'Be a vase, which thou fillest at the source and at the source dost drink from.
Although thou hadst drawn thy love from God, who is the Source of living water, didst thou not drink it continually in Him thy vase would remain empty.'
St. Catherine of Siena
'. . . and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?'
Micah 6:8
'We must imitate the forbearance of God. Oh, how great is God's forbearance! He endures patiently the temples of the profane men who outrage His majesty; He endures idols and sacrilegious ceremonies; He makes the sun to shine on the evil and upon the good, and His rain descend upon the just and upon the unjust; He makes the elements serve all men alike, the impious as well as the good; the winds blow, the springs burst forth, the harvests swell with waving corn, the grapes ripen, the trees cover themselves with fruit, the forests put on thick foliage, the meadows adorn themselves with the enamel of flowers. God delays vengeance, and patiently waits, that man may correct himself and return to his Savior. Such is the forbearance of the Eternal Father, and similar to it was that of the Son, for all the actions of Jesus Christ were characterized by patience and by that divine evenness of soul of which nothing could disturb the tranquility.'
St. Cyprian
'The peace of the celestial city is the perfectly ordered and harmonious enjoyment of God, and of one another in God. The peace of all things is the tranquility of order.'
St. Augustine
'Help me; the devil wishes to make me despair. Help me; I do not wish to offend God.'
St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori
'In all your affairs lean solely on God's Providence, by means of which alone your plans can succeed. Meanwhile, on your part work on in quiet co-operation with Him, and then rest satisfied that if you have trusted entirely to Him you will always obtain such a measure of success as is most profitable for you, whether it seems so or not to your own individual judgment.'
St. Francis de Sales
'To abstain from sinful actions is not sufficient for the fulfillment of God's law. The very desire of what is forbidden is evil.'
St. Jean-Baptiste de la Salle
'We are not created for this earth. The end for which God has placed us in the world, is this, that by our good works we may merit eternal life. "The end is life everlasting."'
St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori
'For all flesh is as grass; and all the glory thereof as the flower of grass. The grass is withered, and the flower thereof is fallen away. But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel hath been preached unto you.'
1 Peter 1:24-25
'See my children; the treasure of a Christian is not on the earth, it is in Heaven. Well, our thoughts ought to be where our treasure is.
Man has a beautiful occupation, that of praying and loving.
You pray, you love -- that is the happiness of man upon the earth.
'Prayer is nothing else than union with God. When our heart is pure and united to God, we feel within ourselves a joy, a sweetness that inebriates, a light that dazzles us. In this intimate union God and the soul are like two pieces of wax melted together; they cannot be separated. This union of God with His little creature is a most beautiful thing. It is a happiness that we cannot understand. . . God, in His goodness, has permitted us to speak to Him. Our prayer is an incense which He receives with extreme pleasure.'
St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney
'No single virtue by itself opens the door of our nature; but all the virtues must be linked together in the correct sequence.'
St. Mark the Ascetic
'When rain falls upon the earth, it gives life to the quality inherent in each plant: sweetness in the sweet, astringency in the astringent; similarly, when grace falls upon the hearts of the faithful, it gives to each the energies appropriate to the different virtues without itself changing.'
St. Mark the Ascetic
'Only spiritual conversation is beneficial; it is better to preserve stillness than to indulge in any other kind.'
St. Thalassios the Libyan
'Try to convince yourself that there is no crime-laden sinner but would have served God better than you. . . if he had received the same graces.'
St. Vincent Ferrer
'Learn to be silent sometimes for the edification of others, that you may learn how to speak sometimes.'
St. Vincent Ferrer
'If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.'
John 15:19