Augustine (354-430), Page: Quotes, Quote Author, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
Following the greeting, “The Lord be with you,” which you know so well, you heard the words, “Lift up your heart.” Now the whole life of true Christians is a matter of lifting up the heart. To lift up the heart is a duty of Christians who are such in very fact and not in name alone. To lift up the heart — what does this mean? It means that you must trust in God, not in yourself since God is so superior to you. When you trust in yourself, your heart stays fettered to the Earth, not fixed on God. So when you hear the priest say, “Lift up your heart,” you respond, “We have lifted it up to the Lord.” See to it, then, that your response rings true,
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
Adversity, Augustine (354-430), Page: Quotes, Quote Author
Trials and tribulations offer us a chance to make reparation for our past faults and sins. On such occasions the Lord comes to us like a physician to heal the wounds left by our sins. Tribulation is the divine medicine.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
Abandonment (of self), Augustine (354-430), Page: Quotes, Quote Author, Quote Topic
Empty that which is to be filled. Consider that God wants to fill you up with honey. But if you are already full of vinegar, where will you put the honey? What was in the vessel must be emptied out, the vessel itself must be washed out and made clean and scoured, hard work though it may be, so that it may be made for something else, whatever it may be.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
Abandonment (of self), Gregory the Great (c. 540-604), Page: Quotes, Possessions, Quote Author, Quote Topic
Perhaps it is not after all so difficult for a man to part with his possessions, but it is certainly most difficult for him to part with himself. To renounce what one has is a minor thing; but to renounce what one is, that is asking a lot.
–Saint Gregory the Great (c. 540-604)
Page: Quotes, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
Keep praising God with hymns, and meditating continually, and so lighten the burden of the temptations that attack you. A traveler carrying a heavy burden stops from time to time to take deep breaths, and so makes the journey easier and the burden light.
–Abba Hyperichius (A Desert Father)
Charity, Isaac of Syria (Seventh Century), Page: Quotes, Quote Author, Quote Topic
If you give something to one in need, let the cheerfulness of your face precede your gift, and comfort his sorrow with kind words. When you do this, by your gift the gladness of his mind surpasses even the needs of his body.
–Saint Isaac of Syria (Seventh Century
