Richard of Saint Victor quote: "This gift is from God and not of man's deserving. But certainly no one ever receives such a great grace without tremendous labor and burning desire."

For the outer sense alone perceives visible things and the eye of the heart alone seeds the invisibl...
RICHARD OF SAINT-VICTOR

It is, therefore, a great source of virtue for the practiced mind to learn, bit by bit, first to cha...
HUGH OF SAINT-VICTOR

I am more afraid of those who are terrified of the devil than I am of the devil himself.
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

My good works, however wretched and imperfect, have been made better and perfected by Him Who is my ...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

I thought of the soul as resembling a castle, formed of a single diamond or a very transparent cryst...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

I have often thought with wonder of the great goodness of God; and my soul has rejoiced in the conte...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

What friends or kindred can be so close and intimate as the powers of our soul, which, whether we wi...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

I know the power obedience has of making things easy which seem impossible.
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

If God should desire to raise us to the position of one who is an intimate and shares his secrets, w...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can - namely, surrender our will and fulfill God&...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too.
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

All things must come to the soul from its roots, from where it is planted.
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

Consequently, if the republic is the weal of the people, and there is no people if it be not associa...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Love, and do what thou wilt: whether thou hold thy peace, through love hold thy peace; whether thou ...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

What I needed most was to love and to be loved, eager to be caught. Happily I wrapped those painful ...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

I was living an extremely burdensome life, because every time I prayed, I became more clearly aware ...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first th...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

A thing is not necessarily true because badly uttered, nor false because spoken magnificently.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Perhaps you say, Why are the wicked joyous? Why do they live in luxury? Why do they not toil with me...
SAINT AMBROSE OF MILAN

Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and ...
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwell...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

It is not fitting, when one is in God's service, to have a gloomy face or a chilling look.
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

If two friends ask you to judge a dispute, don't accept, because you will lose one friend; on the ot...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

I want my friend to miss me as long as I miss him.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

If we live good lives, the times are also good. As we are, such are the times.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Order your soul; reduce your wants; live in charity; associate in Christian community; obey the laws...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

By faithfulness we are collected and wound up into unity within ourselves, whereas we had been scatt...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

I found thee not, O Lord, without, because I erred in seeking thee without that wert within.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Grant what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel yo...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

I have learnt to love you late, Beauty at once so ancient and so new!
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

The greatest evil is physical pain.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Grant me the treasure of sublime poverty: permit the distinctive sign of our order to be that it doe...
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

This is the very perfection of a man, to find out his own imperfections.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

O Lord, make me an instrument of Thy Peace!
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where the...
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Blessed is the servant who loves his brother as much when he is sick and useless as when he is well ...
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

I asked the whole frame of the world about my God; and he answered, I am not He, but He made me.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

If a superior give any order to one who is under him which is against that man's conscience, althoug...
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self.
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossibl...
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

No eulogy is due to him who simply does his duty and nothing more.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

The desire is thy prayers; and if thy desire is without ceasing, thy prayer will also be without cea...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

My mind withdrew its thoughts from experience, extracting itself from the contradictory throng of se...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For wher...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Preach the gospel everywhere you go, and, if necessary, use words.
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Thou must be emptied of that wherewith thou art full, that thou mayest be filled with that whereof t...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is s...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you...
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long cours...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Temperance is love surrendering itself wholly to Him who is its object; courage is love bearing all ...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Will is to grace as the horse is to the rider.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

They the hazers or eversores were rightly called Overturners, since they had themselves been first o...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Punishment is justice for the unjust.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Hail, O bleeding Head and wounded, With a crown of thorns surrounded, Buffeted, and bruised an...
SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX

To abstain from sin when one can no longer sin is to be forsaken by sin, not to forsake it.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by other...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Who loves me will love my dog also. [Fr., Que me amat, amet et canem meum.]
SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX

He who prays and labours lifts his heart to God with his hands. [Lat., Qui orat laborat, cor levat...
SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX

Don't you believe that there is in man a deep so profound as to be hidden even to him in whom it is?
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Who can map out the various forces at play in one soul? Man is a great depth, O Lord. The hairs of h...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

He who commends the nature of the soul as the supreme good, and condemns the nature of the flesh as ...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Hell is full of good wishes or desires. [Fr., L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontes ou desirs.]
SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX

Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith.
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.
SAINT THERESA OF JESUS

The devil put before me that I could not endure the trials of the religious life, because of my deli...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

I had many friends to help me to fall; but as to rising again, I was so much left to myself, that I ...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

It is no small misfortune and disgrace that, through our own fault, we neither understand our nature...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

Mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means takin...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

May God protect me from gloomy saints.
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

Those who give themselves to prayer should in a special manner have always a devotion to St. Joseph;...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

If Christ Jesus dwells in a man as his friend and noble leader, that man can endure all things, for ...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

Prayer is an act of love; words are not needed. Even if sickness distracts from thoughts, all that i...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

If I should say anything that is not in conformity with what is held by the Holy Roman Catholic Chur...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

Nothing can be compared to the great beauty and capabilities of a soul; however keen our intellects ...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

A beginner must look on himself as one setting out to make a garden for his Lord's pleasure, on ...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

Whoever has not begun the practice of prayer, I beg for the love of the Lord not to go without so gr...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

To reach something good it is very useful to have gone astray, and thus acquire experience.
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

Whenever we think of Christ, we should recall the love that led Him to bestow on us so many graces a...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

In a state of grace, the soul is like a well of limpid water, from which flow only streams of cleare...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

The tree that is beside the running water is fresher and gives more fruit.
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

Don't let your sins turn into bad habits.
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones.
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

The custom of speaking to God Almighty as freely as with a slave - caring nothing whether the words ...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

Our souls may lose their peace and even disturb other people's, if we are always criticizing tri...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

Our body has this defect that, the more it is provided care and comforts, the more needs and desires...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

God gave us faculties for our use; each of them will receive its proper reward. Then do not let us t...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

Discontent with this world gives such a painful longing to quit it that, if the heart finds comfort,...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

I had a father and mother, who were devout and feared God. Our Lord also helped me with His grace. A...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

The people who remained victorious were less like conquerors than conquered.
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that thou mayest believe, but...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace!
Where there is hatred let me sow love;
Where ther...
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in e...
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

I do not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who fear him.
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

Anyone who truly loves God travels securely.
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

We should always be disposed to believe that that which appears white is really black, if the hierar...
SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA

When I took the habit, the Lord immediately showed me how He favours those who do violence to themse...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

When the soul, through its own fault... becomes rooted in a pool of pitch-black, evil smelling water...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

While the soul is in mortal sin, nothing can profit it; none of its good works merit an eternal rewa...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

O my God, what must a soul be like when it is in this state! It longs to be all one tongue with whic...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

I don't know what heavy penance I would not have gladly undertaken rather than practice prayer.
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

The safest and most suitable form of penance seems to be that which causes pain in the flesh but doe...
SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA

Let me look at the foulness and ugliness of my body. Let me see myself as an ulcerous sore running w...
SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA

The enemy is like a woman, weak in face of opposition, but correspondingly strong when not opposed. ...
SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA

If I were to give advice, I would say to parents that they ought to be very careful whom they allow ...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

Do you think it is only a little thing to possess a house from which lovely things can be seen?
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

What value is there in faith without works? And what are they worth if they are not united to the me...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

Let us consider the glorious Saint Paul: it seems that no other name fell from his lips than that of...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

The picture. A great plain, comprising the entire Jerusalem district, where is the supreme Commander...
SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA

Imagine that leader of all the enemy, in that great plain of Babylon, sitting on a sort of throne of...
SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA

May today there be peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May y...
SAINT TERESE OF LISEAUX

We should always be prepared so as never to err to believe that what I see as white is black, if the...
SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA

Teach us to give and not to count the cost
SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA

The trouble is that everyone talks about reforming others and no one thinks about reforming himself.
SAINT PETER OF ALCANTARA

Not to hurt our humble brethren (the animals) is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not en...
SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

It is a most certain truth, that the richer we see ourselves to be, confessing at the same time our ...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

My father was a man of great charity towards the poor, and compassion for the sick, and also for ser...
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

Pain is never permanent.
SAINT TERESA OF AVILA

Farewell, my children; remain always in the fear of the Lord. That temptation and tribulation which...
SAINT

Love consists not in feeling great things but in having great detachment and in suffering for the Be...
SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS

In the evening of life, we will be judged on love alone.
SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS

Wherefore a man can know nothing by himself, save after a natural manner, which is only that which h...
SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS

Abide in peace, banish cares, take no account of all that happens, and you will serve God according ...
SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS

In tribulation immediately draw near to God with confidence, and you will receive strength, enlighte...
SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS

It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor t...
SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS

He who interrupts the course of his spiritual exercises and prayer is like a man who allows a bird t...
SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS

In the dark night of the soul, bright flows the river of God.
SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS

If you purify your soul of attachment to and desire for things, you will understand them spiritually...
SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS

The soul that is attached to anything however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the l...
SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS

It neither is reason nor in any wise to be suffered that the young king, our master and kinsman, sho...
RICHARD III OF ENGLAND

Amongst other our secular businesses and cures, our principal intent and fervent desire is to see vi...
RICHARD III OF ENGLAND

Here, loved be God, is all well and truly determined for to resist the malice of him that had best c...
RICHARD III OF ENGLAND

Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not...
SAINT AUGUSTINE

The most High approveth not the gifts of the wicked.
SAINT PATRICK

I see that already in this present world I am exalted above measure by the Lord. And I was not worth...
SAINT PATRICK

He that offereth sacrifice of the goods of the poor is as one that sacrificeth the son in the presen...
SAINT PATRICK

I was freeborn according to the flesh; I am born of a father who was a decurion, but I sold my noble...
SAINT PATRICK

I have had the good fortune through my God that I should never abandon his people whom I have acquir...
SAINT PATRICK

The Lord discovered to me a sense of my unbelief that, though late, I should remember my transgressi...
SAINT PATRICK

Let who will scoff and revile - I will not remain silent; neither will I conceal the signs and wonde...
SAINT PATRICK

I only seek in my old age to perfect that which I had not before thoroughly learned in my youth, bec...
SAINT PATRICK

I have a Creator who knew all things, even before they were made - even me, his poor little child.
SAINT PATRICK

I have vowed to my God to teach the heathen, though I be despised by some.
SAINT PATRICK

No one should ever say that it was my ignorance if I did or showed forth anything however small acco...
SAINT PATRICK

The Lord opened the understanding of my unbelieving heart, so that I should recall my sins.
SAINT PATRICK

It was not any grace in me, but God that put this earnest care into my heart, that I should be one o...
SAINT PATRICK

Sufficient for me is that honour which is not seen of men but is felt in the heart, as faithful is H...
SAINT PATRICK

Before I was humiliated I was like a stone that lies in deep mud, and he who is mighty came and in h...
SAINT PATRICK

I am Patrick, a sinner, most uncultivated and least of all the faithful and despised in the eyes of ...
SAINT PATRICK

The Lord is greater than all: I have said enough.
SAINT PATRICK

Among the many signs of a lively faith and hope we have in eternal life, one of the surest is not be...
SAINT IGNATIUS

I can love a person in this life only insofar as he tries to advance in the praise and service of Go...
SAINT IGNATIUS

Some indeed have tears naturally, when the higher motion of the soul makes itself felt in the lower,...
SAINT IGNATIUS

The principal end both of my father and of myself in the conquest of India... has been the propagati...
SAINT IGNATIUS

We should love the body insofar as it is obedient and helpful to the soul, since the soul, with the ...
SAINT IGNATIUS

We should always be disposed to believe that that which appears white is really black, if the hierar...
SAINT IGNATIUS

It is one thing to be eloquent and charming in profane speech, and another when the one speaking as ...
SAINT IGNATIUS

Remember that bodily exercise, when it is well ordered, as I have said, is also prayer by means of w...
SAINT IGNATIUS

In the light of the Divine Goodness, it seems to me, though others may think differently, that ingra...
SAINT IGNATIUS

Occupy yourself in beholding and bewailing your own imperfections rather than contemplating the impe...
SAINT IGNATIUS

Be generous to the poor orphans and those in need. The man to whom our Lord has been liberal ought n...
SAINT IGNATIUS

Teach us to give and not to count the cost.
SAINT IGNATIUS

In the fallen there is danger of pride and vainglory, since they prefer their own judgment to the ju...
SAINT IGNATIUS

May God our Lord never let me harm anyone when I cannot help him!
SAINT IGNATIUS

True, I am in love with suffering, but I do not know if I deserve the honor.
SAINT IGNATIUS

May the perfect grace and eternal love of Christ our Lord be our never-failing protection and help.
SAINT IGNATIUS

For those who love, nothing is too difficult, especially when it is done for the love of our Lord Je...
SAINT IGNATIUS

If God has given you the world's goods in abundance, it is to help you gain those of Heaven and ...
SAINT IGNATIUS

Knowledge is sometimes superfluous: when we need it, we have it not.
SAINT BERNARD

For every benefit conferred, God is to be praised in his gifts. Otherwise when the time of judgment ...
SAINT BERNARD

Custom turns everything upside down. Give it time, and what can resist its hardening effect? What do...
SAINT BERNARD

Charity never lacks what is her own, all that she needs for her own security. Not alone does she hav...
SAINT BERNARD

I was made a sinner by deriving my being from Adam; I am made just by being washed in the blood of C...
SAINT BERNARD

The impudence of the sinner displeases God as much as the modesty of the penitent gives him pleasure...
SAINT BERNARD

A man who prides himself on being better than his fellow-men thinks it a disgrace if he does not do ...
SAINT BERNARD

Keep to the middle if you wish to keep moderation. The mid way is the safe way. Moderation abides in...
SAINT BERNARD

Humility is a good estate; founded thereon, the whole spiritual edifice grows into a holy temple in ...
SAINT BERNARD

That heart alone is hard which does not shudder at itself for not feeling its hardness.
SAINT BERNARD

There are people who go clad in tunics and have nothing to do with furs, who nevertheless are lackin...
SAINT BERNARD

You wish me to tell you why and how God should be loved. My answer is that God himself is the reason...
SAINT BERNARD

I myself, however wretched I may be, have been occasionally privileged to sit at the feet of the Lor...
SAINT BERNARD

Learn the lesson that, if you are to do the work of a prophet, what you want is not a sceptre, but a...
SAINT BERNARD

Christian, learn from Christ how you ought to love Christ. Learn a love that is tender, wise, strong...
SAINT BERNARD

This gift is from God and not of man's deserving. But certainly no one ever receives such a great grace without tremendous labor and burning desire.

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Richard of Saint Victor

This gift is from God and not of man's deserving. But certainly no one ever receives such a great grace without tremendous labor and burning desire.

Richard of Saint Victor

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