Quote for the Night

[Shin]

'To mortify one passion, no matter how small, is a greater help in the spiritual life than many abstinences, fasts, and disciplines.'

St. Philip Neri

[Shin]

'Let us give ourselves over completely to our dear and good heavenly Father. Let us always love Him, and our hearts will be enlarged. There must be no standing still. Our love must become a flame which destroys within us all that does not unite us intimately with Him.'

St. Conrad of Parzham

[Shin]

'Verily all the inhabitants of earth do die, young men and old, little children and adults, for no age or bodily stature is exempt from death. Why, then, is man tormented by this exceeding grief? Doubtless the very aspect of death begets sadness; for we behold in a dead man the face changed, the figure dead, the body shrunk up with emaciation, the mouth silent, the skin cold, the carcass prostrate on the ground, the eyes sunken, the limbs immoveable, the flesh wasted away, the veins congealed, the bones whitened, the joints dissolved, all parts of him reduced to dust, and the man no longer existing. What, then, is man? A flower, I say, that is but for a little time, which in his mothers' womb is not apparent, in youth flourishes, but which in old age withers and departs in death.'

St. Alexander of Alexandria

[Shin]

'If you love God heartily, my child, you will often speak of Him among your relations, household and familiar friends, and that because "the mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment." . . . we are told that when St. Francis uttered the Name of the Lord, he seemed to feel the sweetness lingering on his lips, and could not let it go. But always remember, when you speak of God, that He is God; and speak reverently and with devotion, - not affectedly or as if you were preaching, but with a spirit of meekness, love, and humility; dropping honey from your lips (like the Bride in the Canticles) in devout and pious words, as you speak to one or another around, in your secret heart the while asking God to let this soft heavenly dew sink into their minds as they hearken. And remember very specially always to fulfill this angelic task meekly and lovingly. . . It is wonderful how attractive a gentle, pleasant manner is, and how much it wins hearts.'

St. Francis de Sales

[Shin]

'Therefore I reprehend myself, and do penance in dust and ashes.'

Job 42:6

[Shin]

'If you have loved virginity, you will be favored by the Lord in all things.'

St. Ephrem of Syria

[Shin]

'My love for Jesus Christ will not suffer me to quit my cell, where I am determined to abide in order to please and serve him agreeably to his will.'

St. Macarius the Great

[Shin]

'In what does the praise of God consist, if not in a lamentation of the soul that it can never praise Him as it desires? And the desires, devotion, prayer and good will that a soul has to do good, all this is a sorrowful lamentation, and when I come to supply for it Myself, I heal it of all its wounds.'

The Lord, to St. Mechtilde

[Shin]

'God shows the Soul also, that all the benefits bestowed on her by creatures (whether spiritual or temporal) are given because God moves them to it; and hence she learns to take no heed of creatures, what service soever they may have rendered her, for she perceives clearly that it is God who has done it by the action of his providence. By this vision the Soul is more and more inflamed, and finally abandons herself to love, casting aside all creatures, and finding in God such fullness that she can regard nothing else but him.'

St. Catherine of Genoa

[Shin]

'Seal your senses with stillness and sit in judgment upon the thoughts that attack your heart.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan

[Shin]

'If a man has attained to that which the Apostles speaks of "to the pure, everything is pure," (Titus 1:15) he sees himself less than all creatures.'

St. Poemen

[Shin]

'In everything and everywhere, I desire nothing but the accomplishment of the divine good pleasure, allowing the divine Heart of Jesus to will and desire in me and for me, just as He pleases. I am content to love Him alone: whatever He wishes me to love, that He will love for me.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

[Shin]

'He who is easily overcome by the lesser will inevitably be enslaved by the greater. But he who is superior to the lesser will also with the Lord's help resist the greater.'

St. Mark the Ascetic

[Shin]

'When the soul finds herself in the sacred silence of faith and love, and feels an interior impulse to pray for the wants of the Church, or of the world, for some special or general intention, she should do so immediately; but this interior movement ceasing, she ought to repose again in God. If this repose transform itself into the sleep of love and faith, so much the better. The Divine Goodness, I hope, will make you understand this language if you be very humble and retain a full sense of your nothingness.'

St. Paul of the Cross

[Shin]

'To yield and give way to our passions is the lowest slavery, even as to rule over them is the only liberty.'

St. Justin Martyr

[Shin]

'You have preached, you have prayed, but have you fasted? Have you taken the discipline [a self imposed scourge]? Have you slept on the floor? So long as you have done none of these things, you have no right to complain.'

St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, to a priest complaining about the indifference of his parish