Turn your eyes upon yourself and look at yourself inwardly….You will find your Master; He will not fail you: indeed, the less outward comfort you have, the greater the joy He will give you. He is full of compassion and never fails those who are afflicted and out of favor if they trust in Him alone….Either you believe this or you do not: if you do, as you should, why do you wear yourselves to death with worry?
–Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
It is best for us so not to attempt to rise by its own efforts. If the well is dry, we are not able to put water into it. Pay attention to this. If the soul tries to go forward it may actually go backward. The foundation for prayer is humility. The nearer we come to God, the more you humility we need. There is a kind of pride that makes us want to be more spiritual. God is already doing more for us than we deserve.
–Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
People cannot become perfect by dint of hearing or reading about perfection. The chief thing is not to listen to yourself, but silently to listen to God. Talk little and do much, without caring to be seen. God will teach you more than all the most experienced persons or the most spiritual books can do. You already know a great deal more than you practice. You do not need the acquirement of fresh knowledge half so much as to put in practice that which you already possess.
–François Fénèlon (1651-1715)
Many a modern preacher is far less concerned with preaching Christ and Him crucified than he is with his popularity with his congregation. A want of intellectual backbone makes him straddle the ox of truth and the ass of nonsense. Bending the knee to the mob rather than God would probably make them scruple at ever playing the role of John the Baptist before a modern Herod. The acids of modernity are eating away the fossils of orthodoxy.
–Blessed Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)
You cannot always depend on prayers to be answered the way you want them answered but you can always depend on God. God, the loving Father often denies us those things which in the end would prove harmful to us. Every boy wants a revolver at age four, and no father yet has ever granted that request. Why should we think God is less wise? Someday we will thank God not only for what He gave us, but also for that which He refused.
–Blessed Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)
All the virtues grow through the practice of any one of them, and all the vices grow through the practice of any one of them likewise.
–Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591)
