Quote for the Night

[Shin]

'If someone shuts a snake and a scorpion up in a bottle, in time, they will be completely destroyed. So it is with evil thoughts: they are suggested by the demons; they disappear through patience.'

St. Poemen

[Shin]

'The best perfection is to do ordinary things in a perfect manner. Constant fidelity in little things is a great and heroic virtue.'

St. Bonaventure

[Shin]

'. . . in the early days of the faith few indeed -- but they were very upright -- were regarded as monks, and they had received that form of life from the evangelist Mark of blessed memory, who was the first to rule as bishop over the city of Alexandria. They not only retained then those magnificent qualities that we read in the Acts of the Apostles were originally cultivated by the Church and by the throngs of believers but to these they even added things far more lofty. . . they went off to quite secluded places on the outskirts of the city and led a strict life of such rigorous abstinence that even those who did not share their religion were astonished at the arduous profession of their way of life. For day and night they gave themselves over to the reading of Holy Scripture, to prayer, and to manual labor with such fervor that the very appetite for and memory of food only disturbed them every second or third day, when their bodies felt hunger, and they would take food and drink not so much out of desire as out of necessity. Indeed, they would not do this before sunset, so as to link the daytime with the pursuit of spiritual meditation but the care of the body with the night. And other things they did that were far more lofty than these. . .'

St. John Cassian

[Shin]

'It is good to help enquirers with words; but it is better to co-operate with them through prayer and the practice of virtue. For he who through these offers himself to God, helps his neighbor through helping himself.'

St. Mark the Ascetic

[Shin]

'I shall have no peace until I have wrested every last infant from Protestant hands.'

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini

[Shin]

'He who tests all things and "holds fast that which is good" (1 Thess. 5: 21) will in consequence refrain from all evil.'

St. Mark the Ascetic

[Shin]

'The bruised reed he shall not break, and smoking flax he shall not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.'

Isaiah 42:3

[Shin]

'If you are silent, you will possess peace wherever you live.'

St. Poemen

[Shin]

'We need no wings to go in search of Him, but have only to look upon Him present within us.'

St. Teresa of Jesus

[Shin]

'As for those who radiate the beauty of the soul, the longer time goes by and test their proper nobility, the warmer they make their husband's love and the more they strengthen their affection for him. Since this is so, and since a warm and genuine friendship holds between them, every kind of immorality is driven out. Not even any thought of wantonness ever enters the mind of the man who truly loves his own wife, but he continues always content with her. By his chastity he attracts the good will and protection of God for his whole household. This is how the good men of ancient times used to take wives, seeking nobility of soul rather than monetary wealth.'

St. John Chrysostom

[Shin]

'In the face of the never-ceasing snares of the enemy, it is necessary to have each day a fixed hour for review, to enter into one's self and consider carefully, in presence of God, all one's thoughts, words, and actions.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

[Shin]

'The truly monk-like intellect is one that has renounced the senses and cannot stand even the thought of sensual pleasure.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan