Acquire love of God…
He who does not acquire the love of God will scarcely persevere in the grace of God, for it is very difficult to renounce sin merely through fear of chastisement.
–Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787)
Love is sufficient…
Love is sufficient of itself; it gives pleasure by itself and because of itself. It is its own merit, its own reward. Love looks for no cause outside itself, no effect beyond itself. Its profit lies in the practice.
–Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)
To love God…
We are to love God for Himself, because of a twofold reason; nothing is more reasonable, nothing more profitable.
–Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)
Love God, then neighbor…
It is not possible to love your neighbor unless you love God. If you love God first, then you can love your neighbor in God… If we really love God, we will love what belongs to God. We will love in the same manner as we have been loved. We care about others even as Christ cared. We love the Lord not because he is good to us, but because the Lord is good.
–Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)
How God loved the world…
For, says Scripture, this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life. Nor did he simply give him, but even to death, death on a cross. . . Have you seen the mighty love of his strength? Have you seen the measureless mercy of his love for humanity? How unsearchable are his mercies and inscrutable his acts of compassion, which he has poured out on us through Jesus Christ our Savior! What may we, poor wretches, say to all this? What may we think? Shall we willingly return to sin? Shall we long for dishonor? Shall we choose corruption and condemnation?
–Saint Theodore the Studite (c. 759-826)
Born to love…
We are born to love, we live to love, and we will die to love still more.
–Saint Joseph Cafasso (1811-1860)
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