30 September 2023
The more you devote yourself to study of the sacred utterances, the
richer will be your understanding of them, just as the more the soil is tilled,
the richer the harvest.
Saint Isidore of Seville
The Look of Love
29 September 2023
What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.
Saint Augustine
What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.
Saint Augustine
On Solitude
28 September 2023
Souls that love God feel a strong attraction for solitude, for they know that God converses familiarly with those who shun the noise and distractions of the world… God speaks to the soul in solitude, and by his words the soul is inflamed with divine love: “My soul melted when my beloved spoke.” (Sgs 5:6).
Saint Alphonsus Liguori
Souls that love God feel a strong attraction for solitude, for they know that God converses familiarly with those who shun the noise and distractions of the world… God speaks to the soul in solitude, and by his words the soul is inflamed with divine love: “My soul melted when my beloved spoke.” (Sgs 5:6).
Saint Alphonsus Liguori
Repentance
27 September 2023
Are you a sinner? Do not despair; rather, enter, presenting repentance. Have you sinned? Tell God, “I have sinned.” What is the labor, what the period of time, what the expense? What kind of hardship is it to say, “I have sinned”? You have an advocate with the Father who said, “Be the first to confess your sins so you may be justified.” Say the sin to obliterate it. For this, there is no toil, no expense, no need of deep arguments, no need of philosophical reasoning, say, “I have sinned.”
St. John Chrysostom
Are you a sinner? Do not despair; rather, enter, presenting repentance. Have you sinned? Tell God, “I have sinned.” What is the labor, what the period of time, what the expense? What kind of hardship is it to say, “I have sinned”? You have an advocate with the Father who said, “Be the first to confess your sins so you may be justified.” Say the sin to obliterate it. For this, there is no toil, no expense, no need of deep arguments, no need of philosophical reasoning, say, “I have sinned.”
St. John Chrysostom
Wisdom
25 September 2023
Wisdom. The first point of wisdom is to discern that which is false; the second to know that which is true.
Lactantius
Wisdom. The first point of wisdom is to discern that which is false; the second to know that which is true.
Lactantius
Lament and Grieve
24 September 2023
Lament and grieve because you are still so worldly, so carnal, so passionate and unmortified, so full of roving lust, so careless in guarding the external senses, so often occupied in many vain fancies, so inclined to exterior things and so heedless of what lies within, so prone to laughter and dissipation and so indisposed to sorrow and tears, so inclined to ease and the pleasures of the flesh and so cool to austerity and zeal, so curious to hear what is new and to see the beautiful and so slow to embrace humiliation and dejection, so covetous of abundance, so niggardly in giving and so tenacious in keeping, so inconsiderate in speech, so reluctant in silence, so undisciplined in character, so disordered in action, so greedy at meals, so deaf to the Word of God, so prompt to rest and so slow to labor, so awake to empty conversation, so sleepy in keeping sacred vigils and so eager to end them, so wandering in your attention, so careless in saying the office, so lukewarm in celebrating, so heartless in receiving, so quickly distracted, so seldom fully recollected, so quickly moved to anger, so apt to take offense at others, so prone to judge, so severe in condemning, so happy in prosperity and so weak in adversity, so often making good resolutions and carrying so few of them into action.
Thomas à Kempis
Lament and grieve because you are still so worldly, so carnal, so passionate and unmortified, so full of roving lust, so careless in guarding the external senses, so often occupied in many vain fancies, so inclined to exterior things and so heedless of what lies within, so prone to laughter and dissipation and so indisposed to sorrow and tears, so inclined to ease and the pleasures of the flesh and so cool to austerity and zeal, so curious to hear what is new and to see the beautiful and so slow to embrace humiliation and dejection, so covetous of abundance, so niggardly in giving and so tenacious in keeping, so inconsiderate in speech, so reluctant in silence, so undisciplined in character, so disordered in action, so greedy at meals, so deaf to the Word of God, so prompt to rest and so slow to labor, so awake to empty conversation, so sleepy in keeping sacred vigils and so eager to end them, so wandering in your attention, so careless in saying the office, so lukewarm in celebrating, so heartless in receiving, so quickly distracted, so seldom fully recollected, so quickly moved to anger, so apt to take offense at others, so prone to judge, so severe in condemning, so happy in prosperity and so weak in adversity, so often making good resolutions and carrying so few of them into action.
Thomas à Kempis
On Prayer
23 September 2023
Length of prayer consists, not in praying for many things, but in the
affections persisting in the desire of one thing.
Saint Thomas Aquinas
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