It constantly happens that the Lord permits is a soul to fall so that it may grow humbler. When it is honest, and realizes what it is done, and returns, it makes ever-increasing progress in our Lord service.
–Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
I notice in some souls – there are not many because of our sins – that the more they advance in this kind of prayer and the gifts of our Lord, the more attention they pay to the needs of their neighbor.
–Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
We must take care of little faults: for he who once begins to go backward, and to make light of such defects, brings a sort of grossness over his conscience, and then goes wrong altogether.
–Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
A life of faith is a life of gratitude – it means a life in which I am willing to experience my complete dependence upon God and to praise and thank him unceasingly for the gift of being. A truly eucharistic life means always saying thanks to God, always praising God, and always being more surprised by the abundance of God’s goodness and love. How can such a life not also be a joyful life? It is the truly converted life in which God has become the center of all. There gratitude is joy and joy is gratitude and everything becomes a surprising sign of God’s presence.
–Henri Nouwen (1932-1996)
Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.
–Saint John Paul (1920-2005)
Happiness is the realization of God in the heart. Happiness is the result of praise and thanksgiving, of faith and acceptance; a quiet, tranquil realization of the love of God.
–Chief White Eagle (1917-2011)
