Quote for the Night

[Shin]

'Blessed the one who stands in the assembly and prays like an Angel from heaven, keeping his thoughts pure day by day, and has given no entrance to the Evil One to make his soul a prisoner, far from God his Saviour.'

St. Ephrem of Syria

[Shin]

'Just as men take pride in having others wear their livery, so the Most Holy Mary is pleased when her servants wear her scapular as a mark that they have dedicated themselves to her service, and are members of the family of the Mother of God.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

[Shin]

'I have always something to repent for after having talked, but have never been sorry for having been silent.'

St. Arsenius

[Shin]

'If, during life, we have been kind to the suffering souls in purgatory, God will see that help be not denied us after death.'

St. Paul of the Cross

[Shin]

'If we are men of prayer, God will make use of us, although poor and miserable, for the greatest triumphs of His glory; unless we are men of prayer, we can accomplish no good.'

St. Paul of the Cross

[Shin]

'On the other hand, St. John Chrysostom affirms that the ruin of the Church is the great eagerness of sacred orators, not to move their hearers to compunction, but to please them with fine words; as if they came to hear a singer chant a piece of sacred music in the pulpit. "Such preachers," continues the saint, "act like a father who gives to his sick child what it wants. Such a one, however, does not deserve the name of father. This happens every time that one seeks flowery language, not to inspire compunction, but to win vain praise." Yes, reverend Sir, there are many sacred orators who delight their auditory by their elegant and pompous diction, and attract crowds to their sermons. But I would wish to know how many of those who are so highly pleased with their discourses, full of elegance and ornament, leave the church with a contrite heart, and afterwards amend their lives.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

[Shin]

'Let us not doubt that baptized babies who die in their infant years will enter into the heavenly Kingdom. We should not, however, believe that all those infants who have begun to speak will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. For the entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven will be closed to many babies because of their parents' bad rearing. In this city, there lives a certain man who is known to all; three years ago, this man had a son who, if I recall, would then have been about five years old, for whom he had such human love that he did not even try to discipline him.

For this reason, the boy, when someone prevented him from getting his way, used to blaspheme the magnificence of God - and let me emphasize that this is something dangerous.

When, three years ago, a deadly plague fell upon the region where he lived, this young boy succumbed to it and was near death. As eyewitnesses recounted, while the father took the child into his arms, the boy himself saw evil spirits coming for him. The boy began to tremble, to blink his eyes in fear, and to cry out in despair to his father: "Father, save me, protect me." Simultaneously, as he cried, he turned his face towards his father's chest, as though wanting to be hidden.

When the father saw his son trembling, in agony he asked him what he had seen. The son answered: "Black creatures came to me and wanted to take me away with them." No sooner had he finished this phrase, than he immediately blasphemed the name of the Divine Magnificence and, with this blasphemy, expired.

Thus, God, the All-Powerful, in order to show by what sin the boy was given over to these evil servants, allowed him to die with this sin which his father, while the boy was alive, did nothing to prevent. And this boy whom God allowed, by His mercy, to live as a blasphemer, by His righteous judgment was also permitted to blaspheme at his death, so that his careless father might know well his sin. For this father, being indifferent to the soul of his young son, reared for the Gehenna of fire not an insignificant sinner, but a great sinner.'

Pope St. Gregory the Great

[Shin]

'The effect of observing the commandments is to free from passion our conceptual images of things. The effect of spiritual reading and contemplation is to detach the intellect from form and matter. It is this which gives rise to undistracted prayer.'

St. Maximos the Confessor

[Shin]

'It happens sometimes that the demons suggest some thoughts to you and then urge you to pray against them, to oppose them, and then quickly withdraw to make you fall into delusion, imagining that you have already begun to conquer thoughts and to intimidate the demons.'

St. Nilus of Sinai

[Shin]

'A great means to preserve continual peace and tranquility of soul is to receive everything from the hands of God, both great and small, and in whatever way it comes.'

St. Dorotheus

[Shin]

'Keep the commandments, and you will find peace; love God, and you will attain spiritual knowledge.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan

[Shin]

'God has no need of your money, but the poor have. You give it to the poor, and God receives it.'

St. Augustine

[Shin]

'All men are made in God's image; but to be in His likeness is granted only to those who through great love have brought their own freedom into subjection to God. For only when we do not belong to ourselves do we become like Him who through love has reconciled us to Himself. No one achieves this unless he persuades his soul not to be distracted by the false glitter of this life.'

St. Diadochos of Photiki

[Shin]

'If it happens that the authority of Sacred Scripture is set in opposition to clear and certain reasoning, this must mean that the person who interprets Scripture does not understand it correctly. It is not the meaning of Scripture that is opposed to the truth, but the meaning that he has wanted to give it.'

St. Augustine

[Shin]

'Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, do I give unto you.'

John 14:27

[Shin]

'Be humble and courageous in not giving way to despondency on account of your faults or of the slight vexations and humiliations with which you may meet.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

[Shin]

'First of all, we know that God is the beginning, middle and end of everything good; and it is impossible for us to have faith in anything good or to carry it into effect except in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit.'

St. Mark the Ascetic