Perfection consists in one thing alone, which is doing the will of God… Behold, now, how little is needed to become as Saint? Nothing more than to acquire the habit of willing, on every occasion, what God wills.
–Saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660)
The saints try to be saints, and not merely to appear to be saints.
–Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787)
God wants all of us to be saints, and each one according to his or her state of life: the religious as religious, laypeople and laypeople, the priest as a priest, the married person as married, the merchant as a merchant, the solider as a soldier, and so on, in every other state of life.
–Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787)
What is Satan’s device in this day? … What is the world’s religion now? It has taken the brighter side of the Gospel—its tidings of comfort, its precepts of love; all darker, deeper views of man’s condition and prospects being comparatively forgotten. This is the religion natural to a civilized age, and well has Satan dressed and completed it into an idol of the Truth. … [Those] fearful images of Divine wrath with which the Scriptures abound … are explained away. Every thing is bright and cheerful. Religion is pleasant and easy.
–Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
Those who intend to fulfill the Christian way of life to the best of their ability must first devote all their attention to the rational, discriminative and directing aspect of the soul. Perfecting in this way their discrimination between good and evil, and defending the purity of their nature against the attacks of the passions that are contrary to nature, they go forward without stumbling, guided by the eye of discrimination and not embroiled with the impulses of evil. For the soul’s will is able to preserve the body free from the vitiation of the senses, to keep the soul away from worldly distraction, and to guard the heart from scattering its thoughts into the world, completely walling them in and holding them back from base concerns and pleasures. Whenever the Lord sees someone acting in this manner, perfecting and guarding himself, disposed to serve Him with fear and trembling, He extends to him the assistance of His grace. But what will God do for the person who willingly gives himself up to the world and pursues its pleasures?
–Saint Symeon Metaphrastis Tenth Century)
Let us flee from the deceit of life and its supposed happiness and run to Christ alone, who is the Savior of souls. Him let us endeavor to find Who is present everywhere, and when we have found Him let us hold Him fast and fall at His feet (cf. Mt. 28:9) and embrace them in the fervor of our souls.
–Saint Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022)
