God loves to come into humble and compassionate souls, into souls that are full of discretion, that are penitent and devout; but He abandons cold and callous hearts, hearts that seek their own ease, that shrink from the smallest sacrifice, that show no love for prayer or meditation.
–Saint Anthony of Padua (1195-1231)
He is coming who is everywhere present and pervades all things; he is coming to achieve in you his work of universal salvation. He is coming who came to call to repentance not the righteous but sinners, coming to recall those who have strayed into sin. Do not be afraid, then: God is in the midst of you, and you shall not be shaken. Receive him with open, outstretched hands, for it was on his own hands that he sketched you. Receive him who laid your foundations on the palms of his hands. Receive him, for he took upon himself all that belongs to us except sin, to consume what is ours in what is his.
–Saint Andrew of Crete (Seventh and Eighth Century)
No one can fully comprehend the uncreated God with his knowledge; but each one, in a different way, can grasp him fully through love. Truly this is the unending miracle of love: that one loving person, through his love, can embrace God, whose being fills and transcends the entire creation.
–The Cloud of Unknowing (14th century)
Prayer is the sum of our relationship with God. We are what we pray. The degree of our faith is the degree of our prayer. The strength of our hope is the strength of our prayer. The warmth of our charity is the warmth of our prayer. No more nor less.
Our prayer has had a beginning because we have had a beginning. But it will have no end. It will accompany us into eternity and will be completed in our contemplation of God, when we join in the harmony of heaven and are ‘filled with the flood of God’s delights.’ The story of our earthly-heavenly life will be the story of our prayer.
–Carlo Coretto (1910-1988)
It is true that Jesus said, “Go, and make disciples of all nations.” But he also added, “Without me you can do nothing.” It is true that Saint Ignatius said, “Act as though everything depended upon you.” But he added, “But pray as though everything depended upon God.” God is the creator of the physical cosmos as well as of the human cosmos. He rules the stars as he rules the church. And if, in his love, he has wished to make us his collaborators in the work of salvation, the limit of our power is very small and clearly defined. It is the limit of the wire compared with the electric current. We are the wire, God is the current. Our only power is to let the current pass though us. Of course, we have the power to interrupt it and say “no.” But nothing more.…
–Carlo Coretto (1910-1988)
Be thankful to God. You are not abandoned. God holds you like an infant against his breast. It may seem the fire of first fervor is gone, but God has hidden it under the ashes so that you may ground yourself in true humility and know your nothingness. A time will come when the Holy Spirit will blow upon the ashes, and a fire more lively and bright that before will be lit because you have been faithful to God.
–Saint Paul of the Cross (1694-1775)
