Quote for the Night

[Shin]

'Man's value before God is estimated by the dispositions of his heart, its uprightness, its good-will, its charity, and not by keenness of intellect or extent of knowledge.'

Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich

[Shin]

'We can tell Him all the secrets of our heart, disclosing our want and misery to Him Who alone can remedy them, and saying: O Friend of my heart, she whom Thou lovest is sick. Visit and heal me, for I well know that Thou canst not love me and yet leave me alone in my distress.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

[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]

'When the devil finds someone preoccupied needlessly with bodily things, he first deprives him of the hard-won fruits of spiritual knowledge, and then cuts off his hope in God.'

St. Mark the Ascetic

[Shin]

'To avoid dissensions we should be ever on our guard, more especially with those who drive us to argue with them, with those who vex and irritate us, and who say things likely to excite us to anger. When we find ourselves in company with quarrelsome, eccentric individuals, people who openly and unblushingly say the most shocking things, difficult to put up with, we should take refuge in silence, and the wisest plan is not to reply to people whose behavior is so preposterous. Those who insult us and treat us contumeliously are anxious for a spiteful and sarcastic reply: the silence we then affect disheartens them, and they cannot avoid showing their vexation; they do all they can to provoke us and to elicit a reply, but the best way to baffle them is to say nothing, refuse to argue with them, and to leave them to chew the cud of their hasty anger. This method of bringing down their pride disarms them, and shows them plainly that we slight and despise them.'

St. Ambrose of Milan

[Shin]

'Be very quick to turn away from whatever leads or allurs to lewd conduct, for this evil works without our knowing it and from small beginnings moves on to great difficulties. Such things are always easier to avoid than to cure.'

St. Francis de Sales

[Shin]

'Consider the shortness of time, the length of eternity and reflect how everything here below comes to an end and passes by. Of what use is it to lean upon that which cannot give support?'

St. Gerard Majella

[Shin]

'As a mother feels no disgust in dressing the sores of her child, so Mary, the heavenly infirmarian, never refuses to care for sinners who have recourse to her.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

[Shin]

'The true preparation for prayer consists in the exercise of mortification; for he who wishes to give himself up to prayer without mortification, is like a bird wishing to fly before it is fledged.'

St. Philip Neri

[Shin]

'Lord, if thou knowest that I shall find, on leaving the house, even through obedience, an occasion of offending Thee, I conjure thee to take away my life here, where Thou art really present, for Thou soley art my life, and I prefer a thousand deaths to causing Thee the slightest displeasure.'

St. Alphonsus Rodriguez

[Shin]

'How beautiful to look upon is the starry firmament! Yet it is only the portal of the blessed country where I hope to go one day.'

St. Paul of the Cross

[Shin]

'One thing I have asked of the Lord; this will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. (Ps. xxvi. 4.) I will take the chalice of salvation, and will call upon the name of the Lord. (Ps. cxv. 4)'

St. Peter Balsam, singing during his tortures on the rack

[Shin]

'When we become unduly distressed at falling ill, we should recognize that our soul is still the slave of bodily desires and so longs for physical health, not wishing to lose the good things of this life and even finding it a great hardship not to be able to enjoy them because of illness. If, however, the soul accepts thankfully the pains of illness, it is clear that it is not far from the realm of dispassion; as a result it even waits joyfully for death as the entry into a life that is more true.'

St. Diadochos of Photiki

[Shin]

'Our actions disclose what goes on within us, just as its fruit makes known a tree otherwise unknown to us.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan

[Shin]

'The remembrance of God is suffering of heart endured in a spirit of devotion. But he who forgets God becomes self-indulgent and insensitive.'

St. Mark the Ascetic

[Shin]

'God, who is eternal, limitless and infinite, has promised eternal, limitless and inexpressible blessings to those who obey him.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan