Better that only a few Catholics should be left, staunch and sincere in their religion, than that they should, remaining many, desire as it were, to be in collusion with the Church's enemies and in conformity with the open foes of our faith.
Great indeed are the advantages of tribulations. The Lord sends them to us, not because He wishes our misfortune, but because He desires our welfare. When they come upon us, we must embrace them with thanksgiving, and must not only resign ourselves to the divine will, but must also rejoice that God treats us as He treated His Son Jesus Christ, whose life on this earth was always full of tribulations.- St. Alphonsus Liguori
He who knows how to forgive prepares for himself many graces from God.
As often as I look upon the cross, so often will I forgive with all my heart.
The desire of your heart is itself your prayer. And if the desire is constant, so is your prayer.- St. Augustine
Not for nothing did the apostle tell us to pray without ceasing. But did he mean that we were to be perpetually on our knees, lying prostrate, or raising our hands? Is this what is meant by praying without ceasing? Even if we admit that we pray in this fashion, I do not believe that we can do so all the time.
Yet there is another, interior kind of prayer without ceasing, namely the desire of the heart. Whatever else you may be doing, if you but fix your desire on God's Sabbath rest, your prayer will be ceaseless.
Therefore, if you wish to pray without ceasing, do not cease to desire. The constancy of your desire will itself be the ceaseless voice of your prayer. And that voice of your prayer will be silent only when your love ceases. For who are silent if not those of whom it is said: Because evil has abounded, the love of many will grow cold? The chilling of love means that the heart is silent. If your love is without ceasing, you are always crying out; if you are always crying out, you are always desiring; and if you desire, you are calling to mind your eternal rest in the Lord.
A servant of God signifies one who has a great charity towards his neighbor, and an inviolable resolution to follow in everything the Divine Will; who bears with his own deficiencies, and patiently supports the imperfections of others.St. Francis de Sales
"The enemies of the Church, who think that their time has come, will see that their joy was premature, and that they may close the grave they have dug"(Mit Brennender Sorge, 19 [1937]).
Those who want to offer God a worthy gift can only do so by offering themselves. For since God made us in His own image He is delighted to be offered His own image, and commands us to present it to Him clean and shining.
That explains our Savior's answer to some of those who were trying to trap Him: Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. This means that just as we give to Caesar his image imprinted on a coin, so we must give to God his image imprinted on ourselves. And when we give our Creator His own image it must be righteous, not evil; humble, not proud; not debased by greed, deformed by rapacity, diminished by vicious anger, worn away by earthly passions, filthy with envy, defiled by debauchery; but kept unharmed by prudent care, clean by true faith, and shining by good ways and works. But the most holy prophet tells us how to give God His own image in ourselves, when He says: I shall show you what is good and what the Lord asks of you. It is to act justly and righteously, to love mercy and walk carefully with your God.
Picture sourceIn human life nothing holier can be desired, nothing more useful sought after, nothing is harder to find, nothing sweeter to experience, nothing more fruitful to possess than friendship. For it bears fruit both in this life and the next, showing forth all virtues in its sweetness and in its strength destroying vice. It softens the blows of adversity and moderates elation in prosperity.
Without friendship there can be hardly any happiness among humans; they may well be compared to animals if they have no one to rejoice with them in good fortune or sympathize with them in sorrow, no one to whom they can unburden themselves in time of trouble, or with whom they can share some especially uplifting or inspiring insight.
Alas for anyone who is alone and has no one to lift him up when he falls. Without a friend one is indeed alone. But what joy it is, what security, what a delight to have someone to whom you dare to speak as to another self; to whom you are not afraid to admit that you have done something wrong, or shy of revealing some spiritual progress you have made; someone to whom you can entrust all the secrets of your heart and with whom you can share your plans.
I understood too that the love of our Lord is revealed in the simplest soul who offers no resistance to His grace as well as in the most sublime soul. In fact, since the essence of love is humility, if all souls were like those of the learned saints who have illuminated the Church by the light of their teaching, it would seem as if God would not have very far to descend in coming to their hearts. But He has created the baby who knows nothing and whose only utterance is a feeble cry; He has created people who have only the law of nature to guide them; and it is their hearts that He deigns to come down to, those are His flowers of the field whose simplicity delights him. In coming down in that way the good God proves His infinite greatness.
Just as the sun shines at the same time on cedar trees and on each little flower as if it was the only one on earth, so our Lord takes special care of each soul as if it was His only care.
Two things are required of us, here and now: to acknowledge our sins and to forgive others; the first, so that the second may become easier. For someone properly aware of his own behavior and its shortcomings will be the more forgiving to his fellow humans. And that does not mean forgiveness in words merely, but from the heart, lest in our resentment we turn the sword on ourselves. The more he has injured you, the greater the forgiveness of your own sin, in consequence.St. John Chrysostom
Let us take care that we hate no one, so that God may still love us; so that even though we may be owing him a thousand talents he may yet be generous and merciful to us.
Has someone offended you? Be merciful to him, then; do not hate him. Weep and lament for him, but do not show aversion. For it is not you who have offended God, but he; you will do well to put up with it.
Recall how Christ was content to be crucified— and yet shed tears over those who did it. That must be your disposition also: the more you are wronged, the more you must lament for the wrongdoers. For it is we who profit from this— and greatly— but not they.
You will never complain about offenses, no matter where they come from, remembering that Jesus was saturated with ignominy from the malice of men He Himself had aided.St. Padre Pio
You will excuse everyone with Christian charity, keeping before your eyes the example of the Divine Master who excused even His crucifiers before the Father.
Whoever you may be who still desire the first place here—go and sit in the last place. Do not be lifted up by pride, inflated by knowledge, elated by nobility, but the greater you are, the more you must humble yourself in every way, and you will find grace with God. In His own time He will say to you: "Friend, go up higher," and then you will be honored by all who sit at table with you.Bruno of Segni ( died 1123 AD, bishop of Segni, great commentator on scripture who helped Pope Gregory VII in his reform of the Church.
Moses sat in the last place whenever he had the choice. When the Lord, wishing to send him to the Israelites, invited him to take a higher place, his answer was: I beg you, Lord, send someone else. I am not a good speaker. It was the same as saying: "I am not worthy of so great an office."
Saul, too, was of small account in his own eyes when the Lord made him king. And Jeremiah, similarly, was afraid of rising to the first place: "Ah, Lord God," he said, "look, I cannot speak—I am only a child."
In the Church, then, the first seat, or the highest place, is to be sought not by ambition but by humility; not by money but by holiness.
If God causes you to suffer much, it is a sign that He has great designs for you, and that He certainly intends to make you a saint. And if you wish to become a great saint, entreat Him yourself to give you much opportunity for suffering; for there is no wood better to kindle the fire of holy love than the wood of the cross, which Christ used for His own great sacrifice of boundless charity.- Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)
