Just as Martha complained…
Just as Martha complained about her sister Mary, in the same way, even to this day, all actives complain about contemplatives.
–Cloud of Unknowing (Fourteenth Century)
True spiritual counsel…
I agree that there are many who appear to have forsaken the world, who do fall away and have fallen away in the past; and instead of becoming God’s servants and his contemplatives, have become the devil’s, because they would not permit themselves to be governed by true spiritual counsel. And so they turn out to be hypocrites or heretics, or they fall into frenzies and many other kinds of misfortune, to the scandal of all holy Church.
–Cloud of Unknowing (Fourteenth Century)
A jealous lover…
[God] is a jealous lover and allows no other partnership, and he has no wish to work in your will unless he is there alone with you, by himself. He asks no help, but only you yourself. His will is that you should simply gaze at him, and leave him to act alone. Your part is to keep the windows and the door against the inroads of flies and enemies. And if you are willing to do this, all that is required of you is to woo him humbly in prayer, and at once he will help you.
–Cloud of Unknowing (Fourteenth Century)
When Jesus is near…
When Jesus is near all is well and nothing seems difficult. When He is absent, all is hard. When Jesus does not speak within, all other comfort is empty, but if He says only a word, it brings great consolation.
–Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471)
Suffering patiently endured…
If there be a true way that leads to the Everlasting Kingdom, it is most certainly that of suffering, patiently endured.
–Saint Colette of Corbie (1381-1447)
To leave God for God…
To leave God for God’s sake is no loss, but great profit, on the soul’s balance sheet.
–Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
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