Quote/s of the Day – 18 September – The Memorial of St Joseph of Cupertino OFM Conv. (1603-1663)
Free Will – “Our Unique Possession”
“Clearly, what God wants, above all,
is our will,
which we received as a free gift from God in creation
and possess as though our own.
When a man trains himself to acts of virtue,
it is with the help of grace from God,
from whom all good things come …
The will is what man has,
as his unique possession.”
St Joseph of Cupertino (1603-1663)
“A man may lose the good things
of this life against his will
but, if he loses the eternal blessings,
he does so with his own consent.”
St Augustine (354-430)
Father and Doctor of Grace
“God desires, not death but faith.
God thirsts, not for blood but for self-surrender.
God is appeased, not by slaughter
but by the offering of your free will.”
St Peter Chrysologus (c 400-450)
Bishop, Father & Doctor of Homilies
“Remove grace
and you have nothing,
whereby to be saved.
Remove free will
and you have nothing,
that could be saved.”
St Anselm (1033-1109)
Doctor of the Church
“Lord what will Thou have me do?
Behold the true sign of a totally perfect soul –
when one has reached the point
of giving up his will so completely
that he no longer seeks,
expects or desires
to do ought
but that which God wills.”
St Bernard (1090-1153)
Mellifluous Doctor
“Happiness is secured through virtue,
it is a good attained by man’s own will.”
St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Angelic Doctor
“But do not forget,
that all the saints cannot endear you to Christ
as much as you can yourself.
It is entirely up to you!”
St Cajetan (1480-1547)
“More determination is required
to subdue the interior man
than to mortify the body
and to break one’s will,
than to break one’s bones.”
St Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556)
“A man makes the most progress
and merits the most grace,
precisely in those matters,
wherein he gains
the greatest victories over self
and most mortifies his will.”
St Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Doctor of Charity
“I will attempt, day-by-day,
to break my will into pieces.
I want to do God’s Holy Will,
not my own!”
By St Gabriel Francis Possenti
of Our Lady of Sorrows (1838-1862)
AnaStpaul 