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 

You must ask for God’s help. Even when you have done so, it may seem to you for a long time that no help, or less help than you need, is being given. Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up and try again. Very often what God first helps us toward is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important chastity, or courage, or truthfulness, or any other virtue may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven.

– C. S. Lewis

Happy Birthday, Padre Pio! (May 25, 1887- Sept. 23, 1968)

In Heaven, everything will be spring as far as beauty is concerned, autumn as far as enjoyment is concerned, summer as far as love is concerned. There will be no winter; but here winter is necessary to exercise self-denial and a thousand other little but beautiful virtues which are exercised at times of sterility.

– St. Pio of Pietrelcina

The duty of the moment is our strategic place. One day at a time. We have this day to open our hearts like doors, and to take in everyone that we can. Today we have to love as God loves us. Our daily work, routine or not, exciting or unexciting, monotonous or not, is part of that faith, hope, and love. This workaday world of ours is the outer shell of a deep inner grace that God gives us.

– Catherine de Heuck Doherty

Once we have grasped the true nature of prayer we won’t need a lot of instruction about how to comport ourselves. There are no techniques to learn. If we are wanting God and not ourselves there will be no problem at all. I will always know what to do and never be upset or thrown by what I feel or don’t feel. Asking nothing for myself – no feedback, no assurances beyond what Jesus himself has promised – I will persevere through thick and thin. He has said that if I ask I will receive, that if I seek I will find, and that when I knock, the door is opened. I believe him. I am sure that all is well, that God is doing everything for me, that Jesus is praying in me. I don’t ask to see the gift in my hand. . . I have staked my all on the God who never disappoints.

Sister Ruth Burrows, O.C.D.

O Lord, what is the trust that I can have in this life, or what is my greatest solace among all things under heaven? Is it not you, my Lord God, whose mercy is without measure? When have things been well with me without you, and when have things not been well with me if you were present? I would rather be poor with you than rich without you. I would rather be with you as a pilgrim in this world, than without you in heaven. Where you are is heaven, and where you are not is both death and hell. You are to me, all that I desire, and therefore it is fitting for me to cry to you and heartily to pray to you. I have nothing save you to trust in that can help me in my necessity, for you are my hope, you are my trust, you are my comfort, and you are my most faithful helper in every need.

– Thomas à Kempis

I will live in the present moment and fill it with love. A straight line is made of millions of little points, one united with the other. My life, too, is made of millions of seconds and minutes united one with the other. If I arrange every single point perfectly, the line will be straight. If I live every minute perfectly, my life will be holy. The road of hope is paved with little steps of hope. The life of hope is made of brief minutes of hope . . .Every minute I want to sing with the whole Church – Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

– Father Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan

The contemplative life is not a life that offers a few good moments between the many bad ones, but a life that transforms all our time into a window through which the invisible world becomes visible. . . Contemplative prayer requires that we listen, that we let God speak to us when he wants and in the way he wants. This is difficult for us precisely because it means allowing God to say what we might not want to hear. But if we listen long and deeply, God will reveal himself to us as a soft breeze or a still, small voice; he will offer himself to us in gentle compassion. Without this obedience, this listening to the God of our heart, we will remain deaf and our life will grow absurd.

– Henri Nouwen

One of the most important things you can do to improve your spiritual life and your mental  health  is  to  fill your mind  with uplifting thoughts. If you hold on to hurtful memories, they  will  only make you sick. You have a choice. You can reject them. Decide firmly that you will not let the past drag you down. Turn to the Lord and ask for help.  Pray for the grace to come into the present  moment. You  don’t have to work endlessly through the toxic effects of the past. Once you decide to change, the process can begin. St. Teresa  of  Avila used  to repeat to  herself  over and  over, “Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing cause you fear. God is unchanging. God will suffice.” With the Lord at your side, you can do all things. Remember the words of Jesus, I have told you all these things that your joy may be full (John 15:11).

– Father John Catoir