We must nourish a great love for God and our neighbors; a strong love, an ardent love, a love that burns away imperfections, a love that gently bears an act of impatience, or a bitter word, a love that lets an inadvertence or act of neglect pass without comment, a love that lends itself readily to an act of charity.
–Saint Maria Elisabetta Hesselblad (1870-1957)
Do we refuse to forgive? God, too, will refuse to forgive us. As we treat our neighbors, so also does God treat us. The forgiveness or unforgiveness of your sins, then, and hence also your salvation or destruction, depend on you yourself. For without forgiveness of sins there is no salvation. You can see for yourself how serious it is.
–Saint Tikhon (1724-1783)
In order the better to gain souls, in visiting the sick, we ought to imagine that what we do for the sick man we are doing for Christ Himself; we shall thus perform this work of mercy with more love and greater spiritual profit.
–Saint Philip Neri (1515-1595)
Learn from our Lord who, while he was in this world, was as a servant, obeying the Eternal Father even unto death. And this is why he says: ‘I have been among you not as the one who is served, but as the one who serves’.
–Saint Angela Merici (1474-1540)
