I suppose I ought to be distressed that I so often fall asleep during meditation and thanksgiving after Holy Communion, but I reflect that little children, asleep or awake, are equally dear to their parents; that to perform operations doctors put their patients to sleep; and finally, that ‘The Lord…
Let us humbly take our place among the imperfect. – St. Therese
The proud person is like a grain of wheat thrown into water: it swells, it gets big. Expose that grain to the fire: it dries up, it burns. The humble soul is like a grain of wheat thrown into the earth: it descends, it hides itself, it disappears, it dies;…
In this interior union God communicates himself to the soul with such genuine love that neither the affection of a mother, with which she so tenderly caresses her child, nor a brother’s love, nor any friendship is comparable to it. – St. John of the Cross
They are too attached to their honor. . . . These souls, for the most part, grieve over anything said against them. They do not embrace the cross but drag it along, and so it hurts and wearies them and breaks them to pieces. However, if the cross is loved,…
It is right that the soul, as far as it is able, should work to purify itself, that it may merit that God take it into His Divine care and heal it of those imperfections before which it is helpless. -St. John of the Cross
Mary, a sublime woman is, like us, what she became through the grace and goodness of God. It is true that by the will of God she was chosen by a special grace, but she responded to it without the slightest hint of hesitation and allowed herself to be taken…
Unless we give our wills entirely to the Lord so that in everything pertaining to us He might do what conforms with His will, we will never be allowed to drink from this fount. Drinking from it is perfect contemplation. – St. Teresa of Avila
Through every sincere prayer something happens in the church, and it is the church itself that is praying therein, for it is the Holy Spirit living in the church that intercedes for every individual soul “with sighs too deep for words.” This is exactly what “authentic” prayer is, for “no…
In these aridities the soul practices corporally and spiritually all the virtues, theological as well as cardinal and moral. – St. John of the Cross