Quote for the Night

[George]

Exalt not yourself lest you fall
and bring upon you dishonor;
For then the Lord will reveal your secrets
and publicly cast you down,
because you approached the fear of the Lord
with your heart full of guile.
Sirach 1:27-29

[Shin]

"By what things a man sinneth by the same also he is tormented."

Wisdom 11:17

[George]

A stubborn man will fare badly in the end,
and he who loves danger will perish in it.
A stubborn man will be burdened with sorrow;
a sinner will heap sin upon sin.
For the affliction of the proud man there is no cure;
he is the offshoot of an evil plant.
The mind of a sage appreciates proverbs,
and an attentive ear is the wise man's joy.
Sirach 3:25-28

[Shin]

'By praying for those who wrong us we overthrow the devil; opposing them we are wounded by him.'

St. Mark the Ascetic

[Shin]

'A day will come, perhaps it is not far off, when we must bid goodbye to life, goodbye to the world, goodbye to our relations, goodbye to our friends. When shall we return, my children? Never. We appear upon this earth, we disappear, and we return no more; our poor body, that we take such care of, goes away into dust, and our soul, all trembling, goes to appear before the good God. When we quit this world, where we shall appear no more, when our last breath of life escapes, and we say our last goodbye, we shall wish to have passed our life in solitude, in the depths of a desert, far from the world and its pleasures. We have these examples of repentance before our eyes every day, my children, and we remain always the same. We pass our life gaily, without ever troubling ourselves about eternity. By our indifference to the service of the good God, one would think we were never going to die.'

St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars

[Shin]

'Bring before your eyes the blessings, whether physical or spiritual, conferred on you from the beginning of your life down to the present, and call them repeatedly to mind in accordance with the words: "Forget not all His benefits" (Ps. 103:2). Then your heart will readily be moved to the fear and love of God, so that you repay Him, as far as you can, by your strict life, virtuous conduct, devout conscience, wise speech, true faith and humility - in short, by dedicating your whole self to God.'

St. Mark the Ascetic

[Shin]

'You are happy in being chosen by God to enkindle his love in the hearts of others. To do this it is necessary to have deep humility and an entire distrust of self, besides zeal. We must act without haste and wait with peace and confidence until it pleases God to accomplish in those souls that which his grace alone is capable of doing and of which he alone must reap the glory.'

St. Claude de la Colombiere

[Shin]

'God operates in us no great thing, unless He finds in us perfect abnegation.'

St. Peter Julian Eymard

[Shin]

'O, that I had in the desert a wayfarer's shelter!'

Jeremias 9:2

[Shin]

'Human efforts inevitably fail unless God helps us; while God in His providence bestows every blessing without man's assistance.

What benefits were gained from their efforts by those to whom God said: 'You sowed much and gathered little, and I blew it away out of your hands' (cf. Hag. 1:9)?

And what did the righteous lack, though they gave no thought at all for their needs?

Were not the Israelites fed in the desert for forty years, without cultivating the land? They always had enough to eat, for in a strange and miraculous way quails came in from the sea and manna fell from the sky (cf. Exod. 16), and a dry rock, when struck, gushed water (cf. Exod. 17:6); and throughout the whole forty years their clothes and shoes never wore out (cf. Deut. 8:4). What land was tilled beside the brook Kerith where Elijah hid? Did not the ravens bring him food (cf. 1 Kgs. 17:6)? And when he came to Sarepta, did not the widow, despite her desperate need, give him bread, snatching it from the mouth other own children (cf. 1 Kgs. 17:10-16)?

All this shows that we should seek holiness, not clothing, food and drink.

Strange though all these things may seem, they are by no means impossible. A man can live without eating if God so wills. For how did Elijah complete a journey of forty days with the strength received from a single meal (cf. 1 Kgs. 19:8)? And how did Moses remain on the mountain in communion with God for eighty days without tasting human food? After forty days he came down and, enraged by the image of the calf which the Israelites had made, immediately he broke the tablets of stone engraved with the Law and went back up the mountain, remaining there for another forty days; and only then, after receiving two further tablets of stone, did he go down again to the people (cf. Exod. 24:12-18; 31:18-34: 3 5).

How can the human mind explain this miracle? How did his bodily nature survive without anything to replenish its daily loss of strength? This enigma is solved by the divine Logos, when He says: 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God’ (Matt. 4:4).

Why, then, do we drag the monastic way of life down from heaven to earth, burying ourselves in material anxieties?'

St. Nilus of Sinai

[Shin]

'What advantage do we gain in life from all our useless toil over worldly things? 'Is not all man's labor for the sake of his mouth' (Eccles. 6:7)?

Now, according to the Apostle (1 Tim. 6:8), 'food and raiment' are all we need to maintain our humble flesh. Why, then, as Solomon asks, do we labor endlessly 'for the wind’ (Eccles. 5:16)?

Through our anxiety about worldly things we hinder the soul from enjoying divine blessings and we bestow on the flesh greater care and comfort than are good for it.

We nourish it with what is harmful and thus make it an adversary, so that it not only wavers in battle but, because of over-indulgence, it fights vigorously against the soul, seeking honors and rewards. What in fact are the basic needs of the body that we use as a pretext when indulging an endless succession of desires? Simply bread and water.

Well, do not the springs provide running water in abundance, while bread is easily earned by those who have hands? In this way we can satisfy the needs of the body, while suffering little or no distraction. And does our clothing call for much care? Again, no - if we reject a stupid conformity to fashion, and consider only our actual needs. For what fine-spun clothing, what linen or purple or silk did the first man wear? Did not the Creator command him to wear a coat of skins and to eat herbs (cf. Gen. 3:18, 21)? Such were the limits He set to the needs of the body - far different from the civilized shamelessness of today.'

St. Nilus of Sinai

[Shin]

'If none can 'scape death's dreadful dart,
If rich and poor his beck obey,
If strong, if wise, if all do smart,
Then I to 'scape shall have no way.
Oh, grant me grace, O God, that I
My life may mend, sith I must die.'

St. Robert Southwell

[odhiambo]

The king shouted with a loud voice, " O Lord, the God of Daniel, how great You are. You alone are God" 
Bel and the Dragon: 41

[Shin]

How great Thou art! You alone are God!

 

[George]

I have what God wished me to have, and I want no more.
Saint Germaine Cousin

[Shin]

Thanks be to God.