On another day the Lord told me this: Do you think, daughter that merit lies in enjoyment? No, rather it lies in working and suffering and loving…When you see My Mother holding Me in her arms, don’t think she enjoyed those consolations without heavy torment. From the time Simeon spoke…
Have great love for trials and think of them as but a small way of pleasing your Spouse, Who did not hesitate to die for you. – St. John of the Cross
The cross is not an end in itself. It beckons one toward the summit. Therefore it is not only a standard, it is also Christ’s powerful weapon, the triumphal symbol with which He knocks at the gate of heaven and throws it wide. – St. Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein)
The dark night becomes the school of all the virtues: it trains one to resignation, to patience, from the moment that one is faithful to the spiritual life without finding consolation and refreshment in it. The soul attains a high degree of love of God, inasmuch as it acts solely…
Spiritual substance cannot be communicated to the senses, and anything imparted to the sense, especially in this life, cannot be pure spirit, since sense is incapable of it. -St. John of the Cross
O my beloved Christ, crucified by love, I wish to be a bride for Your Heart; I wish to cover You with glory; I wish to love You…even unto death! But I feel my weakness, and I ask You to “clothe me with Yourself,” to identify my soul with all…
I beg you, oh, mark everything with the seal of love! It alone endures. -St. Elizabeth of the Trinity
Believe me – to write books of piety, to compose sublime poems, all this is not worth as much as the smallest act of renunciation. – St. Teresa of Avila
I am resolved to give complete obedience in everything without exception, not only to my superiors, but also to my equals and inferiors, so as to learn from you, my God, who made yourself obedient in far more difficult circumstances than those in which I find myself. – St. Teresa…
In the first place it should be known that if a person is seeking God, His Beloved is seeking him much more. – St. John of the Cross