Great Throughts Treasury

"For no reason whatever should one judge the actions of creatures or their ;motives. Even when we see that it is an actual sin, we ought not to pass judgment on it, but have holy and sincere compassion and offer it up to God with humble and devout prayer."

"The feet carry the body as affection carries the soul."

"All the way to heaven is heaven."

"Love harmonizes the three powers of our soul, and binds them together. The will, with ineffable love, follows what the eye of the understanding has beheld; and, with its strong hand, it stores up in the memory the treasure that id draws from this love."

"A full belly does not make for a chaste spirit."

"And the eternal Father said, 'And if anyone should ask me what this soul is, I would say: She is another me, made so by the union of love.'"

"And you may be certain of this — unless you really are more ignorant than anyon — that the arm of holy Church, though it may well be weak, is not broken. From its weakness this arm always emerges strengthened, as do those who stay close to it."

"Do not be satisfied with little things, because God wants great things!"

"Consider God's charity. Where else have we ever seen someone who has been offended voluntarily paying out his life for those who have offended him?"

"Doesn't God consider spiritual discouragement worse than any other sin? Yes indeed!"

"Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire."

"Do not presume to choose your own way of serving instead of the one I have made for you."

"For by the light of understanding within your light I have tasted and seen your depth, eternal Trinity, and the beauty of your creation."

"For you, high eternal Father, loved me without being loved by me."

"Every step of the way to heaven is heaven."

"God is more ready to pardon that we have been to sin."

"I have no other desire in this life save to see the honor of God, your peace, and the reformation of Holy Church, and to see the life of grace in every creature that hath reason in itself."

"I long to see you so totally ablaze with loving fire that you become one with gentle First truth. Truly the soul's being united with and transformed into him is like fire consuming the dampness in logs. Once the logs are heated through and through, the fire burns and changes them into itself, giving them its own color and warmth and power."

"I shall give thee such speech and wisdom that no one shall be able to resist. I shall bring thee before Pontiffs and the rulers of the Church."

"I treasure your knowing how to give the world a kick."

"He will provide the way and the means, such as you could never have imagined. Leave it all to Him, let go of yourself, lose yourself on the Cross, and you will find yourself entirely."

"God was made man and man was made God."

"How many are the pains of those who hunger for revenge! ... They have killed themselves even before they kill their enemies."

"Hope comes from love, because people always trust in those they love."

"I am the Fire and you are the sparks."

"I acknowledge and do not deny that you love me before I existed, and that you love me unspeakably much, as one gone mad over your creature."

"It is human to sin, but diabolic to persist in sin."

"It is impossible to fulfill the law concerning love for Me, God eternal, apart from the law concerning love for your neighbors."

"It is because I do not love that I trust in myself rather than in God."

"Isn't God more ready to forgive than we are to sin? And isn't he our doctor — and we the sick ones?"

"If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze!"

"It is not the hour to seek one's self for one's self, nor to flee pains in order to possess consolations; nay, it is the hour to lose one's self."

"It is rare that a person who sins against the vow of obedience does not also sin against continence and true poverty."

"Let us enter into the house of knowledge of ourselves."

"Lose yourself wholly; and the more you lose, the more you will find."

"It is the nature of love to love as much as we feel we are loved and to love whatever the one we love loves."

"Love follows knowledge."

"Love does not stay idle."

"Make yourself a channel for all peoples, giving each of them what he needs, according to their disposition and what I, your Creator, give to you."

"Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring."

"Now how can those who do not know their own sinfulness recognize and correct it in others? They are neither able nor willing to go against themselves."

"Love transforms one into what one loves."

"O eternal Trinity, You are a deep sea in which the more I seek the more I find, and the more I find, the more I seek to know You. You fill us insatiably, because the soul, before the abyss which You are, is always famished; and hungering for You, O eternal Trinity, it desires to behold truth in Your light. As the thirsty hart pants after the fount of living water, so does my soul long to leave this gloomy body and see You as You are, in truth."

"O inestimable charity! Even as You, true God and true Man, gave Yourself entirely to us, so also You left Yourself entirely for us, to be our food, so that during our earthly pilgrimage we would not faint with weariness, but would be strengthened by You, our celestial Bread. O man, what has your God left you? He has left you Himself, wholly God and wholly Man, concealed under the whiteness of bread. O fire of love! Was it not enough for You to have created us to Your image and likeness, and to have recreated us in grace through the Blood of Your Son, without giving Yourself wholly to us as our Food, O God, Divine Essence? What impelled You to do this? Your charity alone. It was not enough for You to send Your Word to us for our redemption; neither were You content to give Him us as our Food, but in the excess of Your love for Your creature, You gave to man the whole Divine essence . . ."

"O loving, tender Word of God, You tell me: 'I have marked the path and opened the gate with My Blood; do not be negligent in following it, but take the same road which I, eternal Truth, have traced out with My Blood.' Arise, my soul, and follow your Redeemer, for no one can go to the Father but by Him. O sweet Christ, Christ-Love, You are the way, and the door through which we must enter in order to reach the Father."

"O abyss! O eternal Godhead! O deep sea! What more could you have given me than the gift of your very self?"

"O You who are mad about Your creature! true God and true Man, You have left Yourself wholly to us, as food, so that we will not fall through weariness during our pilgrimage in this life, but will be fortified by You, celestial nourishment."

"O unfathomable depth! O Deity eternal! O deep ocean! What more could You give me than to give me Yourself? You are an ever-burning Fire; You consume and are not consumed. By Your fire, You consume every trace of self-love in the soul. You are a Fire which drives away all coldness and illumines minds with its light, and with this light You have made known Your truth. Truly this light is a sea which feeds the soul until it is all immersed in You, O peaceful Sea, eternal Trinity! The water of this sea is never turbid; it never causes fear, but gives knowledge of the truth. This water is transparent and discloses hidden things; and a living faith gives such abundance of light that the soul almost attains to certitude in what it believes."

"Obedience and her sister patience show whether the soul is in truth clothed in the wedding garment of charity."

"Obedience shows whether you are grateful."