"Do you know how you can tell when your spiritual love is not perfect? If you are distressed when it seems that those you love are not returning your love or not loving you as much as you think you love them. Or if you are distressed when it seems to you that you are [...]
"It will invariably be found true that those who have suffered and who are saintly are always the most merciful to others. Not to be forgotten also are those who have received mercy and forgiveness themselves. One wonders if Saint Augustine was not one of the kindest and most compassionate of men, having been so [...]
"The practice of the Presence of God is the shortest and easiest Way to attain Christian perfection: it is the Form and Life of Virtue, it is the great Preservative from Sin. The practice will become easy, if we have but courage and a good will." Source: Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence [...]
"I see that God never tries us beyond what we are able to suffer. Oh, I fear nothing; if God sends such great suffering to a soul. He upholds it with an even greater grace, although we are not aware of it. One act of trust at such moments gives greater glory to God than [...]
"The monk who observes others instead of attending to himself will begin before long to see some as his superiors and others as his inferiors; in some he will see things to envy, in others, things to despise. The eyes have wandered and the mind soon follows." Source: St. Bernard of Clairvaux, The Steps [...]
"The Apostle, however, goes further: according to him, a sin against the body is also a 'profaning of the temple.' What is decisive for the dignity of the human body, in Paul’s eyes, is not only the human spirit, thanks to which man is constituted as a personal subject, but much more so the supernatural [...]
"Mary’s greatness consists in the fact that she wants to magnify God, not herself. She is lowly: her only desire is to be the handmaid of the Lord (cf. Lk 1:38, 48). She knows that she will only contribute to the salvation of the world if, rather than carrying out her own projects, she places [...]
"The Lord often humbles the vainglorious by causing some dishonor to befall them. And indeed the first step in overcoming vainglory is to remain silent and to accept dishonor gladly. The middle stage is to check every act of vainglory while it is still in thought. The end – insofar as one may talk of [...]
"The Christian law is not 'survival of the fittest' but 'the survival of the unfit.'" Source: Sheen Fulton, Guide to Contentment, Alba House, 2010.
"Do not be ashamed to serve others for the love of Jesus Christ and to seem poor in this world. Do not be self-sufficient but place your trust in God." Source: Thomas a’ Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Dover Thrift Editions, 1940.