Preserve your peace…
Strive to preserve your heart in peace; let no event of this world disturb it.
–Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591)
Mary is blessed…
Mary is more blessed because she embraces faith in Christ than because she conceives the flesh of Christ.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
Offer the bandage of consolation…
Offer the bandage of consolation, bind up what has been broken. Say this: “Do not be afraid. God in whom you have believed does not abandon you in temptations. God is faithful. He does not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength.”
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
Sin arises when…
Sin arises when things that are a minor good are pursued as though they were the most important goals in life. If money or affection or power are sought in disproportionate, obsessive ways, then sin occurs. And that sin is magnified when, for these lesser goals, we fail to pursue the highest good and the finest goals. So when we ask ourselves why, in a given situation, we committed a sin, the answer is usually one of two things. Either we wanted to obtain something we didn’t have, or we feared losing something we had.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
Imitate Christ’s suffering…
Christians must imitate Christ’s sufferings, not set their hearts on pleasures. He who is weak will be strengthened when told: “Yes, expect the temptations of this world, but the Lord will deliver you from them all if your heart has not abandoned him. For it was to strengthen your heart that he came to suffer and die, came to be spit upon and crowned with thorns, came to be accused of shameful things, yes, came to be fastened to the wood of the cross. All these things he did for you, and you did nothing. He did them not for himself, but for you.”
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
To abstain from sin…
To abstain from sin when one can no longer sin is to be forsaken by sin, not to forsake it.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
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