Remember this simple truth which is beyond all doubt: God allows many difficulties to beset those who want to serve him but he never lets them sink beneath the burden as long as they trust in him. This, in a few words, is a complete summary of what you most need: never under any pretext whatsoever yield to the temptation of discouragement.
–Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Be patient with the whole world, but, above all with yourself. I want to tell you not to lose your serenity because of your imperfections, and always to have the zest to raise yourself up. It gives me joy to see each day you begin again. There is no better way to finish life well than to return to the starting point always and not ever to think that we have done enough.
–Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Be persecuted, rather than be a persecutor.
Be crucified, rather than be a crucifier.
Be treated unjustly, rather than treat anyone unjustly.
Be oppressed, rather than be an oppressor.
Be gentle rather than zealous.
Lay hold of goodness, rather than justice.
–Saint Isaac of Syria (Seventh Century)
Although God is Almighty, He can only work in a heart when He finds readiness or makes it. He works differently in humans than in stones. For this we may take the following illustration: if we bake in one oven three loaves of barley-bread, of rye-bread, and of wheat, we shall find the same heat of the oven affects them differently; when one is well-baked, another will be still raw, and another yet more raw. That is not due to the heat, but to the variety of the materials. Similarly God works in all hearts not alike but in proportion as He finds them prepared and susceptible. If the heart is to be ready for the highest, it must he vacant of all other things. If I wish to write on a white tablet, whatever else is written on the tablet, however noble its purport, is a hindrance to me. If I am to write, I must wipe the tablet clean of everything, and the tablet is most suitable for my purpose when it is blank. Similarly, if God is to write on my heart, everything else must come out of it till it is really sanctified. Only so can God work His highest will, and so the sanctified heart has no outward object at all.
–Meister Eckhart (1260-1328)
This, therefore,
is the tree of life indeed,
the word of the Father,
the wisdom of God in the highest,
which in the hearts of the saints,
as in an unseen paradise,
is sown in fear,
watered by grace,
dies through grief,
takes root by faith,
buds by devotion,
shoots up through compunction,
grows by longing,
is strengthened by charity,
grows green by hope,
puts out its leaves and spreads
its branches through caution,
flowers through discipline,
bears fruit through virtue,
ripens through patience,
is harvested by death, and
feeds by contemplation.
–Hugh of St. Victor (c. 1096–1141)
Let not your imperfections discourage you; your God does not despise you because you are imperfect and infirm. On the contrary, he loves you because you desire to cure your ills. He will come to your assistance and make you more perfect than you would have dared to hope, and adorned by his Hand, your beauty will be unequalled, like his own goodness.
–Louis de Blois (1506–1566)
