catholic-mystics

"‘'I love you | because you entered my life | more than the air in my lungs, | more than the blood in my veins.’' (April 24, 1960)"

"Using language that is quite familiar today, we can say that love knows “no form of discrimination.”"

"If we have the heart of a mother or, more precisely, if we set out to have the heart of the Mother par excellence: Mary, we will always be ready to love."

"To love, Christians must do as God does: not expect to be loved, but love “first.”"

"To be Christian, we must love our neighbor now. So not a platonic love, not an ideal love: active love."

"A brilliant priest who had a special knack. That night he fed the poor with chicken-stew."

"The first quality of Christian love is to love everyone."

"We must avoid lies as we would a pestilence."

"The religious state is indeed the highest, but it is not suitable for all."

"A man without prayer is an animal without the use of reason."

"w:it:Chiara Lubich - L'amore vince tutto (2021)"

"The joy of the Christian is like a ray of sunshine shining from a tear, a rose blooming on a spot of blood, the essence of love distilled from pain, [...] which is why it has the apostolic power of a glimpse of Paradise. (‘'Spiritual Writings’')"

"None of those who enter into God are lost. (December 13, 1968)"

"Virginity pleasing to God lies not only in physical virginity, but in that spiritual attitude which is “non-existence” for oneself, so that we may all be always for God. (October 31, 1968)"

"The virgin is the one who advances without support, only with God. (October 31, 1968)"

"Let us love one another! We will all meet again one day up there, united for all eternity, if we have had the courage to love one another without excuses here below. (undated, 1944?)"

"Those who graft their lives onto God's thoughts realize in their existence what they have always dreamed of and certainly more. (in Città Nuova, 24, 1980)"

"Contemplating the flagellation of Jesus means learning to accept physical pain, whether as great as a serious illness or as small as a state of fatigue. Accepting it and offering it to Jesus, uniting it with his passion, because in this way it acquires infinite value. Man certainly suffers from negative factors such as accidents, illness, or misfortune... But God, who is love, gives another reason, a new meaning to his suffering: through it, man contributes to his own salvation, to his own sanctification, and contributes to that of his brothers and sisters. Yes, our suffering is also necessary to change people and create a new world."

"The focolarini see in Mary that person who, because she was faithful to her particular task, participated in the life of all humanity."

"Città Nuova, 24, 1980"

"Mary did not go to Elizabeth to sing the Magnificat, but to help her. So we, too, should not go to our neighbors to reveal the Christian treasure we carry in our hearts, but to share their sorrows and burdens and to share their joys and responsibilities."

"Pain is a gift that God gives to His creatures."

"There is no Christian without the cross. If we do not carry our cross, we cannot follow Jesus as he climbs Calvary carrying his cross. The cross is the root of charity. With it, we have a solid life, well-grounded and protected against storms. With it, we walk confidently. Our hearts must possess two great loves: Mary as our destination and the cross as the means to be another her in the world and fulfill God's plans."

"If we have experienced that what Jesus says is “all true,” it is easy to leave every other teacher for Him."

"Saint Thérèse and the followers of the little way seem to perpetuate the words: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Mt 18:3)."

"Everything that happens to us, such as pain and joy, blessings and misfortunes, significant events (such as successes and good fortune, accidents or the death of loved ones), insignificant events (such as daily work at home, in the office or at school), everything, everything will take on a new meaning because it is offered to us by the hand of God who is Love. He wants, or allows, everything for our own good. And sooner or later we will realize, looking with the eyes of the soul, that a golden thread links events and things and composes a magnificent embroidery: God's design for each of us."

"[...] when we begin to live the Gospel. At first, we are carried away by enthusiasm, as well as conviction, in this revolution that the Gospel proposes. But at a certain point, the Lord, through a speech or a writing or a conversation, makes us understand what is the indispensable condition for the choice of God as an ideal to be authentic. We are then told about pain, about the cross, about Jesus crucified and abandoned. In order to continue on our path and to continue to give Jesus to the world, we must then say a second “yes,” the “yes” to the cross, like the one Mary must have uttered in the depths of her heart as she listened to the elderly Simeon."

"Who is our neighbor? We know we don't have to look far: our neighbor is the brother who passes by us."

"The isolated individual is unable to resist the pressures of the world for long, while in mutual love he finds a healthy environment, capable of protecting his purity and his entire authentic Christian existence. (November 1999)"

"I think that our religions have the medicine to cure this sick world and restore it to health, harmony, and peace. (March 8, 1990)"

"“Peace” is the effect of unity. (November 24, 1985)"

"Of course, keeping Christmas and banishing the Newborn is something that causes pain. (November 22, 1980)"

"Truly great events arise from small things. (January 10, 1978)"

"Today, in our consumer society, there is only one thing we want to save: time. (October 19, 1970)"

"I have found heaven on earth, since heaven is God and God is in my soul. The day I understood that, everything became clear to me, and I would like to share this secret with all those I love so that they, too, might cling to God through everything, so that this prayer of Christ might be fulfilled: "Father, may they be made perfectly one!""

""Remain in Me." It is the Word of God who gives this order, expresses this wish. Remain in Me, not for a few moments, a few hours which must pass away, but "remain..." permanently, habitually, Remain in Me, pray in Me, adore in Me, love in Me, suffer in Me, work and act in Me."

""Abyss calls to abyss." It is there in the very depths that the divine impact takes place, where the abyss of our nothingness encounters the Abyss of mercy, the immensity of the all of God. There we will find the strength to die to ourselves and, losing all vestige of self, we will be changed into love."

""Because I love My Father, I do always the things that are pleasing to Him." Thus spoke our holy Master, and every soul who wants to live close to Him must also live this maxim. The divine good pleasure must be its food, its daily bread; it must let itself be immolated by all the Father's wishes in the likeness of His adored Christ. Each incident, each event, each suffering, as well as each joy, is a sacrament which gives God to it; so it no longer makes a distinction between these things; it surmounts them, goes beyond them to rest in its Master, above all things."

"Catherine came from the famous Fieschi family in Genoa, where she received a careful and sound education as befitted her noble status. Her early aspirations to become a nun were frustrated by her relatives when, for political reasons, they married her off at the age of sixteen to a young man, Guiliano Adorno, who was worldly, pleasure-loving, and indulgent. Catherine experienced considerable unhappiness and spent some sorrowful years in seclusion until she was able to free herself from her husband. She then devoted herself to prayer, contemplation and strict discipline. In 1473 she underwent a deep mystical experience marked by close union with God. From now on her life was transformed. She reached great spiritual heights, but balanced ascetic discipline with an active life of service to the ill and poor"

"In God is my being, my I, my strength, my bliss, my desire. But this I that I often call so...in truth I no longer know what the I is, or the Mine, or desire, or the good, or bliss."

"I find in myself by the grace of God a satisfaction without nourishment, love without fear"

"Faith seems to me wholly lost, and hope dead; for it seems to me that I have and hold in the certainty that which I believed and hoped at other times. I no longer see union, for I know nothing more and can see nothing more than him alone without me. I do not know where the I is, nor do I seek it, nor do I wish to know or be cognizant of it."

"I am so submerged in the sweet fire of love that I cannot grasp anything except the whole of love, which melts all the marrow of my soul and body."

"Therefore it seems to me that I am no longer of this world, since I can no longer do the work of the world like the others; indeed, every action of others that I see disturbs me, for I do not work as they do, nor as I myself used to do. I feel altogether estranged from earthly affairs, and from my own most of all"

"I cannot work, or walk, or stand, or speak, but all this seems to be a useless thing"

"Many are astonished at this, and since they do not know the reason, they are offended. And truly, if it were not that God stands by me, the world would often consider me mad, and that is because I almost always live outside myself."

"God became man in order to make me God; therefore I want to be changed completely into pure God"

"I am so plunged and submerged in the source of his infinite love, as if I were quite underwater in the sea and could not touch, see, feel anything on any side except water"

"I see without eyes, and I hear without ears. I feel without feeling and taste without tasting. I know neither form nor measure; for without seeing I yet behold an operation so divine that the words I first used, perfection, purity, and the like, seem to me now mere lies in the presence of truth. . . . Nor can I any longer say, “My God, my all.” Everything is mine, for all that is God’s seem to be wholly mine. I am mute and lost in God...God so transforms the soul in Him that it knows nothing other than God, and He continues to draw it up into His fiery love until He restores it to that pure state from which it first issued"

"So long as anyone can speak of divine things, enjoy and understand them, remember and desire them, he has not yet arrived in port; yet there are ways and means to guide him thither. But the creature can know nothing but what God gives him to know from day today"