God is ready to shed his graces upon us as abundantly and as usefully as those he shed upon the first Christians. He does not love us less than he loved them. All the means of sanctification that they had, we too possess; and we have besides, the examples of the saints who have followed Christ to encourage us. But we are too often like Naaman the leper who came to consult the prophet and beg his cure; he was on the point of not obtaining it because he found the remedy too simple. That is the case with some of those who undertake the spiritual life; who are so attached to their own way of seeing things that they are scandalized at the simplicity of the Divine plan. And this scandal is not without harm . . . Why is this? Because all that our human ingenuity is able to create for our inner life serves for nothing if we do not base our edifice upon Christ.

– Blessed Columba Marmion

Let us adore Jesus in our hearts – who spent thirty years out of thirty-three in silence; who began his public life by spending forty days in silence; who often returned alone to spend the night on a mountain in silence. He who spoke with authority, now spends his earthly life in silence. Let us adore Jesus in the Eucharistic silence.

– Mother Teresa of Calcutta

       To those who are just and upright, trials become helps. Job, a man of discernment, was victorious in trials. Sickness came upon him, but he didn’t complain. Disease afflicted him, but he didn’t murmur. His body failed and his strength left him, but his will wasn’t weakened. By his sufferings he proved himself perfect in every way, because the trials didn’t crush him. . . See then, you who are wise, the power that lies in being free to choose how we’ll respond to our circumstances. . .Don’t seek a place of repose in this life, for this is a world of toil. And if you can discern wisely, don’t give up the next life for this one. Don’t trade what lasts forever for what doesn’t last, what comes to an end for what never ends. Don’t exchange the truth for a lie, the body for a mere shadow, alertness for sleep. Don’t trade what’s in season for what’s out of season, nor eternity for times that are passing away. Focus your mind so that it won’t wander along various paths that ultimately are of no profit to you.

-St. Ephrem

Wisdom tells us what we cannot know. Wisdom defines the limits of knowledge. Wisdom, however, always points us to a place and a purpose beyond knowledge. Wisdom takes us where knowledge can’t go – to the thoughts of God and the mind of God. The summit of knowledge is to know God’s will. That is the only knowledge we really need. The only knowing that is ultimately worthwhile is to know what God wants in our lives. What God always wants for us is love and the fruits of love . . . Wisdom allows us to know God, as God truly is, the “self” of God, the heart of God, the mind of God. In our world, knowledge is power. We are obsessed with power. Followers of Jesus must be different. We must be obsessed with wisdom.

– Father Harry Cronin, S.C.S.

I can do nothing alone. My own will, however hard I exert it, does not suffice. My own plans, however astutely and systematically devised, all fail. So, there is nothing for me to do but to hand myself over to God, truly and wholly, so that he may use, or for that matter, in his wisdom not use, whatever capacity I possess to serve him.

– St. Francis de Sales

Place all your hope in the heart of Jesus; it is a safe haven; for he who trusts in God is sheltered and protected by his mercy. To this firm hope, join the practice of virtue, and even in this life you will begin to taste the ineffable joys of Paradise.

– St. Bernard of Clairvaux

John’s Gospel tells us that after the Resurrection, the Lord went to his disciples, breathed upon them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit….We can say, therefore, that the Holy Spirit is the breath of Jesus Christ and we in a certain sense, must ask Christ to breathe on us always. . . This means that we must keep close to Christ. We do so by meditating on his Word. We know that the principal author of the Sacred Scriptures is the Holy Spirit . . . and then, naturally, this listening, walking in the environment of the Word, must be transformed into a response – a response in prayer, in contact with Christ.

– Pope Benedict XVI

Padre Pio Devotions Announces a New Book:
They Walked with God Book 2: St. Teresa of Calcutta, St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe, St. John Bosco

Our present life is given only to gain the eternal one and if we don’t think about it, we build our affections on what belongs to this world, where our life is transitory. When we have to leave it we are afraid and become agitated. Believe me, to live happily in this pilgrimage, we have to aim at the hope of arriving at our Homeland, where we will stay eternally. Meanwhile we have to believe ï¬rmly that God calls us to himself and follows us along the path towards him. He will never permit anything to happen to us that is not for our greater good. He knows who we are and he will hold out his paternal hand to us during difï¬culties, so that nothing prevents us from running to him swiftly. But to enjoy this grace we must have complete trust in him.

– St. Pio of Pietrelcina

Humility is the ointment for all of our wounds.

– St. Teresa of Avila

St. Paul teaches that this life of ours is like traveling abroad from our home country. He says, As long as we are in the body, we are traveling away from the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6). Since we are still traveling in a foreign land, we ought to keep in mind what our home country is – that country to which we must hasten by turning our backs on the attractions and delights of this life. This Homeland toward which we travel is the only place where we can find true rest because God does not wish us to find rest anywhere else. The reason is simple: if God gave us perfect rest while we were still abroad, we would find no pleasure in returning home.

– St Augustine