Quote for the Night

[Shin]

'Raise up thine eyes , my soul, and behold that crucified man. Behold the Divine Lamb now sacrificed upon that altar of pain. Consider that He is the Beloved Son of the Eternal Father; and consider that He is dead for the love that He has borne thee. See how He holds His arms outstretched to embrace thee; His head bent down to give the kiss of peace; His side open to receive thee into His heart. What dost thou say? Does not a God so loving deserve to be loved? Listen to the words He addresses to thee from that cross: “Look, my son, and see whether there be any one in the world who has loved thee more than I have.”'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

[Shin]

'And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: which was as it were coriander seed white, and the taste thereof like to flour with honey.

And Moyses said: This is the word, which our Lord hath commanded: fill an omer of it, and let it be kept unto the generations to come hereafter: that they may know the bread, wherewith I fed you in the wilderness, when you were brought forth out of the Land of Ægypt.

And Moyses said to Aaron: Take one vessel, and put Manna into it, so much as a omer can hold: and lay it up before our Lord to keep unto your generations: as our Lord commanded Moyses. And Aaron put it in the tabernacle to be reserved.'

Exodus 16:31-34

[Shin]

'Every virtue in your soul is a precious ornament which makes you dear to God and to man. But holy purity, the queen of virtues, the angelic virtue, is a jewel so precious that those who possess it become like the angels of God in Heaven, even though clothed in mortal flesh.'

St. John Bosco

[Shin]

'Be faithful to correspond with the wonderful graces which you have received from Our Lord; they are a preparation for greater graces and more sublime lights, which will cause you to love God more, to acquire more solid virtue, and to practise it in a more heroic degree.'

St. Paul of the Cross

[Shin]

'The sorrow of Mary is like the Mediterranean Sea, for it is written, "Your sorrow is great as the sea." From that sea we pass to a second sea, which has no limits; it is the Passion of Our Lord, of which the Royal Prophet said, "I am entered on the high sea." There the soul enriches herself in fishing for the priceless pearls of virtue.'

St. Paul of the Cross

[Shin]

'Blessed the one who has made his fellow servants glad with spiritual gladness from the fruit of the virtues, which he planted by toiling to give back the fruit of life in the Lord.'

St. Ephrem of Syria

[Shin]

'It would be monstrous ingratitude to receive daily many blessings of Divine Goodness, and not to acknowledge your gratitude, if not in deeds, at any rate, in words and canticles.

Besides that, if this gratitude is due to Him, it is no less advantageous to ourselves. God has no need of us, but we have every need of Him.

The thanksgiving which we offer to Him, adds nothing to what He is, but it helps us to love Him more, and to repose a greater confidence in Him.

For if the remembrance of benefits we have received from men, induces us to love them more, there can be no doubt, that meditating on the graces which Almighty God has showered upon us, we should naturally feel more desire to love HIm, more prompt to obey Him.'

St.  John Chrysostom

[Shin]

'As for me, I am cheerful, tranquil and content, only because I am doing the will of God. I proclaim that I want to live and die with total abandonment to him. Is it not a great thing for a soul to know with certainty that one is fulfilling the divine will?'

St. Gaspar del Bufalo

[odhiambo]

    To come to enjoy what you have not
     you must go by a way in which you enjoy not.

    To come to the knowledge you have not
     you must go by a way in which you know not.

    To come to the possession you have not
     you must go by a way in which you possess not.

    To come to be what you are not
     you must go by a way in which you are not.

St. John of the Cross,
The Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Book 1, Ch 13, 11

[Shin]

St. John of the Cross reminds me of St. John the Apostle!


'The more you devote yourself to study of the sacred utterances, the richer will be your understanding of them, just as the more the soil is tilled, the richer the harvest.'

St. Isidore of Seville

[Shin]

'Failure to obtain pleasure induces a culpable kind of distress he who scorns pleasure is free from distress.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan

[Shin]

'In God's sight, our cross is as a precious balm which loses its aroma on exposure to the air; therefore we must make every effort to hide our cross and carry it in silence.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

[Shin]

'"He that loveth his life (in this world) shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal." (John 12:25).

These are Thy words. To love one's life in this world means to surrender oneself to bodily pleasure and sin, to obey one's self-will, to run away (from duty) in order to escape contempt, to hold bitter resentment against people who offend us. To hate one's life means to practise (dutiful) motification generously, to deny one's self-will, to hunt contempt (when to do so is in accord with duty,) to return good for evil. Have I done this? Alas for Me!

Alas! Jesus' lips condemn me! Have I failed to be counted among those who hate their own life?'

St. Anthony Mary Claret, meditations

[odhiambo]

"To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible."

St. Thomas Aquinas

[Shin]

'Let none rashly think that he may despise the holy and Catholic testimonies of the Fathers: whosoever despises them, scattered by Providence over ages and nations, when they are unanimous on any Catholic dogma, does not despise them, but God. It is necessary for all Catholics, who are ambitious of being legitimate sons of the Church, to adhere, unite to, and persevere in the faith of the Fathers; but to reject, detest, and persecute all profane novelties.'

St. Vincent of Lerins

[Shin]

'We truly love God and keep His commandments if we restrain ourselves from our pleasures. For he who still abandons himself to unlawful desires certainly does not love God, since he contradicts Him in his own intentions. . . Therefore, he loves God truly, whose mind is not conquered by consent to evil delight. For the more one takes pleasure in lower things, the more he is separated from heavenly love.'

Pope St. Gregory the Great