Whatever the Lord sends us, He does only for the benefit and salvation of our soul. It may be that, in the beginning, it doesn’t seem to bring us any benefit, but later we’ll realize that what God has allowed us to go through has been better for us than what we ourselves would have wanted to happen.
–Saint Nil Sorski (c.1453-1508)
That is what He wants to do in you: at every moment, He wants you to go out of yourself, to leave all preoccupations, in order to withdraw into the solitude He has chosen for Himself in the depths of your heart. He is always there, even though you don’t feel it; He is waiting for you.
–Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity (1880–1906)
Let every person take an accounting of the day’s and night’s doings, and if one has sinned, then one ought to stop sinning, and if one has not, then there should be no boasting of it . . . Let this observation be a safeguard against sinning: let us note and write down our actions and impulses of the soul as though we were to report them to each other.
–Saint Anthony of Egypt (c. 251-356)
