QUOTATION: Praying Always

By habitually thinking of the presence of God, we succeed in praying twenty-four hours a day.

--St. Paul of the Cross

QUOTATION: Prayer

Prayer is the sure way that leads to holiness. Alas! we easily enter on the road to perdition when we neglect prayer. The prayer which humbles the soul, which inflames her with love and excites her to the practice of virtue, is never subject to illusion. In prayer the soul is united to God through love, He who, on account of the duties of his state of life, cannot devote much time to prayer, need not be troubled; the exact fulfilment of his duties, with a pure intention, having only God in view, is an excellent prayer.

--St. Paul of the Cross

QUOTATION: Trust in God

Fancy a mother who playfully holds in her arms a child over the edge of a high wall, or over the brink of a precipice. Who could believe that this mother would let her child fall? Neither can I persuade myself that God will let me fall into the depths of hell if I rely on Him; therefore I repose with perfect security on the bosom of Divine Goodness much more peacefully than does a child in the arms of its mother.

--St. Paul of the Cross

QUOTATION: When in Doubt, Entrust Oneself to a Guide

Of a hundred, and perhaps a thousand, of these articulated locutions, there is hardly one genuine. It is difficult, even for spiritual masters, to discern the true from the false, those of the Spirit of truth from those of the devil, who knows so well how to feign effects like in appearance to those of the Spirit of God. Therefore it is best to enjoin on him who has them to drive them away, to humble himself before God, and to protest that faith, with the Scriptures and the advice of his spiritual father, who speaks in God's name, are sufficient for him. Thus he glorifies God in distrusting himself, in humbling himself, in esteeming himself unworthy of such favors, and is thereby freed from illusion.

--St. Paul of the Cross

QUOTATION: God's Mercy

Beginners in the service of God sometimes lose confidence when they fall into any fault. When you feel so unworthy a sentiment rising within you, you must lift your heart to God and consider that all your faults, compared with divine goodness, are less than a bit of tattered thread thrown into a sea of fire.

--St. Paul of the Cross

QUOTATION: Praying Without Ceasing

By habitually thinking of the presence of God, we succeed in praying twenty-four hours a day.

--St. Paul of the Cross

QUOTATION: Prayer

If you wish to preserve or acquire the gift of prayer, keep yourself recollected by making, even in the midst of your occupations, frequent aspirations to God.

--St. Paul of the Cross

QUOTATION: Pride

Know that one grain of pride suffices to overthrow a mountain of holiness. Be humble, then, and endeavor to know yourself.

--St. Paul of the Cross

QUOTATION: Praying for the Souls in Purgatory

If, during life, we have been kind to the suffering souls in purgatory, God will see that help be not denied us after death.

--St. Paul of the Cross

QUOTATION: Spiritual Dryness

In times of aridity arouse your spirit gently, by acts of love; then rest in the will of God. It is thus that the soul gives the strongest proof of her fidelity to God. Make a bouquet of the sufferings of Jesus, and place it on the bosom of your soul, as I have told you. You can from time to time call them to mind, and say sweetly to your Saviour: 'Oh good Jesus, how swollen, bruised, and defiled with spittle do I behold Thy countenance! Oh my Love! why do I see Thee all covered with wounds? Oh Infinite Sweetness! why are Thy bones laid bare? Ah, what sufferings! what sorrows! O my God! for what are Thou all wounded! Ah, dear sufferings! dear wounds! I wish to keep you always in my heart'."

--St. Paul of the Cross

QUOTATION: Anger

When you feel the assaults of passion and anger, then it is time to be silent as Jesus was silent in the midst of His ignominies and suffering.

--St. Paul of the Cross