30 September 2022
A soul arms itself by prayer for all kinds of combat. In whatever state
the soul may be, it ought to pray. A soul which is pure and beautiful must
pray, or else it will lose its beauty; a soul which is striving after this
purity must pray, or else it will never attain it; a soul which is newly
converted must pray, or else it will fall again; a sinful soul, plunged in
sins, must pray so that it might rise again. There is no soul, which is not
bound to pray, for every single grace comes to the soul through prayer.
Saint Faustina
On Prayer
29 September 2022
When you need something, take heart and cry out to the Lord. But remain in peace in the will of God without the least anxiety.
Saint Paul of the Cross
When you need something, take heart and cry out to the Lord. But remain in peace in the will of God without the least anxiety.
Saint Paul of the Cross
God's Ways
28 September 2022
The ways of God are entirely different from our ways. To us it seems necessary to employ powerful means in order to produce great effects. This is not God’s method; quite the contrary. He likes to choose the weakest instruments that He may confound the strong: “God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong — Infirma mundi elegit ut confundat fortia.” (1 Cor 1:27)
Blessed Columba Marmion
The ways of God are entirely different from our ways. To us it seems necessary to employ powerful means in order to produce great effects. This is not God’s method; quite the contrary. He likes to choose the weakest instruments that He may confound the strong: “God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong — Infirma mundi elegit ut confundat fortia.” (1 Cor 1:27)
Blessed Columba Marmion
On Duty
27 September 2022
Don’t shirk your duty. Carry it out conscientiously, even though others neglect theirs.
Saint Josemaría Escrivá
Don’t shirk your duty. Carry it out conscientiously, even though others neglect theirs.
Saint Josemaría Escrivá
Good Deeds
25 September 2022
He should first show them in deeds rather than words all that is good and holy.
Saint Benedict (480-547)
He should first show them in deeds rather than words all that is good and holy.
Saint Benedict (480-547)
On Prayer
22 September 2022
The only “failure” in prayer is when we neglect it. The only “success” in prayer is the sense of God’s presence, or a deep peace and sense of well-being, a marvelous moment of inner freedom. When that comes, it is a special gift from God. We have no claim on it; we cannot demand it. Our part is to turn to him as best we can, trying to raise our minds and hearts to him.
Basil Hume (1923-1999)
The only “failure” in prayer is when we neglect it. The only “success” in prayer is the sense of God’s presence, or a deep peace and sense of well-being, a marvelous moment of inner freedom. When that comes, it is a special gift from God. We have no claim on it; we cannot demand it. Our part is to turn to him as best we can, trying to raise our minds and hearts to him.
Basil Hume (1923-1999)
On Prayer
18 September 2022
A bound person cannot run. Nor can the mind, which works like a slave for a certain passion, be able to offer a true prayer, because it is dragged around and wanders here and there on account of impassioned thoughts and cannot remain undisturbed. You will not be able to pray clearly if you are preoccupied with material things and are agitated by incessant cares, because prayer implies riddance of every care.
Saint Nilus of Sinai
A bound person cannot run. Nor can the mind, which works like a slave for a certain passion, be able to offer a true prayer, because it is dragged around and wanders here and there on account of impassioned thoughts and cannot remain undisturbed. You will not be able to pray clearly if you are preoccupied with material things and are agitated by incessant cares, because prayer implies riddance of every care.
Saint Nilus of Sinai
Hallowed Be Your Name
16 September 2022
We say “Hallowed be Your name” not that we wish for God that He may be hallowed by our prayers, but that we beseech of Him that His name may be hallowed in us.
Saint Cyprian of Carthage
We say “Hallowed be Your name” not that we wish for God that He may be hallowed by our prayers, but that we beseech of Him that His name may be hallowed in us.
Saint Cyprian of Carthage
Omnipresent
14 September 2022
Life is this simple. We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent, and God is shining through all the time. This is not just a fable or a nice story. It is true. If we abandon ourselves to God and forget ourselves, we see it sometimes, and we see it maybe frequently. God shows Himself everywhere, in everything – in people and in things and in nature and in events. It becomes very obvious that God is everywhere and in everything and we cannot be without Him. It’s impossible. The only thing is we don’t see it.
Thomas Merton
Life is this simple. We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent, and God is shining through all the time. This is not just a fable or a nice story. It is true. If we abandon ourselves to God and forget ourselves, we see it sometimes, and we see it maybe frequently. God shows Himself everywhere, in everything – in people and in things and in nature and in events. It becomes very obvious that God is everywhere and in everything and we cannot be without Him. It’s impossible. The only thing is we don’t see it.
Thomas Merton
On Morning Prayer
13 September 2022
In order to succeed in prayer, it should be done when we first awaken, when our whole being is calm and recollected. We need to make our meditation before anything else.
Saint Peter Julian Eymard
In order to succeed in prayer, it should be done when we first awaken, when our whole being is calm and recollected. We need to make our meditation before anything else.
Saint Peter Julian Eymard
The Word of God
12 September 2022
The word of God is a tree of life that offers us blessed fruit from each of its branches. It is like that rock which was struck open in the wilderness, from which all were offered spiritual drink… And so whenever anyone discovers some part of the treasure, he should not think that he has exhausted God’s word… A thirsty man is happy when he is drinking, and he is not depressed because he cannot exhaust the spring. So let this spring quench your thirst, and not your thirst the spring. For if you can satisfy your thirst without exhausting the spring, then when you thirst again you can drink from it once more… Be thankful then for what you have received.
Saint Ephrem of Syria
The word of God is a tree of life that offers us blessed fruit from each of its branches. It is like that rock which was struck open in the wilderness, from which all were offered spiritual drink… And so whenever anyone discovers some part of the treasure, he should not think that he has exhausted God’s word… A thirsty man is happy when he is drinking, and he is not depressed because he cannot exhaust the spring. So let this spring quench your thirst, and not your thirst the spring. For if you can satisfy your thirst without exhausting the spring, then when you thirst again you can drink from it once more… Be thankful then for what you have received.
Saint Ephrem of Syria
On Sin
11 September 2022
What would you expect? Sin will not come to you saying, 'I am sin.' It would do little harm if it did. Sin always seems 'good, pleasant and desirable' at the time of arrival.
J.C. Ryle
What would you expect? Sin will not come to you saying, 'I am sin.' It would do little harm if it did. Sin always seems 'good, pleasant and desirable' at the time of arrival.
J.C. Ryle
Examine Your Conscience
10 September 2022
Carefully examine your conscience, then. Cleanse and purify it to the best of your power by true contrition and humble confession, that you may have no burden, know of no remorse, and thus be free to come near. Let the memory of all your sins grieve you, and especially lament and bewail your daily transgressions.
Thomas à Kempis
Carefully examine your conscience, then. Cleanse and purify it to the best of your power by true contrition and humble confession, that you may have no burden, know of no remorse, and thus be free to come near. Let the memory of all your sins grieve you, and especially lament and bewail your daily transgressions.
Thomas à Kempis
On Prayer
9 September 2022
Those who pray but accumulate sorrows and grudges inside them are likened to people who draw water from the well and empty it into a leaking container.
Saint Nilus of Sinai
Those who pray but accumulate sorrows and grudges inside them are likened to people who draw water from the well and empty it into a leaking container.
Saint Nilus of Sinai
On Love
8 September 2022
For there is nothing but the power of love which can lead the soul from the things of earth to the lofty summit of heaven. Nor can anyone attain the supreme beatitude unless summoned to it by love and yearning. Love after all is the life of the soul, the wedding garment and the soul’s perfection, containing all the law and the prophets and our Lord’s teaching.
Saint Albert the Great (c. 1206-1280)
For there is nothing but the power of love which can lead the soul from the things of earth to the lofty summit of heaven. Nor can anyone attain the supreme beatitude unless summoned to it by love and yearning. Love after all is the life of the soul, the wedding garment and the soul’s perfection, containing all the law and the prophets and our Lord’s teaching.
Saint Albert the Great (c. 1206-1280)
The State of the World
7 September 2022
Truly, matters in the world are in a bad state; but if you and I begin in earnest to reform ourselves, a really good beginning will have been made.
Saint Peter of Alcántara
Truly, matters in the world are in a bad state; but if you and I begin in earnest to reform ourselves, a really good beginning will have been made.
Saint Peter of Alcántara
On Pure Prayer
6 September 2022
Sometimes we try hard to practice pure prayer, and cannot; but it happens also that we do not compel ourselves, yet the soul prays with purity. The first results from our infirmity, the second, from grace from above, which thus calls us to seek purity of soul and teaches us, in each case, not to ascribe it to ourselves if our prayer is pure, but to recognize in this a gift of the Giver. “We know not what we should pray for as we ought.” [Romans 8:26] When we try to make our prayer pure and cannot, but are enveloped in darkness, let us moisten our cheeks with tears and implore God to disperse the night of the battle and to let light shine in the soul.
Saint Nilus of Sinai
Sometimes we try hard to practice pure prayer, and cannot; but it happens also that we do not compel ourselves, yet the soul prays with purity. The first results from our infirmity, the second, from grace from above, which thus calls us to seek purity of soul and teaches us, in each case, not to ascribe it to ourselves if our prayer is pure, but to recognize in this a gift of the Giver. “We know not what we should pray for as we ought.” [Romans 8:26] When we try to make our prayer pure and cannot, but are enveloped in darkness, let us moisten our cheeks with tears and implore God to disperse the night of the battle and to let light shine in the soul.
Saint Nilus of Sinai
On Prayer
5 September 2022
We can only find our happiness on earth in loving God, and we can only love Him in prayer to Him. We see that Jesus Christ, to encourage us often to have recourse to Him through prayer, promises never to refuse us anything if we pray for it as we should. But there is no need to go looking for elaborate and roundabout ways of showing you that we should pray often, for you have only to open your catechism and you will see there that the duty of every good Christian is to pray morning and evening and often during the day — that is to say, always.
Saint John Vianney
We can only find our happiness on earth in loving God, and we can only love Him in prayer to Him. We see that Jesus Christ, to encourage us often to have recourse to Him through prayer, promises never to refuse us anything if we pray for it as we should. But there is no need to go looking for elaborate and roundabout ways of showing you that we should pray often, for you have only to open your catechism and you will see there that the duty of every good Christian is to pray morning and evening and often during the day — that is to say, always.
Saint John Vianney
Wisdom or Prudence
4 September 2022
There are three ways for wisdom or prudence to abound in you: if you confess your sins, if you give thanks and praise, and if your speech is edifying.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
There are three ways for wisdom or prudence to abound in you: if you confess your sins, if you give thanks and praise, and if your speech is edifying.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
Morning Prayers
2 September 2022
Never forget that it is at the beginning of each day that God has the necessary grace for the day ready for us. He knows exactly what opportunities we shall have to sin, and will give us everything we need if we ask him then. That is why the devil does all he can to prevent us from saying our morning prayers or to make us say them badly.
Saint John Vianney
Never forget that it is at the beginning of each day that God has the necessary grace for the day ready for us. He knows exactly what opportunities we shall have to sin, and will give us everything we need if we ask him then. That is why the devil does all he can to prevent us from saying our morning prayers or to make us say them badly.
Saint John Vianney
On Prayer
1 September 2022
To spend much time in prayer is to knock with a persistent and holy fervor at the door of the One whom we seek. This task is generally accomplished more through sighs than words, more through weeping than speech.
Saint Augustine
To spend much time in prayer is to knock with a persistent and holy fervor at the door of the One whom we seek. This task is generally accomplished more through sighs than words, more through weeping than speech.
Saint Augustine
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