Don’t worry…
Don’t worry about me no matter what happens in this world. Nothing can happen to me that God doesn’t want. And all that He wants, no matter how bad it may appear to us, is really for the best.
–Saint Thomas More (1478-1535)
Why we pray…
All the angels pray. Every creature prays. Cattle and wild beasts pray and bend the knee. As they come from their barns and caves they look out to heaven and call out, lifting up their spirit in their own fashion. The birds too rise and lift themselves up to heaven: they open out their wings, instead of hands, in the form of a cross, and give voice to what seems to be a prayer. What more need be said on the duty of prayer? Even the Lord himself prayed. To him be honor and power for ever and ever. Amen.
–Tertullian (c.160 – 225)
How we are to pray…
The Lord has given us many counsels and commandments to help us toward salvation. He has even given us a pattern of prayer, instructing us on how we are to pray. He has given us life, and with his accustomed generosity, he has also taught us how to pray. He has made it easy for us to be heard as we pray to the Father in the words taught us by the Son… What prayer could be more a prayer in the spirit than the one given us by Christ, by whom the Holy Spirit was sent upon us? What prayer could be more a prayer in the truth than the one spoken by the lips of the Son, who is truth himself?
–Saint Cyprian of Carthage (c. 200-258)
Love is a fire, but…
Love is a fire; but three things can extinguish it: the wind of pride, the water of gluttony and luxury, and the thick smoke of avarice.
–Saint Anthony of Padua (1195-1231)
God loves to come into…
God loves to come into humble and compassionate souls, into souls that are full of discretion, that are penitent and devout; but He abandons cold and callous hearts, hearts that seek their own ease, that shrink from the smallest sacrifice, that show no love for prayer or meditation.
–Saint Anthony of Padua (1195-1231)
God is in the midst of you…
He is coming who is everywhere present and pervades all things; he is coming to achieve in you his work of universal salvation. He is coming who came to call to repentance not the righteous but sinners, coming to recall those who have strayed into sin. Do not be afraid, then: God is in the midst of you, and you shall not be shaken. Receive him with open, outstretched hands, for it was on his own hands that he sketched you. Receive him who laid your foundations on the palms of his hands. Receive him, for he took upon himself all that belongs to us except sin, to consume what is ours in what is his.
–Saint Andrew of Crete (Seventh and Eighth Century)
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