It is when we are reduced to nothing that we have the most powerful means of uniting ourselves to Jesus and of doing good for souls. It is what Saint John of the Cross repeats at nearly every line. When we are able to suffer and love, we are doing a great deal, the most that someone can do in this world.
–Blessed Charles De Foucauld (1858-1916)
If the heart is pure, simple, attached only to God, if the will is pure, simple, intent only on doing what God wills, on wanting what he wants, we will walk in full daylight during this life, for we shall be in the fullness of truth, and our life will be founded on the truth; our path will be in the light of our life at all times for the one who is the light of the world will enlighten it ceaselessly; and, at the end of our pilgrimage, we shall see God.
–Blessed Charles De Foucauld (1858-1916)
It is impossible to keep spiritual peace if we do not take care of the mind, that is if we do not drive out thoughts that are displeasing to God and, on the contrary, keep thoughts which are pleasing to God. It is necessary to look into the heart with mind and see what is done there. Is it peaceful or not? If not, then find out in what you have sinned.
–Saint Silouan the Athonite (1866-1938)
Immediately before, and for a good while after, my religious conversion, I was of the opinion that to lead a religious life meant one had to give up all that was secular and to live totally immersed in thoughts of the Divine. But gradually I realized that something else is asked of us in this world and that, even in the contemplative life, one may not sever the connection with the world. I even believe that the deeper one is drawn into God, the more one must “go out of oneself”, that is, one must go out to the world in order to carry the divine life into it.
–Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891-1942)
We cannot last long travelling in the desert if we do not have a simple and humble heart and if we still expect from life something other than God alone.
–René Voillaume (1905–2003)
Even in the act of true contemplative prayer, it is well to remember these strong words of Saint Paul’s: “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” (1 Cor 13:1–2). It is therefore essential that anyone who… is called to a contemplative life should take more care than anyone else that his prayer be a work of love, and that it be an authentic and living one.
–René Voillaume (1905–2003)
