QUOTATION: Faults

Frequently we think we are pleasing others by our presence and we begin rather to displease them by the faults they find in us.

--Thomas à Kempis.

QUOTATION: Focus on the Here and Now

The average fault among those who have a good will is that they wish to be something they cannot be, and do not wish to be what they necessarily must be. They conceive desires to do great things for which, perhaps, no opportunity may ever come to them, and meantime neglect the small which the Lord puts into their hands.

--St. Francis de Sales

QUOTATION: Fault-Finding in Oneself

Do not stunt your spiritual life by looking always for you faults. Think of God’s love. Never despair! Not until God ceases to be infinitely good and you begin to be infinitely wicked have you a right to be hopeless.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: What Halts Spiritual Progress

I must consider those failures of mine which are usually called small, and which are generally overlooked. These are the cause of the slow, halting progress of my spiritual life. It is not a question of greater or less condescension or kindness on the part of God, it is a question of man's co-operation with him. His graces are always available; it is our failings which prevent their being of use to us.

--Pope St. John XXIII, Journal of a Soul

QUOTATION: Aim for Perfection

Shun, then, the least faults, in order not lo force Our Lord to make you wait for your reward. It distresses Him much to put souls into purgatory. He does it, because His justice demands it, but it is most painful to His love.

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Mistakes as Crosses

If you make a blunder which brings a cross upon you, whether it be inadvertently or even through your own fault, bow down under the mighty hand of God without delay, and as far as possible do not worry over it. You might say within yourself, "Lord, here is a sample of my handiwork." If there is anything wrong in what you have done, accept the humiliation as a punishment for it; if it was not sinful, accept it as a means of humbling your pride. Frequently, even very frequently, God allows his greatest servants, those far advanced in holiness, to fall into the most humiliating faults so as to humble them in their own eyes and in the eyes of others. He thus keeps them from thoughts of pride in which they might indulge because of the graces they have received, or the good they are doing, so that "no-one can boast in God's presence.

--St. Louis de Montfort, Letter to the Friends of the Cross

QUOTATION: How to Think of Your Faults

It is necessary to detest your defects, not with a detestation of trouble and vexation, but with a tranquil detestation, to behold them with patience, and to make them serve to lower you in your own esteem. Regard your faults with more compassion than indignation, more humility than severity, and preserve your heart full of a sweet, calm, peaceful love.

--St. Francis de Sales, Consoling Thoughts

QUOTATION: Holiness

The closer a person approaches God, the less worthy he feels. A painting under candle light shows fewer defects than under the brilliance of the sun; so too the souls who are some distance from God feel more certain of their moral integrity than those who are very close to Him. In the presence of the holiest of creatures, the soul becomes self-accusing and broken-hearted with the weight of its defects. He who loves God is the most burdened with the sense of his own unworthiness.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Life of Christ

QUOTATION: Tolerance of One's Faults

Some there are who shake hands with their faults, and from that springs their ruin; especially when the fault is accompanied with some passionate attachment of self-esteem, of ambition, of liking to be seen, of heaping up money, of resentment against a neighbor, or of inordinate affection for a person of different sex.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Holy Eucharist