Pondering Tidbits of Truth - January 18, 2024
St. John of the Cross
"What more do you want, O soul! And what else do you search for outside, when within yourself you possess your riches, delights, satisfactions, fullness, and kingdom - your Beloved Whom you desire and seek? Be joyful and gladdened in your interior recollection with Him, for you have Him so close to you. Desire Him there, adore Him there. Do not go in pursuit of Him outside yourself. You will only become distracted and wearied thereby, and you shall not find Him, nor enjoy Him more securely, nor sooner, nor more intimately by seeking Him within you."
(From The Spiritual Canticle)
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.)
Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O.
"We moderns shrink from pain; we shun all that can afflict body or mind. We have forgotten that we were saved by the Body's agony and the Mind's torture. We have forgotten that the problem of evil was solved by ropes, whips, and thorns, nails that were pounded through the flesh of God and by three hours of anguish such as no other human has or ever will know. We have forgotten that pain has a sacred purpose; that all suffering can be and should be sublimated into Sacrifice - His Sacrifice. We have forgotten that we are Christians — members of a Body whose Head is thorn-crowned! We have forgotten that since there is sin, there must be suffering that will atone."
(From God, A Woman, and the
Way)
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