QUOTATION: The Spiritual Life

Avoid, too, an illusion into which beginners in the spiritual life frequently fall. Having read in certain books of the ineffable consolations of the Holy Spirit, and the joys of God's service, they persuade themselves that the path of virtue is filled with delights, and therefore, instead of entering it armed to meet their enemies, they set out as if for a festival. Truly the love of God is full of sweetness, but the way which leads to it contains much that is bitter, for self-love must first be conquered, and there is nothing harder to nature than to fight against it and all that it claims.

--Louis de Granada, The Sinner's Guide

QUOTATION: Mourning

The one who does not mourn in this world like a stranger and a pilgrim will not rejoice in the world to come as a citizen of heaven.

--St. Augustine

QUOTATION: Erring in Ignorance

When men err in ignorance, following closely their own notions of right and wrong, though these notions are mistaken,—great as is their sin, if they might have possessed themselves of truer notions (and very great as was St. Paul's sin, because he certainly might have learned from the Old Testament far clearer and diviner doctrine than the tradition of the Pharisees),—yet such men are not left by the God of all grace. God leads them on to the light in spite of their errors in faith, if they continue strictly to obey what they believe to be His will.

--Blessed John Henry Newman, "St. Paul's Conversion Viewed in reference to His Office", Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. 2

QUOTATION: Shame

Be ashamed when you sin, not when you repent.

--St. John Chrysostom

QUOTATION: False Humility

Whoever styles himself the greatest sinner in the world, and then is angry when others despise him, plainly shows humility of tongue, but not of heart.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Holy Eucharist

QUOTATION: Carrying One's Cross

But if, on the contrary, you suffer in the right way, the cross will become a yoke that is easy and light, since Christ himself will carry it with you. It will give you wings, as it were, to lift you to heaven; it will become your ship's mast, bringing you smoothly and easily to the harbour of salvation.

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

QUOTATION: Pride

The practical case against pride, as a mere source of social discomfort and discord, is if possible even more self-evident than the more mystical case against it, as a setting up of the self against the soul of the world. And yet though we see this thing on every side in modern life, we really hear very little about it in modern literature and ethical theory. Indeed, a great deal of modern literature and ethics might be meant specially for the encouragement of spiritual pride. Scores of scribes and sages are busy writing about the importance of self-culture and self-realisation; about how every child is to be taught to develop his personality (whatever that may be); about how every man must devote himself to success, and every successful man must devote himself to developing a magnetic and compelling personality; about how every man may become a superman (by taking Our Correspondence Course) or, in the more sophisticated and artistic type of fiction, how one specially superior superman can learn to look down on the mere mob of ordinary supermen, who form the population of that peculiar world. Modern theory, as a whole, is rather encouraging egoism. But we need not be alarmed about that. Modern practice, being exactly like ancient practice, is still heartily discouraging it. The man with the strong magnetic personality is still the man whom those who know him best desire most warmly to kick out of the club. The man in a really acute stage of self-realisation is a no more pleasing object in the club than in the pub. Even the most enlightened and scientific sort of club can see through the superman; and see that he has become a bore. It is in practice that the philosophy of pride breaks down; by the test of the moral instincts of man wherever two or three are gathered together; and it is the mere experience of modern humanity that answers the modern heresy.

--G.K. Chesterton, The Common Man

QUOTATION: The Crucifix

You are fond of the crucifix; what then would you wish to be, unless crucified?

--St. Francis de Sales, Consoling Thoughts

QUOTATION: Being a Religious

Sometimes we pride ourselves on the merit of havnng become a religious, and think we have done a heroic action. Alas! we are in arrears with mercy. The advantage is all on our side. We receive a hundred times more than we have given. It is all for our gross interest. It is we who are the gainers, we who are served by it, and not we who serve.

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Justice and Mercy

If the devil tempts me by the thought of Divine justice, I think of God's mercy ; if he tries to fill me with presumption by the thought of His mercy, I think of His justice.

--St. Ignatius Loyola, Letter 8

QUOTATION: What Dying to the World Doesn't Mean...

But perhaps the lovers of the world may reply, "It is very difficult to die to the world, whilst we are living in it; and to despise those good things which God has created for our enjoyment." To these words I answer, that God does not wish us entirely and absolutely to neglect or despise the riches and honours of this world. Abraham was an especial favourite with God; and yet he possessed great riches. David also, and Ezechias, and Josias, were most powerful kings; and at the same time most pleasing to God: the same may be said of many Christian kings and emperors. The good things of this life, therefore its riches, honours, and pleasures are not entirely forbidden to Christians, but only an immoderate love of them, which is named by St. John, "the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life."

--St. Robert Bellarmine, The Art of Dying Well

QUOTATION: Self-Knowledge

No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good

--C.S. Lewis

QUOTATION: Worldliness

We know what befalls a man whose sense of taste suffers in an illness, how he ceases to have a true judgment of flavours and begins to loathe pleasantly-tasting things and to crave for what is loathsome. So it is with the man whose inclinations are corrupted from his conforming himself to the things of this world. He has no longer a true judgment where what is good for him is concerned. It is only the man whose inclinations are healthy and well directed, whose mind is made new again by grace, who can truly judge what is good and what is not.

--St. Thomas Aquinas, Meditations for Lent

QUOTATION: Conversion is Effort

You must struggle and combat; for, notwithstanding the abundant succor which is offered to us, we must expect hard labor and difficulties in the beginning of our conversion. That you may not be discouraged, bear in mind that the prize for which you are striving is worth more than all you can ever give to purchase it. Remember that you have powerful defenders ever near you. Against the assaults of corrupt nature you have God's grace. Against the snares of the devil you have the almighty power of God. Against the allurements of evil habits you have the force of good habits confirmed by grace. Against a multitude of evil spirits you have numberless angels of light. Against the bad example and persecutions of the world you have the good example and strengthening exhortations of the saints. Against the sinful pleasures and vain joys of the world you have the pure joys and ineffable consolations of the Holy Ghost.


--Louis de Granada, The Sinner's Guide

QUOTATION: Trust in God

Trust the past to the Mercy of God, the present to His Love, and the future to His Providence.

-- St. Augustine

QUOTATION: Conscience

Saul was ever faithful, according to his notion of "the way of the Lord." Doubtless he sinned deeply and grievously in persecuting the followers of Christ. Had he known the Holy Scriptures, he never would have done so; he would have recognised Jesus to be the promised Saviour, as Simeon and Anna had, from the first. But he was bred up in a human school, and paid more attention to the writings of men than to the Word of God. Still, observe, he differed from other enemies of Christ in this, that he kept a clear conscience, and habitually obeyed God according to his knowledge. God speaks to us in two ways, in our hearts and in His Word. The latter and clearer of these informants St. Paul knew little of; the former he could not but know in his measure (for it was within him), and he obeyed it. That inward voice was but feeble, mixed up and obscured with human feelings and human traditions; so that what his conscience told him to do, was but partially true, and in part was wrong. Yet still, believing it to speak God's will, he deferred to it, acting as he did afterwards when he "was not disobedient to the heavenly vision," which informed him Jesus was the Christ [Acts xxvi. 19.].

--Blessed John Henry Newman, "St. Paul's Conversion Viewed in reference to His Office", Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. 2

QUOTATION: Motives for Prayer

We should not go to prayer in order to taste the sweetness of divine love; whoever prays from such a motive will lose his time, or at least derive little advantage from it. A person should begin to pray solely to please God, that is, solely to learn what the will of God is in his regard, and to beg of him the help to put it in practice.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Holy Eucharist

QUOTATION: Carrying One's Cross

If you are not willing to suffer gladly like Jesus, or patiently like the penitent thief, then you will have to suffer like the unrepentant thief. You will have to drink the cup of bitterness to the dregs without the consoling help of grace, and you will have to bear the whole weight of your cross, deprived of the powerful support of Christ. You will even have to carry the deadly weight which the devil will add to it by means of the impatience it will cause you. And after sharing the unhappiness of the impenitent thief on earth, you will share his misery in eternity.

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

QUOTATION: Crony Capitalism

There is less difference than many suppose between the ideal, Socialist system, in which the big businesses are run by the State, and the present Capitalist system, in which the State is run by the big businesses.

--G.K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News, Oct. 27, 1928.

QUOTATION: God's Love for Us

Jesus loves us as a Brother and a Friend; consequently, all distinctions and distance disappear. With Him we share the same condition, the same name, the same table, the same life. And if He willed to be born an infant and to pass through all the ages of life, it was that in every state, at all periods of their life, all men may have in Him a Brother and behold God's love humanized and like unto their own. It was not enough for Him to become like unto us in nature. He would share our trials, our miseries, our sufferings, that we might be overcome by that evidence and forced to cry out "Yes, God has loved us! " And He has done so. He has taken all my sins on Himself, borne them alone, and accepted their terrible chastisement, interior trials, pains of soul, horrible sufferings of body, His interior and exterior Passion! Behold the proofs of His love. Is this enough? Shall we deny a love that is proved by suffering's and death? Ah! who would do what He has done? No one no one! Shall we be unjust toward God alone, and shall we not acknowledge that He loves us?

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Feminism

Feminism without femininity is a sham.

--Alice Von Hildebrand

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: How to Measure Spiritual Progress

We should not measure our spiritual progress by our deeds, our amiability, or our love of solitude, but by the violence we do ourselves.

--St. Ignatius Loyola

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: Lukewarmness

You marvel, doubtless, why a soul that is cold should be less displeasing to God than one that is lukewarm. The reason for this is that coldness, or the state of the sinner devoid of all virtues, is more easily cured than lukewarmness, which represents the man of few virtues, and these only exterior practices without the life of charity. The man who is loaded with sins can be brought to realize his malady, and so induced to take the proper remedies. But the man who is lukewarm rests on that false security which, as was the case with the Pharisee, leads him to believe that he possesses all the treasures of virtue. Though these soulless practices avail him naught, he will not realize his sad state, and consequently will take no measures for amendment.

--Louis de Granada, The Sinner's Guide

QUOTATION: Faith

No one can be a Catholic without a simple faith, that what the Church declares in God's name, is God's word, and therefore true.

--Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman

QUOTATION: Stuff Christ Never Said

Jesus Christ did not say, 'Go into the world and tell the world that it is quite right.'

--C.S. Lewis

QUOTATION: Your Guardian Angel

The Guardian Angel always accompanies us as our principal witness. It is he who, at your particular judgement, will remember the kind deeds you performed for Our Lord throughout your life. Furthermore, when you feel lost, before the terrible accusations of the enemy, your Angel will present those intimate desires of your heart — which perhaps you yourself might have forgotten — those proofs of love which you might have had for God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

That is why you must never forget your Guardian Angel, and that Prince of Heaven shall not abandon you now, or at that decisive moment.

--Josemaria Escriva, Furrow, 693

QUOTATION: We Must All Carry Our Cross

No, this accursed earth on which we live is not destined to make us happy; in this land of darkness we cannot expect to see clearly; there is no perfect calm on this stormy sea; we can never avoid conflicts on this field of trial and battle; we cannot escape being scratched on this thorn-covered earth. Willingly or unwillingly, all must carry their cross, both those who serve God and those who do not.

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

QUOTATION: Man's Ingratitude to God

And man does not love God! He offends Him! Ah! God brings contempt on Himself by dint of loving. One might say that He sought It! Would you allow yourselves to be thus despised and insulted by your children, your subordinates? God showers man with riches, loads him with benefits in spite of his sins, his daily sins! It is that he may return to Him, be conquered by Him. We must have the hearts of demons not to love God!

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Give God Your All

God has bestowed his entire self upon you; there is, then, no excuse for you to behave reservedly with God.

--St. Alphonsus Ligouri, The Holy Eucharist