By Francis de Sales
Drink freely of the sacred wine of love, and it will cure you of the evil tempers which lead you to these perverse judgments.
The Evil One delights in sadness and melancholy, because they are his own characteristics.
God will not suffer our hearts to find any rest, like the dove going forth from Noah’s ark, until it returns to God, whence it came.
He who lives but for God is never sad, save at having offended God.
Look to Heaven, and do not lose it for earth; look at Hell, and do not plunge therein for the sake of this passing life; look at Jesus Christ, and do not deny Him for the world’s sake.
Good works, done with pleasurable interest, are pleasanter to us who think of nothing save our own satisfaction, but when they are done amid dryness and deadness they are more precious in God’s Sight.
Our victory does not consist in being insensible to them, but in not consenting to them.
Slander is a kind of murder; for we all have three lives—a spiritual life, which depends upon the Grace of God; a bodily life, depending on the soul; and a civil life, consisting in a good reputation. Sin deprives us of the first, death of the second, and slander of the third.
Humility makes our lives acceptable to God, meekness makes us acceptable to men.
God never permits such grievous temptations and assaults to try any, save those souls whom He designs to lead on to His own living, highest love.
Devotion is simply a spiritual activity and liveliness by means of which Divine Love works in us, and causes us to work briskly and lovingly.
We must not only be willing that God should strike us, but we must accept that He shall strike us where He wills.
Prayer opens the understanding to the brightness of Divine Light, and the will to the warmth of Heavenly Love—nothing can so effectually purify the mind from its many ignorances, or the will from its perverse affections. It is as a healing water which causes the roots of our good desires to send forth fresh shoots, which washes away the soul’s imperfections, and allays the thirst of passion.
Plant in your heart Jesus Christ Crucified, and all the crosses of this world will seem to you like roses.
Make your little efforts sweetly, peacefully, and amiably to please this Sovereign Goodness, and do not be astonished at difficulties.
The Enemy strives to make us languid in doing good by depression, but when he sees that we do not cease our efforts to work, and that those efforts become all the more earnest by reason of their being made in resistance to him, he leaves off troubling us.
The greatest happiness of any one is to possess his soul.
Read the Lives of the Saints too, which are as a mirror to you of Christian life, and try to imitate their actions according to your circumstances.
In practising any virtue, it is well to choose that which is most according to our duty, rather than most according to our taste.
One Our Father said devoutly is worth more than many prayers hurried over.
MannaScroll