QUOTATION: Contemplation

As it is better to give than to receive, so it is better to share the fruit of one’s contemplation than merely to contemplate.

--St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica,  

QUOTATION: Contemplation

For even as it is better to enlighten than merely to shine, so is it better to give to others the fruits of one's contemplation than merely to contemplate.

--St. Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologica, II-II, Q. 188, A. 6.

QUOTATION: Paying It Forward

Just as it is better to illuminate than merely to shine, so to pass on what one has contemplated is better than merely to contemplate.

--Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica

QUOTATION: Knowledge of the Faith is a Necessity

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. For this all the saints affected solitude and retreats from the noise and hurry of the world, as much as their circumstances allowed them.

-- Saint Apollinaris of Hierapolis

QUOTATION: Self-Love

The dissatisfaction we often feel when we have passed a great part of the day without being retired and absorbed in God, though we have been employed in works of obedience or charity, proceeds from a very subtle self-love, which disguises and hides itself. For it is a wish on our part to please ourselves rather than God.

--St. Teresa of Avila

QUOTATION: Contemplation

Seek in reading and thou shalt find in meditation; knock in prayer and it shall be opened to thee in contemplation.

--St. John of the Cross, Spiritual Sentences and Maxims

QUOTATION: Contemplation

Contemplation is nothing else but a secret, peaceful, and loving infusion of God, which, if admitted, will set the soul on fire with the Spirit of Love.

--St. John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul