Quotes about Spirituality

Holy Ghost goes first and before in what pertains to teaching; but in what concerns hearing, the Word goes first and before, and then the Holy Ghost follows after. For we must first hear the Word, and then afterwards the Holy Ghost 'works in our hearts; he works in the hearts of whom he will, and how he will, but never without the Word.

To be a Christian without praying is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.

A man is called 'spiritually poor,' not because he has no money or anything of his own, but because he does not covet it or set his comfort and trust upon it as though it were his kingdom of heaven.

Works, since they are irrational things, cannot glorify God, although they may be done to the glory of God, if faith be present.

It is indeed pitiful that a monk who does nothing else night and day except chastise his body achieves nothing by this diligence than to be cast into the flames of hell.

Faith is Individual.

It is necessary for the saints to be disciplined in this way, to descend into hell and the abyss, and to be recalled from there into heaven. For

Hence every external worship and religion is dregs, which alone are left to be drunk by those who by it exalt themselves over others.

That is, my sin drives me on, it will not give me rest or peace. Neither wine nor bread nor sleep will drive away this feeling of wrath and death.

You will thus wrong your faith, which alone bestows all things on you, and the increase of which, either by working or by suffering, is alone to be cared for.

We conclude therefore that a Christian man does not live in himself, but in Christ and in his neighbour, or else is no Christian: in Christ by faith; in his neighbour by love.

So we are not sinners because we commit this or that sin, but we commit them because we are sinners first.