Pondering Tidbits of Truth - April 24, 2014

((Source: Wikimedia Commons)

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.

Blessed John Paul II

"...the numbing of conscience, their indifference to good and evil, their deviations, are a great threat for man. Indirectly, they are also a great threat for society, because in the the last analysis the level of morality of society depends on the human conscience."

(Angelus, March 15, 1981)

St. Bernard

"And what could be more admirable or what more rigorous form of martyrdom could be found than that of being hungry in the midst of banquets, cold while surrounded by an abundance of precious garments, oppressed by poverty amid the riches offered us by the world with which the evil spirit dazzles our eyes and which our desire craves? Will he not deservedly be crowned who shall have struggled thus, rejecting the world with its promises, defying the enemy who tempts him, and, what is even more glorious, triumphing over himself and crucifying the passion which besieges him so importunately?"

(Cited in commentary of Mother Julienne Morrell, O.P. in A Treatise on The Spiritual Life by St. Vincent Ferrer) 

St. Vincent Ferrer

"Let him who would be of use to others and edify them by his words take care, first of all, to possess within him what he intends to teach; otherwise he will do very little good. His word will not be efficacious if his life is not in conformity with his teaching, or even very much better."

(A Treatise on The Spiritual Life)