Saints' Discussion Forums

'A man whose heart is perverted would not know how to remain long among those who place their happiness in virtue.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

'A virtuous life consists in mortifying vices, sins, bad thoughts, and evil affections, and in exercising ourselves in the acquisition of holy virtues.'

St. Philip Neri

'The happiness of man on earth, my children, is to be very good; those who are very good bless the good God, they love Him, they glorify Him, and do all their works with joy and love, because they know that we are in this world for no other end than to serve and love the good God.'

St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars

'As it is impossible to arrive at perfection in any art or science, without ardent desires of its attainment, so no one has ever yet become a saint, but by strong and fervent aspirations after sanctity. "God," observes St. Teresa, "ordinarily confers his signal favors on those only who thirst after his love." Blessed, says the royal prophet, is the man whose help is from thee: in his heart he hath disposed to ascend by steps in the vale of tears. . . They shall go from virtue to virtue." Happy the man who has resolved in his soul to mount the ladder of perfection: he shall receive abundant aid from God, and will ascend from virtue to virtue. Such has been the practice of the saints, and especially of St. Andrew Avellino, who even bound himself by vow "to advance continually in the way of Christian perfection." St. Teresa used to say, that "God rewards, even in this life, every good desire." It was by good desires that the saints arrived in a short time at a sublime degree of sanctity.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori