Pondering Tidbits Of Truth - September 17, 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.

 

St. Catherine of Siena

“Do you know dearest daughter, how I raise the soul out of her imperfections? Sometimes I vex her with evil thoughts and a sterile mind. It will seem to her that I have left her completely, without any feeling whatever. She does not seem to be in the world, because she is in fact not there; nor does she seem to be in me because she has no feeling at all other than that her will does not want sin. I do not allow enemies to open the gate of the will that is free. I do let the devils and other enemies of humankind beat against other gates, but not against this, which is the main gate guarding the city of the soul. I do not will the soul’s death as long as she is not so stupid as to open the gate of her will. They cannot enter unless her own will chooses to let them in.”

(From The Dialogue)

 

Peter Kreeft, Ph.D.

“God does not excuse, He forgives. If we do not know the difference between those two things, we probably misunderstand both. Excusing is very easy and cheap; forgiving is very hard and costly. We are the Church of the costly Cross, not the Church of Cheap Grace.”

(From Wisdom from the Psalms)

 

Dom Lorenzo Scupoli

 

“Reflect every day on the fact that He Who has granted you the morning has not promised the evening, and if He grant this, He gives no assurance of the following morning. Spend each day, therefore, as if it were the last; cherish nothing but the will of God, for you will have to render a strict account of every moment…Although you have transacted a great deal of business and have undergone many hardships, you may consider the day worthless and your labor unprofitable, unless you have gained many victories over your passions and your own will, unless you have gratefully acknowledged the benefits received from God, particularly His death on the Cross, unless you have accepted as blessings whatever chastisements the Father of infinite mercy has inflicted as an expiation for your any sins.”

 

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