Don’t ever allow yourself to become upset by your misfortunes. In the face of your misery, should you find yourself in this situation by the will of God, remain humble and lowly before God, and be at great peace. Respond to all misfortune, whatever it may be, with gentleness, peace, tenderness, and interior moderation before God, abandoning yourself simply into His hands so that He may make of you and in you what He pleases. Wish calmly and peacefully to live only for Him, through Him and in Him.

– Francis Libermann

In 1985, at the invitation of Mayor Koch, Mother Teresa opened a home in New York City for men who were dying of AIDS. Four Missionaries of Charity Sisters dedicated themselves to caring for the fifteen dying men. Mother Teresa named the home, “Gift of Love.” The first to pass away there was a man named Harvey. He was a veteran of the Vietnam war and he also had a history of drug abuse. One day, Harvey told the Sisters that he would like to be baptized. A priest was summoned and with great joy, the Sisters witnessed the baptism. He also received the Last Rites. “It will be beautiful when you are in heaven,” one of the Sisters said. “Yes it will” Harvey replied. “I want to go to heaven but I don’t want to leave this home. I have experienced so much love and care here that I never want to leave this place.” One day, when one of the Sisters was reading the Psalms to him, Harvey passed away. Like many others who were fortunate enough to receive the help of Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity, Harvey had truly received a gift of love.

You must do like the shepherds when they stay in the fields during winter. Life is a very long winter. The shepherds make a fire, but from time to time they hurry off to pick up some more wood to keep it going. If only we knew, like the shepherds, how to keep up the fire of the love of God in our hearts, by prayer and by good works.

– St. John Vianney  

Jesus showed me a robe which he called, “the robe of innocence.” It was whiter than snow. He put it on me saying, “With this, I am taking from you forever all ill will.”. . .Then, opening to me his adorable Heart and putting me within it, he said, “This will be the place of your present and continual dwelling.” Since then I have always seen and found myself in this lovable Heart in a way I do not know how to explain, unless by saying that sometimes it was as though I were in a beautiful garden with flowers growing all around; at other times like a minnow in a vast ocean, or like gold being purified in a crucible. But usually it is like a furnace of pure love.

– St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

When Jesus wanted to speak about the life of the Spirit in us, he used the figure of a gushing spring. It is like living water that must become in us, a spring that wells up to eternal life (John 4:14). Prayer is that deep spring in us. Actually it was there all along as the breath of the Holy Spirit who was actively and unceasingly praying within us. We did not notice it. Without knowing it, we had piled up numerous stones around that spring . . . We must be very careful, for it could well be precisely our efforts that form the stones obstructing the natural gushing of the spring without our knowing it. In order to pray more and better we must often do less, let go of more things, give up numerous good intentions, and be content to yield to the inner pressure of the Spirit the moment he bubbles up in us and tries to win us over and take us in tow.

– Father Andre Louf, O.C.S.O.

A genuine love of prayer is one of hidden, ordinary holiness and regular duties. Extraordinary spiritual fruitfulness is found in ordinary life . . . We take Jesus to the streets, to the work place, to our families and parish by our love. St. Therese tells us, “In my little way, there will be something for all tastes, except those in extraordinary ways.” We become saints by hidden and ordinary virtues. Our stronghold in life is our faith, grounded in Jesus, nourished by prayer and challenged in the service of love.

– Carolyn Humphreys

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

Lord, don’t give me riches, don’t give me a long or a short life, don’t give me powers on earth that make one drunk with power, don’t give me the madness of idolatry of the false idols of this world. Cleanse me, Lord. Cleanse my intentions and give me the true wisdom of discernment, so that I may be able to distinguish between good and evil.

– St. Oscar Romero

Let us always keep before our eyes the fact that here on earth we are on a battlefield, and that in Paradise we shall receive the crown of victory; that this is a testing-ground, and the prize will be awarded up above; that we are now in a land of exile, while our true homeland is Heaven to which we must continually aspire.

– St. Pio of Pietrelcina

Loving Jesus means preferring him to everything else, longing to know him more and more, trying to be one with him all our lives in thought and action, loving our brothers in complete selflessness, and finally, and this is perhaps the surest sign, loving the cross and seeing the value of the suffering, self-sacrifice, and renunciation which should characterize our lives. That is what I wanted to tell you. It is the only thing I regard as important, because apart from loving God with our whole being, nothing matters.

– Father Rene Voillaume