We shall steer safely through every storm so long as our heart is right, our intention fervent, our courage steadfast, and our trust fixed on God. If at times we are somewhat stunned by the tempest, never fear. Let us take breath, and go afresh.
–Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Seize the little things of everyday life, ordinary life. To be a saint it is not necessary to do great things, but only to do little things greatly.
–Blessed Rafael Arnaiz Baron (1911-1938)
If at times God is not in the soul it is because we do not want him there. We have such an accumulation of things to do, of distractions, of interests, vain desires, conceit, we have so much world within us, that God distances himself…but all we have to do is want him.
–Blessed Rafael Arnaiz Baron (1911-1938)
God is in the detached heart, in the silence of prayer, in the voluntary sacrifice to pain, in the emptiness of the world and its creatures. God is in the Cross, and as long as we do not love the Cross, we will not see him, or feel him… With Jesus at my side nothing seems difficult to me, and I see more that the road to sanctity is simple. Better still, it seems to me that it consists in continuing to get rid of things instead of collecting them, in slowly boiling down to simplicity instead of becoming complicated with new things. In the measure that we detach ourselves from so much disordered love for creatures and for ourselves, it seems to me that we are getting closer and closer to the only love, the sole desire, the one longing of this life…to true sanctity, which is God.
–Blessed Rafael Arnaiz Baron (1911-1938)
It is as necessary to regulate the heart before prayer and meditation as to tune the guitar before playing it.
–Saint Peter of Alcantara (1499-1562)
[P]rayer is a bath, an open place, a bed of pleasure wherein the soul rests and finds refreshment in God.
–Saint Peter of Alcantara (1499-1562)
