Quote for the Night

[Shin]

'How about the sin, then, of a husband and wife, of a brother and sister, who spew out all sorts of blasphemies upon one another? They would tear out one anothers' eyes if they could, or even take away each others' lives. . . They do not appreciate what they are saying. Alas! Unhappy people, your curses take effect more often than you think. . . But what should we do then? This is what we should do. We should make use of all the annoyances that happen to us to remind ourselves that since we are in revolt against God, it is but just that other creatures should revolt against us. We should never give others occasion to curse us. . . If something irritating or troublesome happens, instead of loading with curses whatever is not going the way we want it, it would be just as easy and a great deal more beneficial for us to say: "God bless it!"'

St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars

[Shin]

'It is not so much good thoughts in the intelligence, as good acts of the will, or holy desires, that unite us to God; and such are the acts that we perform in meditation, acts of humility, confidence, self-sacrifice, resignation, and especially of love and of repentance for our sins. Acts of love, says St. Teresa, are those that keep the soul inflamed with holy love.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

[Shin]

'Pray for our poor congregation, whose mission it is to mourn, without ceasing, the sorrows and the death of our beloved Redeemer. God wishes it to produce a great number of good laborers, who, as trumpeters of the Holy Ghost, will preach to the world and destroy sin.'

St. Paul of the Cross

[Shin]

'If man remembered that it is written: "By your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned," (Matt 12:37) he would choose to remain silent.'

St. Poemen

[Shin]

'It is very necessary to be cheerful, but we must not on that account give in to a buffooning spirit.'

St. Philip Neri

[Shin]

'Do not grieve if you do not at once receive from God that which you ask. He wishes to benefit you still more by making you persist longer in your patient prayer before Him. For what can be higher than to address one's converse to God and be in communion with Him?'

St. Nilus of Sinai

[Shin]

'If you wish to be saved, welcome words of truth, and never reject criticism uncritically.'

St. Mark the Ascetic

[Shin]

'When you find yourself lost in interior solitude, and when you would rest more peacefully on the bosom of your heavenly Father, lament as a child and tell Him of the demon's wickedness towards you. He knows it already, but He wishes you to complain with the simplicity of a child. Tell Him, but with deep humility, not to allow the demon to molest you any longer.'

St. Paul of the Cross

[Shin]

'Acts of irreverence in churches are sins which greatly displease God; they horrify the angels, and do great harm to the soul.'

St. Benedict Joseph Labre

[Shin]

'They who at the outset count up too strictly the difficulties and accidents of an undertaking, or who yield to fear too easily, will never accomplish anything great.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

[Shin]

'What is meritorious is not that a man should be poor, but that, being poor, he should love poverty.'

St. Vincent Ferrer

[Shin]

'As regards your taking up your abode in His Sacred Heart, why should you fear? Our Lord Himself invites you to come to Him and take your rest in His Heart. Is It not the throne of mercy, where the most miserable are the most favorably received, provided that, although steeped in misery, they are drawn by love?'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

[Shin]

'Struggle until death to fulfill the commandments: purified through them, you will enter into life.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan

[Shin]

'Happy he who suffers without being attached to his suffering, desiring only to die to himself, in order to love yet more Him Who inflicts the wound of love!'

St. Paul of the Cross

[Shin]

'The first effect of this love is the indissoluble union of your hearts. If you glue together two pieces of fir, provided that the glue be strong, their union will be so close that the stick will break more easily in any other part than where it is joined. Now God unites husband and wife so closely in Himself, that it should be easier to sunder soul from body than husband from wife; nor is this union to be considered as mainly of the body, but yet more a union of the heart, its affections and love.

The second effect of this love should be an inviolable fidelity to one another. In olden times finger-rings were wont to be graven as seals. We read of it in Holy Scripture, and this explains the meaning of the marriage ceremony, when the Church, by the hand of her priest, blesses a ring, and gives it first to the man in token that she sets a seal on his heart by this Sacrament, so that no thought of any other woman may ever enter therein so long as she, who now is given to him, shall live. Then the bridegroom places the ring on the bride's hand, so that she in her turn may know that she must never conceive any affection in her heart for any other man so long as he shall live, who is now given to her by our Lord Himself.

The third fruit of marriage is the birth and bringing up of children. And herein, O ye married people! are you greatly honoured, in that God, willing to multiply souls to bless and praise Him to all Eternity, He associates you with Himself in this His work, by the production of bodies into which, like dew from Heaven, He infuses the souls He creates as well as the bodies into which they enter.'

St. Francis de Sales

[Shin]

'Another quality which he who governs should possess is justice. What are kingdoms without justice? Knowest thou what they are? They are very great robbery.'

St. Bernardine of Siena