If you want faith, pray. If you want help, pray. If you want to love, pray. If you want poverty [of spirit], pray. If you want obedience, pray. If you want to charity, pray. If you want meekness, pray. If you want fortitude, pray. If you want any virtue, pray.
–Saint Angela of Foligno (1248-1309)
In the depths of our being we come upon the activity of God by which he sustains us and we are led and guided by him. We have to go to its deepest source to rediscover ourselves in God.
–Blessed Titus Brandsma (1881–1942)
Vicious tendencies are produced only by our corrupt nature, and it is very difficult to conquer them without mental prayer; but by means of this prayer we can overcome them easily. The soul in mental prayer is like iron in the fire: when the iron is cold, it is difficult to work; but when it is put into the fire, it becomes soft and allows itself to be easily worked: so it is with the soul… When a soul comes out from mental prayer it is quite changed.
–Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787)
Prayer is a necessary weapon… If we pray, no matter how buffeted and attacked we may be, we remain in a deep sense invulnerable.
–Marcel Nguyễn Tân Văn (1928–1959)
We shall not feel that our lives are in any way complete, nor shall we find any peace in our hearts, so long as we are unable to say that we have done our utmost to become abidingly men of prayer.
–René Voillaume (1905–2003)
Are you fighting against your passions? Fight, fight, and be good soldiers of Christ! Do not give in to evil and do not be carried away by the weakness of the flesh. During the time of temptation, flee to the Physician, crying out with the Holy Church, our mother: “O God, number me with the thief, the harlot, and the publican (i.e., with the repentant), and save me!”
–Saint Anatoly of Optina (1824-1894)
