Spiritual exegesis is not an unrestrained flight of the imagination. Rather, it is a sacred science that proceeds according to certain principles and stands accountable to sacred tradition, the Magisterium, and the wider community of biblical interpreters (both living and deceased).

Thanks to God that he gave me stubbornness when I know I am right.

The longer I live, the more I read, the more patiently I think, and the more anxiously I inquire, the less I seem to know...Do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly. This is enough.

We don't want to merely obey God: we need to catch His heart. It is then we will glimpse the wisdom behind His directives, and not just see them as laws.

What God says is best, indeed is best, though all the men in the world are against it.

What God says is best, is best, though all the men in the world are against it.

What God says is best, indeed is best, though all men in the world are against it. Seeing, then, that God prefers his religion; seeing God prefers a tender conscience; seeing they that make themselves fools for the kingdom of heaven are wisest; and that the poor man that loveth Christ is richer than the greatest man in the world that hates him: Shame, depart, thou art an enemy to my salvation.

Is it faith to understand nothing, and merely submit your convictions implicitly to the Church?

The most accomplished in the Scripture are fools, unless they acknowledge that they have need of God for their schoolmaster all the days of their life.

They who strive to build up a firm faith in Scripture through disputation are doing things backwards.

For the Word of God is not received by faith if it flits about in the top of the brain, but when it takes root in the depth of the heart... the heart's distrust is greater than the mind's blindness. It is harder for the heart to be furnished with assurance [of God's love] than for the mind to be endowed with thought.

Our true wisdom is to embrace with meek docility, and without reservation, whatever the holy scriptures have delivered.