mystics

"Tell me, I beg you, what – among all things – has become the one thing for you, the thing you want to embrace in a unique way and enjoy forever."

"Of all the things to seek, the first is wisdom, in which lies the form of perfect goodness."

"Delicatus ille est adhuc cui patria dulcis est; fortis autem iam, cui omne solum patria est; perfectus vero, cui mundus totus exsilium est."

"This sensible world […] is almost like a book written by the finger of God, that is, created by divine virtue, and individual creatures are like figures, not invented by human arbitrariness, but established by divine will to manifest the invisible wisdom of God. [...] It is therefore good to contemplate assiduously and admire divine works."

"When asked about the best conditions for learning, a scholar replied: “A humble spirit, commitment to research, a quiet life, silent inquiry, poverty, a foreign land; these circumstances make it easier to overcome the difficulties encountered during one's studies”. :*From Didascalicon."

"Love seems to be the satisfaction of a person's heart towards something, because of something: it presents itself as desire in the search, and happiness in the satisfaction of possession; it appears as a race, as far as desire is concerned, and as rest, as far as the joy of possession is concerned."

"O my soul, what do you think that sweet and gentle thing is, which devout souls usually feel and taste when they remember their beloved, and which usually enamours them so sweetly that they seem to be alienated and out of themselves? They feel joyful and glad in their consciences and forget all their pain: their soul rejoices, their intellect becomes clear, their heart is illuminated, their will becomes joyful."

"(About the Assumption of Mary) She who was conceived without spot and borne without pain, who became mother without loss of virginity, who placed God in the world, who died without suffering, was also preserved from corruption; and we believe she lives in heaven with her body. It is piously believed."

"Wisdom enlightens human beings so that they may recognise themselves."

"You have given me perfection of sensitivity, quickness of intelligence, strength of memory; you have given me the ability to express myself fluently, to present my thoughts pleasantly, to teach convincingly, to carry out my intentions, to behave pleasantly, to progress in my studies, to achieve my projects; you have given me comfort in adversity, caution in happy circumstances."

"Omnia disce. Videbis postea nihil esse superfluum. Coartata scientia iucunda non est."

"Before the events of 1917, apart from the family ties that united us, no other particular affection made me prefer the company of Jacinta and Francisco to that of any other child. On the contrary, her company sometimes became quite unpleasant because of her overly sensitive character. The slightest issue, of the kind that arise among 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 God had blessed her with a sweet and tender character, which made her both lovable and attractive."

"The little girl also loved to go out at dusk to the farmyard in front of our house to watch the beautiful sunset and the starry sky that followed. She was thrilled by the beautiful nights of the full moon. 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 to the Lord. That is why Jacinta sometimes said: – I like Our Lady's lamp better because it does not burn us or blind us, whereas the Lord's does."

"Francesco did not seem to be Jacinta Marto'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 had a peaceful and accommodating character. [...] Unlike Giacinta, he did not show a passion for dancing; he preferred to play the flute while the other children danced. He was quite lively when playing games, 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 nature."

"I chose you, my son, for this simple reason: because you are the poorest, the smallest, the most limited. Humanly speaking, you are the most unprepared. / I chose you because in your life my Adversary had already managed to claim victory. In your existence, I made you experience in advance what I myself will do at the moment of my greatest triumph. / My Adversary will one day believe he has achieved complete victory: over the world, over the Church, over souls. / Only then will I intervene – terrible and victorious – so that his defeat will be all the greater, the more certain he was of having won forever. (18 October 1975)"

"The Church established by Christ is one: holy, catholic, apostolic, one, founded on Peter. Like Jesus, the Church founded by Him, which forms His mystical body, is truth, life and way."

"Fight with Me, little children, against the beast that looks like a lamb, Freemasonry, which has infiltrated ecclesial life in order to destroy Christ and His Church. To achieve this goal, it wants to build a new idol, that is, a false Christ and a false Church. (17 June 1989)"

"Do not waste time in front of the television, which is the most powerful tool in the hands of my Adversary, used to spread the darkness of sin and impurity everywhere. Television is the idol mentioned in the Book of Revelation, created to be worshipped by all the nations of the earth, and to which the Evil gives form and movement, so that it may become, in his hands, a terrible means of seduction and perversion."

"The task of the Masonic Lodges today is to work with great cunning to lead humanity everywhere to despise the holy Law of God, to work in open opposition to the Ten Commandments, to take away the worship due to God alone and give it to false idols, which are exalted and adored by an ever-increasing number of people. (3 June 1989)"

"Divine Scripture has warned you that those who sin through the flesh will find their just punishment in the same flesh. Thus, the time has come when the angel of the first plague passes over the world, so that it may be punished according to God's will."

"These are ten decisive years. I ask you to spend them with me, because you are entering the final period of the Second Advent, which will lead you to the triumph of my Immaculate Heart in the glorious coming of my son Jesus. In this period of ten years, the fullness of time, which I have indicated to you, will be fulfilled, beginning with La Salette and continuing until my last and current apparitions. In this period of ten years, the purification that you have been experiencing for years will reach its climax, and therefore the sufferings will become greater for everyone. In this period of ten years, the mystery of iniquity, prepared by the ever-increasing spread of apostasy, will be manifested. During this ten-year period, all the secrets that I have revealed to some of my daughters will be fulfilled, and all the events that I have foretold will come to pass. Therefore, I ask you today to consecrate this entire period of time to me, as if it were a longer and continuous Marian year. (Message from Mary to Don Gobbi, Lourdes, 18 September 1989)"

"Jesus is the way that leads to the Father through the Gospel. Ecclesiastical Freemasonry favours exegesis that gives interpretations of it that are rationalistic and natural, through the application of various literary genres, so that it is torn apart in every part. In the end, it leads to the denial of the historical reality of the miracles and of his Resurrection, and the very divinity of Jesus and his saving mission are called into question."

"My soul is pierced at seeing my Church prostrated under the weight of a most painful agony. Errors leading to the loss of faith are spreading more and more within her; sin seduces the minds and hearts of so many of my children. (15 September 1994)"

"I choose to live hidden all the days of my pilgrimage, behaving like a true pilgrim and empty-handed traveller, in order that I may in safety await the day of the Lord, being most rich, and at the same time very poor; most rich in seeking nothing, very poor in having nothing."

"In order to evolve and become what nature and the Divine intended us to be, we must attune ourselves with this process of constant change. We must become a part of the great parade of onward marchers which constitutes the army of evolution throughout nature. The moment people cease to be of that onward movement, they do not stand still. They simply retrograde, because nature and all humanity pass on and leave them standing, as it were, or moving backward until in a very short time they find themselves among the primitive ones, among the undeveloped, the unprogressive, the ignorant, and the sufferers."

"To me the change called "death", and which is better understood as transition, is merely a change from one form of physical, material and psychological existence to another. I believe the change is identical in importance and consequence to that change which takes place when the embryo of a newly born child takes its first breath and becomes a living entity on this earth plane. I do not attempt to say how, or what form or type of existence the individuality, personality, character or mentality of a human being may be like after this so-called transition, but of one thing I am convinced, and that is that this transition which we call "death" does not end the whole of our existence nor affect our existence except in its mode of physical, mental, spiritual and psychological expression. Consequently I have no fear of death except that I would not like to have it occur suddenly before I could prepare papers and other matters that would concern myself or my family after my inability to function any further here in this particular form."

"More fortunes in money and in the material things of life have been lost by those who hesitated out of fear than by those who ventured too quickly and without caution."

"We are impressed with the fact that the physical body did not take on life but that the invisible, infinite soul took on a physical form by the uniting of the breath with the body. Even the ancients were impressed with this significance, and in their philosophies, which gradually evolved into theological principles, we are constantly reminded of the fact that man is essentially a soul clothed with a body, and not a body animated with a soul."

"I want to bring many, many souls to Jesus with my love alone and the entire offering of my sick life, with no other will than that of my God, or rather, with my will fully united to that of my God."

"If Mary is full of grace, it is because she is the Mother of God."

"Transforming all my actions into supernatural and divine actions is the most beautiful of truths, it is the greatest and ultimate word of love."

"(In respect of suicide) because it was not her days she wanted to end, but the pain that tortured her."

"The sight of priests has always moved me."

"I don't like reading the lives of saints because each one has their own nuances. I prefer doctrine, not imitation."

"To live in the heart of Christ, in the heart of the Trinity, one must live with Mary."

"The role of Our Lady is to take care of the details, all the details; it is her maternal function that leads her to this."

"I want to shout to those who ask me if I eat that I eat more than they do, because I feed on the Eucharist of the Blood and Flesh of Jesus. I want to tell them that they are the ones who block the effects of this nourishment within themselves, they block its effects."

"My life is a continuous Mass. I never feel that my bed is a bed; it is an altar, it is a cross."

"Jesus did not promise to take away our cross. He told us to carry it on our shoulders, but with Jesus, the cross becomes all love."

"Do not leave poisons on the bedside tables of the sick."

"One never implores Mary in vain. I have firm faith that she will grant my request because I believe that we have no other hope than to turn to Divine Providence, which never abandons anyone."

"It does not occur to me to kneel [before Our Lady] but to fly towards her, not to ask, but with a feeling of gratitude and love."

"God does what he says: it is evident in his creation."

"Suffering teaches charity, abandonment to God, detachment. Suffering teaches us to see and understand. Suffering teaches us to alleviate, to sympathize, to console those who suffer."

"I have always prayed enormously in my life."

"The priest encouraged me to pray without saying anything to me."

"I loved the sick very much and would have crossed mountains and valleys, if they had let me, to visit a sick person, not to cure them, but to love them"

"I feed only on this. They moisten my mouth, but I cannot swallow. The host gives me a physical impression of nourishment. Jesus, being my whole body, is the one who nourishes me. It is like a Resurrection. [...] I would like to shout to those who ask me if I eat that I eat more than they do, because I am nourished with the Eucharist of the blood and flesh of Jesus. I would like to say that it is they who arrest the fruits of this food within themselves, blocking its effects."

"Did you notice that Our Mother in Lourdes did not simply say, as she did in Paris on Rue du Bac, that she was conceived without sin, but rather, “I am the Immaculate Conception”! She waited for the Church's proclamation of the dogma of her Holy Immaculate Conception to give us her personal identity before God."

"Theology is a magnificent science; it is theologians who are boring."