Page: Quotes, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
It is an error to think that faith is so entirely a gift of God that it is not in our power to increase and strengthen it. Some… admire faith in the saints as a purely gratuitous grace; they persuade themselves that they can do nothing to increase their own faith and that the only thing to do is to remain passive until God grants them that favor; they will make no effort to grow in faith, saying that to do so is quite useless… We must get rid of these ideas, see why it is our faith is so weak, and acknowledge that it is our own fault and that, whatever we may say, the truth is that we do not believe because we do not wish to believe.
–Saint Claude de la Colombiere (1641-1682)
Detachment, Page: Quotes, Quote Topic
If ever you have a fit of sadness or trouble, remember that it is because you are still attached to life, or health, or some comfort, or person, or thing that you ought to forget and despise that you may desire Jesus Christ only.
–Saint Claude de la Colombiere (1641-1682)
Page: Quotes, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
Every Christian has renounced the world and its pomps at baptism. This vow does not oblige you to live like a hermit, but it certainly obliges you to something. It is not an empty promise.
–Saint Claude de la Colombiere (1641-1682)
Page: Quotes, Prayer (problems), Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
However we do mental prayer, we can be sure of encountering difficulties. Some have already been mentioned: dryness, distaste, a sense of our own worthlessness, the feeling the effort to pray is useless. The first thing to say about such difficulties is that they should not come as a surprise or cause us to worry or be upset. Not only are they inevitable, they are actually good for us. They purify our love for God and strengthen our faith.
–Jacques Philippe (1947-
Grace, Page: Quotes, Quote Topic
Now God is not the God of the dead but of the living, and his presence, being the presence of the living God, is active, life-giving, healing, and sanctifying. One can’t stand in front of a fire without being warmed, or stay in the sun without being tanned, and in remaining in God’s presence and letting him act in the depths of our being, we are doing what really counts.
–Jacques Philippe (1947-
Page: Quotes, Quote Author, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life), Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Today, more than ever, we need to recognize that the gift of solitude is not ordered to the acquisition of strange contemplative powers, but, first of all, to the recovery of one’s deep self, and to the renewal of an authenticity which is presently twisted out of shape by the pretentious routines of a disordered togetherness.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
