Words of Wisdom & Encouragement
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By spiritual exercises…
In proper control…
The devil suggests…
Become like Christ…
Not for ourselves…
Devil is afraid…
The devil is afraid of us when we pray and make sacrifices. He is also afraid when we are humble and good. He is especially afraid when we love Jesus very much. He runs away when we make the Sign of the Cross.
–Saint Anthony of Egypt (c. 251-356)
Frolic with the devil…
Anyone who wishes to frolic with the devil cannot rejoice with Christ.
–Saint Peter Chrysologus (c. 380 – c. 450)
The devil makes…
The devil makes small sins seem smaller in our eyes, for otherwise he can’t lead us to greater evil.
–Saint Mark the Ascetic (Fifth Century)
Jesus wants simply…
Jesus does not like to see you troubled. He wants simply that we are conscious of our powerlessness and that we put in him all our confidence.
–Marcel Nguyễn Tân Văn (1928–1959)
No greater Lord…
True, He is infinite Majesty, but He is also infinite Goodness and infinite Love. There can be no greater Lord than God; neither can there be a more ardent lover than He.
–Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787)
God is a circle…
God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.
–Voltaire (1694-1778) citing Timaeus of Locris (420-380)
Pride makes us…
Pride makes us forgetful of our eternal interests. It causes us to neglect totally the care of our soul.
–Saint John Baptist de la Salle (1651-1719)
God is infinitely….
We have a God who is infinitely gracious, and knows all our wants. I always thought that He would reduce you to extremity. He will come in His own time, and when you least expect it. Hope in Him more than ever: thank Him with me for the favors He does you, particularly for the fortitude and patience which He gives you in your afflictions: it is a plain mark of the care He takes of you; comfort yourself then with Him, and give thanks for all.
–Brother Lawrence (1614-1691)
The devil…
The Devil never runs upon a man to seize him with his claws until he sees him on the ground, already having fallen by his own will.
–Saint Thomas More (1478-1535)
The devil seeks our ruin…
Remember that the Devil doesn’t sleep, but seeks our ruin in a thousand ways.
–Saint Angela Merici (1474-1540)
The working of mercy…
For, in truth, we shall see in Heaven for all eternity that though we have sinned grievously in this life, we were never hurt in God’s love, nor were we ever of less value in God’s sight. This falling is a test by which we shall have a high and marvelous knowing of love in God forever. That love [of God] is hard and marvelous that cannot and will not be broken for our trespasses. In love mercy allows us to fail somewhat, and in failing we fall, and in falling we die. Our failing is full of fear; our falling is marked by sin; our dying is sorrowful. Yet in all this the sweet eye of pity never departs from us and the working of mercy never ceases.
–Saint Julian of Norwich (1432-1420)
Ought to give thanks…
We must take to heart… from what we were created, who we were and what kind of creatures we were when we entered the world, as if from a tomb and from utter darkness. Having prepared for us bountifully before we were born, He Who fashioned us and created us brought us into His world. Since, then, we owe all this to Him, we ought to give Him thanks for everything.
–Saint Clement (First Century)
Give great thanks…
Therefore we ought to give great thanks to the Lord that he has given us knowledge of the past, and wisdom for the present, and that we are not wholly without understanding for the future.
–Saint Barnabus (First Century)
Return thanks…
We should not accept in silence the benefactions of God, but return thanks for them.
–Saint Basil the Great (329-379)
Eyes fixed on Christ…
We shall be blessed with clear vision if we keep our eyes fixed on Christ, for he, as Paul teaches, is our head, and there is in him no shadow of evil. Saint Paul himself and all who have reached the same heights of sanctity had their eyes fixed on Christ, and so have all who live and move and have their being in him.
–Saint Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335- c. 395)
Bad habits…
Just as iron, even without willing it, is drawn by a magnet, so is a slave to bad habits dragged about by them.
–Saint John Climacus (c. 525-606)
Fear of God…
The fear of God illumines the soul, annihilates evil, weakens the passions, drives darkness from the soul and makes it pure. The fear of God is the summit of wisdom. Where it is not you will find nothing good. Whoever does not have the fear of God is open to diabolical falls.
–Saint Ephrem of Syria (c. 306 – 373)
God will cleanse…
God will cleanse your sins if you yourself are dissatisfied with yourself and will keep on changing until you are perfect.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
The power of silence…
The Church must discover the power of silence. Confronted with the sorrows, doubts and uncertainties of people she cannot pretend to give easy solutions. In Jesus, silence becomes the way of attentive listening, compassion and prayer. It is the way to truth.
–Luis Antonio Tagle (1957-
Repented of a sin…
If someone has repented once of a sin, and again does the same sin, this is a sign that he has not been cleansed of the causes of the sin, wherefrom, as from a root, the shoots spring forth again.
–Saint Basil the Great (329-379)
As sure as is…
If we insist on being as sure as is conceivable… we must be content to creep along the ground, and can never soar.
–Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
Religious on paper…
Nothing is so easy as to be religious on paper.
–Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
Life is for action…
Life is for action. If we insist on proofs for everything, we shall never come to action: to act you must assume, and that assumption is faith.
–Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
Judge only actions…
I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions.
–Dorothy Day (1897-1980)
When tempted…
When you are tempted, summon to your assistance the hope and thought that consolation will shortly follow, especially if by holy struggles you gradually overcome the struggles of despair.
— Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
Listen much…
Speak little, listen much.
–Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
Go and set…
Go and set the whole world on fire.
–Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
A peaceful heart…
God wants nothing from you but the gift of a peaceful heart.
–Meister Eckhart (1260-1328)
Love is shown…
Love is shown more in deeds than in words.
–Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
God is everywhere…
Your surroundings don’t matter. God is with you everywhere.
–Meister Eckhart (1260-1328)
Christ is risen…
Today is the day of salvation for the world. . . Christ is risen from the dead: arise with him. Christ returns to himself: you also must return to him. Christ has come forth from the tomb: free yourselves from the fetters of evil. The gates of hell are open and the power of death is destroyed. The old Adam is superseded, the new perfected. In Christ a new creation is coming to birth: renew yourselves.
–Saint Gregory Nazianzen (329-c. 391)
A Christian cannot…
As a fish cannot swim without water, and as a bird cannot fly without air, so a Christian cannot advance a single step without Christ.
–Saint Gregory Nazianzen (329-c. 391)
Patient in listening…
We should be slow to speak and patient in listening to all men, but especially to inferiors. Our ears should be wide open to our neighbor until he seems to have said all that is in his mind.
— Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
God requires these three things…
God requires these three things of every person who has received baptism: correct faith of the soul, truth of the tongue, self-control of the body.
–Saint Gregory Nazianzen (329-c. 391)
Death is approaching…
Pause and reflect, for the day of death is approaching. I beg you, therefore, with all possible respect, not to forget the Lord or turn away from His commandments by reason of the cares and preoccupations of this world, for all those who are oblivious of Him and turn away from His commands are cursed and will be totally forgotten by Him (Ex. 33:13). And when the day of death does come, everything which they think they have will be taken from them. And the wiser and more powerful they may have been in this world, so much greater will be the punishments they will endure in hell (cf. Wis. 6:7)
–Saint Francis of Assisi (1181–1226)
Give to someone…
It would be considered a theft on our part if we didn’t give to someone in greater need than we are.
–Saint Francis of Assisi (1181 – 1226)
Hold back nothing…
Hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves so that He who gives Himself totally to you may receive you totally.
–Saint Francis of Assisi (1181–1226)
Whoever fears God…
Whoever fears God stands above all manner of fear. He has become a stranger to all the fear of this world and placed it far from himself, and no manner of trembling comes near him.
–Saint Ephrem of Syria (c. 306 – 373)
Eyes on Christ…
As no darkness can be seen by anyone surrounded by light, so no trivialities can capture the attention of anyone who has his eyes on Christ. The man who keeps his eyes upon the head and origin of the whole universe has them on virtue in all its perfection; he has them on truth, on justice, on immortality and on everything else that is good, for Christ is goodness itself.
–Saint Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335- c. 395)
Choose God…
Only He is worth struggling towards. We have a choice to follow the way the world, of the society that surrounds us, and thereby find ourselves outside of God; or to choose the way of life, to choose God Who calls us and for Whom our heart is searching.
–Blessed Seraphim of Platina (1934-1982)
Nothing on authority…
The modern mind will accept nothing on authority, but will accept anything on no authority. Say that the Bible or the Pope says so and it will be dismissed without further examination. But preface your remark with “I think I heard somewhere,” or, try but fail to remember the name of some professor who might have said “such-and-such,” and it will be immediately accepted as an unshakable fact.
–GK Chesterton (1874-1936)
To serve God or not…
It is within my power either to serve God or not to serve Him. Serving Him, I add to my own good and the good of the whole world. Not serving Him, I forfeit my own good and deprive the world of that good, which was in my power to create.
–Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
Correct our faults…
It is not enough to acknowledge our faults; we must correct them.
–Saint Mother Theodore Guerin (1798-1856)
Heaven is filled…
Heaven is filled with converted sinners of all kinds, and there is room for more.
–Saint Joseph Cafasso (1811-1860)
Sinners who repent…
Sinners that repent are still saved; both publicans and fornicators cleansed by repentance enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. The compassionate God still calls to Himself all that have turned away, and He awaits them and promises them mercy. The loving Father still receives His prodigal sons come back from a far country and He opens the doors of His house and clothes them in the best robe, and gives them each a ring on their hand and shoes on their feet and commands all the saints to rejoice in them.
–Saint Tikhon (1724-1783)
The time to be silent…
When you feel the assaults of passion and anger, then is the time to be silent as Jesus was silent in the midst of His ignominies and sufferings.
–Saint Paul of the Cross Saint (1694-1775)
Disorder in the family…
Disorder in society is the result of disorder in the family.
–Saint Angela Merici (1474-1540)
To live chastely…
Anyone, then, who desires to live chastely in Christ Jesus, must flee not only the mouse of lust, but even from its very scent.
–Saint Anthony of Padua (1195-1231)
Sorrow for sin is necessary, but…
Sorrow for sin is indeed necessary, but it should not be an endless preoccupation. You must dwell also on the glad remembrance of God’s loving kindness. Otherwise sadness will harden the heart and lead it more deeply into despair.
–Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)
Faced with difficulties…
If we are faced with difficulties, we will turn to God for help with many difficulties, we will turn to God for help with increasing frequency. As God continues to help, even the coldest heart will be warmed.
–Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)
Jesus pardoning sins…
How can you entertain a doubt of Jesus pardoning your sins, when He has affixed them to the Cross, whereon He died for you, with the very nails by which His own hands were pierced?
–Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)
Suffer from scruples…
We may conclude that persons who suffer from scruples are the most favored by divine love, and the most certain of reaching Heaven when they bear this trial in patience and humility. Scrupulous souls die continually, they suffer a perpetual purgatory, and so they leave the earth to fly to Heaven purified and free from sins to expiate.
–Blessed Henry Suso (c. 1295-1366)
Without Scripture…
How could one live without the knowledge of Scripture, through which one learns to know Christ himself, who is the life of believers?
–Saint Jerome (c. 340-420)
Well-grounded in Scriptures…
A man who is well-grounded in the testimonies of Scriptures is the bulwark of the Church.
–Saint Jerome (c. 340-420)
God calls us…
God calls us to correct ourselves and invites us to do penance. He calls us through the wonderful gifts of his creation, and he calls us by granting time for life. He calls us through the reader and through the preacher. He calls us with the innermost force of our thoughts. He calls us with the scourge of punishment, and he calls us with the mercy of his consolation.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
Worship by actions…
Suffering is a…
Let us understand that God is a physician, and that suffering is a medicine for salvation, not a punishment for damnation.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
God sees you…
Go in where you will, God sees you; light your lamp, God sees you; quench its light, God sees you. Fear God who ever beholds you. If you will sin, seek a place where God cannot see you, then do what you will.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
The saints have…
The saints have no need of honor from us; neither does our devotion add the slightest thing to what is theirs. Clearly, if we venerate their memory, it serves us, not them. But I tell you, when I think of them, I feel myself inflamed by tremendous yearning.
–Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)
Every sorrow and pain…
When I think of the happiness that is in store for me, every sorrow, every pain becomes dear to me.
–Saint Francis of Assisi (1181–1226)
Alert to the devil…
We need to be especially alert to the evil subtlety of Satan. His one desire is to keep people from having a mind and heart disposed to their Lord and God…He wants to extinguish the light of the human heart, and so he moves in by means of worldly busyness and worry.
–Saint Francis of Assisi (1181–1226)
Reading is the careful study of the Scriptures, concentrating all one’s powers on it. Meditation is the busy application of the mind to seek with the help of one’s own reason for knowledge of hidden truth. Prayer is the heart’s devoted turning to God to drive away evil and obtain what is good. Contemplation is when the mind is in some sort lifted up to God and held above itself, so that it tastes the joys of everlasting sweetness.
–Guigo II (d. 1188)
A laudable exchange…
What a great laudable exchange: to leave the things of time for those of eternity, to choose the things of heaven for the goods of earth, to receive the hundred-fold in place of one, and to possess a blessed and eternal life.
–Saint Clare of Assisi (1194-1253)
Transform through contemplation…
Place your mind before the mirror of eternity. Place your soul in the brilliance of glory. Place your heart in the figure of the divine substance. And transform your whole being into the image of the Godhead Itself through contemplation!
–Saint Clare of Assisi (1194-1253)
If you suffer…
If you suffer with Him, you will reign with Him. If you cry with Him, you will have joy with Him.If you die with Him on the cross of tribulation, you will possess the eternal dwelling place in the splendor of the saints. And your name, written in the book of life, will be glorious among men.
–Saint Clare of Assisi (1194-1253)
Love God totally…
Taste the hidden sweetness that lies within your heart which God has kept for those whose lives are tender within. Place your mind in the softness of life’s eternal flow. Place your soul in the brilliance of heaven’s endless glow; and love him totally who gave himself for your love, and you will hold him who holds all things in truth.
–Saint Clare of Assisi (1194-1253)
We become what we love…
We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God´s compassionate love for others.
–Saint Clare of Assisi (1194-1253)
Life with Christ…
Happy the soul to whom it is given to attain this life with Christ, to cleave with all one’s heart to him whose beauty all the heavenly hosts behold forever, whose love inflames our love, the contemplation of whom is our refreshment, whose graciousness is our delight, whose gentleness fills us to overflowing, whose remembrance makes us glow with happiness, whose fragrance revives the dead, the glorious vision of whom will be the happiness of all the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem. For he is the brightness of eternal glory, the splendor of eternal light, the mirror without spot.
–Saint Clare of Assisi (1194-1253)
Saints are like…
The saints are like the stars. In his providence Christ conceals them in a hidden place that they may not shine before others when they might wish to do so. Yet they are always ready to exchange the quiet of contemplation for the works of mercy as soon as they perceive in their heart the invitation of Christ.
–Saint Anthony of Padua (1195-1231)
To become inward and spiritual…
If, further, this good person would become an inward and spiritual man, he needs must have three further things. The first is a heart unencumbered with images; the second is spiritual freedom in his desires, the third is the feeling of inward union with God.
–Blessed John Ruysbroeck (1293-1381)
The choice is yours…
The choice is yours! Love the world and you will perish with the world. Love Christ and you will reign with him (forever)!
–Richard Rolle (c. 1300-1349)
Be praying or…
We ought always to be praying, or reading, or meditating, and doing other useful things, so that our enemy never finds us idle.
–Richard Rolle (c. 1300-1349)
When God has been born to you…
Here is a way to tell when God has been born in you: everything will point to God. Nothing is a hindrance anymore. Everywhere you look, you will see God. It is like staring at the sun. The image is burned into your eyes. Regardless of where you look, you see the sun.
–Meister Eckhart (1260-1328)
God is in all things…
Apprehend God in all things, for God is in all things. Every single creature is full of God and is a book about God. Every creature is a word of God. If I spent enough time with the tiniest creature — even a caterpillar — I would never have to prepare a sermon. So full of God is every creature.
–Meister Eckhart (1260-1328)
Grow by subtraction…
The soul does not grow by addition but by subtraction.
–Meister Eckhart (1260-1328)
I ought to sing…
When first I was converted, and became single-minded, I used to think I would be like the little bird which pines for love of its beloved, but which can rejoice in the midst of its longing when he, the loved one, comes. While it sings its joy, it is still yearning, though in sweetness and warmth. It is said that the nightingale will sing her melody all night long to please him to whom she is united. How much more ought I to sing, and as sweetly as I can, to my Jesus Christ, my soul’s spouse, through the whole of this present life.
–Richard Rolle (c. 1300-1349)
When my heart began to warm…
I cannot tell you how surprised I was the first time I felt my heart begin to warm. It was real warmth, too, not imaginary, and it felt as if it were actually on fire. I was astonished at the way the heat surged up, and how this new sensation brought great and unexpected comfort. I had to keep feeling my breast to make sure there was no physical reason for it! But once I realized that it came entirely from within… I was absolutely delighted, and wanted my love to be even greater.
–Richard Rolle (c. 1300-1349)
The nature of love…
The nature of love is that it is diffusive, unifying, and transforming. It is diffusive when it flows out and sheds the rays of its goodness not merely on friends and neighbors, but on enemies and strangers as well. It unites because it makes lovers one in deed and will, and draws into one Christ and every holy soul. He who holds on to God is one in spirit with him, not by nature, but by grace and identity of will. Love has also the power of transforming, for it transforms the lover into his Beloved, and makes him dwell in him. Thus it happens that when the fire of the Holy Spirit really gets hold of the heart it sets it wholly on fire and, so to speak, turns it into flame, leading it into that state in which it is most like God.
–Richard Rolle (c. 1300-1349)
Desire to be…
Because it is not what you are nor what you have been that God looks at with his merciful eyes, but what you desire to be.
–Cloud of Unknowing (Fourteenth Century)
Just as Martha complained…
Just as Martha complained about her sister Mary, in the same way, even to this day, all actives complain about contemplatives.
–Cloud of Unknowing (Fourteenth Century)
True spiritual counsel…
I agree that there are many who appear to have forsaken the world, who do fall away and have fallen away in the past; and instead of becoming God’s servants and his contemplatives, have become the devil’s, because they would not permit themselves to be governed by true spiritual counsel. And so they turn out to be hypocrites or heretics, or they fall into frenzies and many other kinds of misfortune, to the scandal of all holy Church.
–Cloud of Unknowing (Fourteenth Century)
A jealous lover…
[God] is a jealous lover and allows no other partnership, and he has no wish to work in your will unless he is there alone with you, by himself. He asks no help, but only you yourself. His will is that you should simply gaze at him, and leave him to act alone. Your part is to keep the windows and the door against the inroads of flies and enemies. And if you are willing to do this, all that is required of you is to woo him humbly in prayer, and at once he will help you.
–Cloud of Unknowing (Fourteenth Century)
When Jesus is near…
When Jesus is near all is well and nothing seems difficult. When He is absent, all is hard. When Jesus does not speak within, all other comfort is empty, but if He says only a word, it brings great consolation.
–Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471)
Suffering patiently endured…
If there be a true way that leads to the Everlasting Kingdom, it is most certainly that of suffering, patiently endured.
–Saint Colette of Corbie (1381-1447)
To leave God for God…
To leave God for God’s sake is no loss, but great profit, on the soul’s balance sheet.
–Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
No storm worse…
There is no storm worse than calm, and no foe more dangerous than to have no foes.
–Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
To make progress…
A soul that desires to make progress in the spiritual life must go in the opposite direction from the devil’s leading.
–Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
To make progress…
When taking the first steps on the road of virtue the old man must be mortified, but in such a way as not to slay the new man.
–Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
The way of perfection…
We must strive as hard as we can to lay hold of that we follow after, and having entered the way of perfection, attain to what is most perfect.
–Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
Bind yourself to God…
The closer you bind yourself to God and the more wholeheartedly you give yourself up to his supreme majesty, the more liberal he will be to you.
–Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
The progress you….
You may be sure that the progress you make in spiritual things will be in proportion to the degree of your withdrawal from self-love and concern for your own welfare.
–Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
With unwearied step…
I beseech you in the grace of Jesus Christ, forget those things that are behind, and as if you had just begun your long journey for the first time, set out eagerly on the way of virtue with unwearied step.
–Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
Whirlwind of wealth…
How great a risk salvation and innocence run amid those storms and tempests that are roused at one moment by the raging whirlwind of goods and wealth, at another by honor and glory, at another by pleasure!
–Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
When the devil…
When the devil meets with a too delicate conscience, he tries to make it much more delicate, and to reduce it to extreme distress, so that it may be so wretchedly disturbed as at last to fall out of the race for spiritual improvement.
–Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
The path of suffering…
I would always choose the path of suffering, if only to imitate Our Lord Jesus Christ, if there were no other gain.
–Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
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