I beg you to show the greatest possible reverence and honor for the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things, whether on earth or in heaven, have been brought to peace and reconciled with Almighty God.
–Saint Francis of Assisi (1181 – 1226)
Let the whole world of mankind tremble the whole world shake and the heavens exult when Christ, the Son of the living God, is on the altar in the hands of a priest. O admirable heights and sublime lowliness! O sublime humility! O humble sublimity! That the Lord of the universe, God and the Son of God, so humbles Himself that for our salvation He hides Himself under the little form of bread! Look, brothers, at the humility of God and pour out your hearts before Him! Humble yourselves, as well, that you may be exalted by Him. Therefore, hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves so that He Who gives Himself totally to you may receive you totally.
–Saint Francis of Assisi (1181–1226)
When we consider the properties of fire, we realize that it is an accurate description of grace. Fire has brightness in appearance, warmness of effect, quickness of movement. In the same way, grace shines because of knowledge, warms through love, enkindles –and moves as a result of prayerfulness. Grace shines because of the knowledge through which God provides light for our eyes and shows us the path stretching homewards… Grace warms through love. It is through love that God arouses our hearts… Grace stretches and moves upwards as a result of prayerfulness which lifts the heart towards higher aims… Without this fire, there is no life. Consequently everyone should exert himself in order to possess this.
–Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274)
For all that we are, and all that we have received, from without and from within, these are all the free gifts of God; for which we must thank and praise Him, and with which we must serve Him, if we are to please Him.
–Blessed John Ruysbroeck (1293-1381)
Now all holiness and all blessedness lie in this: that the spirit is led upwards, through likeness and by means of grace or glory, to rest in the essential unity. For the grace of God is the way by which we must always go, if we would enter into the naked essence in which God gives Himself with all His riches without means.
–Blessed John Ruysbroeck (1293-1381)
And in this inward-drawing touch, we feel that God wills us to be His; and therefore, we must renounce ourselves and leave Him to work our blessedness. But where He touches us by the outpouring touch, He leaves us to ourselves, and makes us free, and sets us in His Presence, and teaches us to pray in the spirit and to ask in freedom, and shows us His incomprehensible riches in such manifold ways as we are able to grasp.
–Blessed John Ruysbroeck (1293-1381)
