It is Jesus Christ alone Whom we have followed everywhere, and it is He alone Whom we will follow always. Let us relight our lamps before our heavenly Spouse. Let us look only to Him, think only of Him, desire only Him, live only to give to Him.
–Saint Joan Antide-Thouret (1765-1826)
Let’s despise the world and its false gods. Let’s despise its honors. In vain would we seek our happiness in them. It will benefit us greatly to receive nothing from the world but ingratitude and opposition. This will detach us from it and attach us closely to God alone.
–Saint Joan Antide-Thouret (1765-1826)
There are very few people, even in the lowliest conditions, who do not have a good opinion of themselves. They regard themselves as far superior to their equals, and their detestable pride urges them to believe that they are indeed worth a great deal more than most other people. From this I conclude that pride is the source of all the vices and the cause of all the evils which have occurred, and which are still to come, in the course of the centuries. We carry our blindness so far that often we even glorify ourselves on account of things which really ought to cover us with confusion.
–Saint John Vianney (1786-1859)
Only one thing is necessary: Jesus Christ. Think unceasingly of him.
–Saint John Gabriel Perboyre (1802-1840)
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)
We are to love God, then, because he loved us first. [1 Jn 4:19] The Passion on Calvary is a supreme declaration of love. It was to redeem us that you suffered so much, O Jesus. The least of your acts has infinite worth, since it is one of God’s acts, and would have been more than ample enough to redeem a thousand worlds, to redeem all possible worlds. But you suffered so much because you wanted to make us holy, to bear our burdens and to draw us into loving you freely. Loving is the most powerful way to attract love, loving is the most powerful way to make oneself loved. It is impossible for us to love him and not imitate him, to love him and not want to be the way he was, do what he did, suffer and die in torment because he suffered and died in torment. It is impossible to love him and want to be crowned with roses when he was crowned with thorns. We must love him as he has loved us.
–Blessed Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916)
