On Prayer

28 February 2022

I do not tell you to pray in my way, but in that of God. Leave your soul at liberty to receive the divine impressions according to God’s pleasure. We should pray according to the dictates of the Holy Spirit. 

      Saint Paul of the Cross (1694-1775)

Our Petitions

27 February 2022

God accepts our desires as though they were of great value. He longs ardently for us to desire and love him. He accepts our petitions for benefits as though we were doing him a favor. His joy in giving is greater than ours in receiving. So let us not be apathetic in our asking, nor set too narrow bounds to our requests; nor ask for frivolous things unworthy of God’s greatness.

        Saint Gregory Nazianzen

On Sin

25 February 2022

There is no sin or crime committed by another which I myself am not capable of committing through my weakness; and if I have not committed it, it is because God, in his mercy, has not allowed me to and has preserved me in good.

        Saint Augustine

24 February 2022

However small the sins that you may confess may be, always have sincere sorrow for them, together with a firm resolution to correct them in the future. Many who confess their venial sins out of custom and concern for order, but without thought of amendment, remain burdened with them for their whole lives and thus lose many spiritual benefits and advantages.

        Saint Francis de Sales

Satan

23 February 2022

The devil is a great chained dog which puts people to flight, which makes a great noise, but which only bites those who come too close.

      Saint John Vianney (1786-1859)

Mother of God

22 February 2022

Let those who think that the Church pays too much attention to Mary give heed to the fact that Our Blessed Lord Himself gave ten times as much of His life to her as He gave to His Apostles.

     Blessed Fulton Sheen

Our Lord's Passion

21 February 2022

We should read our Lord’s Passion constantly; what great benefit we will gain by doing so. Even if you are as hard as stone, when you contemplate that He was sarcastically adorned, then ridiculed, beaten and subjected to the final agonies, you will be moved to cast all pride from your soul.

        Saint John Chrysostom

On Prayer

20 February 2022

No soul ever fell away from God without giving up prayer. Prayer is that which establishes contact with Divine Power and opens the invisible resources of heaven. However dark the way, when we pray, temptation can never master us. The first step downward in the average soul is the giving up of the practice of prayer, the breaking of the circuit with divinity, and the proclamation of one’s owns self sufficiency.

      Blessed Fulton Sheen

On Holding Grudges

19 February 2022

Christ gave his life for you, and do you hold a grudge against your fellow servant? How then can you approach the table of peace? Your Master did not refuse to undergo every kind of suffering for you, and will you not even forgo your anger?… If you refuse to forgive your enemy you harm not him but yourself… There is no one God detests and repudiates more than the person who bears a grudge, whose heart is filled with anger, whose soul is seething with rage.

        Saint John Chrysostom

Our Speech

18 February 2022

Your language should be restrained, frank, sincere, candid, unaffected and honest. Be on guard against equivocation, ambiguity or dissimulation. While it is not always advisable to say everything that is true, it is never permissible to speak against the truth. You must become accustomed never to tell a deliberate lie whether to excuse yourself or for some other purposes, remembering always that God is the ‘God of truth.’

      Saint Francis de Sales

Being Prepared

17 February 2022

That God has promised you pardon when you amend your life, I cannot deny. But tell me, pray: I agree and I grant you and I know that God has promised you forgiveness. But who has promised you tomorrow? Where you read that you will receive forgiveness, when you do penance, read for me also how much longer you have to live. It is not there, you say. Therefore you do not know how long more you have to live. Then reform your life, and be always prepared.

        Saint Augustine

Loving Our Fellows

16 February 2022

We must love our fellows, without expecting friendship from them; they leave us and return, they go and come; let them do as they will; it is but a feather, the sport of the wind. See God only in them; it is He that afflicts or consoles us, by means of them, according as we have need.

      François Fénèlon (1651-1715)

Sinful Thoughts

15 February 2022

Since prayer is an association of the mind with God, then in what state must the mind possibly be, in order to be able, without turning elsewhere, to approach its Lord and converse with Him without the mediation of something else?  If Moses in his attempt to approach the burning bush was hindered until he had removed the sandals from his feet, then shouldn’t you who desires to see God and converse with Him, remove and cast out of you every sinful thought?

      Saint Nilus of Sinai (d. 430)

God

14 February 2022

To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romances; to seek him, the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.

        Saint Augustine

The Church

13 February 2022

The Church, through the temple and Divine service, acts upon the entire man, educates him wholly; acts upon his sight, hearing, smelling, feeling, taste, imagination, mind, and will, by the splendour of the icons and of the whole temple, by the ringing of bells, by the singing of the choir, by the fragrance of the incense, the kissing of the Gospel, of the cross and the holy icons, by the prosphoras, the singing, and sweet sound of the readings of the Scriptures.”

        St. John of Kronstadt

Heart to Heart

12 February 2022

Recall yourself sometimes to the interior solitude of your heart, and there, removed from all creatures, treat of the affairs of your salvation and your perfection with God, as a friend would speak heart to heart with another.

        Saint Francis de Sales 

On Devotion

11 February 2022

It is, however, necessary to put our whole trust in God, laying aside all other cares, and even some particular forms of devotion, though very good in themselves, yet such as one often engages in unreasonably: because those devotions are only means to attain to the end; so when by this exercise of the presence of God we are with Him who is our end, it is then useless to return to the means; but we may continue with Him our commerce of love, persevering in His holy presence: one while by an act of praise, of adoration, or of desire; one while by an act of resignation, or thanksgiving; and in all the manner which our spirit can invent.

      Brother Lawrence (1614-1691)

10 February 2022

Love even the most abandoned: love whatever faith in Christ remains in them: if they have lost this, love their virtues; if these have gone, love the holy likeness they bear, love the blood of Christ through which you trust they are redeemed.

          Saint Ignatius of Loyola

On Prayer

9 February 2022

God does not disregard the prayers of the faithful. Yet He sometimes does not fulfill their desires, only in order to better arrange everything according to His Divine purpose.

        Saint Leo of Optina

Through Confession

8 February 2022

Be brave and try to detach your heart from worldly things. Do your utmost to banish darkness from your mind and come to understand what true, selfless piety is. Through confession, endeavor to purify your heart of anything which may still taint it. Enliven your faith, which is essential to understand and achieve piety.

        Saint John Bosco

On Love

7 February 2022

Love flies, runs, leaps for joy; it is free and unrestrained. Love gives all for all, resting in One who is highest above all things, from whom every good flows and proceeds. Love does not regard the gifts, but turns to the Giver of all good gifts. Love knows no limits, but ardently transcends all bounds. Love feels no burden, takes no account of toil, attempts things beyond its strength; love sees nothing as impossible, for it feels able to achieve all things. Love therefore does great things; it is strange and effective; while he who lacks love faints and fails.

        Thomas à Kempis

On Repentance

6 February 2022

God wanted all his beloved ones to have the opportunity to repent and he confirmed this desire by his own almighty will. That is why we should obey his sovereign and glorious will and prayerfully entreat his mercy and kindness. We should be suppliant before him and turn to his compassion, rejecting empty works and quarreling and jealousy which only lead to death.

        Saint Clement of Rome

Weakness, Passion, Defect

4 February 2022

We have within us deeply rooted weaknesses, passions, and defects. This can not all be cut out with one sharp motion, but patience, persistence, care and attention. The path leading to perfection is long. Pray to God so that he will strengthen you. Patiently accept your falls and, having stood up, immediately run to God, not remaining in that place where you have fallen. Do not despair if you keep falling into your old sins. Many of them are strong because they have received the force of habit. Only with the passage of time and with fervor will they be conquered. Don’t let anything deprive you of hope.

      Saint Nektarios of Aegina

On Prayer

3 February 2022

Let your prayer be completely simple. For both the publican and the prodigal son were reconciled to God by a single phrase.

      Saint John Climacus

On Your Soul

2 February 2022

If you want cure your soul, you need four things.

      The first is to forgive your enemies.
      The second is to confess thoroughly.
      The third is to blame yourself.
      The fourth is to resolve to sin no more.

Saint Kosmas Airolos

On Earthly Glory

1 February 2022

Do not seek earthly glory in any matter, for it is extinguished for him who loves it. In its time it blows on a man like a strong wind, and then quickly, taking from him the fruits of his good works, it goes away from him, laughing at his foolishness.

    Saint Gennadius of Constantinople