"What should be our sentiments when assisting at Holy Mass? In the presence of a God made man, Who offers Himself mystically for our salvation, in a manner very real. Faith, hope and love, contrition for our sins, and an ardent desire to communicate with the Victim of Sacrifice, ought to fill our hearts. We [...]
"I have said that it is not necessary to meditate much in order to arrive at affection. Here, however, we must guard against sloth. The mind is slothful regarding the things of grace. It must not be allowed to pass too easily over the reflection. It would willingly act like the tribune Felix, who trembled [...]
"If you desire to be more quickly recollected, more immediately united to God, it is far better not to concentrate yourselves in yourselves, and not always to put your miseries between your soul and God. Be more desirous of seeing His goodness, His love, of contemplating Him in Himself and in His divine attributes. You [...]
"We have all seen men, and women, too, pass the whole night, even several in succession, playing at chess or cards; and what can be a more dismal, unwholesome thing than that? But the world has not a word to say against it, and their friends are nowise troubled. But give up an hour to [...]
"How different our lives would become if we would take an hour a day not to think about the attributes of God and the moral law, but to make the love of God and the love of neighbor experientially present in our own heart and soul! Man does not want to be with God as [...]
"The first (method for meditation) starts from the knowledge of our nothingness, our sins, our temptations, in a word, our misery. The soul that starts from this truth, that begins her meditation by it, always has, enough to occupy her. She has always a familiar point upon which to plant her foot, and from it [...]
"If you do not know how to meditate on heavenly things, direct your thoughts to Christ’s passion and willingly behold His sacred wounds. If you turn devoutly to the wounds and precious stigmata of Christ, you will find great comfort in suffering, you will mind but little the scorn of men, and you will easily [...]
"I myself spent over fourteen years without ever being able to meditate except while reading." Source: Saint Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection, Dover Thrift Editions, 2012.
"Meditation gives birth to perseverance, and perseverance ends in perception, and what is accomplished with perception cannot be easily rooted out." Source: St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent