Great Throughts Treasury

"Prayer is nought but a rising desire of the heart into God by withdrawing of the heart from all earthly thoughts."

"Anyone who thinks that carrying out some limited observance that he learned earlier on and who looks no further ahead who remains content with this will largely halt his own spiritual development... a noble and skilled apprentice who makes no further progress at all must be either dull-witted or perverse."

"A venial sin of your own is a greater obstacle to your experiencing the love of Jesus Christ than the sin of anyone else, however great it may be. It is clear, then, that you must harden your heart against yourself, humbling and detesting yourself more strongly for all the sins that hold you back from the vision of God than you detest the sins of others. For if your own heart is free from sin, the sins of others will not hurt you. Therefore, if you wish to find peace, both in this life and in heaven, follow the advice of one of the holy fathers, and say each day: "What am I?" and do not judge others."

"Any man or woman who neglects to maintain inward vigilance, and only makes an outward show of holiness in dress, speech, and behavior, is a wretched creature. For they watch the doings of other people and criticize their faults, imagining themselves to be something when in reality they are nothing. In this way they deceive themselves. Be careful to avoid this, and devote yourself inwardly to His likeness by humility, charity, and other spiritual virtues. In this way you will be truly converted to God."

"Because you do not understand your own soul, you neglect your inner life and seek outward consolations."

"Examine yourself closely, and you will find two limbs attached to it; envy and anger. From this spring many branches: hatred, evil suspicion, rash judgment, resentment, distain, slander, unkindness, backbiting, anger, resentment against those who despise or speak evil about you, having pleasure at their troubles, and a strong desire that they should be punished for their sins."

"Do your utmost to guard your heart, for out of it comes life."

"I desire the love of God not because I am worthy, but because I am unworthy."

"Light your lamp and see the five windows in this image through which error enters your soul; as the prophet (Jeremiah) said, ‘Death comes in at the windows... through the eye it looks for strange things as with the other senses. So you must close these windows and open them only when necessary."

"Learned men and great scholars have devoted great effort and prolonged study to the Holy Scriptures... employing the gifts which God gives to every person who has the use of reason. This knowledge is good... but it does not bring with it any spiritual experience of God, for these graces are granted only to those who have a great love for Him. This fountain of love issues from our Lord alone, and no stranger may approach it. But knowledge of this kind is common to good and bad alike, since it can be acquired without love, ... and men of a worldly life are sometimes more knowledgeable than many true Christians although they do not possess this love. St. Paul describes this kind of knowledge: "If I had full knowledge of all things and knew all secrets, but had no love, I should be nothing." Some people who possess this knowledge become proud and misuse it in order to increase their personal reputation, worldly rank, honors and riches, when they should use it humbly to the praise of God in true charity."

"For prayer is nothing less than an ascent to the heart of God and its withdrawal from all Earthly thoughts. Therefore prayer is compared with fire, which in its own nature always leaves the Earth and Leaps into the air."

"One who loves God retains this humility at all times, not with weariness and struggle, but with pleasure and gladness."

"Others, who have the common amount of charity and have not yet grown in grace to this extent, but are guided by their own reason, struggle and strive all day against their sins in order to acquire virtues. Like wrestlers, they are sometimes on top, and sometimes underneath. Such people are doing well. They acquire virtues through their own reason and will, but not because they love and delight in virtue, for they have to exert all of their energy to overcome their natural instincts in order to possess them. Consequently they never enjoy true peace or final victory. They will receive a great reward, but they are not yet sufficiently humble. They have not yet put themselves wholly into God's hands, because they do not yet see Him."

"Regard yourself all the more as a sinner because you cannot feel yourself to be what you are."

"Seek that which is lost, God wishes to be found. Every one who seeks will find. The search may at times be arduous, but the finding is full of joy, dig deeply for it, you shall find it; you must dig deeply in your heart, you must cast out love and desire for Earthly things together with the sorrows and fears that go with them. In this way you will find true wisdom."

"Since you have forsaken the world and turned wholly to God, you are symbolically dead in the eyes of men; therefore, let your heart be dead to all earthly affections and concerns… For you must be well aware that if we make an outward show of conversion to God without giving Him our hearts, it is only a shadow and pretense of virtue, and no true conversion. Any man or woman who neglects to maintain inward vigilance, and only makes an outward show of holiness in dress, speech, and behavior, is a wretched creature. For they watch the doings of other people and criticize their faults, imagining themselves to be something when in reality they are nothing. In this way they deceive themselves. Be careful to avoid this, and devote yourself inwardly to His likeness by humility, charity, and other spiritual virtues. In this way you will be truly converted to God."

"Some people understand the charity of our Lord and are saved by it; others, relying on this mercy and kindness, continue in their sins, thinking that it may be theirs whenever they wish. But this is not so, for then they are too late and are taken in their sins before they expect it, and so damn themselves."

"There are many who are hypocrites although they think they are not, and there are many who are afraid of being hypocrites although they certainly are not. Which is the one and which is the other God knows, and none but He."

"The purpose of prayer is not to inform our Lord what you desire, for He knows all your needs. It is to render you able and ready to receive the grace which our Lord will freely give you. This grace cannot be experienced until you have been refined and purified by the fire of desire in devout prayer. For although prayer is not the cause for which our Lord gives grace, it is nevertheless the means by which grace, freely given, comes to the soul."

"That a Man should know the measure of his Gift, that he may desire and take a better when God giveth it."

"We therefore need to know the gifts given us by God, so that we may use them, for by these we shall be saved."

"What is humility but truthfulness? There is no real difference."

"What is most pleasing to God is to have the soul become by His Grace what the Source is by nature, and this is achieved through Spiritual contemplation and Love of Him. This must be the aim of all who Love God. So whenever you feel your soul moved by Grace, especially in the way I have described by the opening of your Spiritual eyes, you may be sure that you are experiencing God. Hold fast to Him, try and retain this Grace, and do not easily let Him go. Seek God alone for itself, and cooperate with Its Grace with increasing devotion so it may grow within you more and more. Therefore surrender yourself with this experience when Grace draws you and maintain it with Love and delight in order that you may gradually reach a fuller and better knowledge of God; for Grace Itself will always direct you if you yield to its guidance until you reach your end."

"They must not fear, nor regard as sin, or take to heart any evil impulses to sin or to blasphemy, or doubts about the Sacrament, or any other such ugly temptations; for to experience these temptations defiles the soul no more than the bark of a dog or the bite of a flea. They trouble the soul but do not harm it provided a man puts them aside and ignores them. It does no good to struggle against them, or to try and master them by force, for the more a person struggles against them, the more persistent they become."

"You may say you are already doing this; you see and hear nothing of worldly ways, you do not employ your bodily senses more than is necessary. If indeed you are doing this you have closed a large window in this image, but you are not yet safe, because you have not closed the hidden openings of your imagination. So if you deliberately allow yourself to consider the vanities of this world, or to think of comfort and ease, then, although your soul may remain in you as far as the bodily senses are concerned, it is in fact being lured away by these vain fancies."

"You may now ask how it can be true that this image of God, which is man’s soul, can be restored to His likeness here in this life; it would seem to be impossible. You must admit you are very far from such a position. If it were restored we would possess sound understanding, clear vision, and pure ardent Love of God and Spiritual things all of the time. Your thoughts, your reason and affections of the soul are so immersed in Earthly things that your have little perception of Spiritual things."