Pondering Tidbits of Truth - July 3, 2013

Pondering Tidbits of Truth is my simple and inadequate way of providing nuggets of spiritual wisdom for you to chew on from time to time.

St. Vincent Ferrer 

"...for when the soul is completely occupied by charity there is no longer any room in her for vanity. All that she thinks, says and does is inspired by charity...vanity finds no place in a heart filled with charity. What concern can he still have for temporal advantages, since he looks upon them as refuse? How can the desire for praise enter his heart, when he see himself before God as a vile dunghill, as a miserable sinner inclined toward every kind of sin and who would commit them all, did not the hand of the Creator constantly support him? How can he take pride in any good work when he sees clearer than daylight that he could do no  good if divine power did not impel him and constrain him, so to speak, at every moment?. How can he attribute anything whatever to himself when he has experienced not a hundred but a thousand times, his impotence do a do any good work, great or small..."

(From A Treatise On the Spiritual Life)

 

St. Francis de Sales

 "How offensive to God are rash judgments. The judgments of the children of men are rash because they are not the judges of one another, and when they pass judgment on others they usurp the office of our Lord. They are rash because the principal malice of sin depends on the intention and counsel of the heart, and to us they are 'the hidden things of darkness.' They are rash because every man has enough on which he ought to judge himself without taking it upon him to judge his neighbor. To avoid future judgment it is equally necessary both to refrain from judging others and to judge ourselves, Just as our Lord forbids the one, so also the apostle enjoins the other for he says: 'If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.' But, O God, how differently do we act! By judging our neighbor on every occasion we never stop doing what is forbidden and we never do what is imposed on us, namely, judge ourselves." 

(From Introduction to the Devout Life)

 

St. Catherine of Siena

“It [self-love] has poisoned the whole world and the mystical body of Holy Church and through it the garden of my spouse has run to seed and given birth to putrid flowers.”

(From The Dialogue)