Page: Quotes, Prayer (why), Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
When you are in love, surely your constant concern is to be near the beloved at any and every opportunity, and you avoid anything that would hinder you from being in the company and society of your loved one. So it is when someone loves God. One constantly desires to be with him and speak with him. This can only be achieved through pure prayer, so let us apply ourselves to prayer with all our strength, for it makes us become like the Lord.
–Saint Theodorus the Ascetic (Seventh Century)
Page: Quotes, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
When you arise it on each day, make a fresh start in every virtue and commandment of God with greatest patience, with fear and long-suffering, and the love of God, with all spiritual and physical fervor, and with much humiliation.
–The Desert Fathers (and Mothers)
Page: Quotes, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
Love and self-control liberate the soul from its obsessions. Reading and reflection deliver the intellect from ignorance. Regular prayer brings the soul into the very presence of God.
–Saint Maximos the Confessor (580-662)
Page: Quotes, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
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)
Page: Quotes, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
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)
Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), Page: Quotes, Quote Author, Spiritual (life)
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)
