Many lamps can be lit from one fire, and each one will shine out with the same nature of light. So it is when Christians are enkindled from that one nature and one divine fire, which is the Son of God. Then the lamps of their hearts are lit and burn brightly before him on the earth.
–Saint Macarius the Great (295-392)
It is our emptiness and lowliness God needs, not our plenitude.
–Saint Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)
An act of renunciation is an act of union with God. The Divine Master looks lovingly upon a person who gains a victory over self.
–Saint Madeline Sophie Barat (1779-1865)
Let us ask our Lord to work in us and through us, and let us do our utmost to draw Him down into our hearts, for He Himself has said: “Without Me you can do nothing.”
–Saint Madeline Sophie Barat (1779-1865)
To deny oneself means to give up one’s bad habits; to root out of the heart all that ties us to the world; not to cherish bad thoughts or desires; to suppress every evil thought; not to desire to do anything out of self love, but to do everything out of love for God.
–Saint Innocent of Alaska (1797-1879)
When they have toiled for a long time and have found that their hearts, which long for happiness, are not satisfied in the life of the world in work and sweat, they surrender to the Lord in their poverty, and with this now voluntary poverty, contentment, faith, and child-like love of God enter their hearts. Thus, forced like Simon the Cyrene, they carry the cross after our Lord and are overwhelmed with hitherto unknown graces.
–Saint John Nepocumene Neumann (1811-1860)
