Scruples and temptations…
Scruples, temptations, and fears, and cutting perplexities of the heart, are often the lot of the most excellent persons.
–Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471)
Fortitude and perseverance…
And although many conflicts of diverse kinds should abound in prayer, and darkness of mind with much confusion, the devil making the soul feel that her prayer was not pleasing to God, nevertheless, she ought not to give up on account of those conflicts and shadows, but to abide firm in fortitude and long perseverance, considering that the devil so does to draw her away from prayer the mother, and God permits it to test the fortitude and constancy of that soul.
–Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)
How God wants our soul to be…
You know…that to join two things together there must be nothing between them or there cannot be a perfect fusion. Now realize that this is how God wants our soul to be, without any selfish love of ourselves or of others in between, just as God loves us without anything in between.
–Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)
The poison of temptations…
There is no man who will not be grieved at the time of his chastisement; and there is not man who will not endure a bitter time, when he must drink the poison of temptations. Without them, it is not possible to obtain a strong will. When he has often experienced the help of God in temptations, a man also obtains strong faith.
–Saint Isaac of Syria (Seventh Century)
God is our strength…
When God is our strength, it is strength indeed; when our strength is our own, it is only weakness.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
Nothing but our salvation…
The Divine nature knows no want. And wherefore then would He have us praise and glorify Him? It is that our love towards Him may be kindled more fervently within us. He desires nothing we can render; not our service, not our praise, nor anything else, nothing but our salvation; this is His object in everything He does.
–Saint John Chrysostom (347-407)
–Saint John Chrysostom (347-407)
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