Category: Mystics & Saints

God is at home, it’s we who have gone out for a walk.

If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.

God does not work in all hearts alike, but according to the preparation and sensitivity He finds in each.

What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action.

The very best and highest attainment in this life is to remain still and let God act and speak in you.

Do exactly what you would do if you felt most secure.  

God is not found in the soul by adding anything but by a process of subtraction.

If you focus too narrowly on a single path to God, all you will ever find is the path.

And suddenly you know: It’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.

Jesus that I know as my Redeemer cannot be less than God.

He (Jesus) became what we are that He might make us what He is.

You cannot put straight in others what is warped in yourself.

You will not see anyone who is truly striving after his spiritual advancement who is not given to spiritual reading.

Even on the cross He did not hide Himself from sight; rather, He made all creation witness to the presence of its Maker.

The Self-revealing of the Word is in every dimension – above, in creation; below, in the Incarnation; in the depth, in Hades; in the breadth, throughout the world. All things have been filled with the knowledge of God.

The Lord did not come to make a display. He came to heal and to teach suffering men. For one who wanted to make a display the thing would have been just to appear and dazzle the beholders. But for Him Who came to heal and to teach the way was not merely to dwell here, but to put Himself at the disposal of those who needed Him, and to be manifested according as they could bear it, not vitiating the value of the Divine appearing by exceeding their capacity to receive it.

Expect temptation to your last breath.

Regard as free not those whose status makes them outwardly free, but those who are free in their character and conduct. For we should not call men truly free when they are wicked and dissolute, since they are slaves to worldly passions. Freedom and happiness of soul consist in genuine purity and detachment from transitory things.

One should not say that it is impossible to reach a virtuous life; but one should say that it is not easy. Nor do those who have reached it find it easy to maintain.

I saw the snares that the enemy spreads out over the world and I said groaning, “What can get through from such snares?” Then I heard a voice saying to me, “Humility.

He also said, “Nine monks fell away after many labors and were obsessed with spiritual pride, for they put their trust in their own works and being deceived they did not give due heed to the commandment that says, ‘Ask your father and he will tell you.'” (Deut. 32.7)

Abba Anthony said, “Whoever hammers a lump of iron, first decides what he is going to make of it, a scythe, a sword, or an axe. Even so we ought to make up our minds what kind of virtue we want to forge or we labor in vain.”

The soul is the greening life force of the flesh, for the body grows and prospers through her, just as the earth becomes fruitful when it is moistened. The soul humidifies the body so it does not dry out, just like the rain which soaks into the earth.

Dare to declare who you are. It is not far from the shores of silence to the boundaries of speech. The path is not long, but the way is deep. You must not only walk there, you must be prepared to leap.

Even in a world that’s being shipwrecked, remain brave and strong.

Everything that is in the heavens, on earth, and under the earth is penetrated with connectedness, penetrated with relatedness.

The mystery of God hugs you in its all-encompassing arms.

A human being is a vessel that God has built for himself and filled with his inspiration so that his works are perfected in it.

We shall awaken from our dullness and rise vigorously toward justice. If we fall in love with creation deeper and deeper, we will respond to its endangerment with passion.

Our souls should be like a transparent crystal through which God can be perceived.

When one’s thoughts are neither frivolous nor flippant, when one’s thoughts are neither stiff-necked nor stupid, but rather, are harmonious — they habitually render physical calm and deep insight.

The soul is kissed by God in its innermost regions. With interior yearning, grace and blessing are bestowed. It is a yearning to take on God’s gentle yoke, It is a yearning to give one’s self to God’s Way.

All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well. . . . For there is a Force of love moving through the universe that holds us fast and will never let us go.

He did not say: You will not be assailed, You will not be belabored, You will not be disquieted, but He said ”You will not be overcome.

My, how busy we become when we lose sight of how God loves us.

As truly as God is our Father, so truly God is our Mother.

Prayer is the deliberate and persevering action of the soul. It is true and enduring, and full of grace. Prayer fastens the soul to God and makes it one with God’s will.

Pray, even if you feel nothing, see nothing. For when you are dry, empty, sick or weak, at such a time is your prayer most pleasing to God, even though you may find little joy in it. This is true of all believing prayer.

And in this he showed me a little thing, the quantity of a hazel nut, lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed. And it was as round as any ball. I looked upon it with the eye of my understanding, and thought, ‘What may this be?’ And it was answered generally thus, ‘It is all that is made.’ I marveled how it might last, for I thought it might suddenly have fallen to nothing for littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts and ever shall, for God loves it.
And so have all things their beginning by the love of God. In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it. The second that God loves it. And the third, that God keeps it.

For we are so preciously loved by God that we cannot even comprehend it. No created being can ever know how much and how sweetly and tenderly God loves them. It is only with the help of his grace that we are able to persevere in spiritual contemplation with endless wonder at his high, surpassing, immeasurable love which our Lord in his goodness has for us.

The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything.
God is the ground, the substance, the teaching, the teacher, the purpose, and the reward for which every soul labors.

What we can learn from Julian of Norwich 4:37

If anyone comes to me, I want to lead them to Him.

On the question of relating to our fellowman – our neighbor’s spiritual need transcends every commandment. Everything else we do is a means to an end. But love is an end already, since God is love.

Let go of your plans. The first hour of your morning belongs to God. Tackle the day’s work that He charges you with and He will give you the power to accomplish it.

And when night comes, and you look back over the day and see how fragmentary everything has been, and how much you planned that has gone undone, and all the reasons you have to be embarrassed and ashamed: just take everything exactly as it is, put it in God’s hands and
leave it with Him.

The walls of our monasteries enclose a narrow space. To erect the structure of holiness in it, one must dig deep and build high, must descend into the depths of the dark night of one’s own nothingness in order to be raised up high into the sunlight of divine love and compassion.

Every true prayer is a prayer of the Church; by means of that prayer the Church prays, since it is the Holy Spirit living in the Church, Who in every single soul ‘prays in us with unspeakable groanings’.

Hatred is not a creative force: only love is creative. 

The most deadly poison of our time is indifference. And this happens, although the praise of God should know no limits. Let us strive, therefore, to praise him to the greatest extent of our powers.

I prayed very hard to Our Lady to tell me what would happen to me. She appeared, holding in her hands two crowns, one white, one red. She asked if I would like to have them—one was for purity, the other for martyrdom. I said, “I choose both.” She smiled and disappeared.

If anyone does not wish to have Mary Immaculate for his Mother, he will not have Christ for his Brother.

Jesus honored her before all ages, and will honor her for all ages. No one comes to Him, nor even near Him, no one is saved or sanctified, if he too will not honor her. This is the lot of Angels and of men.

In order that obedience be supernatural it must not proceed from reason, but from faith.

“Our Lord does not so much look at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them.”

“Let us love, since that is what our hearts were made for.”

“Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”

“Jesus does not demand great actions from us, but simply surrender and gratitude.”

“If a little flower could speak, it seems to me that it would tell us quite simply all that God has done for it, without hiding any of its gifts. It would not, under the pretext of humility, say that it was not pretty, or that it had not a sweet scent, that the sun had withered its petals, or the storm bruised its stem if it knew that such were not the case.”

“Holiness consists simply in doing God’s will, and being just what God wants us to be.”

“Remember that nothing is small in the eyes of God. Do all that you do with love.”

“When I die, I will send down a shower of roses from the heavens, I will spend my heaven by doing good on earth.”

“Time is your boat not your home.”

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St. Therese’s Convent

“Silence is God’s first language.”

“However softly we speak, God is so close to us that he can hear us; nor do we need wings to go in search of him, but merely to seek solitude and contemplate him within ourselves, without being surprised to find such a good Guest there.”

“In the inner stillness where meditation leads, the Spirit secretly anoints the soul and heals our deepest wounds.”

“Live in the world as if only God and your soul were in it; then your heart will never be made captive by any earthly thing.”

“Never give up prayer, and should you find dryness and difficulty, persevere in it for this very reason. God often desires to see what love your soul has, and love is not tried by ease and satisfaction.”

“In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human success, but rather on how much we have loved.”

“To reach satisfaction in all
desire its possession in nothing,
To come to the knowledge of all
desire the knowledge of nothing.
To come to possess all
desire the possession of nothing.
To arrive at being all
desire to be nothing.”

“Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent.”

“Love consists not in feeling great things but in having great detachment and in suffering for the Beloved. The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of Divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly.”

“A Christian should always remember that the value of his good works is not based on their number and excellence, but on the love of God which prompts him to do these things.”

The important thing is not to think much, but to love much; and so do that
which best stirs you to love.

“It is foolish to think that we will enter heaven without entering into ourselves.”

“Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.”

“They deceive themselves who believe that union with God consists in ecstasies or raptures, and in the enjoyment of Him. For it consists in nothing except the surrender and subjection of our will – with our thoughts, words and actions – to the will of God.”

“If you seek to carry no other crosses but those whose reason you understand, perfection is not for you.”