Words of Wisdom & Encouragement
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Abandoned themselves…
And because they have abandoned themselves to God in doing, in leaving undone, and in suffering, they have steadfast peace and inward joy, consolation and savor, of which the world cannot partake; neither any dissembler, nor the man who seeks and means himself more than the glory of God.
— Blessed John Ruysbroeck (1293-1381)
Include yourself…
You propose to give up everything to God; be sure, then, to include yourself among the things to be given up.
— Saint Benedict (480-547)
Worry is a weakness…
Worry is a weakness from which very few of us are entirely free. We must be on guard against this most insidious enemy of our peace of soul. Instead let us foster confidence in God, and thank Him ahead of time for whatever he chooses to send us.
–Solanus Casey (1870-1957)
Let God worry…
Worry too much…
Do not have any anxiety…
Anxieties and troubles…
If we love God…
Faith without love…
Thanks and yes…
My prayer is thanksgiving
The greatest part of my prayer here and for years now is giving thanks. What else should I ask, when I have everything?
— Gabriela Papayannis (1897-1992)
Tire of thanking…
For if God does not for a moment tire of giving us good things, how can we tire of thanking Him for these good things?
— Saint Nicholas Velimirovic (1880-1956)
Died of gratitude…
Thank God for…
Eternity is a mystery…
Eternity is a cloak wrapped about and enclosing yesterday, today and tomorrow in one moment that never ends.
–Walter Farrell and Martin J. Healy
The timeless in you…
I want eternity…
The everlasting Now…
–Johannes Tauler (c. 1300-1361)
The star came…
Salvation for the world
Today is the day of salvation for the world. . . Christ is risen from the dead: arise with him. Christ returns to himself: you also must return to him. Christ has come forth from the tomb: free yourselves from the fetters of evil. The gates of hell are open and the power of death is destroyed. The old Adam is superseded, the new perfected. In Christ a new creation is coming to birth: renew yourselves.
— Saint Gregory Nazianzen (329-c. 391)
This is true fasting…
— Saint Leo of Optina (1768-1822)
On a full stomach…
There can be no knowledge of the mysteries of God on a full stomach.
— Saint Isaac of Syria (Seventh Century)
Restrain your stomach…
Observe abstinence…
Do you fast…
Fasting is wonderful…
Family life is…
Our goal is God…
A serene faith…
Gratitude is…
I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
— GK Chesterton (1874-1936)
Hear Mass daily…
— Saint Peter Julian Eymard (1811-1868)
Afflictions, troubles, and difficulties…
And so it is with the soul; unless it is first snowed on by afflictions, troubles and difficulties, it will not flower, it will not fruit; but by enduring, it bears fruit and partakes in a blessing from God.
— Saint Theodore the Studite (c. 759-826)
Let us trust…
The more afflicted…
Acquire the strength…
If you are not tempted…
If you are not tempted, you have no hope; if you are not tempted, it is because you are sinning. The man who does not fight sin at the stage of temptation is sinning already in his body. The man who is sinning in his flesh has no trouble from temptation.
–Saint Cyrus of Alexandria (martyred 311)
Temperance teaches us…
Temperance teaches us to use with moderation and sobriety the food, drink, clothing and the other things necessary to support the human body.
–Saint John of God (1495-1550)
God wanted someone…
God did not make the first human because He needed company, but because He wanted someone to whom he could show His generosity and love. God did not tell us to follow him because He needed our help, but because He knew that loving him would make us whole.
–Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (late Second Century)
Too deep for words…
God’s love is too deep for words to express.
— Saint Mary MacKillop (1842-1909)
God wants our will….
Clearly, what God wants above all is our will which we received as a free gift from God in creation and possess as though our own. When a man trains himself to acts of virtue, it is with the help of grace from God from whom all good things come that he does this. The will is what man has as his unique possession.
— Saint Joseph of Cupertino (1603-1663)
Our willingness to…
Sometimes when our Lord asks us to do some good work, all He really wants is our willingness to do the work, and not its accomplishment.
— Saint Jane Frances de Chantal (1572-1641)
We must serve…
We must serve our Lord according to his liking and not according to our own.
— Saint Jane Frances de Chantal (1572-1641)
Weakness is not…
Weakness is not the kind of weakness which we show by sinning and forgetting God, but the kind of weakness which means being completely supple, completely transparent, completely abandoned in the hands of God… You could think of that [weakness] also in terms of a sail. A sail can catch the wind and be used to maneuver a boat only because it is so frail. If instead of a sail you put a solid board, it would not work; it is the weakness of the sail that makes it sensitive to the wind.
— Anthony Bloom (1914-2003)
Faithful to the present…
We must be faithful to the present moment or we will frustrate the plan of God for our lives.
— Blessed Solanus Casey (1870-1957)
The present moment…
The present moment always reveals the presence and the power of God.
–Jean-Pierre de Caussade (1675-1751)
There is no one…
No fear should…
Conversion is a…
Compassion asks us…
God’s compassion for you…
That spirit of compassion…
Let our compassion…
Ever let mercy outweigh all else in you. Let our compassion be a mirror where we may see in ourselves that likeness and that true image which belong to the Divine nature and Divine essence. A heart hard and unmerciful will never be pure.
— Saint Isaac of Syria (Seventh Century)
Let us go to…
The world promises…
From this day…
From this day, from this hour, from this minute, let us strive to love God, above all, and fulfill his holy will.
— Saint Herman of Alaska (1756-1836)
I would rather…
The commandments are…
The commandments of God are greater than all the treasures of the world, and for whoever keeps them, God is found within them.
— Saint Isaac of Syria (Seventh Century)
Coincidences are…
Coincidences are spiritual puns.
— GK Chesterton (1874-1936)
Judge nothing before…
Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart.
— Saint Vitalis of Gaza (d. 625)
To judge someone…
To judge sins is the business of one who is sinless, but who is sinless except God? Who ever thinks about the multitude of his own sins in his heart never wants to make the sins of others a topic of conversation. To judge a man who has gone astray is a sign of pride, and God resists the proud. On the other hand, one who every hour prepares himself to give answer for his own sins will not quickly lift up his head to examine the mistakes of others.
— Saint Gennadius of Constantinople (Fifth Century)
Reach God in love…
Don’t try to reach God with your understanding; that is impossible. Reach him in love; that is possible.
— Carlo Carretto (1910-1988)
We must be ignorant…
We must make up our minds to be ignorant of much, if we would know anything.
— Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
Be sincerely kind…
Be sincerely kind to every one according to the words of our Lord: “Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” Thus you are imitating God, of whom it is said: “He has disposed all things pleasantly.” And again Jesus said: “My yoke is easy and my burden light.”
— Saint Angela Merici (1474-1540)
The two most important days…
The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.
— Mark Twain (1835-1910)
If knowing answers…
If knowing answers to life’s questions is absolutely necessary to you, then forget the journey. You will never make it, for this is a journey of unknowables — of unanswered questions, enigmas, incomprehensibles, and, most of all, things unfair.
–Jeanne Guyon (1648-1717)
Everyone has a mission…
Everyone who breathes, high and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman, has a mission, has a work. We are not sent into this world for nothing; we are not born at random; we are not here, that we may go to bed at night, and get up in the morning, toil for our bread, eat and drink, laugh and joke, sin when we have a mind, and reform when we are tired of sinning, rear a family and die. God sees every one of us; He creates every soul, . . . for a purpose. He needs, He deigns to need, every one of us. He has an end for each of us; we are all equal in His sight, and we are placed in our different ranks and stations, not to get what we can out of them for ourselves, but to labor in them for Him. As Christ has His work, we too have ours; as He rejoiced to do His work, we must rejoice in ours also.
— Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890)
Every Christian should…
Every Christian should find for himself the imperative and incentive to become holy. If you live without struggle and without hope of becoming holy, then you are Christians only in name and not in essence. But without holiness, no one shall see the Lord, that is to say they will not attain eternal blessedness. It is a trustworthy saying that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners (I Tim. 1:15). But we deceive ourselves if we think that we are saved while remaining sinners. Christ saves those sinners by giving them the means to become saints.
— Saint Philaret of Moscow (1782-1867)
Other’s foibles…
It isn’t hard to put up with others’ foibles when we realize how much God has put up with from us.
— Blessed Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)
Patience is power…
Patience is power. Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is timing, it waits on the right time to act, for the right priciples and in the right way.
— Blessed Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)
True patience is…
True patience is to suffer the wrongs done to us by others in an unruffled spirit and without feeling resentment. Patience bears with others because it loves them; to bear with them and yet to hate them is not the virtue of patience but a smokescreen for anger.
— Saint Gregory the Great (c. 540-604)
Music that sings…
Underneath all the texts, all the sacred psalms and canticles, these watery varieties of sounds and silences, terrifying, mysterious, whirling and sometimes gestating and gentle must somehow be felt in the pulse, ebb, and flow of the music that sings in me. My new song must float like a feather on the breath of God.
— Saint Hildegarde of Bingen (1098-1179)
Sin is a flight…
Sin, which is a flight from God, is no fun.It gives no joy, fulfillment or peace, and constantly betrays us.
— Carlo Carretto (1910-1988)
An excuse for sin.
And when I hear it said that God is good and He will pardon us, and then see that men cease not from evil-doing, oh, how it grieves me! The infinite goodness with which God communicates with us, sinners as we are, should constantly make us love and serve Him better; but we, on the contrary, instead of seeing in his goodness an obligation to please Him, convert it into an excuse for sin which will of a certainty lead in the end to our deeper condemnation.
— Saint Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510)
How terrible is sin…
Know for a certainty that if men understood how terrible is even one solitary sin, they would rather be cast into a heated furnace, and there remain, living both in soul and body, than to support such a sight. And if the sea were all fire they would cast themselves therein and never leave it, if they were certain of meeting the sin on doing so.
— Saint Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510)
Seek the simplest…
Seek the simplest in all things, in food, clothing, without being ashamed of poverty. For a great part of the world lives in poverty. Do not say, “I am the son of a rich man. It is shameful for me to be in poverty.” Christ, your Heavenly Father, Who gave birth to you in the baptistery, is not in worldly riches. Rather he walked in poverty and had nowhere to lay His head.
— Saint Gennadius of Constantinople (Fifth Century)
The prayer of the sick…
The prayer of the sick person is his patience and his acceptance of the sickness for the love of Jesus Christ. This has great worth when it is motivated by the imitation of how much Our Lord suffered for us, and by penance for our sins.
— Saint Charles of Sezze (1630-1670)
A time of sickness…
A time of sickness is a time of grace. It is then that we reap a harvest for an eternity.
— Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys (1620-1700)
Be silent rather…
Love to be silent rather than to speak; for silent saves up, but speaking fritters away.
— Abba Isaiah (a Desert Father)
Holding my tongue…
I have often been sorry for having spoken, but never for holding my tongue.
— Saint Arsenius (350-450)
Avoid slander…
Avoid slander because it is difficult to retract. Avoid offending anyone for to ask forgiveness is not delightful.
— Saint John Cantius (1390-1473)
Adoration takes charge…
As the genuine religious impulse becomes dominant, adoration more and more takes charge. “I come to seek God because I need Him,” may be an adequate formula for prayer. “I come to adore His splendor, and fling myself and all that I have at God’s feet,” is the only possible formula for worship.
— Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941)
Adoration is first..
Adoration is the first and greatest of life’s responses to is spiritual environment; the first and most fundamental of spirit’s movement towards Spirit, the seed from which all other prayer must spring. It is among the most powerful of the educative forces which purify the understanding, form and develop the spiritual life.
— Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941)
Action, not speech
Remember that the Christian life is one of action, not speech and daydreams. Let there be few words and many deeds, and let them be done well.
— Saint Vincent Pallotti (1795-1850)
Actions speak louder…
The man who is filled with the Holy Spirit speaks in different languages. These different languages are different ways of witnessing to Christ, such as humility, poverty, patience, and obedience; we speak in those languages when we reveal in ourselves these virtues to others. Actions speak louder than words; let your words teach and your actions speak. We are full of words but empty of actions, and therefore are cursed by the Lord, since he himself cursed the fig tree when he found no fruit but only leaves. It is useless for a man to flaunt his knowledge of the law if he undermines its teaching by his actions.
–Saint Anthony of Padua (1195-1231)
Perfection is achieved…
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1890-1944)
Present perfection…
God does not ask of us the perfection of tomorrow, nor even of tonight, but only of the present moment.
— Saint Madeline Sophie Barat (1779-1865)
Enthusiastic to listen…
Just as the hungry long to eat and the thirsty to drink, so we should be enthusiastic to listen to the word of God. For by listening we gain the greatest benefits. If we are slothful, we put away sloth; if we are eager, we become even more eager; and from both the outcome is good.
— Saint Theodore the Studite (c. 759-826)
Receive the Word…
You receive the Body of the Lord with special care, lest even a tiny crumb of the consecrated gift fall to the floor. You should receive the Word of the Lord with equal care and reverence, lest the tiniest word of it fall to the floor.
— Origen (c. 184- c. 254)
The Word of God
The Word of God stands in the midst even of those who know him not, and never fails the prayer of anyone.
— Origen (c. 184- c. 254)
Rituals that neglect…
If you want tonight your spirit with God, you need to understand the true nature of spirituality. Some consider only appearances. They concentrate on penances, vigils, fasting, and other physical deprivations. Others indulge in long prayers, attend public services frequently, spend many hours in church, and take Communion as often as they can. These people are all misguided. These things are little more than the side effects of true piety. While these tools are useful in the spiritual life, they are not its essence… We can become so attached of these rituals that we completely neglect to notice any inner movement of our own hearts. Then we become filled with empty ideas and think that we have tasted the joys of paradise and the delight of angels. We think we have seen God but all we have seen is the devil’s decoy.
— Lawrence Scupoli (1529-1610)
When you are wronged…
When you are wronged and your heart and feelings are hardened, do not be distressed, for this has happened providentially; but be glad and reject the thoughts that arise within you, knowing that if they are destroyed at the stage when they are only provocations, their evil consequences will be cut off, whereas if the thoughts persist the evil may be expected to develop.
— Saint Mark the Ascetic (Fifth Century)
Do not desire…
Do not desire to hear about the misfortunes of your enemies. For those who like listening to such things will themselves suffer what they wish for others.
— Saint Mark the Ascetic (Fifth Century)
When you remember…
At the times when you remember God, increase your prayers, so that when you forget Him, the Lord may remind you.
— Saint Mark the Ascetic (Fifth Century)
Spiritual reading is…
Spiritual reading is a regular, essential part of the life of prayer, and particularly is it the support of adoring prayer. It is important to increase our sense of God’s richness and wonder by reading what his great lovers have said about him.
— Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941)
We deceive ourselves…
We therefore grossly deceive ourselves in not allotting more time to the study of divine truths. It is not enough barely to believe them, and let our thoughts now and then glance upon them: that knowledge which shows us heaven, will not bring us to the possession of it, and will deserve punishments, not rewards, if it remain slight, weak, and superficial. By serious and frequent meditation it must be concocted, digested, and turned into the nourishment of our affections, before it can be powerful and operative enough to change them, and produce the necessary fruit in our lives.
— Saint Appolinaris (453-520)
Attribute to God….
Attribute to God every good that you have received. If you take credit for something that does not belong to you, you will be guilty of theft.
— Saint Anthony of Padua (1195-1231)
Silence exists so…
Silence exists so that we might speak to God. And it is in silence that God communicates His graces to us.
— Saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660)
Why we follow Jesus…
This is why the people followed Jesus, because He was the Good Shepherd. He wasn’t a moralistic, quibbling Pharisee, or a Sadducee who made political deals with the powerful, or a guerrilla who sought the political liberation of his people, or a contemplative in a monastery. He was a pastor! A pastor who spoke the language of His people, who understood, who spoke the truth, the things of God. He never trafficked in God’s things! He spoke in such a way that the people loved God’s things. And that is why they followed Him.
–Pope Francis (1936-
Gaze upon Jesus…
Gaze first upon the poverty of Jesus, placed in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. What marvellous humility! What astounding poverty! The King of angels, Lord of heaven and earth, is laid in a manger. Consider next the humility, the blessed poverty, the untold labours and burdens which he endured for the redemption of the human race. Then look upon the unutterable charity with which he willed to suffer on the tree of the cross and to die thereon the most shameful kind of death.
— Saint Clare of Assisi (1194-1253))
Gaze upon…
Gaze upon the Lord, Gaze upon his face; Gaze upon the One who holds you in his embrace. Gaze upon his life; Gaze upon his love; Gaze upon his coming poor from heaven above.
— Saint Clare of Assisi (1194-1253)
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