This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
Saint Ambrose, born Aurelius Ambrosius NULL
The pious mind distinguishes between what is written with reference to the deity and with reference to the flesh, and thus avoids sacrilege.
Abstinence | Body | Desire | Prodigality | Soul | Spirit | Teacher |
You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; and just so you learn to love God and man by loving. Begin as a mere apprentice and the very power of love will lead you on to become a master of the art.
Saint Isaac of Nineveh, also Isaac the Syrian, Isaac of Qatar and Isaac Syrus NULL
Worldly glory is a reef in the sea covered by water; for as this lies unknown to the sailor until his vessel strikes it, cracks up, is filled with water and sinks, so vain glory does to a man until it drowns and destroys him.
Saint John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes Álvarez NULL
Take God for your spouse and friend and walk with him continually, and you will not sin and will learn to love, and the things you must do will work out prosperously for you.
Ability | Attention | Attentiveness | Cause | Conduct | Contemplation | Desire | Experience | Fear | God | Knowledge | Light | Love | Means | Nothing | Peace | Pleasure | Receive | Rest | Soul | Spirit | Trials | Trust | Will | God | Contemplation |
Saint Anthony of Padua or Anthony of Lisbon, born Fernando Martins de Bulhões NULL
Consider every day that you are then for the first time--as it were--beginning; and always act with the same fervor as on the first day you began.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux NULL
In order to merit, it is enough to know that our merits do not suffice for us.
Abstinence | Appetite | Freedom | Soul |
Saint John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes Álvarez NULL
The more spiritual a man is, the more he discontinues trying to make particular acts with his faculties, for he becomes more engrossed in one general, pure act, a calm and repose of interior quietude. The soul would want to remain in that unintelligible peace as in its right place. Since people do not understand the mystery of that new experience, they imagine themselves to be idle and doing nothing. 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.
Saint Isaac of Nineveh, also Isaac the Syrian, Isaac of Qatar and Isaac Syrus NULL
Faith is the door to mysteries. What the bodily eyes are to sensory objects, faith is to the eyes of the intellect that gaze at hidden treasures.
Saint John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes Álvarez NULL
The more importance given to any clear apprehensions (visions, locutions, sentiments), natural or supernatural, the less capacity the soul has for entering the abyss of faith, where all else is absorbed.
God | Habit | Heart | Joy | Knowledge | Means | Power | Soul | Will | God |
Saint John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes Álvarez NULL
The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for, until the cord is broken, the bird cannot fly. so the soul, held by the bonds of human affections, however slight they may be, cannot, while they last, make its way to God.
Saint John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes Álvarez NULL
The spiritual man is perceptive of the things of God, one who penetrates and judges all things, even the deep things of God.
Soul |
Saint John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes Álvarez NULL
The soul went by a very secret ladder, which is living faith. In this purgative night the desires, affections and passions of the soul are put to sleep.
Darkness | God | Love | Memory | Reason | Soul | Understanding | Will | Wisdom | God | Intellect |
Saint Isaac of Nineveh, also Isaac the Syrian, Isaac of Qatar and Isaac Syrus NULL
Until we find love, our labor is in the land of tares, and in the midst of tares we both sow and reap, even if our seed is the seed of righteousness.
Saint John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes Álvarez NULL
The night of sense should be called a kind of correction and restraint of the desire rather than purgation. A period of tranquility comes after the first night.
Attentiveness | God | Man | Mystery | Peace | People | Repose | Rest | Right | Soul | Work | God | Learn | Understand |
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux NULL
Believe me, you will find more lessons in the woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you what you cannot learn from masters.
Saint Maximus the Confessor NULL
The world has many poor in spirit, but not in the right way; and many who mourn, but over money matters and loss of children; and many who are meek, but in the face of impure passions; and many who hunger and thirst, but to rob another's goods and to profit unjustly. And there are many who are merciful, but to the body and to its comforts; and clean of heart, but out of vanity; and peacemakers, but who subject the soul to the flesh; and many who suffer persecution, but because they are disorderly; many who are reproached, but for shameful sins.