Quotes about Spirituality

Very few people believe in the devil these days, which suits the devil very well. He is always helping to circulate the news of his own death. The essence of God is existence, and He defines Himself as: "I am Who am." The essence of the devil is the lie, and he defines himself as: "I am who am not." Satan has very little trouble with those who do not believe in him; they are already on his side.

Sacrifice without love is pain. Pain with love is sacrifice. Pain without love is misery. Love without pain is heaven. Love with pain is purgatory. Pain without love is hell.

God can do something with those who see what they really are and who know their need of cleansing but can do nothing with the man who feels himself worthy.

The greatest poverty of all—the spiritual poverty of seeming abandonment by God.

The more you are led by God's love, the more you become yourself and it is all done without ever losing your freedom.

Do not postpone relationship with this law simply because you cannot fathom its mystery intellectually.

One cannot tell when grace is coming or how it will work on the soul; whether it will come as a result of a disgust with sin.

The celibate is bound to feel lonely in that atmosphere, but it is a different kind of loneliness that plagues the erotic. The former is tempted because, in the natural order, he is without a partner; the other is lonely even when he has his partner, for as St. Augustine reflected: "Our hearts were made for Thee, O Lord, and they cannot rest until they rest in Thee.

God alone causes faith in the believer. Faith is not the acceptance of abstract ideas. It is so often said, 'Oh, by faith you have to accept a number of dogmas.' No! Faith is participation in the life of God. In faith two persons meet. God and ourselves.

Why repentance? Because it is the first act of a soul which turns back to God, the first stroke that severs sin from the heart.

The world is full of poetry; it is sin which turns it into prose.

One reason for a long life is penance. Time is given us not just to accumulate that which we cannot take with us, but to make reparation for our sins.