He who goes about to reform the world must begin with himself, or he loses his labor.
The more completely we focus our attention on our Creator and Lord, the less chance there is of our being distracted by creatures.
True, I am in love with suffering, but I do not know if I deserve the honor.
To have prevented one single sin is reward enough for the labors and efforts of a whole lifetime.
We must put aside all judgment of our own, and keep the mind ever ready and prompt to obey in all things the true Spouse of Christ our Lord, our holy Mother, the hierarchical Church.
A religious ought to dread more being afraid of poverty than experiencing it.
Dearest Lord, teach me to be generous; teach me to serve you as you deserve; to give and not to count the cost.
The safest and most suitable form of penance seems to be that which causes pain in the flesh but does not penetrate to the bones, that is, which causes suffering but not sickness.
Spiritual infirmities such as tepidity are caused, not only by chills but also by fevers, that is, by excessive zeal.
May it please Christ our Lord to grant us true humility and abnegation of will and judgment, so that we may deserve to begin to be His disciples.
It is not the finest wood that feeds the fire of Divine love, but the wood of the Cross.
If you attach your heart to certain places and occupations, obedience oftentimes places you in some other place that you may not like; to be always cheerful, be always humble and obedient.
Love is shown more in deeds than in words.
For it is not knowing much, but realising and relishing things interiorly, that contents and satisfies the soul.
He learned by experience that one train of thought left him sad, the other joyful. This was his first reasoning on spiritual matters.
Ite, inflammate omnia.
Up to his twenty-sixth year the heart of Ignatius was enthralled by the vanities of the world. His special delight was in the military life, and he seemed led by a strong and empty desire of gaining for himself a great name.
Next it dawned on him that the former ideas were of the world, the latter God-sent; finally, worldly thoughts began to lose their hold, while heavenly ones grew clearer and dearer.
Fifth Rule. The fifth: In time of desolation never to make a change; but to be firm and constant in the resolutions and determination in which one was the day preceding such desolation, or in the determination in which he was in the preceding consolation. Because, as in consolation it is rather the good spirit who guides and counsels us, so in desolation it is the bad, with whose counsels we cannot take a course to decide rightly.
A thick and shapeless trunk would never believe that it could become a statue, admired as a miracle of sculpture, and would never consent to submit itself to the chisel of the sculptor who sees by his genius what he can make of it.
The Third Method of Prayer is that with each breath in or out, one has to pray mentally, saying one word of the Our Father, or of another prayer which is being recited: so that only one word be said between one breath and another, and while the time from one breath to another lasts, let attention be given chiefly to the meaning of such word, or to the person to whom he recites it, or to his own baseness, or to the difference from such great height to his own so great lowness.