Words of Wisdom & Encouragement
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Perfect families do not exist…
Perfect families do not exist. This must not discourage us. Quite the opposite. Love is something we learn; love is something we live; love grows as it is ‘forged’ by the concrete situations which each particular family experiences. Love is born and constantly develops amid lights and shadows.
–Pope Francis (1936-
Sign of the Cross…
In all our travels and movements, in all our coming in and going out, in putting off our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupies us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross.
–Tertullian (c.160 – 225)
Remembering wrongs…
If we keep remembering the wrongs which men have done us, we destroy the power of the remembrance of God.
–Saint Macarius the Great (295-392)
Find some suitable time…
Singing from your heart…
Better to sing one Psalm with feeling, than to recite a hundred with a wandering mind. But if you haven’t yet received the grace of singing from your heart, do not give up hope. Be constant in your practice, and one day He who gave you the desire for the prayer of the heart will give you that prayer itself.
–Saint Romuald of Ravenna (951-1027)
Imitate and remember God…
Imitate God. Remember God is all good, and don’t let yourself indulge in pride, envy, schisms, and other sins that fight against the spirit. These lead to decadence. Instead, be like newborn babies. Be people of integrity. Never be duplicitous. Why? Remember that the Lord said in Leviticus to His loyal friends that they were to be holy because He was holy. The Lord has blessed you for many years. He’s shown you treasure hidden in a field, and you’ve enjoyed it for such a long time. With your joy you bought God’s priceless treasure, the best pearls and gems. Remember that—without a doubt—if you respect these jewels as you should, they’ll always stand before the face of God, praying for you and begging for the salvation of your body and soul.
–Elisabeth of Schönau (1129-1165)
Enclose oneself in great silence…
Whoever wishes to listen well to divine speech must enclose himself in great silence.
–Saint Umilta of Faenza (c. 1226-1310)
The quiet mind…
The most perfect prayer, one well nigh omnipotent, and the worthiest work of all is the outcome of a quiet mind. The quieter it is, the more powerful, the worthier, the deeper, the more telling and more perfect prayer. The quiet mind is one which nothing weighs on, nothing worries, which is free from ties and all self-seeking, is wholly merged into the will of God and dead to its own.
–Meister Eckhart (1260-1328)
True repentance is…
Repentance which is true and truly from the heart persuades the penitent not to sin any more, not to mix with corrupt people, and not to gape in curiosity at evil pleasures, but to despise things present, cling to things to come, struggle against passions, seek after virtues, be self-controlled in every respect, keep vigil with prayers to God, and shun dishonest gain. It convinces him to be merciful to those who wrong him, gracious to those who ask something of him, ready with all his heart to bend down and help in any way he can, whether by words, actions or money, all who seek his assistance, that through kindness to his fellow-man he might gain God’s love in return for loving his neighbor, draw the Divine favour to himself, and attain to eternal mercy and God’s everlasting blessing and grace.
–Saint Gregory Palamas (1296-1359)
Prayer is a right…
Prayer is a right understanding of that fullness of joy which is to come, with true longing and trust.
–Saint Julian of Norwich (1342-1416)
Delight in God…
Truth sees God, and wisdom contemplates God, and from these two comes a third, a holy and wonderful delight in God, who is love.
— Saint Julian of Norwich (1342-1416)
Be an open vessel…
In prayer, you must be as a vessel open and exposed before God that he may distill into it his grace, drop by drop, as he wills. God will fill your soul with this divine water if you come before him often with lively faith.
–Saint Jane Frances de Chantal (1572-1641)
Say to God…
Though we had nothing else to say to God than to tell him that we love him and that he is worthy of that love, that is enough. The angels in heaven utter but one word: Sanctus. In the abode of bliss that is their whole, their solitary prayer.
–Saint Jane Frances de Chantal (1572-1641)
Prayer is a
The love God has for us
The love that God most high has for our soul is so great that it surpasses understanding. No created being can comprehend how much, how sweetly, and how tenderly our maker loves us.
— Saint Julian of Norwich (1342-1416)
God loved us…
And so I saw full surely that before ever God made us, he loved us. And this love was never quenched nor ever shall be. And in this love he is done all his works, and in this love he made all things profitable to us, and in this love our life is everlasting. In our making we had beginning, but the love in which he made us was in him from without beginning.
–Saint Julian of Norwich (1342-1416)
More by listening…
In prayer, more is accomplished by listening than by talking.
–Saint Jane Frances de Chantal (1572-1641)
A good prayer…
A good and perfect prayer requires that we forget self, that we be ready to sacrifice all that we are for God.
–Saint Jane Frances de Chantal (1572-1641)
For prayer, we need only…
For prayer, we need only to keep ourselves simply and calmly attentive to God by breathing aspirations of love without voluntary distractions. The whole time we are thus present before Him will be taken for a prayer in God’s sight.
–Saint Jane Frances de Chantal (1572-1641)
Remain still…
We should go to prayer with deep humility and an awareness of our nothingness. We must invoke the help of the Holy Spirit and that of our good angel, and then remain still in God’s presence, full of faith that He is more in us than we are in ourselves.
–Saint Jane Frances de Chantal (1572-1641)
Raising our minds to God…
There is no danger if our prayer is without words or reflection because the good success of prayer depends neither on words nor on study. It depends upon the simple raising of our minds to God, and the more simple and stripped of feeling it is, the surer it is.
–Saint Jane Frances de Chantal (1572-1641)
Beginning each day…
Duties of prayer…
Of all the duties enjoined by Christianity none is more essential and yet more neglected than prayer.
–François Fénèlon (1651-1715)
Silent prayer is…
Silent prayer, in its common form, is also profitable. Each has its peculiar advantages, as each has its place. There is also a modification of prayer, which may be termed the prayer of silence. This is a prayer too deep for words. The common form of silent prayer is voluntary. In the prayer of contemplative silence, the lips seem to be closed almost against the will.
–François Fénèlon (1651-1715)
Speaking to God…
Acquire the habit of speaking to God as if you were alone with Him, familiarly and with confidence and love, as to the dearest and most loving of friends.
–Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787)
Pray with the heart…
It is not enough to pray only with the tongue: we must, according to the Apostle, pray also with the heart if we wish to receive God’s graces: “Praying at all times in the spirit.”
–Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787)
Grace and desire to speak…
True, the greatest reverence is due to God; but if He gives you the grace of feeling His presence and the desire to speak to Him as to one who loves you more than anyone else, tell Him your thoughts freely and confidently.
–Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787)
Prayer is union with God…
Prayer is nothing else but union with God. In this intimate union, God and the soul are fused together like two bits of wax that no one can ever pull apart. This union of God with a tiny creature is a lovely thing. It is a happiness beyond understanding.
–Saint John Vianney (1786-1859)
God always speaks..,
Whenever I go to the chapel, I put myself in the presence of our good Lord, and I say to him, “Lord, I am here. Tell me what you would have me do.” If he gives me some task, I am content and I thank him. If he gives me nothing, I still thank him since I do not deserve to receive anything more than that. And then, I tell God everything that is in my heart. I tell him about my pains and my joys, and then I listen. If you listen, God will also speak to you, for with the good Lord, you have to both speak and listen. God always speaks to you when you approach him plainly and simply.
–Saint Catherine Laboure (1806-1876)
Call upon the Lord…
In all your works, either at home or at the place of your service, do not forget that all your strength, your light and your success are in Christ and His Cross; therefore, do not fail to call upon the Lord before beginning any work, saying: Jesus, help me! Jesus, enlighten me! Thus your heart will be supported and warmed by lively faith and hope in Christ, for His is the power and glory unto ages of ages.
–Saint John of Kronstadt (1829-1908)
Saints were people like us…
The saints were people like all of us. Many of them came out of great sins, but by repentance they attained the Kingdom of Heaven. And everyone who comes there comes through repentance, which the merciful Lord has given us through His sufferings.
–Saint Silouan the Athonite (1866-1938)
God greatly loves the repenting sinner…
The Lord greatly loves the repenting sinner and mercifully presses him to His bosom: “Where were you, My child? I was waiting a long time for you.” The Lord calls all to Himself with the voice of the Gospel, and his voice is heard in all the world: “Come to me, my sheep. I created you, and I love you. My love for you brought Me to earth, and I suffered all things for the sake of your salvation, and I want you all to know my love, and to say, like the apostles on Tabor: Lord, it is good for us to be with You.”
–Saint Silouan the Athonite (1866-1938)
The Catholic Church
Nine out of ten of what we call new ideas are simply old mistakes. The Catholic Church has for one of her chief duties that of preventing people from making those old mistakes; from making them over and over again forever, as people always do if they are left to themselves… There is no other case of one continuous intelligent institution that has been thinking about thinking for two thousand years.
–GK Chesterton (1874-1936)
God and the devil…
God and the devil are found at opposite poles. No one can turn his face to God who has not first turned his back on sin. When a man turns his face to God, all of his paths lead to God. When a man turns his face away from God, all of his paths lead to perdition. When a man finally rejects God by word and in his heart, he is no longer fit to do anything that does not serve for his complete destruction, both of his soul and of his body.
–Saint Nicholas Velimirovic (1880-1956)
Disordered affections…
The hindrances that prevent Jesus from uniting himself to our souls are our disordered affections. The moment we are entirely free of them, our heart will expand and cast itself completely into the Heart of Jesus. Then he will give himself to us without reserve. Is it right for us to keep retarding the consummation of our love and our union with Jesus because of some trifling affections that really do not amount to anything?
–Luis M. Martinez (1881-1956)
Talk about God…
If I have achieved anything in my life, it is because I have not been embarrassed to talk about God.
–Dorothy Day (1897-1980)
Silence is so powerful..
Silence is so powerful a language that it reaches the throne of the living God. Silence is His language, though secret, yet living and powerful.
–Saint Faustina (1905-1938)
The Holy Spirit speaks to a…
The Holy Spirit does not speak to a soul that is distracted and garrulous. He speaks by His quiet inspirations to a soul that is recollected, to a soul that knows how to keep silence.
–Saint Faustina (1905-1938)
A silent soul is…
Silence is a sword in the spiritual struggle. A talkative soul will never attain sanctity. The sword of silence will cut off everything that would like to cling to the soul. We are sensitive to words and quickly want to answer back, without taking any regard as to whether it is God’s will that we should speak. A silent soul is strong; no adversities will harm it if it perseveres in silence. The silent soul is capable of attaining the closest union with God. It lives almost always under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. God works in a silent soul without hindrance.
–Saint Faustina (1905-1938)
Trust and obedience…
Complete trust in God – that’s what holy humility is. Complete obedience to God, without protest, without reaction, even when some things seem difficult and unreasonable.
–Saint Porphyrios (1906-1991)
Will of God be fulfilled in us…
In our struggle for prayer the emotions are almost irrelevant; what we must bring to God is a complete, firm determination to be faithful to him and strive that God should live in us…That the will of God should be fulfilled in us is the only aim of prayer, and it is also the criterion of right prayer. It is not the mystical feeling we may have, or our emotions that make good praying.
–Anthony Bloom (1914-2003)
Justify with excuses…
One who justifies himself with excuses makes no progress in the spiritual life, nor can he find any inner peace.
–Saint Paisos the Athonite (1924-1994)
We should not despair…
We should not despair when we struggle but see no progress, remaining continuously at zero. All people earn zeros with their human strength, some more and some less. Christ, seeing our small human effort, places the number one before our zeros, and thus they acquire value and we can detect some improvement. Thus, we must not despair, but hope in God.
–Saint Paisos the Athonite (1924-1994)
Acknowledge God’s presence…
The first step then, is to acknowledge God’s presence; the second is to thank Him. The third step is a loving response. A person responds to love freely given by saying, “I love you, too.”
–Armand M. Nigro (1928-
Presence of God…
It is important that we take time peacefully and quietly (even if we have only a few minutes to pray) first to make ourselves aware of the loving, creative, sustaining, divinizing presence of God, because prayer is a personal response to God’s presence.
–Armand M. Nigro (1928-
Aware of God…
If in the few minutes that we have during the times of private prayer, we do nothing else but merely make ourselves aware of the God who is already making Himself present to us, that experience in itself is profound prayer; it is fruitful prayer; it is even the beginnings of mystical prayer.
–Armand M. Nigro (1928-
Prayer is the most concrete…
Prayer is the most concrete way to make our home in God.
–Henri Nouwen (1932–1996)
Prayer is listening…
Praying is first and foremost listening to Jesus, who dwells in the very depths of your heart. He doesn’t shout. He doesn’t thrust himself upon you. His voice is an unassuming voice, very nearly a whisper, the voice of a gentle love. Whatever you do with your life, go on listening to the voice of Jesus in your heart.
–Henri Nouwen (1932-1996)
Prayer enlarges the heart…
Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God’s gift of Himself.
–Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)
Prayer gives us…
We must love one another as God loves each one of us. To be able to love, we need a clean heart. Prayer is what gives us a clean heart. The fruit of prayer is a deepening of faith and the fruit of faith is love. The fruit of love is service, which is compassion in action.
–Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)
Silence will illuminate you…
Silence like the sunlight will illuminate you in God.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Quietly in the presence…
Just remaining quietly in the presence of God, listening to Him, being attentive to Him, requires a lot of courage and know-how.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Persevere in coming to church…
Persons who live in the world should persevere in coming to church to hear sermons, and remember to read spiritual books, especially the Lives of the Saints.
–Saint Philip Neri (1515-1595)
Disaffected to things…
To make ourselves disaffected to the things of the world, it is a good thing to think seriously of the end of them, saying to ourselves, “And then? And then?”
–Saint Philip Neri (1515-1595)
Surrender your heart…
Surrender of the heart to God includes every possible way of obedience to God, because it means giving up one’s very being to God’s good pleasure. Since this surrender is effected by unalloyed love, it includes in its embrace every kind of operation his good pleasure may bring to pass…. and to stand ready to do his will at all times. What God requires of the soul is the essence of self-surrender. The free gifts he asks from us are self-denial, obedience, and love. The rest is his business.
–Jean-Pierre de Caussade (1675-1751)
Put our trust in God…
Let us acknowledge that we are incapable of becoming holy by our own efforts, and put our trust in God, who would not have taken away our ability to walk unless he was to carry us in his arms.
–Jean-Pierre de Caussade (1675-1751)
If you truly seek…
If you truly seek this treasure, this kingdom where God alone reigns, you will find it. Your heart, if it is totally surrendered to God, is itself this treasure, that very kingdom you long for and are seeking.
–Jean-Pierre de Caussade (1675-1751)
Prepare by living a good life…
Prepare a way for the Lord by living a good life and guard that way by good works. Let the Word of God move in you unhindered and give you a knowledge of his coming and of his mysteries.
–Saint Gregory the Great (c. 540-604)
Reflect before acting…
He who fails to reflect before acting, walks with his eyes shut and advances with danger. He also falls very often, because the eye of reflection does not enable him to see whither his footsteps lead.
–Saint Gregory the Great (c. 540-604)
To do penance…
To do penance is to bewail the evil we have done, and to do no evil to bewail.
–Saint Gregory the Great (c. 540-604)
Each day is unique..,
Each day is unique. There are cloudy days and sunny; wet days and dry; windy days and calm. The seasons roll by as day turns into night and night into day. This variety makes beauty. It’s the same way with your life. There are ups and downs; no two days, no two hours, are ever exactly alike.
–Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Children of God…
The children of this world are all separated one from another because their hearts are in different places; but the children of God whose hearts are where their treasure is (see Lk 12:34) and who all have the same treasure – which is the same God – are consequently always bound and united together.
–Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
When God is in our hearts…
Our night is as brilliant as our day when God is in our hearts, and our day is night when God is absent from us.
–Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Anxiety is an evil…
Anxiety is the greatest evil that can befall a soul, except sin. God commands you to pray, but He forbids you to worry.
–Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Good works are…
Good works are of two kinds. Some are exterior, such as prayer, fasting, and almsgiving; abstaining from swearing, falsehood and murmuring; avoiding injuring or annoying people and other things of a similar kind. Some also are purely spiritual or interior, such as fervent love for God and our neighbor, an intense realization of our own gratitude for the Divine mercies, and such a profound reverence for the Almighty that we realize our own nothingness in the sight of His greatness.
–Saint John of Avila (1500 – 1569)
Love and trust…
If we would not offend God, there are two points on which we must be particularly careful one is, that we should love His goodness, and the second is, that we should trust in His mercy.
–Saint John of Avila (1500 – 1569)
Work at progress in spiritual life…
Apply yourself to work at your own progress in the spiritual life with all the diligence proper for accomplishing God s designs.
–Saint John of Avila (1500 – 1569)
One act of thanksgiving…
One act of thanksgiving when things go wrong with us, is worth a thousand thanks when things are agreeable to our inclinations.
— Saint John of Avila (1500 – 1569)
The Eucharistic bread…
When we see that Savior before our eyes of faith as the Scriptures portray him, then our desire to receive him in the bread of life increases. The eucharistic bread, on the other hand, awakens our desire to get to know the Lord in the written word more and more deeply and strengthens our spirit to get a better understanding.
–Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891-1942)
Supernatural union exists…
The supernatural union exists when God’s will and the soul’s are in conformity, so that nothing in the one is repugnant to the other.
–Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891-1942)
Prolonged purification…
The higher the degree of union of love to which God desires to lead them, the more intense and prolonged will the purification be.
–Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891-1942)
It is God’s way…
God is more anxious to bestow His blessings on us than we are to receive them. For it is not God’s way that great blessings should descend without the sacrifice first of great sufferings.
— Saint Augustine (354-430)
True Church of Christ…
Do you wish to know which is the true church of Christ? Count those priests who, in a regular succession have succeeded Saint Peter, who is the Rock, which the gates of hell will not prevail.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
Sacrament of new life…
Such is the power of this sacrament: it is a sacrament of new life which begins here and now with the forgiveness of all past sins, and will be brought to completion in the resurrection of the dead.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
When we sin…
We should be displeased with ourselves when we commit sin, for sin is displeasing to God. Sinful though we are, let us at least be like God in this, that we are displeased at what displeases him.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
Put our confidence…
We must do all that lies in our power; we must give without counting the cost; we must constantly renounce ourselves. In one word, we must prove our love by all the good works we can perform; but, since all that we can do is very little, it is of the greatest importance that we put our confidence in Him who alone sanctifies those works and that we recognize that we are indeed useless servants, hoping that the good Lord will give us through grace all that we desire.
–Saint Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897)
Love can do all…
You ask me a method of attaining perfection. I know of love – and only love. Love can do all things.
–Saint Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897)
Our nothingness…
The very moment God sees us fully convinced of our nothingness, He reaches out His hand to us.
–Saint Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897)
Love Jesus and win souls…
There is one thing only to do here below: to love Jesus, to win souls for Him so that He may be loved.
–Saint Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897)
When we read, God…
When we pray we speak to God; but when we read, God speaks to us.
— Saint Jerome (c. 340-420)
Whenever the devil calls…
Be ever engaged, so that whenever the devil calls he may find you occupied.
–Saint Jerome (c. 340-420)
Be at peace…
Be at peace with your own soul, then heaven and earth will be at peace with you.
–Saint Jerome (c. 340-420)
Never let it rest…
Good, better, best. Never let it rest. ‘Til your good is better and your better is best.
— Saint Jerome (c. 340-420)
If we go with God…
If we will go with God upon the highway of love, we shall rest with Him eternally and without end: and thus we shall eternally go forth towards God and enter into Him and rest in Him.
–Blessed John Ruysbroeck (1293-1381)
Every day we are dying…
Every day we are changing, every day we are dying, and yet we fancy ourselves eternal.
— Saint Jerome (c. 340-420)
Remedy for dryness…
Mortify one passion…
Cast yourself into…
Lose ourselves in God…
Desire to belong to God…
Let God do the work…
We must not count…
Harm in the Church…
Don’t get upset with imperfections…
Gentleness and time…
The test of a preacher…
Be aware of God…
If you have failings…
By your being…
Be ready for…
Be ready at all times for the gifts of God, and always for new ones.
–Meister Eckhart (1260-1328)
Don't Be Shy
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