"We must be like the simple, candid child that hides nothing, that does all its mother wishes and only because its mother wishes without questioning whether it is good or bad. Think, too, that God is good, that He wishes to be your good, and that you cannot glorify Him more than by doing His [...]
"Jesus Christ gave more glory to God the Father by submission to His Mother during those thirty years than He would have given Him in converting the whole world by the working of the most stupendous miracles. Oh, how highly we glorify God, when, to please Him, we submit ourselves to Mary, after the example [...]
"We need to occasionally relax the mind, and the body requires some recreation also. Cassian relates how St. John the Evangelist was found by a certain hunter amusing himself by petting a partridge, which sat upon his wrist. The hunter asked how a man of his mental powers could find time for so trifling an [...]
"Still it is true that the soul, if blinded by selfishness, cannot recognize or discern what is truly good and profitable for soul and body." Source: St. Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue, Paulist Press, 1980 The Dialogue was dictated by Catherine over a period of five days. Three scribes worked to keep up with [...]
"Saint John’s words should rather be interpreted to mean that love of neighbor is a path that leads to the encounter with God and that closing our eyes to our neighbor also blinds us to God." Source: Pope Benedict XVI, God is Love: Deus Caritas Est, Ignatius Press, 2006.
"The overemphasis on politics today is an indication that people are governed, rather than governing. The complexities of our civilization force us to organize into larger and larger units; we have become so intent on governing what is outside of us that we neglect to govern our own selves. Yet the key to social betterment [...]
"We take others to task for small mistakes, and overlook greater ones in ourselves. We are quick to feel and brood over the things we suffer for others, but we think nothing of how much others suffer from us. If a man would weigh his own deeds fully and rightly, he would find little cause [...]
"'He who walks simply, walks securely,' says the Holy Spirit. This simplicity with God is precisely the confidence with which a soul places herself in the hands of God, because she knows His goodness. She abandons herself to everything that He may will and she is disquieted by nothing that may happen to her. She [...]
"It was a saying of St. Louis that one should contradict nobody, unless there was sin or harm in consenting; and that in order to avoid contention and dispute. At any rate, when it is necessary to contradict anybody, or to assert one's own opinion, it should be done gently and considerately, without irritation or [...]
"Once, when I saw Jesus in the form of a small child, I asked, 'Jesus, why do you now take on the form of a child when You commune with me? In spite of this, I still see in You the infinite God, my Lord and Creator.' Jesus replied that until I learned simplicity and [...]