THE SAINTS SPEAK-ARCHIVE 2012-2013

[Dawn Marie]

THE SAINTS SPEAK ARCHIVES

 

[Dawn Marie]

'He who forgets himself in the service of God may be assured that God will not forget Him.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

'Silence the man who utters slander in your hearing. Otherwise you sin twice over: first, you accustom yourself to this deadly passion and, second you fail to prevent him from gossiping against his neighbor.'

St. Maximos the Confessor

 

'If a man finds it very hard to forgive injuries, let him look at a crucifix, and think that Christ has shed all His Blood for him, and not only forgave his enemies, but prayed the Eternal Father to forgive them also. Let him remember also that when he says the Pater Noster every day, instead of asking pardon for his sins, he is calling down vengeance upon them.'

St. Philip Neri

[Dawn Marie]

'He who works purely for the love of God, desires nothing but His honour, and thus is ready in every thing either to act or not to act, and that not in indifferent matters only, but even in good ones; and he is always resigned to the Will of God.'

St. Philip Neri

'Whether we will or no, we must suffer. There are some who suffer like the good thief and others like the bad thief.'

St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars

 

“Pray with great confidence, with confidence based on the goodness and infinite generosity of God and upon the promises of Jesus Christ. God is a spring of living water which flows unceasingly into the hearts of those who pray.”

St. Louis Marie De Montfort

[Dawn Marie]

'Do all you can to love everyone. If you are not yet able to, at the very least do not hate anyone. Yet you would not even manage this if you have not reached detachment from the things of this world

You must love everyone with all your soul, hoping, that according to the commandment to love your neighbour, Jesus has established so close a bond that he takes as done to himself anything done to our brothers or sisters. He says "I was thirsty and you gave me drink," (Mt. 25, 35) and he adds "As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me." (Mt 25, 40)'

St. Basil the Great

'Mary's sorrow was less when she saw her only Son crucified, than it is now at the sight of man offending Him by sin.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

'It is His Will that we should apply to Him in all our needs, with humble, respectful, but very filial trust, abandoning ourselves entirely to His loving care like children to a good father.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

[Dawn Marie]

'Blessed the one who in accordance with God's will obeys his neighbour and while enduring afflictions gives thanks. Such a one will be crowned, for he will become a confessor for the Lord.'

St. Ephrem of Syria

'It ordinarily happens that God permits those who judge others, to fall into the same or even greater faults.'

St. Vincent Ferrer

'We must not leave off our prayers because of distractions and restlessness of mind, although it seems useless to go on with them. He who perseveres for the whole of his accustomed time, gently recalling his mind to the subject of his prayer, merits greatly.'

St. Philip Neri

[Dawn Marie]

'There are in truth three states of the converted: the beginning, the middle, and the perfection. In the beginning they experience the charms of sweetness; in the middle the contests of temptation; and in the end the fullness of perfection.'

Pope St. Gregory the Great

'We are not raised the first day to the summit of perfection. It is by climbing, not by flying, that we arrive there.'

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

'Your cross is indeed great! Thanks to our only Good, Who holds you on the cross! O beloved cross! O holy cross, tree of life, whence springs eternal life, I salute thee, I embrace thee, I press thee to my heart! Ah! these are the sentiments which ought to animate us in our trials. Courage, then! Courage! Under so heavy a weight human nature will waver, it is true; but the soul will taste a sweet peace in the bosom of God.'

St. Paul of the Cross

[Dawn Marie]

'What would you say if I asked you if you can live in the world without offending God? When the dangers are put before you of certain kinds of talk, of certain ways of acting, and of backbiting your neighbor, you answer that you cannot help it, that otherwise you would have to be dumb in society, that people talk of nothing else, that you would have to have a heart of bronze to resist all temptations in the midst of a world which breeds them, and that in fact you would have to live like a hermit if you want to escape them.

All this is frequently said in excuse by those who think it justifies them.

It is impossible to frequent the world without offending God, or at any rate without exposing oneself to the danger of offending him: therefore you must renounce the world.

Every Christian has renounced the world and its pomps at baptism. This vow does not oblige you to live like a hermit, but it certainly obliges you to something. It is not an empty promise.'

St. Claude de la Colombiere

'Nothing unites the soul to God more closely, or breeds contempt of the world sooner, than being harassed and distressed.'

St. Philip Neri

'Fire is produced from stone and steel; lying comes from loquacity and gossip. And the lie destroys love. No one who has any sense would say that telling lies is not an important sin. The Holy Spirit has severely condemned it. "You destroy those that speak lies," says David to God. (Ps. 5, 7) The mother of lying is hypocrisy, mother and also, often, its substance as well. Hypocrisy in fact works out the lie beforehand and then puts it into practice. Those who possess the fear of God are the furthest from telling lies, because they have an honest judge, their own conscience.'

St. John Climacus

[Dawn Marie]

'Actions speak louder than words; let your words teach and your actions speak. We are full of words but empty of actions, and therefore are cursed by the Lord, since he himself cursed the fig tree when he found no fruit but only leaves. It is useless for a man to flaunt his knowledge of the law if he undermines its teaching by his actions. But the apostles "spoke as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech." Happy the man whose words issue from the Holy Spirit and not from himself! We should speak, then, as the Holy Spirit gives us the gift of speech. Our humble and sincere request to the Spirit for ourselves should be that we may bring the day of Pentecost to fulfillment, insofar as he infuses us with his grace, by using our bodily senses in a perfect manner by keeping the commandments. Likewise we shall request that we may be filled with a keen sense of sorrow and with fiery tongues for confessing the faith so our deserved reward may be to stand in the blazing splendor of the saints and to look upon the triune God.'

St. Anthony of Padua

'God is supreme strength, fortifying those who place their trust and confidence in Him.'

St. Catherine of Siena

'He who remembers having invoked the name of Mary in an impure temptation, may be sure that he did not yield to it.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

[Dawn Marie]

'God, whose essence is without origin or consummation, is also impenetrable in His wisdom.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan

'During our sojourn in this world, we should learn from the saints now in heaven, how to love God. The pure and perfect love of God they enjoy there, consists in uniting themselves perfectly to his will. It would be the greatest delight of the seraphs to pile up sand on the seashore or to pull weeds in a garden for all eternity, if they found out such was God's will. Our Lord himself teaches us to ask to do the will of God on earth as the saints do it in heaven: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Because David fulfilled all his wishes, God called him a man after his own heart: "I have found David. . . a man according to my own heart, who shall do all my wills."'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

He who does or plans anything without prayer will not succeed in the end. And this is what the Lord meant when He said; "Without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).'

St. Mark the Ascetic

[Dawn Marie]

'In the persons who are going on intensely cleansing their sins and rising from good to better in the service of God our Lord, it is the method contrary to that in the first Rule, for then it is the way of the evil spirit to bite, sadden and put obstacles, disquieting with false reasons, that one may not go on; and it is proper to the good to give courage and strength, consolations, tears, inspirations and quiet, easing, and putting away all obstacles, that one may go on in well doing.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola, 'Spiritual Exercises'

'When the afflictions of this life overcome us, let us encourage ourselves to bear them patiently by the hope of heaven.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

'All that you say in secret, speak as if you were addressing a multitude.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

[Dawn Marie]

'Do not think that every affliction is a consequence of sin. For there are some who do God's will and yet are tested. Thus it is written, those who "seek to live a holy life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution" (2 Tim. 3:12).'

St. Mark the Ascetic

'When the enemy cannot succeed in making you sin, and has lost the hope of attaining this end, he strives at least to torment you.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

'The intellect's task is to reject any thought that secretly vilifies a fellow being.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan