To underline: the moral crusader filled with righteous indignation proceeds obsessively, not calmly or with clarity; and his efforts are sterile, ineffective, undermined by his own lack of self-awareness. Only contemplative attention that reflects things…
Believe me–to write books of piety, to compose sublime poems, all this is not worth as much as the smallest act of renunciation. –Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, in Francis Broome, The Little Way for Every…
Every time he said this word monsieur, with his gently solemn, and heartily hospitable voice, the man’s countenance lighted up. Monsieur to a convict, is a glass of water to a man dying of thirst…
We must dare to be love in a world that does not know how to love. –Charles de Foucauld, cited in Isaac Slater, OCSO, “Do Not Judge Anyone”: Desert Wisdom for a Polarized World
Where there is no love, it is for you to bring love. –Saint John of the Cross, cited in Saints Are Not Sad, 266
For I felt that I was still the captive of my sins, and in my misery I kept crying ’How long shall I go on saying “tomorrow, tomorrow”? Why not now? Why not make an…
The Catholic who engages in philosophy is part of a tradition that stretches back through the centuries, and his task is to appropriate that patrimony and make it part of the contemporary conversation. –Ralph McInerny, I…
Yet who can tell how many times each day our curiosity is tempted by the most trivial and insignificant matters? Who can tell how often we give way? –Saint Augustine, Confessions, trans. R. S. Pine-Coffin,…
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. — Psalm 23, verse 4,…
How I cried out to you, my God, when I read the Psalms of David, those hymns of faith, those songs of a pious heart in which the spirit of pride can find no place!…