who spew out all sorts of blasphemies upon one another? They would tear out one another's eyes if they could, or even take away each other's lives. . . They do not appreciate what they are saying. Alas! Unhappy people, your curses take effect more often than you think. . . But what should we do then? This is what we should do. We should make use of all the annoyances that happen to us to remind ourselves that since we are in revolt against God, it is but just that other creatures should revolt against us. We should never give others occasion to curse us. . . If something irritating or troublesome happens, instead of loading with curses whatever is not going the way we want it, it would be just as easy and a great deal more beneficial for us to say: "God bless it!" 519
St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney
In time of temptation continue the good thou hast begun before temptation. 520
St. Vincent Ferrer
Love ought to consist of deeds more than of words. 521
St. Ignatius of Loyola
Do not disturb yourself with vain curiosity concerning the affairs of others, nor how they conduct themselves, unless your position makes it your duty to do so. 522
St. Louis de Blois
Oh my Lord! How true it is that whoever works for you is paid in troubles! And what a precious price to those who love you if we understand its value. 523
St. Teresa of Jesus
Let us continue the fight on the day of the Lord. The days of anguish and of tribulation have overtaken us; if God so wills, "let us die for the holy laws of our fathers," so that we may deserve to obtain an eternal inheritance with them. 524
St. Boniface
Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee. 525
St. Augustine
We must have a real living determination to reach holiness. ''I will be a saint'' means I will despoil myself of all that is not God; I will strip my heart of all created things; I will live in poverty and detachment; I will renounce my will, my inclinations, my whims and fancies, and make make myself a willing slave to the will of God. 526
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
If two friends ask you to judge a dispute, don't accept, because you will lose one friend; on the other hand, if two strangers come with the same request, accept, because you will gain one friend. 527
St. Augustine
Be gentle to all and stern with yourself. 528
St. Teresa of Avila
God has been very good to me, for I never dwell upon anything wrong which a person has done, so as to remember it afterwards. If I do remember it, I always see some other virtue in that person. 529
St. Teresa of Avila
There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers. 530
St. Teresa of Avila
Our body has this defect that, the more it is provided care and comforts, the more needs and desires it finds. 531
St. Teresa of Avila
There is no greater sickness in the world today than the lack of love. 532
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
We need to find God, and God cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature--trees and flowers and grass--grow in silence. See the stars, the moon, and the sun, how they move in silence. The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life. 533
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
If you have a sick or lonely person at home, be there. Maybe just to hold a hand, maybe just to give a smile, that is the greatest, the most beautiful work. 534
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
When I was crossing into Gaza, I was asked at the checkpost whether I was carrying any weapons. I replied: Oh yes, my prayer books. 535
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
The poor do not need our sympathy and our pity. The poor need our love and compassion. 536
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
People are hungry for God. Do you see that? Quite often we look but do not see. We are all passing through this world. We need to open our eyes and see. 537
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Love does not measure; it just gives. 538
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
THE SIMPLE PATH
The fruit of silence is PRAYER.
The fruit of prayer is FAITH.
The fruit of faith is LOVE.
The fruit of love is SERVICE.
The fruit of service is PEACE. 539
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Sometimes it is harder for us to smile at those who live with us, the immediate members of our families, than it is to smile at those who are not so close to us. Let us never forget: love begins at home. 540
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
The woman is the heart of the home. Let us pray that we women realize the reason of our existence: to love and be loved and through this love become instruments of peace in the world. 541
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
The fact of death should not sadden us. The only thing that should sadden us is to know that we are not saints. 542
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Let us not love by words alone, but let us love until it hurts. 543
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
As far as I am concerned, the greatest suffering is to feel alone, unwanted, unloved. The greatest suffering is also having no one, forgetting what an intimate, truly human relationship is, not knowing what it means to be loved, not having a family or friends. 544
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
People have forgotten what the human touch is, what it is to smile, for somebody to smile at them, somebody to recognize them, somebody to wish them well. The terrible thing is to be unwanted. 545
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
I repeat that the poor, the sufferers from leprosy, the rejected, the alcoholics, whom we serve, are beautiful people. Many of them have wonderful personalities. The experience which we have by serving them, we must pass on to people who have not had that wonderful experience. 546
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Everything starts with prayer. Love to pray--feel the need to pray often during the day and take the trouble to pray. If you want to pray better, you must pray more. The more you pray, the easier it becomes. Perfect prayer does not consist of many words but in the fervor of the desire which raises the heart to Jesus. 547
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Silence is the root of our union with God and with one another. In silence we are filled with the energy of God Himself that makes us do all things in joy. The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life. 548
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
We are not drawn to God by iron chains, but by sweet attractions and holy inspirations. 549
St. Francis de Sales
In accordance with divine providence, the devil was not sent at once to the Gehenna assigned to him, but his sentence was postponed in order to let him test and try men's free will. In this way, he unintentionally fosters greater maturity and righteousness in the saints by promoting their patient endurance, and so is the cause of their greater glory; and, at the same time, through his malevolence and his scheming against the saints he justifies more fully his own punishment. In this way, too, sin becomes more utterly sinful, as St. Paul puts it. (cf. Rom. 7:13) 550
St. Symeon Metaphrastis
Our eighth struggle is against the demon of pride, a most sinister demon, fiercer than all that have been discussed up till now. He attacks the perfect above all and seeks to destroy those who have mounted almost to the heights of holiness. Just as a deadly plague destroys not just one member of the body, but the whole of it, so pride corrupts the whole soul, not just part of it. Each of the other passions that trouble the soul attacks and tries to overcome the single virtue which is opposed to it, and so it darkens and troubles the soul only partially. But the passion of pride darkens the soul completely and leads to its utter downfall. ... But when the vice of pride has become master of our wretched soul, it acts like some harsh tyrant who has gained control of a great city, and destroys it completely, razing it to its foundations. The angel who fell from heaven because of his pride bears witness to this. He had been created by God and adorned with every virtue and all wisdom, but he did not want to ascribe this to the grace of the Lord. He ascribed it to his own nature and as a result regarded himself as equal to God. 551
St. John Cassian
How is it they live in such harmony the billions of stars - when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their minds about someone they know. 552
St. Thomas Aquinas
Love takes up where knowledge leaves off. 553
St. Thomas Aquinas
I am definitively loved and whatever happens to me--I am awaited by this Love. And so my life is good. 554
St. Josephine Bakhita
They who praise me, truly reproach and confound me. 555
St. Bernard, Abbot
Thank God I am deemed worthy to be hated by the world. 556
St. Jerome
I protest to everyone that I die for God willingly, if only you do not hinder me. I implore you, do not proffer me an unseasonable kindness. Let the wild beasts have me, for through them my way to God lies open. I am God's wheat, and I am ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may be found pure bread of Christ. Rather, entice the wild animals that they may become my tomb, and leave nothing at all of my body. Thus when I sleep in death I shall burden no one. Then shall I be truly a disciple of Jesus Christ when the world cannot see even my body. Beseech the Lord on my behalf, that through these instruments I may be found a sacrifice to God... May the beasts prepared for me by my joy! And I pray that they will make short work of me. I will coax them with flattery to devour me without delay, and not treat me as some others whom they have been afraid to touch. But if they should be reluctant and unwilling, I will compel them by force." 557
St. Ignatius of Antioch (martyr, 107 A.D.)
Now do I begin to be a disciple of Christ, and care for nothing in this world, that so I may find Jesus. Let fire, or the cross, or wild beasts, or the breaking of my bones, or the cutting of me to pieces, or the shattering of my whole body, yea, all the tortures of the devil - let them all come upon me, only let me enjoy my God." 558
St. Ignatius of Antioch
A fox pretends to be asleep; the body and the demons pretend to be chaste. The former is on the watch to seize a bird, the latter to catch a soul. So as long as you live, never trust that clay of which you are made and never depend on it until the time you stand before Christ Himself. And never imagine that abstinence will keep you from falling. It was a being who never ate that was nevertheless thrown out of heaven. 559
St. John Climacus
Most men are like shaving of wood curled around their central emptiness. 560
St. Theophan the Recluse
There is your brother, naked and crying! And you stand confused over choice of floorcovering. 561
St. Ambrose
The desire to rule is the mother of heresies. 562
St. John Chrysostom
This is the great work of a man: always to take the blame for his own sins before God, and toexpect temptation to his last breath. 563
St. Anthony the Great
A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, theywill attack him, saying, "You are mad; you are not like us. 564
St. Anthony the Great
Anxiety is a temptation in itself and also the source from and by which other temptations come. 565
St Frances de Sales
Deny your desires and you will find what your heart longs for. For how do you know if any desire of yours is according to God? 566
St John of the Cross
Let not your inward devotion be visible unless in great necessity. 567
St Teresa of Avila
Anyone who has the habit of speaking before God's majesty as if he were speaking to a slave, careless about how he is speaking, and saying whatever comes into his head and whatever he's learned from saying prayers at other times, in my opinion is not praying. Please, God, may no Christian pray in this way. 568
St. Teresa of Avila
Let him never cease from prayer who has once begun it, be his life ever so wicked; for prayer is the way to amend it, and without prayer such amendment will be much more difficult. 569
St. Teresa of Avila
Vocal prayer . . . must be accompanied by reflection. A prayer in which a person is not aware of Whom he is speaking to, what he is asking, who it is who is asking and of Whom, I don't call prayer--however much the lips may move. 570
St. Teresa of Avila
You pay God a compliment by asking great things of Him. 571
St. Teresa of Avila
One must not think that a person who is suffering is not praying. He is offering up his sufferings to God, and many a time he is praying much, more truly than one who goes away by himself and meditates his head off, and, if he has squeezed out a few tears, thinks that is prayer. 572
St. Teresa of Avila
Truly, matters in the world are in a bad state; but if you and I begin in earnest to reform ourselves, a really good beginning will have been made. 573
St. Peter of Alcantara
I am afraid that if we begin to put our trust in human help, some of our Divine help will fail us. 574
St. Teresa of Avila
By the anxieties and worries of this life Satan tries to dull man's heart and make a dwelling for himself there. 575
St. Francis of Assisi
"Remember, child, that one who truly loves Jesus speaks little and endures much. I command thee on the part of Jesus, never to give thy opinion unless it is asked; never to maintain thy opinion, but be silent at once. When thou hast committed any fault, accuse thyself of it at once without waiting for others to do so …. Remember to guard thine eyes and reflect that the mortified eye shall behold the beauties of Heaven." 576
(The guardian angel of St. Gemma Galgani, asking her to write these words as he said them to her.)
If you find a God you understand, You have built yourself an idol. 577
St. Augustine
On the Way of the Cross, you see, my children, only the first step is painful. Our greatest cross is the fear of crosses. . . We have not the courage to carry our cross, and we are very much mistaken; for, whatever we do, the cross holds us tight -- we cannot escape from it. What, then, have we to lose? Why not love our crosses, and make use of them to take us to heaven? 578
St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney
If you would keep yourself pure, shun dangerous occasions. Do not trust your own strength. In this matter we can not take too much precaution. 579
St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori
Let us consider what the glorious Virgin endured, and what the holy apostles suffered, and we shall find that they who were nearest to Jesus Christ were the most afflicted. 580
St. Teresa of Jesus
The good God is as prompt to grant us pardon when we ask it of Him, as a mother is to snatch her children out of the fire. 581
St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney
It is not enough to forbid our own tongue to murmur; we must also refuse to listen to murmurers. 582
Venerable Louis de Granada
"I demand from you deeds of mercy which are to arise out of love for me. You are to show mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to excuse yourself from it." 583
St. Faustina Kowalska (the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to her in a vision)
A humble and well-taught person, if he is asked his opinion, gives it at once, and then lets others speak. Whether they are right, or whether they are wrong, he says nothing more. 584
St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney
"Fire! Fire in my heart! This morning it is burning......Dear Jesus, I love you so much! I shall endeavor always to love You; I shall live to love You; I shall die to love You!....Give me wings oh Jesus, so I can fly to Your throne!" 585
St Gemma Galgani (June, 1902)
Oh my God! Would I might prevent all from offending Thee! Rather, would I could make Thee known, loved and served by all Thy creatures! This is the sole object of my desire, for all things else are unworthy of attention. 586
St. Anthony Mary Claret
Nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good. 587
Pope Leo XIII (Sapientiae Christian, 1890)
O my soul, bless Jesus. Never forget the many graces He has given thee. Love that God who so loves thee. Lift thyself up to Him, who has lowered Himself for thee; show thyself as He shows Himself with thee; be clean of heart, be pure. Love thy Jesus, who has lifted thee out of so much misery. Love thy God, bless thy Lord. 588
St. Gemma Galgani
Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. 589
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
There is comfort in the fact that God can never be taken by surprise. 590
Gabelein
Near us is a celestial spirit who, from the cradle to the tomb does not leave us for an instant. 591
St. Padre Pio
We cannot get to Heaven on a featherbed. 592
St. Thomas More
Whatever the course of our lives, we should receive them as the highest gift from the hand of God, in which equally reposed the power to do nothing whatsoever for us. Indeed, we should accept misfortune not only in thanks, but in infinite gratitude to Providence, which by such means, detaches us from an excessive love for Earthly things and elevates our minds to the celestial and divine. 593
Gallileo Galilei
He does not ask much from us, merely a thought of Him from time to time, a little act of adoration. 594
Lawrence of the Resurrection
Nothing seems impossible to those who love. 595
St. Teresa of Avila
Life is a promise, fulfill it. 596
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
He never tires of giving. Let us never tire of receiving. 597
St. Teresa of Avila
If we were to approach the most Blessed Sacrament with great faith and love, once would be enough to make us rich. 598
St. Teresa of Avila
If you judge people, you have no time to love them. 599
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
There is not a way of life in the world sweeter, or happier, than continual conversation with God. 600
Lawrence of the Resurrection
