But when we transcend ourselves, and become in our ascent towards God, so simple that the naked love in the height can lay hold of us, where love enfolds love, above every exercise of virtue that is, in our Origin, of Which we are spiritually born, then we cease, and we and all our selfhood die in God. And in this death we become hidden sons of God, and find a new life within us: and that is eternal life.
–Blessed John Ruysbroeck (1293-1381)
If there be anything that is capable of setting the soul in a large place it is absolute abandonment to God. It diffuses in the soul a peace that flows like a river and the righteousness which is as the waves of the sea.
— François Fénèlon (1651-1715)
If we look carefully within ourselves, we shall find that there are certain limits beyond which we refuse to go in offering ourselves to [God]. We hover around these reservations, making believe not to see them, for fear of self-reproach… The more we shrink from giving up any such reserved point, the more certain it is that it needs to be given up. If we were not fast bound by it, we should not make so many efforts to persuade ourselves that we are free.
–François Fénelon (1651-1715)
Perfect love of God means the complete union of our will with God’s.
–Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787)
Abandon yourself unto His fatherly hands and you will find joy. If we meditate on Christ crucified, our sadness would turn into joy. Ask God that we may have the happiness
of contemplating Him in Heaven.
–Saint Joan Antide-Thouret (1765-1826)
Obedience is rightly placed before all other sacrifices, for in offering a victim as sacrifice, one offers a life that is not one’s own; but when one obeys one is immolating one’s own will.
–Saint Gregory the Great (c. 540-604)
