Quote for the Night

[Shin]

'The joy of young men their strength: and the dignity of old men a gray head.'

Proverbs 20:29

[Shin]

So many people give up their dignity these days!

[Therese]

So many people give up their dignity these days!

Because they haven't the true Faith and haven't supernatural charity.  One must possess the true Faith to have supernatural charity, Shin.

[Shin]

'Burning coals were set ablaze by it.

Burning coals were set ablaze by it; namely, the saints are set ablaze by the fire from God. For since our God is a consuming fire, those who contemplate God with purity are likewise called burning coals. Being set ablaze in union with him, they appear as stars in the world.'

St. Isidore of Pelusium

[Therese]

'Burning coals were set ablaze by it.

Burning coals were set ablaze by it; namely, the saints are set ablaze by the fire from God. For since our God is a consuming fire, those who contemplate God with purity are likewise called burning coals. Being set ablaze in union with him, they appear as stars in the world.'

St. Isidore of Pelusium

How many people these days contemplate God for even a half an hour in the day and how many people these days have purity?  We must spend as much time as we can in prayer and contemplation and not in useless diversions and we must receive the Holy Eucharist if we wish to keep pure.  But how many people are attending the true Mass and are receiving the Holy Eucharist?  Less than 1% of the people who call themselves Catholic!  Is it any wonder that the world is so lost in impurity?  If it is impossible for a person to get transportation to the true Mass yet he prays assiduously and fervently for purity and practices custody of the senses, he can be pure; for our Lord will supply the grace to him.  

How many people these days spend good time in prayer and believe in practicing custody of the senses?  Too Many live smugly in this perilous world half-asleep, very off-guard and occupied with and enamored by things that won't really help them get to heaven.  I feel the need to quote Mystical City of God here:

"Act as one who lives in a castle surrounded by enemies, and who perchance must go to the gate to transact necessary business.  He acts with such wariness, that he will pay more attention to safeguard his retreat and shield himself, than to transact business with others, being always on the watch and on the guard against danger."--Our Lady to Ven. Mary of Agreda, Mystical City of God, Vol. II, 279

This is how we must guard our purity and modestly--this and fervent and assiduous prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  And this and prayer is how to be prudent and not deceived by the world with all of its snares.  How deceived is the worldling!  How deceived is he when he spends more time in diversions than in contemplating his Lord!  And how impossible it is for him to contemplate his Lord in purity when he doesn't even receive the true Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ or practice the means to keep pure!

[Therese]

"The Lord brings his servants to eternal life by mortification; but the devil leads sinners to everlasting death by pleasure and self-indulgence."

--St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

[Therese]

"Catholics who remain faithful to Tradition, even if they are reduced to but a handful, they are THE TRUE CHURCH."
--Saint Athanasius, "Apostle of Tradition" AD 373

[Shin]

I find the burning coals quote truly inspiring to read!

[Therese]

"In order to save ourselves we must be in constant fear of falling.'
--St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

[Shin]

'He, Christ is the splendor of eternal glory, "the brightness of eternal light, and the mirror without cloud."

Behold, I say, the birth of this mirror. Behold Christ's poverty even as he was laid in the manger and wrapped in swaddling clothes. What wondrous humility, what marvelous poverty! The King of angels, the Lord of heaven and earth resting in a manger! Look more deeply into the mirror and meditate on his humility, or simply on his poverty. Behold the many labors and sufferings he endured to redeem the human race. Then, in the depths of this very mirror, ponder his unspeakable love which caused him to suffer on the wood of the cross and to endure the most shameful kind of death. The mirror himself, from his position on the cross, warned passers-by to weigh carefully this act, as he said: "All of you who pass by this way, behold and see if there is any sorrow like mine." Let us answer his cries and lamentations with one voice and one spirit: "I will be mindful and remember, and my soul will be consumed within me."

St. Clare of Assisi, a letter to Blessed Agnes of Prague

[Shin]

'This is the way with all heretics; they are continually contradicting themselves.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

[Shin]

'I am resolved no longer to be guided by my own ideas; dispose of me as you think best.'

St. Alphonsus Rodriguez

[Shin]

'It is not lawful to differ even by a single word from the evangelical and apostolic doctrine, or to think otherwise than as the blessed Apostles and our fathers learned and taught concerning the Holy Scriptures.'

Pope St. Leo the Great

[Shin]

'Do not condemn today as base and wicked the man whom yesterday you praised as good and commended as virtuous, changing from love to hatred, because he has criticized you; but even though you are still full of resentment, commend him as before, and you will soon recover the same saving love.'

St. Maximos the Confessor

[Shin]

'All God's gifts of grace are flawless and the source of every­thing good; but the gift which inflames our heart and moves it to the love of His goodness more than any other is theology. It is the early offspring of God's grace and bestows on the soul the greatest gifts. First of all, it leads us gladly to disregard all love of this life, since in the place of perishable desires we possess inexpressible riches, the oracles of God. Then it embraces our intellect with the light of a transforming fire, and so makes it a partner of the angels in their liturgy. Therefore, when we have been made ready, we begin to long sincerely for this gift of contemplative vision, for it is full of beauty, frees us from every worldly care, and nourishes the intellect with divine truth in the radiance of inexpressible light. In brief, it is the gift which, through the help of the holy prophets, unites the deiform soul with God in unbreakable communion. So, among men as among angels, divine theology -- like one who conducts the wedding feast - brings into harmony the voices of those who praise God's majesty.'

St. Diadochos of Photiki

[Shin]

'Just as the gardener who does not weed his garden chokes his vegetables, so the intellect that does not purify its thoughts is wasting its efforts.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan