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
“Souls
but little confirmed in piety advance well and happily when the Lord gives them
consolations in prayer. But if He afterwards deprive them of these, they
immediately become languid and discontented, like children who thank their
mother when she gives them sweet things and cry when she takes them away,
because they are children, and do not know that a long course of such things is
hurtful to them and causes worms. Sensible consolations of the soul often
produce the worm of self-satisfaction and that of pride which is the reason why
the Lord, who gives them to us at first to encourage us, afterwards takes them
away that they might not hurt us, and therefore merits no less thanks in taking
them away than in giving them.”
(From
Introduction to the Devout Life)
St. Catherine of Siena
[Jesus
to St. Catherine:] Each one, according to his condition, ought to exert himself
for the salvation of souls, for this exercise lies at the root of a holy will.
Whatever may contribute by words or deeds toward the salvation of your neighbor
is virtually a prayer.”
(From
The Dialogue)
Johannes Tauler, O.P.
“Just
as the artist foresees in his mind how he will make each stroke of the brush on
the canvas—how short or long or wide (and there is no other way if the painting
is to become a masterpiece!) where he should use red or blue—so God does the
same, and a thousand times more, in our lives through much suffering and many
strokes of color. He does so in order to achieve in us the masterpiece that
pleases him the most, so long as we truly embrace these gifts—these bitter
circumstances—from him.”
(From
Johannes Tauler: Sermons - Classics of
Western Spirituality)
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