Quotes on Merit

'In the eyes of the sovereign Judge the merit of our actions depends on the motives which prompted them.'

Pope St. Gregory the Great

'Our works are of no value if they be not united to the merits of Jesus Christ.'

St. Teresa of Jesus

'My children, how sad it is! when a soul is in a state of sin, it may die in that state; and even now, whatever it can do is without merit before God.'

St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars

'The majority of souls appear before the Judgment empty-handed. They did nothing good for eternity.'

Ven. Mary of Agreda

'Unite all your works to the merits of Jesus Christ, and then offer them up to the eternal Father if you desire to make them pleasing to Him.'

St. Teresa of Jesus

'No prayers are so acceptable to God as those which we offer Him after Communion.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

'Each time that a creature offers to my Father the Blood by which she has been redeemed, she offers Him a gift of infinite value."

The Lord, to St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi

'They who wish to do great things in the service of their Lord and King, will not rest with mere deeds; but will also wage war against their sensuality, their carnal and worldly love, and will thus make offerings to Him of the highest value.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

'This is a good rule of conduct, to do nothing but what we can offer to the good God. Now, we cannot offer to Him slanders, calumnies, injustice, anger, blasphemy, impurity, night clubs, dancing; yet that is all that people do in the world. '

St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars

'It is possible to offer fervent prayer even while walking in public or strolling alone, or seated in your shop, . . . while buying or selling, . . . or even while cooking.'

St. John Chrysostom

'We can obtain no reward without merit, and no merit without patience.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

'A man's merit will be greater depending on the greater the pleasure he abstains from, the greater the repugnance he has to overcome, the greater the intensity and length of the pain he has to bear, the greater the human respect he has to set aside, and the greater the sacrifices he has to make -- provided he does all and bears all for the love of virtue and the greater glory of God.'

St. Anthony Mary Claret

'Remember that sacrifice exists in the will; and although force of habit may dull the sting of sacrifice, still the will remains steadfast and strengthens itself by habit. The agony, the death to self comes at the beginning, with the first act; then, peace returns to the soul; but the merit lasts and increases with the repetition and continuation of the sacrifice. Out of filial love we sustain heroic sacrifices with simplicity, without feeling the cost of them.'

St. Peter Julian Eymard

'The most perfect and meritorious intention is that by which, in all our actions, we have in view only the good pleasure of God and the accomplishment of His holy will.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

'Without a doubt, obedience is more meritorious than any other penance. And what greater penance can there be than keeping one's will continually submissive and obedient?'

St. Catherine of Bologna

'From this it follows that those who obey with violence to their own opinion and who are vexed in their own will and their own breast and discernment will not lose the merit of true obedience, but will mostly without doubt acquire a greater share of heavenly glory by doing continual violence to themselves and subjecting their own will not only to their mother and superiors, but also to their equals and those under them. The way of such virtue is manifest in the infinite goodness of the Son of God when he was obedient not only to his eternal Father, but also to his mother and to Joseph as the gospel makes clear when it says: "And he was subject to them" (Lk 2.51).'

St. Catherine of Bologna

'I would not wish to see one meritorious act attributed to myself, even if it were the means of insuring my salvation; for I should be worse than a demon, to wish to rob God of his own. Yet it is needful that we ourselves act, for the divine grace neither vivifies nor aids that which does not work itself, and grace will not save us without our cooperation. I repeat it; all works, without the help of grace are dead, being produced by the creature only; but grace aids all works performed by those who are not in mortal sin, and makes them worthy of heaven; not those which are ours solely, but those in which grace cooperates.'

St. Catherine of Genoa

'I understand that, each time we contemplate with desire and devotion the Host in which is hidden Christ's Eucharistic Body, we increase our merits in heaven and secure special joys to be ours later in the beatific vision of God.'

St. Gertrude the Great

'In the servants of God it is not the numbers I seek but the merit; I like better to see them distinguish themselves by their deeds than by their name or habit.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

'Do not let any occasion of gaining merit pass without taking care to draw some spiritual profit from it; as, for example, from a sharp word which someone may say to you; from an act of obedience imposed against your will; from an opportunity which may occur to humble yourself, or to practice charity, sweetness, and patience. All of these occasions are gain for you, and you should seek to procure them; and at the close of that day, when the greatest number of them have come to you, you should go to rest most cheerful and pleased, as the merchant does on the day when he had had most chance for making money; for on that day business has prospered with him.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

'St. Denis the Areopagite says, "Divine love consists in the affections of the heart more than in the knowledge of the understanding." In human sciences, knowledge excites love; but in the science of the saints, love produces knowledge. He that loves God most, knows him best. Besides, it is not lofty and fruitless conceptions, but works, that unite the soul to God, and make it rich in merits before the Lord.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

'If God causes you to suffer much, it is a sign that He has great designs for you, and that He certainly intends to make you a saint. And if you wish to become a great saint, entreat Him yourself to give you much opportunity for suffering; for there is no wood better to kindle the fire of holy love than the wood of the cross, which Christ used for His own great sacrifice of boundless charity.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

'Thou wast created for the glory of thy Creator, that, making His praises thy employment, thou mightest ever advance towards Him by the merit of justice in this life, and mightest live happily in the world to come.'

St. Anselm of Canterbury

'Man by prayer merits to receive that which God had from all eternity determined to give him.'

St. Gregory