Page: Quotes, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
It is an error to think that faith is so entirely a gift of God that it is not in our power to increase and strengthen it. Some… admire faith in the saints as a purely gratuitous grace; they persuade themselves that they can do nothing to increase their own faith and that the only thing to do is to remain passive until God grants them that favor; they will make no effort to grow in faith, saying that to do so is quite useless… We must get rid of these ideas, see why it is our faith is so weak, and acknowledge that it is our own fault and that, whatever we may say, the truth is that we do not believe because we do not wish to believe.
–Saint Claude de la Colombiere (1641-1682)
Page: Quotes, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
Every Christian has renounced the world and its pomps at baptism. This vow does not oblige you to live like a hermit, but it certainly obliges you to something. It is not an empty promise.
–Saint Claude de la Colombiere (1641-1682)
Page: Quotes, Prayer (problems), Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)
However we do mental prayer, we can be sure of encountering difficulties. Some have already been mentioned: dryness, distaste, a sense of our own worthlessness, the feeling the effort to pray is useless. The first thing to say about such difficulties is that they should not come as a surprise or cause us to worry or be upset. Not only are they inevitable, they are actually good for us. They purify our love for God and strengthen our faith.
–Jacques Philippe (1947-
Page: Quotes, Quote Author, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life), Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Today, more than ever, we need to recognize that the gift of solitude is not ordered to the acquisition of strange contemplative powers, but, first of all, to the recovery of one’s deep self, and to the renewal of an authenticity which is presently twisted out of shape by the pretentious routines of a disordered togetherness.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Page: Quotes, Quote Author, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life), Struggle (with Sin), Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
We stumble and fall constantly even when we are most enlightened. But when we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not even know that we have fallen.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Page: Quotes, Quote Author, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life), Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
We may begin to seek Him in desolation, feeling nothing but His absence. But the mere fact that we seek Him proves that we have already found Him.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
