For herein consists the material of my gain, herein consists my wealth, herein consists the means of getting rid of my sins: that my journey is continually encompassed by trials of this kind, that they are inflicted upon me by persons from whom they were quite unexpected.
–Saint John Chrysostom (347-407)
God is infinite and without end, but the soul’s desire is an abyss which cannot be filled except by a Good which is infinite; and the more ardently the soul longeth after God, the more she wills to long after him; for God is a Good without drawback, and a well of living water without bottom, and the soul is made in the image of God, and therefore it is created to know and love God.
–Johannes Tauler (c. 1300-1361)
Anxiety proceeds from an inordinate desire to be freed from present evil or to acquire a hoped for good. Yet there is nothing that tends more to increase evil and prevent enjoyment of good that to be disturbed and anxious. Birds stay caught in nets and traps because when they find themselves ensnared they flutter about wildly trying to escape and in so doing entangle themselves all the more.Whenever you urgently desire to escape from a certain evil or obtain a certain good you must be especially careful both to put your mind at rest and in peace and to have a calm judgment and will. Then try gently and meekly to accomplish your desire,taking in regular order the most convenient means.
–Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Great is the power of prayer – a queen, as one might say, having free access always to the King, and able to obtain whatever she asks. In order to be heard, it is not necessary to read from a book a beautiful form of prayer adapted to the circumstances; if it were so, how greatly to be pitied should I be!
–Saint Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897)
Each prayer is more beautiful than the others. I cannot recite them all and not knowing which to choose, I do like children who do not know how to read, I say very simply to God what I wish to say, without composing beautiful sentences, and he always understands me.
–Saint Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897)
The charges we bring against others often come home to ourselves; we inveigh against faults which are as much ours as theirs; and so our eloquence ends by telling against ourselves.
–Saint Jerome (c. 340-420)
