I do not make any request for myself alone. I do not say ‘my Father’ but ‘our Father.’ I do not say ‘my bread but ‘our bread’. I ask for nothing for myself alone, rather I am careful to ask for all people, for us all, children of Our Lord, loved by him, all of us, whom he has redeemed by his blood.
–Blessed Charles De Foucauld (1858-1916)
For though there are no seasons which are not full of Divine blessings, and though access is ever open to us to God’s mercy through His grace, yet now all men’s minds should be moved with greater zeal to spiritual progress, and animated by larger confidence, when the return of the day, on which we were redeemed, invites us to all the duties of godliness: that we may keep the super-excellent mystery of the Lord’s passion with bodies and hearts purified.
–Saint Leo the Great (c. 400-461)
Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
There is no time of life past learning something.
–Saint Ambrose of Milan (339-397)
As a man whose head is under water cannot inhale pure air, so a man whose thoughts are plunged into the cares of this world cannot absorb the sensations of that new world.
— Saint Isaac of Syria (Seventh Century)
The soul that loves God has its rest in God and in God alone. In all the paths that men walk in in the world, they do not attain peace until they draw nigh to hope in God.
–Saint Isaac of Syria (Seventh Century)
