Grace, Page: Quotes, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
However severe God’s guidance may seem to us at times, it’s always the guidance of a Father who is infinitely good, wise, and kind. He leads us to our goal by different paths. And after all . . . let’s be honest —isn’t it true that we tend to spoil the work of grace in us? So it’s to our advantage to experience the withdrawal of grace and abandonment by God. Then we must act as little children do in the dark — clasp the hand of father or mother, and go where we are led.
–Saint Julie Billiart (1751-1816)
Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Page: Quotes, Quote Author, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
Remember this simple truth which is beyond all doubt: God allows many difficulties to beset those who want to serve him but he never lets them sink beneath the burden as long as they trust in him. This, in a few words, is a complete summary of what you most need: never under any pretext whatsoever yield to the temptation of discouragement.
–Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Page: Quotes, Quote Author, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
Be patient with the whole world, but, above all with yourself. I want to tell you not to lose your serenity because of your imperfections, and always to have the zest to raise yourself up. It gives me joy to see each day you begin again. There is no better way to finish life well than to return to the starting point always and not ever to think that we have done enough.
–Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Detachment, Grace, Meister Eckhart (1260-1328), Page: Quotes, Quote Author, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
Although God is Almighty, He can only work in a heart when He finds readiness or makes it. He works differently in humans than in stones. For this we may take the following illustration: if we bake in one oven three loaves of barley-bread, of rye-bread, and of wheat, we shall find the same heat of the oven affects them differently; when one is well-baked, another will be still raw, and another yet more raw. That is not due to the heat, but to the variety of the materials. Similarly God works in all hearts not alike but in proportion as He finds them prepared and susceptible. If the heart is to be ready for the highest, it must he vacant of all other things. If I wish to write on a white tablet, whatever else is written on the tablet, however noble its purport, is a hindrance to me. If I am to write, I must wipe the tablet clean of everything, and the tablet is most suitable for my purpose when it is blank. Similarly, if God is to write on my heart, everything else must come out of it till it is really sanctified. Only so can God work His highest will, and so the sanctified heart has no outward object at all.
–Meister Eckhart (1260-1328)
Page: Quotes, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
This, therefore,
is the tree of life indeed,
the word of the Father,
the wisdom of God in the highest,
which in the hearts of the saints,
as in an unseen paradise,
is sown in fear,
watered by grace,
dies through grief,
takes root by faith,
buds by devotion,
shoots up through compunction,
grows by longing,
is strengthened by charity,
grows green by hope,
puts out its leaves and spreads
its branches through caution,
flowers through discipline,
bears fruit through virtue,
ripens through patience,
is harvested by death, and
feeds by contemplation.
–Hugh of St. Victor (c. 1096–1141)
Page: Quotes, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
We offer the Lord gold when we shine in his sight with the light of heavenly wisdom. We offer him frankincense when we send up pure prayer before him, and myrrh when, mortifying our flesh with its vices and passions by self-control, we carry the cross behind Jesus.
–Saint Bruno of Segni (c. 1047-1123)
