Life is passing, Eternity draws nigh: soon shall we live the very life of God. After having drunk deep at the fount of bitterness, our thirst will be quenched at the very source of all sweetness.
–Saint Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897)
The habit of giving into our lusts is like a hidden stream under the foundations of a house. The house will eventually fall.
–Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody’s business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Accustom yourself to pray your own prayers. For instance: it is the essence of evening prayer to thank God for the day and everything that happened, both pleasant and unpleasant; to ask forgiveness for all wrongs committed, promising to improve during the next day; and to pray that God preserve you during sleep. Express all this to God from your mind and from your whole heart.
–Saint Theophan the Recluse (1815-1894)
Examine yourself to see whether you have within you a strong sense of your own self importance, or negatively, whether you have failed to realize that you are nothing. This feeling of self-importance is deeply hidden, but it controls the whole of our life. Its first demand is that everything should be as we wish it, and as soon as this is not so we complain to God and are annoyed with people.
–Saint Theophane the Recluse (1815-1894)
Only one thing is necessary: Jesus Christ. Think unceasingly of him.
–Saint John Gabriel Perboyre (1802-1840)
