Christian Quotes on Humility

'If any one thought to sweeten the vast waters of the sea with one drop of fresh water, would he not be justly regarded as a fool? So also the man who thinks or hopes to do any good without the help of God grievously deceives himself. If he claims any good as his own, God will not fail to humble and confound him; such a man could never become the Lord's instrument, nor accomplish great things for His glory.'

--St. Paul of the Cross

Imitation of Christ
1.7 False Hope & Pride

The Seventh Chapter

Avoiding False Hope and Pride

VAIN is the man who puts his trust in men, in created things.

Do not be ashamed to serve others for the love of Jesus Christ and to seem poor in this world. Do not be self-sufficient but place your trust in God. Do what lies in your power and God will aid your good will. Put no trust in your own learning nor in the cunning of any man, but rather in the grace of God Who helps the humble and humbles the proud.

If you have wealth, do not glory in it, nor in friends because they are powerful, but in God Who gives all things and Who desires above all to give Himself. Do not boast of personal stature or of physical beauty, qualities which are marred and destroyed by a little sickness. Do not take pride in your talent or ability, lest you displease God to Whom belongs all the natural gifts that you have.

Do not think yourself better than others lest, perhaps, you be accounted worse before God Who knows what is in man. Do not take pride in your good deeds, for God's judgments differ from those of men and what pleases them often displeases Him. If there is good in you, see more good in others, so that you may remain humble. It does no harm to esteem yourself less than anyone else, but it is very harmful to think yourself better than even one. The humble live in continuous peace, while in the hearts of the proud are envy and frequent anger.

"Will we fulfill God's purpose, or will we shrink back and live a comfortable, self-centered life?"

--Rick Warren

"We shall see clearly that is is greater to despise the world than to have it at one's command; that it is infinitely preferable to submit to the humblest of men for God's sake, than to command kings and princes; that a humble knowledge of ourselves surpasses the deepest sciences; in short, that greater praise is due to him who curbs his passions on the most trivial occasions, than to him who conquers the strongest cities and defeats entire armies." 

- Fr. Lorenzo Scupoli

"Without the necessary humility to worship, I subconsciously desired to be worshiped, not in a crazy Napoleanic manner, but like a modern-day celebrity." 

- Tarek Saab, Gut Check

"It is better to be the child of God than king of the whole world." 

- St. Aloysius Gonzaga

'They who when they have got a little devotion think they are some great one, are only fit to be laughed at.'

--St. Philip Neri

"We may think it humility not to realize that the Lord is bestowing gifts upon us. Let us understand very, very clearly, how this matter stands. God gives us these gifts for no merit of ours. Let us be grateful to His Majesty for them, for, unless we recognize that we are receiving them, we shall not be aroused to love Him. And it is a most certain thing that, if we remember all the time that we are poor, the richer we find ourselves, the greater will be the profit that comes to us and the more genuine our humility."--Saint Teresa of Avila

'Therefore God says to this proud man: If you seek, according to the nature of the created soul, for such great things as seem at present to be good and for that happiness which belongs to earth, know that they are not; they cannot satisfy nor afford contentment.  Seek rather in heaven, where pride is lawful, and where it is not placed in things empty and vain, but in those which are really great, which always remain and which cause a sinless pride; but if you seek after worthless things you shall never find them and shall lose those which you should have sought.'

--St. Catherine of Genoa

'I will make you appear so poor, so vile and so abject in your own eyes, and will so completely annihilate you in your own opinion, that I may be able to build up My own Self upon this nothingness.'

The Lord, to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

"It often happens that I wake up at night and begin to think about a serious problem and decide I must tell the Pope about it. Then I wake up completely and remember that I am the Pope." 

- Pope John XXIII

"He who is the beginning and the end, the ruler of the angels, made Himself obedient to human creatures. The creator of the heavens obeys a carpenter; the God of eternal glory listens to a poor virgin. Has anyone ever witnessed anything comparable to this? Let the philosopher no longer disdain from listening to the common laborer; the wise, to the simple; the educated, to the illiterate; a child of a prince, to a peasant." 

- St. Anthony

"As in the rankest soil the most beautiful flowers are grown, so in the dark soil of poverty the choicest flowers of humanity have developed and bloomed."

--James Allen

"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish tasks as though they were great and noble."

--Helen Keller

"If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes really good, then you did it. That's all it takes to get people to win football games for you."

--Paul Bryant

"Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work."

--Mother Theresa

"Because a thing seems difficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone to accomplish."

–Marcus Aurelius

"...with God, all things are possible." 

--Matthew 19:26

"From self-knowledge flows the stream of humility, which never seizes on mere report, nor takes offense at anything, but bears every insult, every loss of consolation, and every sorry, from whatever direction they may come, patiently, with joy."

-Saint Catherine of Siena

"As waters from from the mountains down onto the valleys, so too do God's graces flow only onto humble souls."

–Saint Faustina Kowalska

"The way of a fool seems right in his own eyes, but he who listens to advice is wise."

-Proverbs 12:15

"The fool immediately shows his anger, but the shrewd man passes over an insult."

--Proverbs 12:16

"As the crucible tests silver and the furnace gold, so a man is tested by the praise he receives."

-Proverbs 27:21

"Humility is constant forgetfulness of one's achievements."

--Saint John Climacus

"Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility."

--Saint Augustine

"Humility is the virtue that requires the greatest amount of effort"

--St. Rose Philippine Duchesne

"I saw the snares that the enemy spreads out over the world and I said groaning, "What can get through from such snares?" Then I heard a voice saying to me, "Humility."

-Saint Anthony the Great

"For there is no obedience without humility, nor humility without charity."

--Saint Catherine of Siena

"Our body has this defect that the more it is provided care and comforts, the more needs and desires it finds."

–Saint Teresa of Avila

"Guard your speech from boasting and your thoughts from presumption; otherwise you may be abandoned by God and fall into sin. For man cannot do anything good without the help of God, who sees everything."

--Saint Mark the Ascetic

"How could I bear a crown of gold when the Lord bears a crown of thorns? And bears it for me!"

--Saint Elizabeth of Hungary

"Why not learn to enjoy the little things—there are so many of them."

--Saint John Chrysostom

"It is worse still to be ignorant of your ignorance."

--Saint Jerome

"Beauty, when unadorned, is adorned the most."

--Saint Jerome

"Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind."

--Ecclesiastes 4:6

"True humility scarcely ever utters words of humility."

--Saint Francis de Sales

"It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels."

--Saint Augustine

"We shall see clearly that it is greater to despise the world than to have it at one's command; that it is infinitely preferable to submit to the humblest of men for God's sake than to command kings and princes; that a humble knowledge of ourselves surpasses the deepest sciences; in short, that greater praise is due to him who curbs his passions on the most trivial occasions, than to him who conquers the strongest cities and defeats entire armies."

--Fr. Lorenzo Scupoli

"Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, my whole will, all I have and all I possess. You gave it all to me; to you, Lord, I return it. It is all yours: do with me entirely as you will. Give me your love and your grace: this is enough for me." 

- St. Ignatius of Loyola


"Let us not be afraid to be humble, small, helpless to prove our love for God. The cup of water you give the sick, the way you lift a dying man, the way you feed a baby, the way you teach a dull child, the way you give medicine to a sufferer of leprosy, the joy with which you smile at your own at home - all this is God's love in the world today." 
-- Mother Teresa

"Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work." 

-- Mother Teresa

Christian Quotes on Gratitude or Thankfulness

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices and said, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." When he saw them he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then said Jesus, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" And he said to him, "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well." 

--Luke 17:11-19

'In all your needs, trustfully have recourse to the divine Heart, and I am confident that our Lord will provide for your wants; but above all be very grateful for the many benefits He has bestowed on you.'

--St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Christian Quotes on Friendship

"A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are."

--unknown

Seeing your brother is seeing God.

--Saint Clement of Alexandria

For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God. 

--Saint Teresa 

Christian Quotes on Freedom

"The call for a sincere gift of self is the fullest way to realize our personal freedom." 

- Pope John Paul II

"Just as religion has need of freedom, so also freedom has need of religion."

--Bishop Wilhelm von Ketteler

"Finally, true freedom is not advanced in the permissive society, which confuses freedom with license to do anything whatever and which in the name of freedom proclaims a kind of general amorality. It is a caricature of freedom to claim that people are free to organize their lives with no reference to moral values, and to say that society does not have to ensure the protection and advancement of ethical values. Such an attitude is destructive of freedom and peace." 

- Pope John Paul II

"Freedom requires a primordial link to a higher instance. The fact that there are values which are not absolutely open to manipulation is the true guarantee of our freedom", which "develops only in responsibility to a greater good. Such a good exists only for all of us together. ... In human coexistence, freedom is impossible without solidarity. ... This holds true not only in private matters but also for society as a whole. In accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, society must give sufficient space for smaller structures to develop and, at the same time, must support them so that one day they will stand on their own."

--Pope Benedict XVI, Sept 22, 2011

"Do not be afraid to be saints. Follow Jesus Christ who is the source of freedom and light. Be open to the Lord so that He may lighten all your ways." 

- Pope John Paul II

"Living out one's faith is either no way to live or the only way to live; it's either imprisonment, or the only path to freedom. It offers happiness, or it frustrates the pursuit. There is no half-love, half-religion, half-worship, half-belief, half-truth. There is no kinda-sorta." 

- Tarek Saab, Gut Check

'We have learned to recognize as freedom that which the Lord alone confers on us when he liberates us from lusts and desires and the other passions. "He who says, I know the Lord, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him," says John.'

--St. Clement of Alexandria

Christian Quotes on Fortitude

"I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same. " 

- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

It is not enough to encounter dangers with resolution; we must with equal courage and constancy vanquish pleasure and the softer passions, or we possess not the virtue of true fortitude.--Butler's Lives of the Saints, 1894 edition

"Constant dropping wears away stones."--Ben Franklin

"Living out one's faith is either no way to live or the only way to live; it's either imprisonment, or the only path to freedom. It offers happiness, or it frustrates the pursuit. There is no half-love, half-religion, half-worship, half-belief, half-truth. There is no kinda-sorta." 

- Tarek Saab, Gut Check

The person with fortitude is one who perseveres in doing what his conscience tells him he ought to do. He does not measure the value of a task exclusively by the benefit he receives from it, but rather by the service he renders to others. The strong man will at times suffer, but he stands firm; he may be driven to tears, but he will brush them aside. When difficulties come thick and fast, he does not bend before them. Remember the example given us in the book of the Machabees: an old man, Eleazar, prefers to die rather than break God's law. 'By manfully giving up my life now, I will show myself worthy of my old age and leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for the revered and holy laws.'

--Saint Josemaria Escriva

Persevere to the end. Victory depends on this. There is a swift and effective remedy for the wounds of anyone who fights for God's cause and who places his entire trust in Him. When he least expects it, he will see his enemy at his feet. 
--from the book, Spiritual Theology

"What shall I say of fortitude, without which neither wisdom nor justice is of any worth? Fortitude is not of the body, but is a constancy of soul; wherewith we are conquerors in righteousness, patiently bear all adversities, and in prosperity are not puffed up. This fortitude he lacks who is overcome by pride, anger, greed, drunkenness, and the like. Neither have they fortitude who when in adversity make shift to escape at their souls' expense; wherefore the Lord saith, 'Fear not those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.' In like manner those who are puffed up in prosperity and abandon themselves to excessive joviality cannot be called strong. For how can they be called strong who cannot hide and repress the heart's emotion? Fortitude is never conquered, or if conquered, is not fortitude."--St. Bruno.

Christian Quotes on Detachment

"When you give yourself away you find that a new and more real self has somehow been given to you." 

- Peter Kreeft

"Once we take our eyes away from ourselves, from our interests, from our own rights, privileges, ambitions - then they will become clear to see Jesus around us." 

- Mother Teresa

"To be a real man is to be unattached - not from responsibility or justice - but from those dependencies that inhibit responsibility and justice."

- Tarek Saab, Gut Check

'One of the things which we must be very firm about, if we are to please our Lord, is to cast far from us everything that could remove us from the love of our brethren. We should make every effort to love them with a tender charity, for Supreme Truth has said: This is how all will know you are my disciples, etc. [John 13:35]'

--St. Ignatius of Loyola

'Seeing that this divine Shepherd has taken so many steps seeking you, you will return Him thanks for it and, uniting all your steps to His, ask His help to walk henceforth only in the way of His love. Say often to Him: O my kind Shepherd, detach me from all earthly things and from myself, that I may be united to Thee.'

--St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

St. John of the Cross on Detachment, taking spirituality to its fullness; Prayer and Fasting are not enough; spiritual poverty

This passage from St. John of the Cross criticizes our conditional love for God, our desire to get good feelings from God, warm and fuzzies that make us feel like God is with us.  But true spiritual poverty, which we must have in order to be fully obedient to God, is to love God even without having those feelings, even if we don't feel His presence at all.  After reading this, I thought that all relationships are really this way.  Sometimes parents have to be absent from their children for the sake of the children's growth and benefit.  Many marriages end up in divorce when the good feelings are gone because the love for each other was only conditional love, due to their attachment to a false idea of what a marriage should be.  If marriage reflects God's relationship with us, then we should expect times when we don't sense comforting feelings from our spouses, periods of dryness, and we should know that these periods will pass but we have to wait patiently and trust in God's plan for us.  In the end, the joy is amazing!

St. John of the Cross, 3.8: … and continuing in prayer and pursuing mortification; but they attain not to detachment and …

5. Oh, that one could show us how to understand, practise and experience what this counsel is which our Saviour here gives us concerning self-denial,[246] so that spiritual persons might see in how different a way they should conduct themselves upon this road from that which many of them think proper! For they believe that any kind of retirement and reformation of life suffices; and others are content with practising the virtues and continuing in prayer and pursuing mortification; but they attain not to detachment and poverty or selflessness[247] or spiritual purity (which are all one), which the Lord here commends to us; for they prefer feeding and clothing their natural selves with spiritual feelings and consolations, to stripping themselves of all things, and denying themselves all things, for God's sake. For they think that it suffices to deny themselves worldly things without annihilating and purifying themselves of spiritual attachment. Wherefore it comes to pass that, when there presents itself to them any of this solid and perfect spirituality, consisting in the annihilation of all sweetness in God, in aridity, distaste and trial, which is the true spiritual cross, and the detachment of the spiritual poverty of Christ, they flee from it as from death, and seek only sweetness and delectable communion with God. This is not self-denial and detachment of spirit, but spiritual gluttony. Herein, spiritually, they become enemies of the Cross of Christ; for true spirituality seeks for God's sake that which is distasteful rather than that which is delectable; and inclines itself rather to suffering than to consolation; and desires to go without all blessings for God's sake rather than to possess them; and to endure aridities and afflictions rather than to enjoy sweet communications, knowing that this is to follow Christ and to deny oneself, and that the other is perchance to seek oneself in God, which is clean contrary to love. For to seek oneself in God is to seek the favours and refreshments of God; but to seek God in oneself is not only to desire to be without both of these for God's sake, but to be disposed to choose, for Christ's sake, all that is most distasteful, whether in relation to God or to the world; and this is love of God.

Christian Quotes on Fear

We have authority over fear:

 1. Plead the Precious Blood of Jesus. Give the fear to God. 

 2. Be yourself. 

 3. Stop hiding or repressing your emotions but let reason and will guide your actions. 

 4. Do not hang on to your fear, especially the fear of hurting someone's feelings. 

 5. Do what it is you are fearing, or do whatever fear is preventing you from doing. Be assertive, not aggressive but assert yourself.

"Whoever fears is not perfect in love."

--1 John 4:18

"Whoever is afraid doesn't know to love."

--Saint Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer

"I do not fear Satan half so much as I fear those who fear him."

--Saint Teresa of Avila

1 John:

Love has no room for fear;

rather, perfect love casts out all fear.

And since fear has to do with punishment,

love is not yet perfect in one who is afraid.

"Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance."

--Saint Francis of Assisi

"...work out your salvation with fear and trembling."

--Philippians 2:12

"Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves--regret for the past and fear of the future."

--Fulton Oursler

"The future is called perhaps, which is the only possible thing to call the future. And the important thing is not to allow that to scare you."

--Saint John Chrysostom

"Men do not fear a hostile and powerful army as much as the powers of hell fear the name and protection of Mary."

--Saint Bonaventure

"Another mistake is for the soul to be afraid, thinking itself incapable of receiving great blessings, with the result that, when the Lord begins to grant them, it grows fearful, thinking that it is sinning through vainglory. Let us believe that, when the devil begins to tempt us about this, He Who gives us the blessings will also give us grace to realize that it is a temptation, and fortitude to resist it: I know God will do this if we walk before Him in simplicity, endeavouring to please Him alone and not men."--Saint Teresa of Avila

"If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement."

--Jimmy Carter

Christian Quotes on Family

"As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live." 

- Pope John Paul II

Serving Leads to Joy

"To maintain a joyful family requires much from both the parents and the children. Each member of the family has to become, in a special way, the servant of the others." 

- Pope John Paul II

Expect a Struggle

"The history of mankind, the history of salvation, passes by way of the family. The family is placed at the center of the great struggle between good and evil, between life and death, between love and all that is opposed to love." 

- Pope John Paul II

The Family is a domestic Church

"Marriage is an act of will that signifies and involves a mutual gift, which unites the spouses and binds them to their eventual souls, with whom they make up a sole family - a domestic church." 

- Pope John Paul II

Family first, make family time
"I think the world today is upside down. Everybody seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater development and greater riches and so on. There is much suffering because there is so very little love in homes and in family life. We have no time for our children, we have no time for each other; there is no time to enjoy each other. In the home begins the disruption of the peace of the world." 

- Mother Teresa

The Familiy & the love for the home

"Try to put in the hearts of your children a love for home. Make them long to be with their families. So much sin could be avoided if our people really loved their homes." 

- Mother Teresa

Realize how important one family, your family, really is

"The family, as the fundamental and essential educating community, is the privileged means for transmitting the religious and cultural values which help the person to acquire his or her own identity. Founded on love and open to the gift of life, the family contains in itself the very future of society; its most special task is to contribute effectively to a future of peace." 

- Pope John Paul II

Marriage
"Christ is an equal partner in your marriage...Above all, accept the fact that you are not alone as a married couple.  Christ is with you, and because Christ is with you, so is His body, and the Church."
--Archbishop Robert Carlson

Surrender/Self-lessness
"Surrender your personal wants to the greater good of your spouse, your family, your community, and your Church...Make sacrifices."
--Archbishop Robert Carlson

Prayer
"Pray together, not just in tough times, but whenever you can."
--Archbishop Robert Carlson

Christian Quotes on Faith and Reason and Suffering

For more quotes specifically related to suffering, see the bottom of this page and also visit this link:
Christian Quotes on Suffering with Patience / Longanimity

Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves." 

- Pope John Paul II

"Some psychologists argue that the idea of God is a response to our emotional needs, but this presumption is backwards. Our emotional fluctuations are a psychological response to our lack of love for God.  If God is everything, what else could we possibily want?" 

- Tarek Saab, Gut Check

"Give yourself fully to God.  He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your own weakness."
--Mother Theresa

"The more importance given to any clear apprehensions [visions, locutions or feelings], the less capacity the soul has for entering the abyss of faith, where all else is absorbed."
--Saint John of the Cross

"Faith is not a contract. Faith is surrender.  If no other relationship in our experience is one of self-surrender, if it's all contractual, people won't know how to believe." 

- Archbishop Francis George

"I believe though I do not comprehend, and I hold by faith what I cannot grasp with the mind." 

- St. Bernard

"Faith means the fundamental response to the love that has offered itself up for me. It thus becomes clear that faith is ordered primarily to the inconceivability of God's love, which surpasses us and anticipates us. Love alone is credible; nothing else can be believed, and nothing else ought to be believed. This is the achievement, the work‚ of faith: to recognize this absolute prius, which nothing else can surpass; to believe that there is such a thing as love, absolute love, and that there is nothing higher or greater than it." 

- Fr. Hans Urs Von Balthasar

"Reason's last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it." 

- St. Blaise Pascal

"Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods." 

- C.S. Lewis

"That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious treatise of philosophy."

--Jonathan Swift

"Truth is not determined by a majority vote." 

- Pope Benedict XVI

"Socialism is the religion people get when they lose their religion."

--Richard John Neuhaus

Faith, Reasoning, and Suffering:

   Why does it all have to be so difficult?  It drives me crazy.  All you can do is just accept the way it is or go crazy.  

     I read these great thoughts of the saints and think, really?  I am supposed to really accept that this is how God wants it?  Suffer to gain happiness?  What sort of weird thinking is that?  The only answer is He did it so go with it.  He said so, so quit thinking like a man.  But I am a man!

     As long as God's promises are true, then the greatest frustration is the devil's.  Everything he does is used for good in the end.  The greatest of all his plans, all His cruel demented twisted crap ends up in a greater good.  

All things work for God.  All of this mental and physical suffering is our 

pathway.  The devil mucks it up and the muck becomes pavement for us to get even closer to God.  Then every suffering endured patiently is another battle won.

     Job:  Life on earth is warfare.

     The problem is accepting, really accepting, like these saints did.  Can I do this?  This seems like gobbledygook sometimes, but insanity is the alternative.  So God's reason must be true.  God's rational mind must trump my irrational one.  So, as long as I cannot accept these statements below, I am irrational.

"One cannot desire freedom from the Cross when one is especially chosen for the cross."

--Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), who suffered the Nazi holocaust

"Apart from the cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven."

--Saint Rose of Lima

"Let us fear more to be deprived of sufferings than a miser fears to lose his treasures."

--Saint Paul of the Cross

Comments on Good Resulting from Suffering:
How does God use suffering and adversity to do good? He allows it to purify our souls, aiding us in our understanding of Who created us and to Whom we shall turn for all we need. He is not selfish in wanting us to depend on Him. He is a loving Father, who wants us to know Him, who is Love. Resisting Him is no different from our children resisting us and the good we offer. Sometimes, we have to allow our children to suffer in order for them to know what is best.


Excerpt from Imitation of Christ

1.12 Why Adversity
The Twelfth Chapter
The Value of Adversity

It is good for us to have trials and troubles at times, for they often remind us that we are on probation and ought not to hope in any worldly thing. It is good for us sometimes to suffer contradiction, to be misjudged by men even though we do well and mean well. These things help us to be humble and shield us from vainglory. When to all outward appearances men give us no credit, when they do not think well of us, then we are more inclined to seek God Who sees our hearts. Therefore, a man ought to root himself so firmly in God that he will not need the consolations of men.

When a man of good will is afflicted, tempted, and tormented by evil thoughts, he realizes clearly that his greatest need is God, without Whom he can do no good. Saddened by his miseries and sufferings, he laments and prays. He wearies of living longer and wishes for death that he might be dissolved and be with Christ. Then he understands fully that perfect security and complete peace cannot be found on earth.