Whoever believes, fears. Whoever fears is humble. Whoever is humble becomes gentle. Whoever is gentle pacifies the unruly forces of desire and aggression and begins to keep the commandments. Whoever keeps the commandments is purified. Whoever is purified is illuminated. Whoever is illuminated is made a spouse of the divine Logos-Bridegroom and shares with him the bridal chamber of the mysteries.
–Saint Maximos the Confessor (580-662)
Certain interior dispositions are necessary if we are to make good use of the great means which the Church proposes to all… (1) purity of heart; (2) simplicity of spirit; (3) profound humility; (4) love of recollection and perseverance in prayer; (5) fervent charity.
–Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange (1877–1964)
If the heart does not pray, the tongue works in vain.
–Saint Thomas of Cori (1655-1729)
There is nothing in human life better than mutual love nor anything sweeter than holy fellowship. To love and be loved is a sweet exchange, the joy of one’s whole life, the recompense of blessedness. What can be lacking in the sweetness of this good and pleasant dwelling, this place where God dwells and where he rests? ‘God is in his holy place, God, who makes those of one mind to dwell in a house’.
–Baldwin of Forde (c. 1125-1190)
Love is a great thing so long as it continually returns to its fountainhead, flows back to its source, always drawing from there the water which constantly replenishes it. Of all the movements, sensations and feelings of the soul, love is the only one in which the creature can respond to the Creator and make some sort of similar return however unequal though it be. For when God loves, all he desires is to be loved in return; the sole purpose of his love is to be loved, in the knowledge that those who love him are made happy by their love of him.
–Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153
Once you have had the experience of God’s benevolence, you need no longer feel abashed in aspiring to a holier intimacy. Growth in grace brings expansion of confidence. You will love with greater ardor, and knock on the door with greater assurance, in order to gain what you perceive to be still wanting to you. ‘The one who knocks will always have the door opened to him’. It is my belief that to a person so disposed, God will not refuse that most intimate kiss of all, a mystery of supreme generosity and ineffable sweetness.
–Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)
