Great Throughts Treasury

"If knowing answers to life?s questions is absolutely necessary to you, then forget the journey. You will never make it, for this is a journey of unknowables, ? of unanswered questions, enigmas, incomprehensibles, and most of all, things unfair."

"In a similar way when our emotions are set on fire, if we try to stir them up even more, we extinguish the flame, and the soul is deprived of its nourishment. We should, therefore, in stillness and quiet, with respect, confidence, and love, swallow the blessed food that we have tasted."

"In our solemn feasts, some strive to do something for Thee, O my God! and others, that Thou mayest do something for them; but neither of these is permitted to us. Love forbids the one and cannot suffer the other."

"It is harder to die to our virtues than to our vices; but the one is just as necessary as the other for perfect union. Our attachments are the stronger as they are more spiritual."

"It is in vain for man to endeavor to instruct man in those things which the Holy Spirit alone can teach."

"It is true that he who seeks God, yet is unwilling to forsake his sins, will not find Him. But he who seeks God and forsakes sin will certainly find Him."

"Know this fundamental truth as you begin [praying]? remember that He said, ?the kingdom of God is within you."

"Let no one ask a stronger mark of an excellent love to God, than that we are insensible to our own reputation."

"Many souls who are called to the enjoyment of God Himself and not merely to the gifts of God, spend all their lives in pursuing and in feeding on little consolations."

"Meditating on God?s Word in prayer is desirable, but known by very few."

"My earnest wish is to paint in true colors the goodness of God to me, and the depth of my own ingratitude."

"Nothing less than a divine operation can empty us of the creature and of self, for whatever is natural tends constantly to fill us with the creature, and occupy us with ourselves."

"O monster justly abhorred of God and man! after being humiliated in so many ways, I cannot become humble, and I am so pampered with pride, that when I most endeavor to be humble, I set about my own praises!"

"O my Divine Love, the desire I had to please You, the tears I shed, my great labours and the little fruit I reaped from it, moved Your compassion. You gave me in a moment, through Your grace and Your goodness alone, what I had been unable to give myself through all my efforts"

"Our activity should consist in placing ourselves in a state of susceptibility to Divine impressions, and pliability to all the operations of the Eternal Word."

"Our souls can only be renewed when we are passive towards the Spirit who alone can renew us."

"Prayer from the heart is not interrupted by the thoughts from a person?s mind. Indeed nothing can interrupt this prayer except for ungodly inclinations."

"Prayer is nothing more than turning our heart toward God and receiving in turn His love. Prayer is the application of the heart to God, and the internal exercise of love? To attract and draw the soul into the rest of love, and not into the many ways of the self."

"Prayer is the guide to perfection, and prayer delivers us from every vice, and gives us every virtue; for the one way to become perfect is to walk in the presence of God."

"Reason should not undertake to comprehend the last destructions; they are ordained expressly to destroy our reason."

"Regarding your spiritual life, be open, simple and like a child. In the depths of your spirit be like a drop of water lost in an ocean, and be no longer conscious of yourself. In this enlarged condition see and enjoy everything from within God. Within yourself there is only darkness, but in God there is only light. Let God be everything to you? God?s love is like a weight within us, causing us to sink deeper and deeper into God."

"Rest assured, it is the same God who causes the scarcity and the abundance, the rain and the fair weather. The high and low states, the peaceful and the state of warfare, are each good in their season. These vicissitudes form and mature the interior, as the different seasons compose the year?God loves you; let this thought equalize all states. Let him do with us as with the waves of the sea, and whether he takes us to his bosom, or casts us upon the sand, that is, leaves us to our own barrenness, all is well."

"Salvation consists in a total change of the whole person as he turns from his outer life to his inner life."

"Self-seeking is the gate by which a soul departs from peace; and total abandonment to the will of God, that by which it returns."

"Some saints have been sanctified by the easy and determined practice of all the virtues, but there are others who owe their sanctification to having endured with perfect resignation the privation of every virtue."

"The closer the soul draws to God, the further she travels from her own wishes. In this way the influence on her life from her passions diminishes."

"The creature which can only be by the power of God, cannot exist without Him, and the root of its being, that nothing can come between or cause the slightest separation."

"The harmlessness of the dove consists in not judging another; the wisdom of the serpent in distrusting ourselves."

"The ideas we have of the divine being fall infinitely short of what He really is. A living faith in His presence is all we need."

"The interior is not a stronghold to be taken by storm and violence; but a kingdom of peace, which is to be gained only by love."

"The love of God encompasses everything within itself and everything that is rooted in love stems from God."

"The more passive and tranquil the soul remains, and the freer she is from self-motion and self-exertion, the more rapidly she advances, because the energy of that central attractive virtue is unobstructed."

"The more the darkness of self-knowledge deepens about us, the more does the divine truth shine in the midst."

"The more we learn what humility is, the less we discover of it in ourselves."

"The ray of the creature is derived from the Sun of the Divinity; it cannot, however, be separated from it; and if its dependence upon its divine principle is essential, its union is not less so."

"The soul should have a pure and disinterested love, as it seeks nothing from God, but only to please Him, and to do His will."

"There is only one requirement that you must follow at all times [in prayer]. This simple requirement is you must learn to pray from your heart and not your head."

"They must learn how to close their human eyes and how to open their spiritual eyes. Then they should concentrate on building up their inner spiritual being and, through their trust in their God who lives in them, come into the divine presence."

"This action of the soul is accompanied with the utmost tranquility. When she lives selfishly the act is forced and constrained; and, therefore, she can easily perceive it: but when she lives under the influence of the Spirit of grace, her action is so free, so easy, and so natural, that it almost seems as if she did not act at all."

"To contend with them, in any other way, only serves to irritate rather than appease them."

"To seek after God in the right way is easier and more natural than breathing."

"To take and receive all things not in ourselves, but in God, is the true and excellent way of dying to ourselves and living only to God."

"We can rest assured that God will never give up with us until we are totally given over to God. Then He will kill off in us anything that remains alive but which ought to be put to death."

"We have to dedicate the present moment to God since this brings with it God?s eternal order, and is an infallible declaration of His will which has to be carried out and is incumbent on everyone. We must attribute nothing that happens to us as if it came from man but see God?s hand in everything."

"We must cooperate with and help to bring about God?s purposes which tend to strip us of all our own self-effort so that God may be enthroned in our lives. Let this be done in you; and do not allow yourself to be attached to anything, however good it may appear."

"We must forget ourselves and all self-interest, and listen, and be attentive to God."

"When at any time the passions are turbulent, a gentle retreat inwards to a present God, easily deadens and pacifies them."

"When thou canst not find thyself, nor any good, then rejoice that all things are rendered unto God."

"When we suffer aridity and desolation with equanimity, we testify our love to God; but when He visits us with the sweetness of his presence, He testifies his love to us."

"Whenever we endeavor to bring about our own perfection, or that of others, by our own efforts, the result is simply imperfection."