Grace is constantly present, and is rooted in us, and worked into us like leaven, from our earliest years, until the thing thus present becomes fixed in a person like a natural endowment, as if it were one substance with the person. But, for one’s own good, it manages one in many different ways, after its own pleasure.
–Pseudo-Macarius (Fifth Century)
Learning unsupported by grace may get into our ears; it never reaches the heart. But when God’s grace touches our innermost minds to bring understanding, his word which has been received by the ear sinks deep into the heart.
–Saint Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636)
Seek grace in the smallest things, and you will find also grace to accomplish, to believe in, and to hope for the greatest things.
–Blessed Peter Faber (1506-1546)
The Lord said: “Without Me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5). So for the duration of our life, every day and at every moment, we must keep unchanged in our heart the feeling, conviction and disposition, that on no occasion can we allow ourselves to think of relying on ourselves and trusting ourselves.
–Lawrence Scupoli (1529-1610)
If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know the scales on which they are weighed when they are distributed to us.
–Saint Rose of Lima (1586-1617)
God’s got an endless bank account of grace, and we settle for pocket-change.
–A Friend of and Quoted by Brother Lawrence (1614-1691)
