Pondering Tidbits of Truth - May 8, 2014


(Photo©Michael Seagriff)

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. Francis de Sales

"However small the sins that you may confess may be, always have sincere sorrow for them, together with a firm resolution to correct them in the future. Many who confess their venial sins out of custom and concern for order, but without thought of amendment, remain burdened with them for their whole lives and thus lose many spiritual benefits and advantages."

(From Introduction to the Devout Life)

Benedict Baur

“Many pious souls, are in an unfaithful state almost continuously as regards 'little things'; they are impatient, hardly charitable in their thoughts, judgments and words, false in their conversations and attitudes, slow and lax in their piety; they don't control themselves and are excessively frivolous in their language, or treat the good name of their neighbor lightly. They know their own defects and infidelities, and perhaps even accuse themselves in con­fession; but they do not seriously repent of them, nor do they make use of the means to avoid them in the future. They do not realize that each one of these 'imperfections' is like a leaden weight that drags them down. They do not realize that they are beginning to think in a purely human way and to work only for human reasons, or that they habitually resist the inspirations of grace and misuse them. The soul thus loses the splendor of its true beauty, and God is increas­ingly distanced from it. Little by little the soul loses contact with God: in him it does not see a loving and lovable Father to whom it should give itself with filial affection; something has been allowed to place itself between the two.”

(From In Silence with God)

 Mother Julienne Morrell, O.P.

"Human praises are indeed to be shunned on account of the great harm they produce. They are nothing else, in the words of St. Bernard, but a hollow whistle, a little wind in the ears, blinding and inflating the heart, fanning the flames of envy, causing delusions and pride with regard to self. They are poison to humility."

(Commentary from A Treatise on the Spiritual Life by St. Vincent Ferrer, O.P.)

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