Quote for the Day

[Shin]

'Every wish of a rational creature should be subject to the will of God.'

St. Anselm of Canterbury, 'Cur Deus Homo'

[Shin]

'If I wish thee to be deaf, dumb and blind in My presence, must thou not be content to be so?'

The Lord, to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

[Shin]

'Oh, what a profitable exchange to give our hearts to God, and in return to be made the objects of his love. But, because we do not offer him the undivided affections of our souls, he does not bestow upon us all the treasures of his life.'

St. Teresa of Jesus

[Shin]

'Resignation is all in all to the sick man; he ought to say to God, "Lord, if You want me, here I am, although I have never done any good: do with me what You will.'"

St. Philip Neri

[Shin]

'One of the very best means of obtaining humility, is sincere and frequent confession.'

St. Philip Neri

[Shin]

'Christ is Master by virtue of His own essence and Master by virtue of His incarnate life. For He creates man from nothing, and through His own Blood redeems him when dead in sin; and to those who believe in Him He has given His grace.'

St. Mark the Ascetic

[Shin]

'If a man disregards the commandment about prayer, he then commits worse acts of disobedience, each one handing him over to the next like a prisoner.'

St. Mark the Ascetic

[Shin]

'The benefits to be derived from spiritual reading do not merely consist in impressing on the memory the precepts set forth, but in opening the heart to them, that they may bear fruit.'

St. Louis de Blois

[Shin]

'Every moment comes to us pregnant with a command from God, only to pass on and plunge into eternity, there to remain forever what we have made of it.'

St. Francis de Sales

[Shin]

'One of our brothers, well-known for his doctrine and holiness, was preaching in Germany. He represented the ugliness of the sin of impurity so forceful that a woman fell dead of sorrow in front of everyone. Then, coming back to life, she said, "When I was presented before the Tribunal of God, sixty thousand people arrived at the same time from all parts of the world; out of that number, three were saved by going to Purgatory, and all the rest were damned."

O abyss of the judgments of God! Out of thirty thousand, only five were saved! And out of sixty thousand, only three went to heaven! You sinners who are listening to me, in what category will you be numbered? . . . What do you say? . . . What do you think?'

St. Leonard of Port Maurice

[Shin]

'One should know, before entering the religious life, that he will not remain there, nor find peace, unless he crosses the threshold with his feet tied, that is, unless he makes a sacrifice of his will and judgment.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

[Shin]

'Our eighth struggle is against the demon of pride, a most sinister demon, fiercer than all that have been discussed up till now. He attacks the perfect above all and seeks to destroy those who have mounted almost to the heights of holiness. Just as a deadly plague destroys not just one member of the body, but the whole of it, so pride corrupts the whole soul, not just part of it. Each of the other passions that trouble the soul attacks and tries to overcome the single virtue which is opposed to it, and so it darkens and troubles the soul only partially. But the passion of pride darkens the soul completely and leads to its utter downfall.

In order to understand more fully what is meant by this, we should look at the problem in the following way. Gluttony tries to destroy self-control; unchastity, moderation; avarice, voluntary poverty; anger, gentleness; and the other forms of vice, their corresponding virtues. But when the vice of pride has become master of our wretched soul, it acts like some harsh tyrant who has gained control of a great city, and destroys it completely, razing it to its foundations. The angel who fell from heaven because of his pride bears witness to this. He had been created by God and adorned with every virtue and all wisdom, but he did not want to ascribe this to the grace of the Lord. He ascribed it to his own nature and as a result regarded himself as equal to God. The prophet rebukes this claim when he says: 'You have said in your heart: "I will sit on a high mountain; I will place my throne upon the clouds and I will be like the Most High." Yet you are a man, and not God' (cf. Isa. 14:13-14). And again, another prophet says, 'Why do you boast of your wickedness, O mighty man?' and he continues in this same vein (Ps. 52:1). Since we are aware of this we should feel fear and guard our hearts with extreme care from the deadly spirit of pride. When we have attained some degree of holiness we should always repeat to ourselves the words of the Apostle: "Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me' (1 Cor. 15:10), as well as what was said by the Lord: 'Without Me you can do nothing' (John 15:5). We should also bear in mind what the prophet said: 'Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it' (Ps. 127:1), and finally: 'It does not depend on-man's will or effort, but on God's mercy (Rom. 9:16).'

St. John Cassian

[Shin]

'When you sin, blame your thought, not your action. For had your intellect not run ahead, your body would not have followed.'

St. Mark the Ascetic

[Shin]

'Everyone -- past, present, and future -- will be judged. Now, then, is the time for mercy, while the time to come will be the time for justice only. For that reason, the present time is ours, but the future time will be God's only!'

St. Thomas Aquinas

[Shin]

'In her voyage across the ocean of this world, the Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life's different stresses. Our duty is not to abandon ship but to keep her on her course.'

St. Boniface

[Shin]

'If you wish to end your undertakings happily, learn how to give yourself up to them without desiring any return to yourself.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola