QUOTATION: Detachment

Free yourself from inordinate love or hate of earthly things. For Where the Lord finds an empty vessel He pours down his blessing.

--Thomas a Kempis

QUOTATION: Perfection in the Rich

The rich ought to reach that degree of perfection of possessing the riches of which they are the masters, with out allowing them to possess them.

--St. Ignatius Loyola

QUOTATION: Consolation

When God allows you to feel the sweetness of His kindness in your devotions, you must be careful not to become attached to this consolation. You must humble yourself at once, considering yourself most unworthy of any consolation, and ready to be stripped of it, to assure Him that you desire to serve and love Him, not for the consolation that He gives, either in this world or in the next, but for love of Himself and merely to please Him.

--St. John Eudes, The Four Foundations of Sanctity

QUOTATION: Possessions

It is ironic. Many of us spend a good deal of our lives accumulating stuff. What the "stuff" is will differ from person to person. Yet at the end of our lives, it's all finally the same junk. It piles up in bookcases, in garages, in boxes in the attic, in the secret places of our souls. As life's evening sets in, we see the need to begin to detach. The things we've accumulated are distractions. They should become less and less important. We need to strip them away--the layers of our life--until, at the very end, all that is left is God and us. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 5:3). Thus, I suspect that poster--"Whoever dies with the most toys, wins"--should really read, "Whoever dies with no toys, wins."

--Archbishop Charles J. Chaput