Quote for the Night

[Shin]

'I am the Lord who search the heart and prove the reins: who give to every one according to his way, and according to the fruit of his devices.

Jeremias 17:10

[Shin]

'Most excellent masters and doctors: When I entered Moravia, I worked with all my might against the lying heresies of the Bohemians, as, indeed, I was in duty bound to do. Undeterred by threats or fear of violence, I spoke in public and to the best of my ability to confute that impious doctrine of theirs that it was necessary for salvation to communicate under both kinds. And so it came to pass that more than 4,000 barons, nobles, and priests renounced the Hussite heresy in my hands, besides many other persons who live under the rule of said barons.'

St. John of Capistrano

[Shin]

'Be faithful to the practice of virtue, never willfully neglecting any occasion thereof.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

[Shin]

'When we misuse the soul's powers their evil aspects dominate us. For instance, misuse of our power of intelligence results in ignorance and stupidity; misuse of our incensive power and of our desire produces hatred and licentiousness. The proper use of these powers produces spiritual knowledge, moral judgment, love and self-restraint. This being so, nothing created and given existence by God is evil.'

St. Maximos the Confessor

[Shin]

'Of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist it is written: "This morning my soul is greater than the world since it possesses You, You whom heaven and earth do not contain."'

St. Margaret of Cortona

[Shin]

'Question the beauty of the earth, the sea, the air distending and diffusing itself, the sky. . . question all these realities. All respond: "See, we are beautiful." These beauties are subject to change. Who made them if not the Beautiful One who is not subject to change?'

St. Augustine

[Shin]

'Prayer ought to be humble, fervent, resigned, persevering, and accompanied with great reverence. One should consider that he stands in the presence of a God, and speaks with a Lord before whom the angels tremble from awe and fear.'

St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi

[Shin]

'You must practice, at one and the same time, interior and exterior mortification; but with this difference, that you must give yourself up to the first particularly, always, and without exception; to the second, on the contrary, only as far as circumstances and the particular condition of persons and occasions will permit.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

[Shin]

'I think that this fear which Our Lord makes you feel is the result of His very great love for you; for seeing that your love for Him is not powerful enough to make you do good and avoid evil, He mingles fear with love, that the two together may make you do what He desires of you.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

[Shin]

'Enclose your senses in the citadel of stillness so that they do not involve the intellect in their desires.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan

[Shin]

'It is for this reason that I wish you to be diligent in the study of your own nothingness, that this nothingness may be absorbed, so to speak, in the immensity of God, Who is all.'

St. Paul of the Cross

[Shin]

'Progress in the various spiritual exercises is in proportion to the renunciation that one makes of his self-love, his will, and all his pleasures.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

[Shin]

'Ah, my Jesus, by what power was it that Thy hands and Thy feet were nailed to this wood, but by the love Thou didst bear to men?'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

'O my Jesus, when I behold Thee upon this tree, I find nothing in Thee from head to foot but pain and sorrow.'

St. Bernard

'O my soul, behold thy Lord, behold thy life, hanging upon that tree: And thy life shall be, as it were, hanging before thee. [Deut. xxviii. 66]'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

[Shin]

'In addition let us welcome the times of psalmody, be enthusiastic for hymnody, attentive to the readings, making prostrations according to the given measure at each hour; working with our own hands, because working is good and because one who does not work is not judged worthy of eating. Let us bear one anothers' burdens, for one is weak and another strong, making use of food and drink and the other necessities with moderation, so that there is no provoking to jealousy among evil people, but zeal in goodness. In everything be good to one another, compassionate, reasonable, obedient, full of mercy and good fruits, and the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and thoughts. And now, may you be found worthy without condemnation to reach the supreme day of the Resurrection, but in the age to come at the resurrection of the dead to gain the kingdom of heaven in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory and the might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.'

St. Theodore the Studite

[Shin]

'Jesus Christ, then, rose with the glory of possessing all power in heaven and earth, not as God alone, but as a man; wherefore all angels and men are subject to him. Let us rejoice in thus seeing in glory our Saviour, our Father, and the best friend that we possess. And let us rejoice for ourselves, because the resurrection of Jesus Christ is for us a sure pledge of our own resurrection, and of the glory that we hope one day to have in heaven, both in soul and in body. This hope gave courage to the holy martyrs to suffer with gladness all the evils of this life, and the most cruel torments of tyrants. We must rest assured, however, that none will rejoice with Jesus Christ but they who are willing to suffer in this world with him. . .'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

'Let us consider the glory of our Redeemer when he arose from the sepulchre, after having vanquished Satan, and delivered the human race from bondage. How great is the folly of the sinner who, having been once delivered from the tyranny of the devil, consents to become again his slave for some wretched gain or some miserable pleasure of this world! Let us pray to the Blessed Virgin to unite us by love so closely to Jesus Christ that we may never again by mortal sin become the slaves of Lucifer.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

[Shin]

'Shall we all be saved? Shall we go to Heaven? Alas, my children, we do not know at all! But I tremble when I see so many souls lost these days. See, they fall into Hell as leaves fall from the trees at the approach of winter.'

St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars