Page: Quotes, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
Compassion is an inward movement of the heart, stirred by pity for the bodily and ghostly griefs of all men. This compassion makes a man suffer with Christ in His passion… Compassion makes a man look into himself, and recognize his faults, his feebleness in virtues and in the worship of God, his lukewarmness, his laziness, his many failings, the time he has wasted and his present imperfection in moral and other virtues; all this makes a man feel true pity and compassion for himself. Further, compassion marks the errors and disorders of our fellow-creatures, how little they care for their God and their eternal blessedness, their ingratitude for all the good things which God has done for them, and the pains He suffered for their sake; how they are strangers to virtue, unskilled and unpracticed in it, but skillful and cunning in every wickedness; how attentive they are to the loss and gain of earthly goods, how careless and reckless they are of God, of eternal things, and their eternal bliss. When he marks this, a good man is moved to compassion for the salvation of all men.Such a man will also regard with pity the bodily needs of his neighbors, and the manifold sufferings of human nature; seeing men hungry, thirsty, cold, naked, sick, poor, and abject; the manifold oppressions of the poor, the grief caused by loss of kinsmen, friends, goods, honor, peace; all the countless sorrows which befall the nature of man.
–Blessed John Ruysbroeck (1293-1381)
Page: Quotes, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
Spiritual desire is the longing of the heart for relationship with God that brings happiness and peace.
–Ilia Delio (1955-
Page: Quotes, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
Truly, there is so great a din in your heart, and so much loud shouting from your empty thoughts and fleshly desires that you can neither see nor hear Him. Therefore, silence this restless din, and break your love of sin and vanity. Bring into your heart a love of virtues and complete charity, and then you shall hear your Lord speak to you.
–Walter Hilton (1340-1396)
Abandonment (of self), Page: Quotes, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
When shall it be that we shall taste the sweetness of the Divine Will in all that happens to us, considering in everything only His good pleasure, by whom it is certain that adversity is sent with as much love as prosperity, and as much for our good? When shall we cast ourselves undeservedly into the arms of our most loving Father in Heaven, leaving to Him the care of ourselves and of our affairs, and reserving only the desire of pleasing Him, and of serving Him well in all that we can?
— Saint Jane Frances de Chantal (1572-1641)
Page: Quotes, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life), Struggle (with Sin)
You must strive with all possible care to please God in such a manner as neither to do nor behold anything, without first consulting Him, and in everything to seek Him alone and His glory.
— Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez (1532-1617)
Page: Quotes, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life), Struggle (with Sin)
A growing consciousness of sin is no certain sign of growing sinfulness; but, on the contrary, a probable sign of growing sanctification. As sinfulness grows, insensibility increases; as the soul is sanctified, its keen discernment of sin is strengthened and enlarged.
–H.E. Manning (1808-1892)
