Little Mirrors

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

St. Clare

'And God said: Let there be light. And there was light.'

Genesis 1:3

'The light of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye is pure, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness'

Matt. 6:22-3

We are all like little mirrors, in which God contemplates Himself. How can you expect that God should recognize His likeness in an impure soul?'

St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney

'O refulgent mirror, who illumine those who look at you and recognize their deformities.'

St. Catherine of Bologna

'A person's soul should be clean, like a mirror reflecting light. If there is rust on the mirror his face cannot be seen in it. In the same way, no one who has sin within him can see God.'

St. Theophilus of Antioch

'I am He Who Is, and you are she who is not.'

The Lord, to St. Catherine of Siena in a vision

'All vices must first be eradicated by the practice of good works in the active life, so that, the mind's eye being purified, one may advance to the contemplation of God in the contemplative life.'

St. Isidore of Seville

'Love, unchangeable tranquility and our adoption as children of God are different from each other only in name. As light, fire and flame are present in the selfsame operation, so are these three manifestations of the Spirit. When someone is completely permeated with the love of God, the brightness of his soul is reflected by his whole personality as if in a mirror. Therefore the one who loves God also loves his brother or sister. Indeed, the second love is the proof of the first.'

St. John Climacus

:'. . . the heart of Mary became, as it were, a mirror of the Passion of the Son, in which might be seen, faithfully reflected, the spitting, the blows and wounds, and all that Jesus suffered.'

St. Lawrence Justinian

'The Gospel not only teaches the faith, it is the school of morals, the mirror of conversation.'

St. Ambrose of Milan

'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

'Holiness is something so great and precious that one cannot pay too much for it.'

St. Claude de la Colombiere

'Blessed the one the eyes of whose heart have been enlightened as he ever mirrors the Lord, for such a one has been unburdened of the passions and evil thoughts.'

St. Ephrem of Syria