Pondering Tidbits of Truth - May 21, 2020

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.

Catherine de Heuck Doherty, Servant of God

"It is understood that since the reason for entering the poustinia is one of listening to God in prayer and fasting, the first act of the poustinik is to fold the wings of his intellect and open the doors of his heart. The Russians would say: Put your head into your heart and try to achieve a deep and profound interior silence. It is then, when one is deeply silent, that God begins to speak."

(From Poustinia - Encountering God in Silence, Solitude and Prayer)

St. Augustine

"We are praising God now, assembled as we are here in church; but when we go our various ways again, it seems as if we cease to praise God. But provided we do not cease to live a good life, we shall always be praising God. You cease to praise God only when you swerve from justice and from what is pleasing to God. If you never turn aside from the good life, your tongue may be silent but your actions will cry aloud, and God will perceive your intentions; for as our ears hear each other's voices, so do God's ears hear our thoughts."

(From A Discourse on the Palms)

Dom Lorenzo Scupoli

“For whoever has the courage to conquer his passions, to subdue his appetites, and repulse even the least motions of his own will, performs an action more meritorious in the sight of God than if, without this, he should tear his flesh with the sharpest disciplines, fast with greater austerity than the ancient Fathers of the Desert, or convert multitude of sinners.”

(From The Spiritual Combat and a Treatise On Peace of Soul)