Restraint, meekness, chastity, steadfastness, patience, and similar great virtues are given us by God for weapons to resist and oppose the tribulations we meet with, and to help us when they occur. So if we train ourselves in the use of these powers and keep them always ready, then nothing that may befall us will ever be hard, grievous, destructive, or unbearable, for all would be overcome by the virtues we possess.
–Saint Anthony of Egypt (c. 251-356)
The devil is afraid of us when we pray and make sacrifices. He is also afraid when we are humble and good. He is especially afraid when we love Jesus very much. He runs away when we make the Sign of the Cross.
–Saint Anthony of Egypt (c. 251-356)
Christ came to enlighten those who lived in darkness, overshadowed by death, and to guide their feet into the way of peace. Do you ask what darkness? Whatever is present in our intellect, in our will, or in our memory that is not God, or which has not its source in God; that is to say, whatever in us is not for God’s sake, is a barrier between God and the soul— it is darkness.
–John Justus Landsburg (1489-1539)
While those who give scandal are guilty of the spiritual equivalent of murder, those who take scandal — who allow scandals to destroy faith —are guilty of spiritual suicide.
–Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Habitual drunkenness is not one of those sins which time and grace will correct. To cure this sin, not an ordinary grace but a miracle of grace is required. You ask me why drunken people are so rarely converted. This is the reason: it is that they have neither faith, nor religion, nor pity, nor respect for holy things. Nothing is able to touch them or to open their eyes to their unhappy state.
–Saint John Vianney (1786-1859)
Avarice breeds envy, a worm that is always gnawing, letting the avaricious enjoy neither their own nor anyone else’s good.
–Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)
