Quote for the Day

[odhiambo]

'In the spiritual life no storm is more formidable than calmness itself, nor an adversary more dangerous than the absence of adversaries.'
St. Ignatius of Loyola

[odhiambo]

I need help to understand St. Ignatius of Loyola's quote above.

[odhiambo]

I felt pain in seeing my dear God so offended. I could faint from seeing so many souls lost for not feeling the fruit of the Passion of Jesus. A desire to convert all sinners will not leave me.

Saint Paul of the Cross.

[Shin]

'In the spiritual life no storm is more formidable than calmness itself, nor an adversary more dangerous than the absence of adversaries.'
St. Ignatius of Loyola

I think the quotes on false peace would probably be the answer.

And these two too.

'No one ought to consider himself a true servant of God who is not tried by many temptations and trials.'

St. Francis of Assisi

'Without temptation, no one can be saved. . . Whoever has not experienced temptation cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.'

St. Anthony of Egypt

There isn't a selection series up on true peace yet, which is quite beautiful to read of and think on.

[odhiambo]

Thank you Shin.
You are right. I have read the quotes on false peace and they have helped me to understand what St. Ignatius meant.

[Shin]

Glad to hear it!

[odhiambo]

Glad to hear it!

It frightened me a little though 
Now I want temptations 

[odhiambo]

What prayer could be more true before God the Father than that which the Son, who is Truth, uttered with His own lips?
Saint John Chrysostom

[odhiambo]

'Fear of God is of two kinds. The first is generated in us by the threat of punishment. It is through such fear that we develop in due order self-control, patience, hope in God and dispassion; and it is from dispassion that love comes. The second kind of fear is linked with love and constantly produces reverence in the soul, so that it does not grow indifferent to God because of the intimate com­munion of its love.'
St. Maximos the Confessor

[odhiambo]

When we are sorry for our sins because of fear of punishment, it is imperfect contrition.
On the other hand, if it is the love of God that has triggered our regret and contrition, then that is perfect contrition.
My thoughts, not a quote.

[Shin]

Haha, I know you know we should seek not them out. But if we are seeking to be virtuous we are certain to be opposed in that and so there they will be.

I become horrified when I think about the difference between a natural life and a supernatural life, and reflect on my life and past and what has changed and what has not.

I remember reading that there had to be a supernatural motivation.. When I think about the difference between natural desires and supernatural ones, natural virtuous and supernatural virtues, infused by the grace of God..

I wonder and think a great deal and try to discern.



'Moreover it is all the more remarkable that the more we submit to God's will, the more He tries to meet our wishes. It would seem that as soon as we make it our sole aim to obey Him, He on His part does His best to try and please us. Not only does He answer our prayers but He even forestalls them by granting the very desires we have endeavored to stifle in our hearts in order to please Him, and granting them in a measure we had never imagined.'

St. Claude de la Colombiere

[odhiambo]

The heart of the wicked swarms with sins like an anthill with ants. It is like a piece of bad meat full of worms. When we abandon ourselves to our passions, we interweave thorns around our heart. We are like moles a week old; no sooner do we see the light, than we bury ourselves in the ground. The devil amuses us till the last moment, as a poor man is kept amused while the soldiers are coming to take him. When they come, he cries and struggles in vain, for they will not release him.'
St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars

[Shin]

'Now although man is created for the possession of happiness, yet, having deviated from his true end, his nature has become deformed and is entirely repugnant to true beatitude. And on this account we are forced to submit to God this depraved nature of ours which fills our understanding with so many occupations, and causes us to deviate from the true path, in order that he may entirely consume it until nothing remains there but himself; otherwise the soul could never attain stability nor repose, for she was created for no other end.'

St. Catherine of Genoa

'For God desires that man be like Him in all things, and for this reason he came down to earth and suffered, that He might subdue our hardened nature an cut off our wilfullness and the spurious knowledge that dominates our hearts. Indeed, whearas the irrational animals have preserved their own nature, man has changed his proper nature.

In the beginning, when God created man, He placed him in paradise, with sound senses established in their natural state. But when man accepted the counsel of the Devil, who deceived him, all of his senses were distorted from their natural state contrary to nature, and it was then that man fell away from his spiritual potential.

But our Lord took pity on our kind, on account of the great love with which He loved us, the ungrateful ones, and through His Divine Incarnation He changed man's unnatural state into a natural one. He effected this change through His Holy Body. He bestowed on us the capacity to communicate with His Divine Body through Divine Communion. In this way He brought us back again to Paradise and gave us holy commandments, which, provided we observe them, will enable us to overcome those who have estranged us from our glory and to establish ourselves once more in that natural state in which we were created in the beginning.

For man's natural desire consists in his yearning for things on high, without such desire one cannot even have love for God. For this reason, Daniel was called a man of desires (his desires being directed towards things on high and not towards earthly things). Our enemy, the Devil, turned this into shameful desire, so that we lust after every kind of impurity.

Zeal is a natural state of mind; without such zeal there can be no progress towards God. This is why the Apostle Paul writes: "Covet earnestly the best gifts" (I Cor. 12:31). This zeal for God has been transformed into something contrary to nature, such that we are jealous and envious of one another and lie to each other.

Anger is a natural state of mind. Without this anger, man cannot attain to purity of soul, for he is commanded to be angry about all that the Enemy sows in his mind. But this natural anger that we should have against the Devil has been twisted into anger against our fellow men for all the ways in which they fail to benefit us.'

Abba Isaiah, from the writings of the desert fathers

'Nature and grace cannot subsist together in the same heart. The one must always make room for the other.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

[odhiambo]

"You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working, and just so, you learn to love by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves."
St. Francis de Sales.

Thank you Saint Francis!
The penny just dropped for me  
I have asked God to give me the gift of spontaneous prayer and yet I do not pray much this way.
Now, thanks to Saint Francis' quote above, I will definately try to pray by talking to God.

[Shin]

AH, how wonderful odhiambo!

I too am inspired by this quote!

[Shin]

'I thank God for having preserved me in the integrity of faith in the midst of an age that has brought forth so many heresies and scandalous opinions, and for the grace of never having held any opinion contrary to that of the Church. By a special protection of God, notwithstanding the many dangerous occasions wherein I might have been turned from the right path, I have always been on the side of truth.'

St. Vincent de Paul