Maxims

 

Strive to preserve your heart in peace and let no event of this world disturb it. Reflect that all must come to an end.

Strive always to keep God present and to preserve within yourself the purity He teaches you.

The poor man who is naked will be clothed: the soul that is naked of desires and whims will be clothed by God with His purity, satisfaction and will.

With interior detachment from all things, not seeking pleasure in any temporal thing, your soul will concentrate on goods you do not know.

Endeavour always that things be not for you, nor you for them, but forgetful of all, abide in recollection with your Spouse.

Enter within yourself and work in the presence of your Spouse, Who is ever present loving you.

Preserve a loving attentiveness to God with no desire to feel or understand any particular thing concerning Him.

What we need most in order to make progress is to be silent before this great God with our appetites and our tongue, for the language He best hears is silent love.

The Father spoke one Word, which is His Son, and this word He always speaks in eternal silence, and in silence must it be heard by the soul.

Let Christ crucified be enough for you, and with Him suffer and take your rest, and hence annihilate yourself in all inward and outward things.

Crucified inwardly and outwardly with Christ, you will live in this life with fullness and satisfaction of soul, and possess your soul in patience.

Preserve a habitual remembrance of eternal life, recalling that those who hold themselves the lowest and poorest and least of all will enjoy the highest dominion and glory in God.

Walk in solitude with God, act according to the just measure; hide the blessings of God.

Love to be unknown both by yourself and others. Never look at the good or evil of others.

Speak little and do not meddle in matters about which you are not asked.

Love consists not in feeling great things but in having great detachment and in suffering for the Beloved.

Allow yourself to be taught, allow yourself to receive orders, allow yourself to be subjected and despised, and you will be perfect.

Take neither great nor little notice of who is with you or against you and try always to please God. Ask Him that His will be done in you. Love Him intensely, as He deserves to be loved.

Wisdom enters through love, silence and mortification. It is great wisdom to know how to be silent and to look at neither the remarks, nor the deeds, nor the lives of others.

Eat not in forbidden pastures (those of this life), because blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice sake, for they shall be filled. [Mt 5:6] What God seeks, He being Himself by nature, is to make us gods through participation, just as fire converts all things into fire.

Heaven is stable and is not subject to generation, and souls of a heavenly nature are stable and not subject to the engendering of desires or of anything else, for in their way they resemble God Who does not move forever.

The soul that desires God to surrender Himself  to it entirely must surrender itself entirely to Him without keeping anything for itself.

Keep spiritually tranquil in a loving attentiveness to God, and when it is necessary to speak, let it be with the same calm and peace.

Feed not your spirit on anything but God. Cast off concern about things, and bear peace and recollection in your heart.

Bridle your tongue and your thoughts very much, direct your affection habitually toward God, and your spirit will be divinely enkindled.

Once being asked how one becomes enraptured, the Venerable Father Fray John of the Cross, replied: by denying one’s own will and doing the will of God; for an ecstasy is nothing else than going out of self and being caught up in God; and this is what he who obeys does; he leaves himself and his desire, thus unburdened plunges himself in God

Do not excuse yourself or refuse to be corrected by all; listen to every reproof with a serene countenance; think that God utters it.

Consider it the mercy of God that someone occasionally speak a good word to you, for you deserve none.

Never listen to talk about the faults of others.

Never allow yourself to pour out your heart, even though it be for the space of a creed.

Do not complain about anyone, or ask for anything; and if it is necessary for you to ask, let it be with few words.

Do not refuse work even though it seems you cannot do it. Let all find compassion in you.

Do not contradict; in no manner speak words that are not pure.

Do not refuse anything you possess, even though you may need it.

Secrecy of conscience is considerably harmed and damaged as often as a person manifests its fruit to men, for then he receives as his reward the fruit of fleeting fame.

Be silent concerning what God may have given you and recall that saying of the bride: My secret for myself.

It is a serious evil to have more regard for God’s blessings than for God Himself: prayer and detachment.

The further you withdraw from earthly things the closer you approach heavenly things and the more you will find God

Whoever knows how to die in all will have life in all.

He is humble who hides in his own nothingness and knows how to abandon himself in God.

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