Favorite Quotes
“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.” Thomas Merton
Poor human reason when it trusts in itself substitutes the strangest absurdities for the highest divine concepts. -St. John Chrysostom
Do not ever lose heart when the tempest rages; place all your trust in the Heart of the most gentle Jesus. Pray and I might add, devoutly pester the divine Heart. -St. Padre Pio
No one heals himself by wounding another. -St. Ambrose of Milan
Master they say that when I seem
To be in speech with you,
Since you make no replies, it’s all a dream
- One talker aping two.
The are half right, but not as they
imagine; rather, I
Seek in myself the things I meant to say,
And lo! The well’s are dry.
Then, seeing me empty, you forsake
The listener’s role, and through
My dead lips breathe and into utterance wake
The thoughts I never knew.
And thus you neither need reply
Nor can; thus while we seem
Two talking, thou art One forever, and I
No dreamer, but thy dream.
- C.S. Lewis
Let Nothing Distrub Thee
by St. Teresa of Avila
Let nothing disturb thee,
Nothing affright thee;
All things are passing;
God never changeth;
Patient endurance
Attaineth to all things;
Who God possesseth
In nothing is wanting;
Alone God sufficeth.
Prayer for Discernment
O Lord God, I have no idea where I am going,
I do not see the road ahead of me, I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, And that fact that I think
I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please You
Does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire to please You.
And I know that if I do this You will lead me by the right road,
Though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore I will trust You always though I may seem to be lost
And in the shadow of death. I will not fear,
For You are ever with me, and You will never leave me
To make my journey alone.
Source: Thomas Merton, Pax Christi, Benet Press, Erie, PA.