Our heart is made for God, and God constantly entices it and never ceases to cast before it the allurements of divine love. Yet five things impede the operation of this holy attraction:
–Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Noticing the defects of the saints we must avoid the mistake of being complacent with ourselves as we are. We should consider that even if the saints are imperfect then it is no wonder that we are imperfect, too…It is a good thing to see the defects in the lives of the saints. It not only teaches us to imitate the saints in their efforts to overcome their failings and to do penance for them, but it shows us God’s goodness in forgiving them.
–Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Your chief aim in Holy Communion should be to advance, strengthen and comfort yourself in the love of God, receiving for love’s sake what love alone can give. There is nothing in which the love of Christ is set forth more tenderly or more touchingly than in the Sacrament by which He, so to say, annihilates Himself for us and takes upon Himself the form of bread in order to feed us, and unites Himself closely to the bodies and souls of the faithful.
–Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
This is the cause of all evils, the not knowing the Scriptures. We go into battle without arms, and how are we to come off safe?
–Saint John Chrysostom (347-407)
We are commanded to have only one enemy, the devil. With him never be reconciled! But with a brother, never be at enmity in thy heart.
–Saint John Chrysostom (347-407)
Prayer is an all-efficient panoply, a treasure undiminished, a mine which is never exhausted, a sky unobscured by clouds, a heaven unruffled by the storm. It is the root, the fountain, the mother of a thousand blessings.
–Saint John Chrysostom (347-407)
