![]() Work as though everything depended on you. Pray as though everything depended on God. ![]() If a man has no opportunity of living with another man’s wife, but if it is obvious for some reason that he would like to do so, and would do so if he could, he is no less guilty than if he was caught in the act. All our ambitions and intelligence are beside that great elemental point. Our bodies are shaped to bear children, and our lives are a working out of the processes of creation. Oh Lord, give me chastity, but do not give it yet. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams. O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. No eulogy is due to him who simply does his duty and nothing more. My mind withdrew its thoughts from experience, extracting itself from the contradictory throng of sensuous images, that it might find out what that light was wherein it was bathed… And thus, with the flash of one hurried glance, it attained to the vision of That Which Is. Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature. Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering. It was pride that changed angels into devils it is humility that makes men as angels. It is not the punishment but the cause that makes the martyr. Indeed, man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossible. In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery? If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself. If we live good lives, the times are also good. If we did not have rational souls, we would not be able to believe. If two friends ask you to judge a dispute, don’t accept, because you will lose one friend on the other hand, if two strangers come with the same request, accept because you will gain one friend. I want my friend to miss me as long as I miss him. I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful but I have never read in either of them: Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. I found thee not, O Lord, without, because I erred in seeking thee without that wert within. Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance. He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent. He that is kind is free, though he is a slave he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king. Grant what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt. God loves each of us as if there were only one of us. God judged it better to bring good out of evil than to suffer no evil to exist. God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering. Give me chastity and continence, but not yet. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.ĭon’t you believe that there is in man a deep so profound as to be hidden even to him in whom it is?įaith is to believe what you do not see the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.įind out how much God has given you and from it take what you need the remainder is needed by others.įorgiveness is the remission of sins. ![]() The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation.ĭo you wish to rise? Begin by descending. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently.īeauty is indeed a good gift of God but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked.īy faithfulness we are collected and wound up into unity within ourselves, whereas we had been scattered abroad in multiplicity.Ĭharity is no substitute for justice withheld.Ĭomplete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.ĭo you wish to be great? Then begin by being.
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