Great Throughts Treasury

"There is nothing better or more necessary than love."

"There thou wilt show me that which my soul desired; and there Thou wilt give at once, O Thou, my life! That which Thou gavest me the other day."

"They are not things of this world and that manage and soul destroying it, because they do not enter into it, but the desire and longing for them that dwell upon it."

"These wounds, which are the fires of God, are the sparks of these tender touches of flame which touch the soul intermittently and proceed from the fire of love, which is not idle, but whose flames strike and wound my soul in its deepest center."

"They are so sensible that they sometimes cause not only the soul but also the body to tremble. Yet at other times with a sudden feeling of spiritual delight and refreshment, and without any trembling, they occur very tranquilly in the spirit. Since this knowledge is imparted to the soul suddenly, without exercise of free will, a person does not have to be concerned about desiring it or not. He should simply remain humble and resigned about it, for God will do His work at the time and in the manner he wishes."

"Think not that pleasing God lies so much in doing a great deal as in doing it with good will, without possessiveness and human respect."

"This Divine wisdom is night and darkness for the soul, and affliction and torment."

"This mystical knowledge has the property of hiding the soul within itself."

"This love is not as a rule felt at first, but only the dryness and emptiness. The soul then experiences a habitual care and solicitude with respect to God. This Divine love begins to be enkindled in the spirit."

"They can be like the sun, words. They can do for the heart what light can for a field."

"They must learn to abide in that quietude with a loving attentiveness to God. At this stage the faculties are at rest and do not work actively but passively, by receiving what God is effecting in them."

"This way of life contains very little business and bustling, and demands mortification of the will more than knowledge. The less one takes of things and pleasures the farther one advances along this way."

"This unknowing and forgetfulness are caused by the interior recollection wherein this contemplation absorbs the soul."

"Those who do not allow their appetites to carry them away will soar in their spirit as swiftly as the bird that lacks no feathers."

"Those who fall alone remain alone in their fall, and they value their soul little since they entrust it to themselves alone."

"Those who do not love their neighbor abhor God."

"Those who trust in themselves are worse than the devil."

"To lose always and let everyone else win is a trait of valiant souls, generous spirits, and unselfish hearts; it is their manner to give rather than receive even to the extent of giving themselves. They consider it a heavy burden to possess themselves, and it pleases them more to be possessed by others and withdrawn from themselves, since we belong more to that infinite Good than we do to ourselves."

"To reach the supernatural bounds a person must depart from his natural bounds and leave self far off in respect to his interior and exterior limits in order to mount from a low state to the highest."

"Walk in solitude with God; act according to the just measure; hide the blessings of God."

"We must adjust our trials to ourselves, and not ourselves to our trials."

"We must dig deeply in Christ. He is like a rich mine with many pockets containing treasures: however deep we dig we will never find their end or their limit. Indeed, in every pocket new seams of fresh riches are discovered on all sides."

"Though the path is plain and smooth for people of good will, those who walk it will not travel far, and will do so only with difficulty if they do not have good feet, courage, and tenacity of spirit."

"To be taken with love for a soul, God does not look on its greatness, but the greatness of its humility."

"Understanding is not the understanding of God. The will has now been changed into the life of Divine love. The memory has in its mind the eternal years. The desire now tastes and enjoys Divine food, being now moved by the delight of God."

"Upon a darkened night the flame of love was burning in my breast and by a lantern bright I fled my house while all in quiet rest. Shrouded by the night and by the secret stair I quickly fled. The veil concealed my eyes while all within lay quiet as the dead"

"Wait upon God with loving and pure attentiveness, working no violence on yourself lest you disturb the soul's peace and tranquility. God will feed your soul with heavenly food since you put no obstacle in His way. The soul in this state must remember that if it is not conscious of making progress, it is making much more than when it was walking on foot, because God Himself is bearing it in His arms. Although outwardly it is doing nothing, it is in reality doing more than if it were working, since God is doing the work within it. And it is not remarkable that the soul does not see this, for our senses cannot perceive what God does in the soul? if the soul stays in God's care it will certainly make progress."

"Twelve stars for reaching the highest perfection: love of God, love of neighbor, obedience, chastity, poverty, attendance at choir, penance, humility, mortification, prayer, silence, peace."

"Trials will never be lacking in religious life, nor does God want them to be. Since he brings souls there to be proved and purified, like gold, with hammer and the fire, it is fitting that they encounter trials and temptations... and the fire of anguish and affliction."

"Well and good if all things change, O Lord God, provided I am rooted in You."

"What does it profit you to give God one thing if he asks of you another? Consider what it is God wants, and then do it. You will as a result satisfy your heart better than with something toward which you yourself are inclined."

"When a soul has advanced so far on the spiritual road as to be lost to all the natural methods of communing with God; when it seeks Him no longer by meditation, images, impressions, nor by any other created ways, or representations of sense, but only by rising above them all, in the joyful communion with Him by faith and love, then it may be said to have found God of a truth, because it has truly lost itself as to all that is not God, and also as to its own self."

"What, more do you want, O soul! And what else do you search for outside, when within yourself you possess your riches, delights, satisfactions, fullness, and kingdom -your Beloved whom you desire and seek? Be joyful and gladdened in your interior recollection with Him, for you have Him so close to you. Desire Him there, adore Him there. Do not go in pursuit of Him outside yourself. You will only become distracted and wearied thereby, and you shall not find Him, nor enjoy Him more securely, nor sooner, nor more intimately than by seeking Him within you."

"We shall go at once to the deep caverns of the rock which are all secret, there we shall enter in and taste of the new wine of the pomegranate."

"When fixed on something else, one's appetite leaves no room for the angel to move it."

"We think others are like ourselves and we judge others according to what we ourselves are, since our judgment arises from within us and not outside us."

"What we need most in order to make progress is to be silent before this great God with our appetite and with our tongue, for the language he best hears is silent love."

"What you most seek and desire you will not find by this way of yours, nor through high contemplation, but in much humility and submission of heart."

"When evening comes, you will be examined in love. Learn to love as God desires to be loved and abandon your own ways of acting."

"When God brings the soul into that emptiness and solitude where it can neither use its faculties nor make any acts, it sees that it is doing nothing and strives to do something. Therefore it becomes distracted and full of aridity and displeasure."

"When the inspirations are from God they are always in the order of the motives of his law, and of the faith, in the perfection of which the soul should ever draw nearer and nearer to God."

"When the soul has arrived at this state all the acts of its spiritual and sensual nature, whether active or passive, and of whatever kind they may be, always occasion an increase of love and delight in God: even the act of prayer and communion with God, which was once carried on by reflections and divers other methods, is now wholly an act of love. So much so is this the case that the soul may always say, whether occupied with temporal or spiritual things, "My sole occupation is love." Happy life! Happy state! And happy the soul which has attained to it!"

"When the soul desires to remain in inward ease and peace, any operation and affection or attention wherein it may then seek to indulge will distract it and disquiet it and make it conscious of aridity and emptiness of sense."

"When the soul wanted to look and explore the divine things, would remain more than one that directly observed too strong sun shine."

"When the soul, then, in any degree possesses the spirit of solitary love, we must not interfere with it. We should inflict a grievous wrong upon it, and upon the Church also, if we were to occupy it, were it only for a moment, in exterior or active duties, however important they might be. When God Himself adjures all not to waken it from its love, who shall venture to do so, and be blameless? In a word, it is for this love that we are all created. Let those men of zeal, who think by their preaching and exterior works to convert the world, consider that they would be much more edifying to the Church, and more pleasing unto God ? setting aside the good example they would give if they would spend at least one half their time in prayer, even though they may have not attained to the state of unitive love."

"When the soul is led into silence, it must forget even the practice of loving advertence? it must practice that advertence only when it is not conscious of being brought into solitude or interior rest or forgetfulness."

"Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent."

"When this pure light assails the soul, in order to expel its impurity, the soul feels itself to be so impure and miserable that it believes God to be against it, and things that it has set itself up against God."

"When Thou didst regard me, Thine eyes imprinted in me Thy grace: for this didst Thou love me again, and thereby mine eyes did merit to adore what in Thee they saw."

"Where there is no love, pour love in and you will draw love out."