Tag: The IMITATION of CHRIST

Posted in CATHOLIC Quotes

Quote/s of the Day – 27 October – Sharers in my joy

Posted on by AnaStpaul

I have you in my heart, all of you, alike in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel, as sharers in my joy.

Phil 1:6-11

The Good Master was born in the stable only to die on the Cross, His life, which I should study continuously, would show me all the riches of His love, I should see herein all the profound mysteries of His incarnation and redemption, I should discover what I have cost, I should appreciate the beauty and goodness of Jesus, and I shall then cry out. “O happy fault which has procured us such a Redeemer!”

St Anthansius

He alone is capable of elevating lowliness, of aggrandising that which is nothing, of filling with honour and dignity that which was contemptible.

Louis de Granada

To glory in adversity is not hard for the man who loves, for this is to glory in the cross of the Lord. But the glory given or received of men is short lived, and the glory of the world is ever companioned by sorrow. The glory of the good, however, is in their conscience and not in the lips of men, for the joy of the just is from God and in God, and their gladness is founded on truth.

The Imitation of Christ

The person in the Transforming Union is now ready for Heaven and thus for death. The purifications are complete and there is an identity of wills, divine and human. All is ready for the Lord’s coming.

The Fire Within

Here I should end this book, if I had not still to say a few words about Catherine’s patience, which is a thing more highly esteemed by the Church Militant than miracles in its saints, as St Gregory so rightly says, it is greater than prodigies and miracles.

Bl Raymond of Capua

Let us love Jesus and Mary, and become Saints, we can neither expect nor hope anything better. Farewell, then, until we meet in Paradise, at the feet of this most sweet Mother and of this most loving Son, there to praise them, to love them face to face for all eternity.

St Alphonsus Liguori

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Quote/s of the Day – 21 October – Take up the armour

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Therefore, take up the armour of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and stand in all things perfect.

Eph 6:10-17

This last judgement will not only be favourable and honourable to, but anxiously longed for by the just and the elect.

Bourdaloue

Truth, not eloquence, is to be sought in reading the Holy Scriptures; and every part must be read in the spirit in which it was written. Likewise we ought to read simple and devout books as willingly as learned and profound ones. We ought not to be swayed by the authority of the writer, whether he be a great literary light or an insignificant person, but by the love of simple truth. We ought not to ask who is speaking, but mark what is said.

The Imitation of Christ

The fruit which I destine for them, constrained by the prayers of My servants, is that I give them light, and that I wake up in them the hound of conscience, and make them smell the odor of virtue, and take delight in the conversation of My servants.

The Dialogue of St Catherine of Siena

If now we consider well, there is no person in the world more despised than Jesus Christ. We take more account of a peasant than we do of God; because we fear, if we have offended such a one, lest he being filled with wrath, should avenge himself ; but we commit offences against God over and over again as if God were not able to avenge Himself whenever it pleases Him so to do.

St Alphonsus Liguori

Since the time of Adam until the present, all the saints have had something to suffer, and most of them far more than have we. But they suffered with patience, always subject to the will of God, and soon their troubles were finished, and their happiness, which has begun, will never come to an end.

St John Vianney

Neither will you be deprived of this consolation on account of your sins, if from henceforth you will be careful to live well, and to serve this very grateful and gracious Lady. In the trials and temptations with which the devil will assail you, that he may throw you into despair, she will comfort you, and even come herself to assist you in death.

St Alphonsus Liguori

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Quote/s of the Day – 16 October – The Pearl of Great Price

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Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he finds a single pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.

Matt 13:44-52

Jesus has always many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire consolation, but few who care for trial. He finds many to share His table, but few to take part in His fasting. All desire to be happy with Him; few wish to suffer anything for Him. Many follow Him to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the chalice of His passion. Many revere His miracles; few approach the shame of the Cross.

The Imitation of Christ

And so she always said that these pains were sweet to her-not without reason, seeing that they meant an increase of the sweetness of grace for her in this life and more glory in the next, from that point of view she could hardly call them anything but sweet.

Blessed Raymond of Capua

The Third Means of avoiding Purgatory is very easy. It consists in making a virtue of necessity by bearing what we cannot avoid, and all the more since suffering, borne patiently, becomes easy and light.

How to Avoid Purgatory

So you see that satisfaction is made, through the desire of the soul united to Me, who am the Infinite Good, in greater or less degree, according to the measure of love, obtained by the desire and prayer of the recipient. Wherefore, with that very same measure with which a man measures to Me, do he receive in himself the measure of My goodness.

The Dialogue of St Catherine of Siena

St. John the Evangelist saw a multitude of the blessed wearing white garments and bearing palms in their hands. The palm is the symbol of martyrdom. Though all cannot win the martyr’s palm, yet those who suffer sickness can, with God’s grace, acquire the palm of patience, which is of inestimable value. St. Francis de Sales looked with a kind of veneration on those who were suffering. Once he said to a sick person, ‘When I see you depressed by illness, I feel a special reverence for you, because I consider you a creature whom God visits, and who is His special bride adorned with His garment.

Words of Consolation for the Sick and Afflicted

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Quote/s of the Day – 13 October – Understand what the will of the Lord is

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What is a Christian? He is one who has a particular relation with God the Father, whose son he becomes by baptism. What Jesus Christ is by nature, the Christian is by adoption, a son of God the Father. What is a Christian? He is one who has an essential relation with Jesus Christ of whom he is a member. What is a Christian? He is one who contracts by baptism a particular relation with the Holy Spirit, whose temple he is.

Fr François Nepveu

Never forget that the way which leads to heaven is narrow; that the gate leading to life is narrow and low; that there are but few who find it and enter by it; and if there be some who go in and tread the narrow path for some time, there are but very few who persevere therein.

St. Clare of Assisi

Vain is the man who puts his trust in men, in created things. Do not be ashamed to serve others for the love of Jesus Christ and to seem poor in this world. Do not be self-sufficient but place your trust in God. Do not think yourself better than others lest, perhaps, you be accounted worse before God Who knows what is in man. Do not take pride in your good deeds, for God’s judgments differ from those of men and what pleases them often displeases Him.

The Imitation of Christ

No, saith God, “There is no peace unto the wicked.” In the first place, sin bears about with it the fear of Divine Justice. If any one has a powerful enemy, he can neither eat nor sleep in peace ; and he who has God for an enemy, how can he rest in peace? Besides this, sin bears about with it the remorse of conscience, which, like a cruel worm, is ever gnawing. The wretched sinner may seek amusement in various ways at the play, in the dance, at the banquet ; but his conscience is ever whispering to him, “Thou art at enmity with God; if thou shouldst die, whither wilt thou go?

St Alphonsus Liguori

All I want is love, in loving me you will realise love for your neighbours, and if you love your neighbour you have kept the law. If you are bound by this love you will do everything you can to be of service wherever you are.

The Dialogue of St Catherine of Siena

For no matter how great may be men’s cleverness in concealing and their experience in lying, it is impossible to prevent the effects of any cause from showing, in some way, the intrinsic nature of the cause from which they come. Now, the Masonic sect produces fruits that are pernicious and of the bitterest savor.

Pope Leo XIII

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Quote/s of the Day – 6 October – Be not vexed

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Be not vexed over evildoers, nor jealous of those who do wrong.

Ps 36:1

Anger, brothers, is an ambiguous matter, it is made bad by the way it is used, and not by its nature, it is very bad when it is conceived out of hatred, it is wicked when it is produced out of rage, its is very good when it comes from love, and when disciplining another demands it.

St Peter Chrysologus

O dearest daughter, grieve that I am so offended, and weep over these dead so that your prayer may destroy their death!

They become unbearable to themselves. They who wanted to rule the world find themselves ruled by nothingness, that is, by sin – for sin is the opposite of being, and they have become servants and slaves of sin. I made them trees of love through the life of grace, which they received in holy baptism. But they have become trees of death, because they are dead.

The Dialogue of St Catherine of Siena

St. Cyril also, writing to St. Augustine, says that one of the three men who were raised from the dead told him: “As the hour of my departure drew nigh, a multitude of devils, countless in number, came and stood about me. Their forms were more horrible than anything imagination can conceive. One would rather be burnt in the fire than be compelled to look upon them. These demons ranged themselves around me, and reproached me with all the misdeeds I had ever done, thinking to drive me to despair. And in fact I should have given way before them, had not God in His mercy come to my succour.”

The Four Last Things (Fr Martin von Cochem)

The sinner’s greatest torment will be the fear of what is to come. He knows that in a few hours he will pass from time into eternity. He knows that if he is not in the state of grace, an eternity of punishment awaits him. And not only does he know that he is not in the state of grace, not only does his soul bear witness that he is no longer a child of God and an heir to the kingdom of heaven, but he feels the visible marks of his reprobation in the multitude and gravity of his crimes, in the hardness of his heart, in the troubles of his conscience, in his distrust in the mercy of God and in his despair which overwhelms him. Ask yourself whether you desire to die the death of the sinner.

Fr François Nepveu, S.J.

Who are you, then, that you should be afraid of mortal man? Today he is here, tomorrow he is not seen. Fear God and you will not be afraid of the terrors of men. What can anyone do to you by word or injury? He hurts himself rather than you, and no matter who he may be he cannot escape the judgment of God.

The Imitation of Christ

Thou sayest that thou wilt not allow a week to pass without confession. But who promises thee this week? Thou sayest that thou wilt confess tomorrow. But who promises thee tomorrow? S. Augustine writes thus God has not promised to give thee tomorrow, perhaps He will give it to thee, and perhaps He will refuse to give it to thee; even as He has denied it to so many, who at night have gone to bed alive, and in the morning have been found dead.

St Alphonsus Liguori

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Quote/s of the Day – 26 July – He wept over it

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Quote/s of the Day – 26 July – “Month of the Most Precious Blood” – Readings: Ps 53:6-7, Ps 53:3, 1 Cor. 10:6-13, Luke 19:41-47

For days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a rampart about you, and surround you and shut you in on every side, and will dash you to the ground and your children within you, and will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you have not known the time of your visitation.

Luke 19:41-47

As therefore with regard to the prisoner, when you see him with irons on his back, on his hands, and often on his feet too, you therefore most of all account him miserable; so also as to the rich man, when you see him encompassed with innumerable affairs, let him not be therefore rich, but rather for these very things wretched, in your account. For together with these bonds, he has a cruel jailor too, the wicked love of riches; which suffers him not to pass out of this prison, but provides for him thousands of fetters, and guards, and doors, and bolts; and when he has cast him into the inner prison, persuades him even to feel pleasure in these bonds; that he may not find so much as any hope of deliverance from the evils which press on him.

St John Chrysostom (Homily 14 on Matthew)

On account then of all these things let us entreat the Redeemer of our souls, that He would both burst asunder our bands, and remove this our cruel jailor, and having set us free from the burden of those iron chains, He would make our spirits lighter than any wing. And as we entreat Him, so let us contribute our own part, earnestness, and consideration, and an excellent zeal. For thus we shall be able both in a short time to be freed from the evils which now oppress us, and to learn in what condition we were before, and to lay hold on the liberty which belongs to us.

St John Chrysostom (Homily 14 on Matthew)

And He entered the temple, and began to cast out those who were selling and buying in it, saying to them, It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of thieves.

Luke 19:41-47

It is great honour, great glory to serve Thee, and to despise all for Thy sake. For they shall have great grace who of their own will shall submit themselves to Thy most holy service. They who for Thy love have cast away every carnal delight shall find the sweetest consolation of the Holy Ghost. They who enter the narrow way of life for Thy Name’s sake, and have put away all worldly cares, shall attain great liberty of spirit.

Thomas a Kempis (Third Book: Chapter X)

Therefore all religion is for the sake of the soul; for howsoever the nature of the body may be, it causes no care or anxiety, especially after death, to him, whose soul possesses that whereby it is blessed. 

St Augustine (On the Profit of Believing)