"God deliver us, sisters, from saying 'We are not angels', or 'We are not saints', wherever we commit some imperfection. We may not be; but what a good thing it is for us to reflect that we can be if we will only try and if God gives us His hand! Do not be afraid [...]
"You will do nothing unless you ask Him for the help of His grace. And this I am sure He will give you to the measure in which you trust Him. Moreover, we must live the life of love. By our humble submission and complete self-effacement it will unite us with Him and make us [...]
“What I want is many works of patient and courageous endurance and of the other virtues I have described to you – interior virtues that are all active in bearing the fruit grace.” –St. Catherine of Siena relaying the words God spoke to her in a vision. Source: St. Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue, [...]
"You must seek earnestly the grace of devotion, ask for it fervently, await it patiently and hopefully, receive it gratefully, guard it humbly, cooperate with it carefully and leave to God, when it comes, the length and manner of the heavenly visitation. When you feel little or no inward devotion, you should especially humiliate yourself, [...]
"It is true, that in every place God graciously hears the petitions of those who pray to Him, having promised to do so: 'Ask, and you shall receive;' yet the disciple tells us that Jesus dispenses His graces in greater abundance to those who visit Him in the Most Holy Sacrament." Source: St. Alphonsus [...]
"Meekness is not, then, a natural virtue, and one attains it not by his own strength, nor by merely saying. 'I want to be meek.' It is a virtue proper to Jesus Christ, entirely supernatural. For us to practise it, His grace, a powerful grace, is necessary. It is the question of simply vanquishing one's [...]
"A disobedient soul will win no victory, even if the Lord Jesus Himself, in person, were to hear its confession. The most experienced confessor will be of no help whatsoever to such a soul. The disobedient soul exposes itself to great misfortunes; it will make no progress toward perfection, nor will it succeed in the [...]
"Our personal sins are another source of profound humility and humiliation. I am a sinner, more of a sinner than all other men, for I could have and I might have done all that they have done. With as many graces as I, they would not have been so wicked as I. That is the [...]
"The trust we put in God, honors Him much, and draws down great graces." Source: Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God and The Spiritual Maxims
"Here is the first-class humility that we ought to imitate… Let us then, refer all to God. Return to Him His graces, which He lends you only that you may make them fructify to His profit and glory. Do not pride yourselves on God's gifts. Do not appropriate them, as if they came from yourself, [...]