When we pray…
When we pray, the voice of the heart must be heard more than proceedings from the mouth.
–Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274)
Shut your mind…
You will never enjoy the sweetness of a quiet prayer unless you shut your mind to all worldly desires and temporal affairs.
— Saint Norbert (c. 1080-1134)
Light does not diminish….
If you have a light, and the whole world should come to you in order to take light from it—the light itself does not diminish—and yet each person has it all. It is true that everyone participates more or less in this light, according to the substance into which each one receives the fire…. Each one carries his own candle, that is the holy desire, with which he receives this Sacrament.
–Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380
Humility, simplicity, and goodness…
But unless humility, simplicity and goodness adorn our lives, and are associated with prayer, the mere formality of prayer will avail us nothing. And this I say, not of prayer only, but of every other outward exercise or labour undertaken with a notion of virtue.
— Abba Macarius (c. 300-391)
No long discourses…
There is no need at all to make long discourses; it is enough to stretch out one’s hand and say, “Lord, as you will, and as you know, have mercy.” And if the conflict grows fiercer say, “Lord help!” God knows very well what we need and He shows us His mercy.
— Saint Macarius the Great (c. 300-391)
Totally ablaze with…
I long to see you so totally ablaze with loving fire that you become one with gentle First truth. Truly the soul’s being united with and transformed into him is like fire consuming the dampness in logs. Once the logs are heated through and through, the fire burns and changes them into itself, giving them its own color and warmth and power.
— Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)
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