Thoughts on the Love of God

Do not be afraid to tell Jesus that you love Him, even without feeling it. It is a way of forcing Jesus to help us, like a child who is too weak to walk.

St. Therese of Lisieux

The Heart of Jesus is closer to you when you are suffering than when you are in joy.

Lord, You are the Way.

    Draw us after You and give us strength to follow. 

You are the Truth. 

    Convince us and make us humble of heart to learn. 

You are the Life.     

    Stir us to action and to love in the service of God and others.

If I were walking in a crowd of a thousand people

And softly whispered His name, My God would hear me.

If I were but a single grain of sand on a hundred mile beach

And softly whispered His name, My God would hear me.

If I were a particle in all the oceans of the world combined together

And softly whispered His name, My God would hear me.

Think of Jesus when you want to think of yourself.  Fix your eyes on Jesus when you want to fix them on yourself.

Never need we have any panicky thoughts about the Father's caring for us in this world.  We are worth much more to Him than the many sparrows on whom, He keeps His eye.  We are living in the strength and vitality of His paternal care.

Take care that during your occupations you do not forget God.  Rather imitate little children walking with their Father.  They keep one hand in His.

                       St. Francis

If you want a brief but effective method to overcome any temptations and trials, and to acquire perfection, it is living in the presence of God.

                       St. Basil

If for one year we have faithfully walked in God's presence, at the end of that time, we shall have reached the heights of perfection without having noticed it. 

                       St. Teresa of Avila

God has taken care of so many things and yet He considers me more precious than all of the grandeur I have been contemplating. Is it possible that I could have been loved, so tenderly loved, by my Savior?  That He should think of me, in particular, even in all these little events by which He has drawn me to Himself?  How much then must we love and cherish them and turn them all to our own profit--God's loving Heart has thought of me, loved me and brought me countless means of salvation, so many that it would seem there had been no other soul in the world for Him, to think of.  Our Lord thinks of His beloved children and gives them His care.  He thinks of each of them as though He did not think of all the others.  He loved me and delivered Himself for me, for me alone as if He had done nothing for all the rest. 

 Quotes from an aged Franciscan friar

    If you feel the call of the Holy Spirit, then be HOLY with all your soul - with all your heart - and with all your strength.

    If, however, because of human weakness you cannot be holy, then be PERFECT with all your soul, with all your heart, and with all your strength.

    But, if you cannot be perfect because of vanity in your life, then be GOOD with all your soul, all your heart and with all your strength.

    Yet, if you cannot be good because of the trickery of the enemy, then be WISE with all your soul, with all your heart, and with all your strength.

    If, in the end, you can be neither HOLY, nor PERFECT, nor GOOD, nor WISE because of the weight of your sins, then carry this weight before God and surrender your life to His divine mercy.

    If you do this, without BITTERNESS, with all HUMILITY, and with a JOYFUL SPIRIT, due to the TENDERNESS OF GOD who loves the sinner and the ungrateful, then you will begin to feel what it is to be wise, you will learn what it is to be good, you will slowly aspire to be perfect and finally - you will be holy.

    If you do all this - with all your heart - with all your soul and with all your strength - then I assure you, my friends, you will be on the path of St. Francis - you will not be far from the Kingdom of God.

O God, You died on the cross, abandoned and bereft, for the love of Your people.  ... look upon the innocent Lamb  of God, agonizing and dying on the Cross for love of you. Look how at the same time He prays to His Eternal Father to forgive you. 

     Look at Him and love Him.  I love You, my Jesus; I love You, my sovereign good; I love You, my love, more than my entire being:

     I love You and I want that love to last forever.  Make me completely Yours; do it through the merits of Your death.  In this I firmly trust.

     And I have great confidence, too, in your intercession, O Mary , my Queen; make me love Jesus Christ and make me also love you, my mother and my hope. 

St Alphonsus Liguori.