"These three glorious virtues – patience, courage, and perseverance – are rooted in true charity and have their place at the very top of that tree of charity which in turn is crowned with the light of most holy faith by which souls run without darkness along the way of truth." Source: St. Catherine [...]
"I soon found, however, that the more one advances, the further off one sees the goal to be." Source: St. Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul, Saint Benedict Press, 2010.
"For this body of ours has one fault: the more you indulge it, the more things it discovers to be essential to it." Source: Saint Teresa of Avila, The Way of Perfection, Dover Thrift Editions, 2012.
"You have satiated yourself with worldly delights, and so no wonder that spiritual pleasures are repulsive to you. 'To the overfed dove even cherries are bitter,' says the old proverb; and Our Lady in her song of praise says, 'He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away.' [...]
"From purity springs that singular beauty that permeates every sphere of reciprocal common life between human beings and allows them to express in it the simplicity and depth, the cordiality and unrepeatable authenticity of personal trust." Source: Pope St. John Paul II, Man and Woman He Created Them, Pauline Books and Media, 2006. [...]
"Very often demons manage to persuade us either to omit confession, or else to confess as though the sins were committed by someone else or else to blame others as responsible for our own sins." Source: St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent
"Do not be rash in judging the deeds and words of others, and do not entangle yourself in affairs that are not your own. Thus, it will come about that you will be disturbed little and seldom." Source: Thomas a’ Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Dover Thrift Editions, 1940.
"Humility endues you with the strength of God, and it is, moreover, the means of your sanctity. There is no saint here below who can rest, saying: 'I have reached the degree to which God calls me.' No, neither in the virtues nor in love does that ever come to pass. To possess a virtue [...]
God speaking to St. Catherine of Siena: “These and many other virtues I give differently to different souls, and the soul is most at ease with that virtue which has been made primary for her. But through her love of that virtue she attracts all the other virtues to herself, since they are all bound [...]
"If St. Francis had been sent to a Siberian labor camp, or a leper colony, or a Wall Street Brokerage firm, would he be any less St. Francis? But how many mortals there are in the world who are one kind of character in need, another kind of character in plenty, who grumble amidst the [...]