Measured by desire…

Page: Quotes, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)

For spiritually, heaven is as close down as up, and up as down, behind as in front, in front as behind, on one side as on the other; so much so that whoever has a true desire to be in heaven, then in that moment he is in heaven spiritually. For the high road and the shortest road thither is measured by desire and not by yards.
–The Cloud of Unknowing (14th Century)

Deprivation of consolations…

Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), Page: Quotes, Quote Author, Quote Topic, Spiritual (life)

So then – in the time of labors and persecutions, of insults and injuries inflicted by one’s neighbor, of mental conflicts and deprivation of spiritual consolations, by the Creator or by the creature (by the Creator in His gentleness, when He withdraws the feeling of the mind, so that it does not seem as if God were in the soul, so many are its pains and conflicts – and by fellow-creatures, in conversation or amusement, or when the soul thinks that it loves more than it is loved) – in all these things, I say that the soul perfected by humility says, “My Lord, behold Thy handmaid: be it done unto me according to Thy word, and not according to what I want with my senses.”
–Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)