Quote for the Night

[Shin]

Just so, you have to think of the long term!

'Nothing will draw down on you as many of God's blessings as fidelity in small matters.'

St. Jean Baptiste de la Salle

[Shin]

'Let us now return to our orchard, or flower-garden, and behold now how the trees begin to fill with sap for the bringing forth of the blossoms, and then of the fruit -- the flowers and the plants, also, their fragrance. This illustration pleases me; for very often, when I was beginning -- and our Lord grant that I have really begun to serve His Majesty -- I mean, begun in relation to what I have to say of my life, -- it was to me a great joy to consider my soul as a garden, and our Lord as walking in it. I used to beseech Him to increase the fragrance of the little flowers of virtues -- which were beginning, as it seemed to bud -- and preserve them, that they might be to His glory; for I desired nothing for myself. I prayed Him to cut those He liked, because I already knew that they would grow the better.'

St. Teresa of Avila

[Shin]

'Our sweet Christ, the Word Incarnate, has given Himself to us for everything that was necessary for us, even to the hard and ignominious death upon the cross.'

St. Philip Neri

[Shin]

'Do whatever your flesh can endure; neither force it beyond measure nor on the other hand abandon it to slackness; for if you load a ship beyond its usual burden, it will readily be sunk by its weight, but if on the contrary you leave it too light, it is easily overturned by the winds. By the grace of God, brother, I understand my natural capacity and know how to regulate my food.'

St. Daniel the Stylite

[Shin]

'Jesus expires on the cross! He is dead that we may have life. All creation mourns: the sun darkens, the earth trembles, the rocks burst, and the veil of the temple is rent in twain; my heart alone remains harder than a rock!'

St. Paul of the Cross

[Shin]

'Jews, heretics or heathens, belong not to God's friendship but to this world's peace. But the peace of the spiritual and of Catholics coming down from above and leading upwards refuses to hold communion with the lovers of the world, resists all obstacles and flies from pernicious pleasures to true joys, as the Lord says: "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matthew 6:21)."'

Pope St. Leo the Great

[Therese]

The Church is the only one, the Roman Catholic! And if there were left upon earth but one Catholic, he would be the one, universal Church, the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ against which the gates of Hell shall never prevail.

- Ven. Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824)

[Therese]

The judgment of God may be compared to a mirror. It is not the mirror's fault if the face it reflects is hideous.

- Saint Jerome

[Therese]

Matters have come to this pass: the people have left their houses of prayer and assembled in the deserts, -- a pitiable sight; women and children, old men, and men otherwise inform, wretchedly faring in the open air, amid most profuse rains and snow-storms and winds and frosts of winter; and again in summer under a scorching sun. To this they submit because they will have no part of the wicked Arian leaven.

- St. Basil the Great (ca. 330-ca. 379), Epistulae 242 (in 376)

[Shin]

The judgment of God may be compared to a mirror. It is not the mirror's fault if the face it reflects is hideous.

- Saint Jerome

We have to look at the reality -- what we really are!

[Therese]

The judgment of God may be compared to a mirror. It is not the mirror's fault if the face it reflects is hideous.

- Saint Jerome

We have to look at the reality -- what we really are!

Yes, and we can not blame anyone but ourselves when we see our ugliness in the mirror.  It is not God's or anyone else's fault that we do not appear in the mirror as beautiful, patient, docile saints.  Nobody--not even the devil--can cause us to sin or to be unfaithful and uncharitable; we ourselves are the cause.  God bless you.

[Shin]

'There is no doubt that, if man could perceive the many difficulties thrown by self-love in the way of his own good, he would no longer allow himself to be deceived by it; and its malignity is the more to be dreaded because it is so powerful that were but one grain of it in the world would be sufficient to corrupt all mankind. Wherefore I conclude that self-love is the root of all evils which exist in this world and in the other. Behold Lucifer, whose present state is the result of following the suggestions of his self-love; and in ourselves it seems to me even worse. Our father Adam has so contaminated us that to my eyes the evil appears almost incurable, for it so penetrates our veins, our nerves, our bones, that we can neither say nor think nor do anything which is not full of the poison of this love - not even those thoughts and deeds which are directed toward the purification of the spirit.'

St. Catherine of Genoa

[Shin]

'Even the holiest desires, whether they refer to the salvation of souls or the needs of the Church, which are very great, should be consumed in the fire of the love of God, whence they proceed, and await God's time for their fulfilment. Meanwhile cultivate one only desire, the most perfect of all; that is, to please God more and more, and to nourish yourself with His will.'

St. Paul of the Cross

[Shin]

'Behold the King of heaven, who, hanging on that gibbet, is now on the point of giving up the ghost. Let us, too, ask of him, with the prophet: What are those wounds in the middle of Thy hands? Tell me, O my Jesus, what are these wounds in the middle of Thy hands? The Abbot Rupert makes answer for Jesus: "They are the memorials of charity, the price of redemption." They are tokens, says the Redeemer, of the great love which I bear towards you; they are the payment by which I set you free from the hands of your enemies, and from eternal death.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

[Shin]

'The earth under the ancient curse brought forth thorns and thistles; but now the Church beholds it laughing with flowers and restored by the grace of a new benediction. Mindful of the verse, "My heart danceth for joy, and in my song will I praise Him", she refreshes herself with the fruits of His Passion which she gathers from the Tree of the Cross, and with the flowers of His Resurrection whose fragrance invites the frequent visits of her Spouse.'

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

[Shin]

'Brethren and fathers, at Christ's resurrection creation too, putting away its winter gloom, like a deadness puts out fresh shoots and as it were comes to life again. And yes, we see the earth wearing green, the plants flourishing, the animals skipping around, the sea tamed and everything being changed for the better.

But I must explain why I have said this. If inanimate and irrational creatures are made radiant and lovely by the resplendent resurrection, how much more ought we, who have been honoured with reason and the image of God, make ourselves bright by our life and give off sweet fragrance by the spirit. For one who strives after virtue is truly the sweet fragrance of Christ, and the Apostle bears witness to this when he says, For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ for God among those who are being saved and those who are perishing, for the latter a scent of death leading to death, for the former an scent of life leading to life [2 Cor. 2,15-16].'

St. Theodore the Studite (A.D. 759 - 826)