Quote for the Night

[Shin]

'God the Logos, in becoming incarnate while remaining unchanged, was united through His flesh with the whole of creation.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan

[Shin]

'The marriage bed should be undefiled, as the Apostle tells us, i.e. pure, as it was when it was first instituted in the earthly Paradise, wherein no unruly desires or impure thought might enter. All that is merely earthly must be treated as means to fulfill the end God sets before His creatures. Thus we eat in order to preserve life, moderately, voluntarily, and without seeking an undue, unworthy satisfaction therefrom. "The time is short," says St. Paul; "it remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had not, and they that use this world, as not abusing it." Let every one, then, use this world according to his vocation, but so as not to entangle himself with its love, that he may be as free and ready to serve God as though he used it not. St. Augustine says that it is the great fault of men to want to enjoy things which they are only meant to use, and to use those which they are only meant to enjoy. We ought to enjoy spiritual things, and only use those which are material; but when we turn the use of these latter into enjoyment, the reasonable soul becomes degraded to a mere brutish level.'

St. Francis de Sales

[Shin]

'Directly that your worldly friends perceive that you aim at leading a devout life, they will let loose endless shafts of mockery and misrepresentation upon you; the more malicious will attribute your change to hypocrisy, designing, or bigotry; they will affirm that the world having looked coldly upon you, failing its favour you turn to God; while your friends will make a series of what, from their point of view, are prudent and charitable remonstrances. They will tell you that you are growing morbid; that you will lose your worldly credit, and will make yourself unacceptable to the world; they will prognosticate your premature old age, the ruin of your material prosperity; they will tell you that in the world you must live as the world does; that you can be saved without all this fuss; and much more of the like nature.

My daughter, all this is vain and foolish talk: these people have no real regard either for your bodily health or your material prosperity. "If ye were of the world," the Saviour has said, "the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."'

St. Francis de Sales

[Shin]

'I received your letter but I fail to understand it. In two different places you speak of obedience. In the first you say that you are ready to obey me, and in the second you say: "Because I would rather die than fail in obedience, I submit to the judgment of your reverence." Now, it seems to me that obedience seeks to be blind, and is blind in two ways: in the first it belongs to the inferior to submit his understanding, when there is no question of sin, and to do what is commanded of him; in the second it is also the inferior's duty, once the superior commands or has commanded something, to represent to the superior whatever considerations or disadvantages may occur to him, and to do so humbly and simply, without any attempt to draw the superior to either side, so that afterwards he can follow, with peace of mind, the way pointed out to him or commanded.

Now, applying this to your obedience, I am unable to understand it. For after you have given me many good arguments to persuade me to approve another teacher, you tell me elsewhere in your letter: "It has seemed good to me to write your reverence to ask you kindly to let me know whether I should change teachers or go on wasting my time."

You yourself can judge whether you are seeking to obey, or whether you are submitting your judgment to whatever decision I make. If you so abound in judgment of your own and are convinced that you are wasting your time, where is the submission of your judgment? Indeed, do you think that I am going to tell you to waste your time? May God our Lord never let me harm anyone when I cannot help him!

In another place you say: "I am truly sorry to have wasted these last eight months under this teacher but, nevertheless, if you think I should go on wasting it, I will continue with him." I recall that I told you, when you left here, that by the time you reached Paris the course in the Sumulas would have been in progress for two or three months, and that you should start by studying Latin for four or five months and then take the elements of the Sumulas for three or four months so that with this preparation you could begin the regular course the following year. But following your own ideas rather than mine, you saw fit to enter a course already two or three months in session. Judge for yourself who is the cause of your wasting time!'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

[Shin]

'When our sins frighten us, and we fear lest we should be damned, let us think of the merits of Jesus crucified, and hope will reanimate our spirit.'

St. Paul of the Cross

[Shin]

'Love, glory and praise be forever to the Heart of our adorable Saviour, for It is all love, all loving and all lovable!'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

[Shin]

'Lay to thy heart this example, which doth show thee how the Grace of God cometh to men. Seest thou those windows? One of them is wholly open, one open but a little way, and one less. Even by way of those which are shut fast there doth enter some of the Grace of God, since that there are certain tiny crevices therein. And by way of every one of those windows there doth enter something of the splendour of the sun, but here more and there less; for so much or so little brightness doth enter there within according as each is more or less open. So is it with those who wish for Grace from God, according as he doth dispose himself so hath he Grace: if he doth show himself very well disposed, God giveth him very much of it; if he doth show himself but little disposed, then God giveth him but little Grace. And to the man who doth shut himself away from it, even to him God would give of his Grace.'

St. Bernardine of Siena

[Shin]

'The keeping of God's commandments generates dispassion; the soul's dispassion preserves spiritual knowledge.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan

[Shin]

'Obedience is the true holocaust which we sacrifice to God on the altar of our hearts.'

St. Philip Neri

[Shin]

'I desire that thou mayest serve Me as an instrument to draw hearts to My love.'

The Lord, to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

[Shin]

'Let us throw ourselves into the arms of God, and be sure that if He wishes anything of us, He will make us good for all He desires us to do for Him.'

St. Philip Neri

[Shin]

'Provided He is pleased we ought to be satisfied, and ought not to be troubled about our feelings of dissatisfaction or annoyance; these arise within us only because we are not sufficiently mortified and simple-hearted to cut off the windings and reflections of self-love.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

[Shin]

'He who wishes to attain to perfection must have no attachment to anything.'

St. Philip Neri

[Shin]

'If you have not yet received the gift of prayer or psalmody, ask persistently, and you will receive.'

St. Nilus of Sinai

[Shin]

'He manifested Himself to us in soul, body and divinity so that, as God, He could deliver soul and body from death.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan

[Shin]

'Repentance engenders the keeping of the commandments, and this in its turn purifies the soul.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan