The Gift of Self

There are souls who seek solitude merely in order to find themselves: there are others who seek it so that they may give themselves. Still, it remains to be lived! Happy those who know how to put their whole soul into all they do. Because they are giving themselves, they will be able to bear much suffering, but their happiness will exceed their suffering, since the gift of self is the source and condition of life, and therefore of spiritual growth and joy. Go on, then, giving yourself: go on suffering… seek your joy in that precious suffering that the gift of self entails. God who became man new no more excellent way than this when he was on earth.

AN ANONYMOUS CARTHUSIAN They Speak by Silences

God’s Better Gift

If God at times seems to be slow in responding, it is because he is preparing a better gift. He will not deny us. We well know that the long-awaited gift is all the more precious for the delay in it's being granted… Ask, seek, insist. Through this asking and seeking you will be better prepared to receive God's gift when it comes. God withholds what you are not yet ready for. He wants you to have a lively desire for his greatest gifts. All of which is to say, pray always and do not lose heart.

ST. AUGUSTINE

Prayer and Works of Charity

When I see people very anxious to know what sort of prayer they practice, covering their faces and afraid to move or think, unless they should lose any slight tenderness and devotion they feel, I know how little they understand how to attain union with God, since they think it consists in such things as these. No. Our Lord expects works from us! If you see someone sick whom you can relieve, never fear losing your devotion; have compassion on her; if she is in pain, feel it as if it were your own, and when there is need, fast so that she may eat, not so much for her sake as because you know your Lord asks it of you. This is the true union of our will with the will of God. If you possess fraternal charity, I assure you that you will attain the union I have described.

ST. TERESA OF JESUS

Love Gains Love

Have a great love for those who contradict and fail to love you, for in this way love is begotten in a heart that has no love. God so acts with us, for he loves us that we might love by means of the very love he bears toward us.

ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross

God’s Patience

God remains in history the beggar who waits at each person's gate with infinite patience, begging for love. His silence, with which we sometimes reproach him, only shows his consideration for us. The cross and the resurrection coexist. ‘Christ will be in agony to the very end of the world’, he will suffer, according to Origen, until all humanity has entered the Kingdom.

OLIVIER CLÉMENT The Roots of Christian Mysticism

The Breath of God

God has given to the earth the breath which feeds it. It is his breath that gives life to all things. And if he were to hold his breath, everything would be annihilated. His breath vibrates in yours, in your voice. It is the breath of God that you breathe—and you are unaware of it.

THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH Three Books to Autolycus

Someone Already Risen

Someone, I was told, at the sight of a very beautiful woman, felt impelled to glorify the Creator. The sight of her increased his love for God to the point of tears. Anyone who entertains such feelings in such circumstances is already risen…before the general resurrection.

JOHN CLIMACUS The Ladder of Divine Ascent, 15th Step