Mystics

"[Holy Cross,] you resolve every bitterness."

"My one occupation is to live in the presence of my Heavenly Father."

"Vadirajatirtha, of the Uttaradi Madhva Matha, visited Kolhapur in the latter half of the sixteenth century. In his Teertha Prabandha, he wrote, What is so surprising with the fact that goddess ramaa (mahalakshmi) is residing in kolhapura kshetra, a place which is full of numerous lakes each of which have numerous lotuses?.... May goddess mahalakshmi ... be the reason for me having abundant prosperity!"

"The grace of God can do all things, but in face of so many moral miseries... one sees clearly that human means are powerless, and that God alone can effect so great a transformation. Prayer and penance I The farther I go, the more I see that these are the principal means of acting upon these poor souls."

"[...] We saw on the left side of Our Lady, a little higher up, an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; it sparkled and emitted flames that seemed to set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady emanated from her right hand towards him: the Angel pointed to the earth with his right hand and said in a loud voice: Penance, Penance, Penance! And we saw in an immense light that is God: [...] a Bishop dressed in white [...]. Various other Bishops, Priests, religious men and women climbing a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a large Cross of rough logs as if made of cork with bark; Before reaching it, the Holy Father passed through a large city half in ruins and half trembling with faltering steps, afflicted with pain and sorrow, praying for the souls of the corpses he encountered on his way; When he reached the top of the mountain, he knelt at the foot of the large Cross and was killed by a group of soldiers who shot him several times with firearms and arrows. In the same way, the bishops, priests, religious men and women, and various secular people, men and women of various classes and positions, died one after the other. Beneath the two arms of the Cross were two Angels, each with a crystal watering can in their hands, in which they collected the blood of the Martyrs and with it watered the souls who were approaching God. (p. 209)"

"Sometimes I was asked if Our Lady indicated in any apparition what kind of sins offended the Lord most. Well, according to what they say, Jacinta mentioned the sin of the flesh in Lisbon. Perhaps, I think now, since it was one of the questions she asked me, she happened to ask Our Lady about it in Lisbon, and that is how she was told about that sin. (pp. 122-123)"

"Some people, even pious ones, do not want to talk about hell to children so as not to frighten them; but God did not hesitate to show it to three, one of whom was only six years old, and whom He knew would be so horrified that, I dare say, she would be weakened by fear. She would often sit on the ground or on a rock and exclaim thoughtfully: – Hell! Hell! How much compassion I have for the souls who go to hell! And the people there, alive, burning like wood on the fire! And, trembling all over, she would kneel with her hands clasped to recite the prayer that Our Lady had taught us: – O my Jesus! Forgive our sins, deliver us from the fire of hell, take all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need. Now, Most Reverend and Most Honourable Bishop, you will understand why I was left with the impression that the last words of this prayer referred to the souls who are in greater or more imminent danger of damnation. And she remained kneeling for a long time, repeating the same prayer. (p. 121)"

"[...] we raised our eyes to Our Lady, who said to us with kindness and sadness: – You have seen hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. If they do what I tell you, many souls will be saved and will have peace. The war is about to end, but if they do not cease offending God, a worse one will begin during the pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illuminated by an unknown light, know that it is the great sign that God is giving you that He is about to punish the world for its crimes, through war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and the Holy Father. To prevent this, I will come to ask for the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If they accept My requests, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, it will spread its errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be destroyed. In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to Me, which will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world. (pp. 119-120)"

"I thought of opening the New Testament, the only book I desire to have here in front of me, in this remote corner of the attic, lit by a single skylight, to which I withdraw whenever I can, in order to escape, as far as possible, from all human eyes. My lap serves as a table, and an old trunk as a chair. But, someone will say, why don’t you write in your cell? Our dear Lord has seen fit to deprive me even of a cell, although there are quite a few empty ones in the house … But I am glad and I thank God for the grace of having been born poor, and for living more poorly still for love of Him. … Very well then. I need no more than this: obedience and abandonment to God who works within me. I am truly no more than a poor and miserable instrument which He desires to use, and in a little while, like a painter who casts his now useless brush into the fire so that it may be reduced to ashes, the Divine Artist will Himself reduce His now useless instrument to the ashes of the tomb, until the great day of the eternal Alleluias. And I ardently desire that day, for the tomb does not annihilate everything, and the happiness of eternal and infinite love begins – now!"

"Before the events of 1917, apart from the family ties that bound us together, I had no particular affection for Jacinta and Francisco that made me prefer their company to that of any other children. In fact, her company sometimes became quite unpleasant because of her overly touchy character. The slightest issue, of the kind that arises between children when they play, was enough to make her sulk in a corner, imitating a mule, as we used to say. To get her back into the game, even the sweetest caresses that children can give in such situations were not enough. It was necessary to let her choose the game and the companion with whom she wanted to play. However, even at that time, she had a very kind heart, and the good Lord had endowed her with a sweet and tender character, which made her both lovable and attractive. (pp. 36-37)"

"Francisco did not seem to be Jacinta's brother, except in his facial features and in the practice of virtue. He was not as capricious and lively as she was. On the contrary, he was peaceful and accommodating in character. [...] He did not show the same passion for dancing as Jacinta; he preferred to play the flute while the other children danced. In games, he was quite lively, but few enjoyed playing with him because he almost always lost. I myself confess that I had little sympathy for him, because his peaceful character sometimes irritated my overly lively nerves. (p. 134)"

"The little girl also loved to go to the threshing floor in front of our house at dusk to watch the beautiful sunset and the starry sky that followed. She was thrilled by the beautiful full moon nights. We challenged each other to see who could count the stars, which we called the angels' lamps. The moon belonged to Our Lady and the Sun belonged to the Lord. For this reason, Jacinta sometimes said: – I like Our Lady's lamp better because it doesn't burn us or blind us, whereas the Lord's does. (p. 40)"

"Leaving the great and wondrous Lavra, he first set off at full speed on the ascent of Athos, where the tablets of grace were promised by the Mother of God. And thus he reached it, without eating anything, on the seventh [Sunday after Easter]; for that day was the first [Sunday] after the Ascension, the so-called Sunday of the Holy Fathers. After arriving at the summit there and prostrating himself and praying to God, as was his custom every night, he spent the whole night in vigil together with some monks. But when all the monks departed in the morning and no one was left behind, he remained there alone for three entire days and nights without food and wearing only a single garment, in the service of God. And he constantly had the name of the Mother of God on his tongue, in his mind and heart through mental prayer in the Spirit."

"Thus, after spending three days in this place of fragrance, he descended at the bidding of our Lady the Mother of God as far as her church, the one called Panagia. After spending some days there, he went up again to the summit of Athos and kissed the spot where the Mother of God had appeared to stand in glory. He tearfully sought to see the vision once again, but he did not succeed; for only light and unceasing divine fragrance fell invisibly upon the holy one's senses, as before, and filled him with joy and inexpressible happiness. After going up two or three times from the Panagia and being granted this experience, he then went down from there and, going to Karmelion, found a solitary elder there and told him about his vision."

"We had been told to recite the Crown after our snack, but since we felt we didn't have enough time to play, we found a good way to finish it quickly: we passed the beads, saying only: Hail Mary, Hail Mary, Hail Mary! When we reached the end of the mystery, after a long pause, we said the simple words: Our Father! And so, in the blink of an eye, as they say, our Crown was finished! (p. 43)"

"I shall spend every moment loving. One who loves does not notice her trials; or perhaps more accurately, she is able to love them. Why must we suffer? Because here below pure Love cannot exist without suffering. O Jesus, Jesus, I no longer feel my cross when I think of yours."

"[...] Our Lady said that we must recite the Rosary to obtain graces during the year. And she continued: – Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially whenever you make some sacrifice: O Jesus, it is for your love, for the conversion of sinners and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. [...] When you recite the Rosary, after each mystery say: “O my Jesus! Forgive us, deliver us from the fire of hell, bring all souls to Heaven, especially those who are most in need”. (pp. 172-174)"

"[...] I wanted to open the New Testament, the only book I want to have here in front of me, in a hidden corner of the attic, where I retreat, in the light of a poor glass tile, to escape human eyes as much as possible. My knees serve as a table; an old suitcase serves as a chair. ‘Why don't you write in your cell?’ some may ask. The good Lord saw fit to deprive me of a cell, even though there are several empty ones here in the house. [...] But I am content and I thank God for being born poor and for living, through His love, even poorer. [...] And that's fine. I need nothing else: obedience and abandonment to God, who works in me. In reality, I am nothing more than the poor and miserable instrument He wants to use, and soon, like the painter who throws his brush into the fire so that it is reduced to ashes, so too will the Divine Painter reduce His useless instrument to the ashes of the grave, until the great day of eternal hallelujah. And I ardently desire that day, because the tomb does not destroy everything, and the happiness of eternal and infinite love begins there. (pp. 132-133)"

"When candle wax is far from the fire, it is solid and can be grasped, but when you put it in the fire it melts, and there it burns in the flame and catches fire and becomes all light and so finds a perfect end in the fire. There is no way for it not to melt in the fire and pour out like water. So too, while man's intellect is by itself, without encountering God, it thinks that everything is solidly in its power. But when it draws near, as it were, to the fire of Divinity and the Holy Spirit, it is completely dominated by that divine light and becomes all light, and there within the flame of the All-Holy Spirit it is set aflame and softened by divine perceptions. And in that fire of Divinity, there is no way for it to consider it own concerns and desires."

"Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire, which seemed to be underground. Immersed in that fire, the demons and souls, as if they were transparent and black or bronze embers, with human form, were floating in the fire, carried by the flames that came out of themselves together with clouds of smoke, falling on all sides like sparks in great fires, without weight or balance, amid cries and groans of pain and despair that filled one with horror and made one tremble with fear. The demons could be recognised by their horrible and repulsive forms of frightening and unknown animals, but transparent and black. (p. 119)"

"For this reason he did not settle in one place on Athos, as most monks do in tranquil cells, but kept moving from one place to another nearby like a vagrant. He would quickly build huts, and then burn them down again with fire. This behavior was strange for the monks, and even for people in general. The blessed one never possessed a digging fork or hoe, nor a purse, nor a bench, a table, a pot, flour, oil, or wine, nor any other material necessity, nor bread, but living like an immaterial being in places untouched by materiality, he thus possessed only the semblance of a small hut, large enough only to contain his much-suffering body. And after building this out of grasses, he would soon burn it down. For this reason, although he was not in error, he was considered deranged, and at the same time he was given the sobriquet Hutburner by earthly-minded people, who did not see in him the illuminating divine grace of the Spirit which sheltered him like a divine, celestial tent and spread sweetness, and the eternal hope and prayer which always refreshed him like dew."

"– What do you want from me? – I asked. – I want you to come here on the 13th of next month, to recite the Rosary every day, and to learn to read. Then I will tell you what I want. I asked for the healing of a sick person. – If he converts, he will be healed within the year. ‘I would like to ask you to take us to Heaven.’ "Yes, Jacinta and Francisco, I will take them soon, but you will remain here for some time. Jesus wants to use you to make Me known and loved. He wants to establish in the world devotion to My Immaculate Heart. – Will I stay here alone? – I asked sadly. – No, my child. Does this cause you great suffering? Do not be discouraged. I will never leave you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God. As she uttered these last words, she opened her hands and communicated to us, for the second time, the reflection of that immense light, in which we saw ourselves as immersed in God. Jacinta and Francisco seemed to be in that part of the light that rose towards Heaven, while I was in the part that spread over the earth. In front of the palm of Our Lady's right hand, there was a heart crowned with thorns that seemed to be stuck in it. We understood that it was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, outraged by the sins of humanity, which wanted reparation. (pp. 171-172)"

"The Bhagavad Gita contains the mental quintessence and successful synthesis of the various systems of religion and philosophy it offers a unique epitome of the high culture of prehistoric India."

"The work of physicists like Currie, Rutherford, Fermi, Cockcroft, Chadwick, Anderson and Millikan has brought us to the practical and proven Scientific principle that the inner structure of matter is reducible to a single fundamental substance, an essential and Immortal energy which is the "life" of the myriad forms that make up the universe. Modem development in the laboratory will vindicate the theory of a single element underlying all the Visible and different manifestations of material Nature, we shall have to grant that the assertions of the Hindu philosophers, made thousands of years ago .... are but results of the insight practiced by keenly perceptive and concentrated minds."

"The ancient Hindus took their philosophic statements in the nature of a revelation from on high, as issuing forth from their seers as a result of a personal self-experience in the spiritual domain."

"The wisest men of the ancient East and the modem West. .. are beginning to arrive at precisely the same conclusions."

"This Indian doctrine declares human cognition of the entire manifold universe to be illusionary in character. The vast multitude of tangible objects and tangible creatures, which we so plainly witness around us were said to be the product of the constructive imagination of the One Hidden Self. Man and his material environments were but finite dreams passing through the mind of the Infinite Dreamer. Consequently all that we know of the world is nothing more or less than a series of idea held in our consciousness. Thus we arrive at a completely idealistic metaphysics, which because of its very nature, must apparently remain forever purely speculative and beyond the scope of the finest instruments, which can be devised to prove or disprove. Nevertheless the strangeness and unfamiliarity of the doctrine fascinated the Indian mind to an amazing extent. That this early foreshadowing of modem idealistic philosophy was not merely a worthless superstition is evidenced by the fact that some brilliant minds of the West have been equally fascinated and perplexed.""

"For Indian culture is fruitful in the domain of psychology, philosophy, and religion, so fruitful that there are few doctrines which appeared out of original Western sources that have not already been anticipated and developed .. .in India."

"We are witnessing in the West the appearance of an at present thin but slowly deepening current of interest in those very thoughts and ideas which the young men of India are today doing their best to reject as inadequate to their needs and which constitute the faith and religious traditions of their forefathers."

"I will not be silent about something which it is not right to leave in silence lest I should inhumanly keep to myself what ought to be made known."

"Constantly wrestle with your thought, and whenever it wanders call it back to you"

"Baptism is the washing away of evils that were in us before, but sins committed after baptism are washed away by tears."

"He whose will and desire in conversation is to establish his own opinion, even though what he says is true, should recognize that he is sick with the devil's disease."

"A monastery is an earthly heaven."

"Drive away with the hand of humility every transitory joy, as being unworthy of it, lest by readily admitting it you receive a wolf instead of a shepherd."

"Even if glory is God-given, yet it is excellent to divert it from oneself with the shield of humility."

"The man who associates with people of the world or approaches them after his renunciation will certainly either fall into their traps or will defile his heart by thinking about them; or if he is not defiled himself yet by condemning those who are defiled, he too will himself be defiled."

"In hastening to solitude and exile, do not wait for world-loving souls, because the thief comes unexpectedly. In trying to save the careless and indolent along with themselves, many perish with them, because in course of time the fire goes out. As soon as the flame is burning within you, run; for you do not know when it will go out and leave you in darkness. Not all of us are required to save others. The divine Apostle says, ... "Thou therefore who teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?" This is like saying: I do not know whether we must teach others; but teach yourselves at all costs."

"Obedience is the tomb of the will and the resurrection of humility."

"A monk is one who is conditioned by virtues as others are by pleasures."

"A shrewd hesychast requires no words. He is enlightened by deeds rather than by words.The start of stillness is the rejection of all noisiness as something that will trouble the depths of the soul. The final point is when one has no longer a fear of noisy disturbance, when one is immune to it. He who when he goes out does not go out in his intellect is gentle and wholly a house of love, rarely moyed to speech and never to anger. The opposite to all this is manifest.Strange as it may seem, the hesychast is a man who fights to keep his incorporeal self shut up in the house of the body."

"The beginning of prayer is the expulsion of distractions from the very start by a single thought; the middle stage is the concentration on what is being said or thought; its conclusion is rapture in the Lord.Prayer brings one sort of joy to those living in community, and another to those praying in stillness. Elation is sometimes characteristic of the former, but humility is always to be found in the latter."

"Christ is among us His heart like a rose expanding within us . . ."

"We go through life with dark forces within us and around us, haunted by the ghosts of repudiated terrors and embarrassments, assailed by devils, but we are also continually guided by invisible hands; our darkness is lit by many little flames, from night-lights to the stars. Those who are afraid to look into their own hearts know nothing of the light that shines in the darkness."

"It seems a law of fallen nature that life must always come to its being through darkness, and this makes us even more aware of its beauty. Dawn is lovelier because it comes after night, spring because it follows winter."

"God's will for you is to serve him, in his way, as he chooses now. It is only a want of humility to think of extreme vocations, like being a nun or a nurse, while you try to by-pass your present obvious vocation . . . Today you have to use what you have today, and do not look beyond it."

"The one essential for sanctity is the capacity to love."

"To surrender all that we are, as we are, to the spirit of love in order that our lives may bear Christ into the world – that is what we shall be asked."

"Love is most likely to spring from another's need for us, and the fact of spending ourselves for another always generates new life in us. To give life is the purpose of love, and we love those people most of all whose needs waken a response in us that floods us with creative energy, causing us to put out new green shoots of life."

"Prayer alone can teach us to concentrate again, can lead us to absolute trust in God, and make our minds ready for other essential things . . . for the contemplation (not mere observation) of beauty."