'Brethren and fathers, now that we have fasted for the first week we appear to each other somewhat different to what we were, leaner and paler. But even if our outward nature is wasting away, as the Apostle says, the inner is being renewed day by day. For what it is to see a body healthy-looking and sleek through pleasure; this it is to understand what follows for the soul through self-mastery, so that by humbling the body we shall bring about the beauty of the soul. . .'

St. Theodore the Studite

'I beg of Him with all my heart to make you ever faithful to what He asks of you, ready to sacrifice to Him all that costs you the most, according as He makes His Will known to you, for there is no middle course; He will have all or nothing.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

'He who labors as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands.'

St. Benedict

'The blessedness of seeing God is justly promised to the pure of heart. For the eye that is unclean would not be able to see the brightness of the true light, and what would be happiness to clear minds would be a torment to those that are defiled. Therefore, let the mists of worldly vanities be dispelled, and the inner eye be cleansed of all the filth of wickedness, so that the soul's gaze may feast serenely upon the great vision of God.'

Pope St. Leo the Great

'One does not speak of the works of God, even with the least of mortals, without drawing great profit from it.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

'I must work with all my strength to destroy self-love and self-interest.'

St. Bernadette Soubirous

'The Lord has given me to know that, in order to apply to anything intelligibly and holily, I must first go and prostrate at His feet, and there my work will be blessed. I have then firmly resolved never to draw up any plan with out having first thought it over before Our Lord and submitted it to Him for approval.'

Bl. Peter Julian Eymard

'He who is sluggish in prayer, and slothful and negligent in serving his brethren and in performing other holy tasks, is explicitly called an idler by the apostle, and condemned as unworthy even of his bread. For St. Paul writes that the idler is not to have any food (cf. 2 Thess. 3:10); and elsewhere it is said that God hates idlers, that the idle man cannot be trusted, and that idleness has taught great evil (cf. Ecclus. 33:27). Thus each of us should bear the fruit of some action performed in God's name, even if he has employed himself diligently in but one good work. Otherwise he will be totally barren, and without any share in eternal blessings.'

St. Symeon Metaphrastis

'So let no one tell me that he is unfit for the monastic life because of the weight and number of his misdeeds, or that because of his addiction to pleasure he must be excused for remaining stuck in his sin. The more the putrefaction, the greater the need for treatment, if the uncleanness is to be done away with, for the healthy do not make their way to the doctor's surgery."

St. John Climacus

'Can we, amongst all hearts, find one more amiable than that of Jesus? It is on His Heart that God looks with special complacency.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

'More and more did the love of God, and my fear of him and faith increase, and my spirit was moved so that in a day -- from one up to a hundred prayers, and in the night a like number; besides I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake up before daylight to pray in the snow, in icy coldness, in rain, and I used to feel neither ill nor any slothfulness, because, as I now see, the Spirit was burning in me at that time.'

St. Patrick

'Let us apply ourselves only to love and to suffer while loving. When we have acquired the perfect knowledge thereof, then we shall know and do all that God wishes of us.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

'Christ is Master by virtue of His own essence and Master by virtue of His incarnate life. For He creates man from nothing, and through His own Blood redeems him when dead in sin; and to those who believe in Him He has given His grace.'

St. Mark the Ascetic

'Take up your abode in the lovable Heart of Jesus, and you will find therein imperturbable peace and the strength to carry out the good desires He gives you. Bring to this divine Heart all your troubles and afflictions, for whatever emanates from the Sacred Heart is sweet: It changes everything into love.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

'St. Francis Borgia, before applying himself to the sublime prayer of contemplation, was wont to spend two hours in meditating on his nothingness, etc.'

St. Paul of the Cross

'Just as it is absurd to subject a good master to a worthless servant, so it is absurd to subject the deiform intellect to the corruptible body.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan