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Spiritual words of inspirations

S

Sniffles

Guest
What quotes, poems, and other statements have inspired you spiritually? Post them here.

And no drifting the topic!
 
S

Sniffles

Guest
I'll begin by posting this excellent poem by my namesakes that describes God's infinite love for mankind, and the freedom of man.




FREEDOM
by Charles Peguy

GOD SPEAKS:

When you love someone, you love him as he is.
I alone am perfect.
It is probably for that reason
That I know what perfection is
And that I demand less perfection of those poor people.
I know how difficult it is.
And how often, when they are struggling in their trials,
How often do I wish and am I tempted to put my hand under their stomachs
In order to hold them up with my big hand
Just like a father teaching his son how to swim
In the current of the river
And who is divided between two ways of thinking.
For on the one hand, if he holds him up all the time and if he holds him up too much,
The child will depend on this and will never learn how to swim.
But if he doesn't hold him up just at the right moment
That child is bound to swallow more water than is healthy for him.
In the same way, when I teach them how to swim amid their trials
I too am divided by two ways of thinking.
Because if I am always holding them up, if I hold them up too often,
They will never learn how to swim by themselves.
But if I don't hold them up just at the right moment,
Perhaps those poor children will swallow more water than is healthy for them.
Such is the difficulty, and it is a great one.
And such is the doubleness itself, the two faces of the problem.
On the one hand, they must work out their salvation for themselves. That is the rule.
It allows of no exception. Otherwise it would not be interesting. They would not be men.
Now I want them to be manly, to be men, and to win by themselves
Their spurs of knighthood.
On the other hand, they must not swallow more water than is healthy for them,
Having made a dive into the ingratitude of sin.
Such is the mystery of man's freedom, says God,
And the mystery of my government towards him and towards his freedom.
If I hold him up too much, he is no longer free
And if I don't hold him up sufficiently, I am endangering his salvation.
Two goods in a sense almost equally precious.
For salvation is of infinite price.
But what kind of salvation would a salvation be that was not free?
What would you call it?
We want that salvation to be acquired by himself,
Himself, man. To be procured by himself.
To come, in a sense, from himself. Such is the secret,
Such is the mystery of man's freedom.
Such is the price we set on man's freedom.
Because I myself am free, says God, and I have created man in my own image and likeness.
Such is the mystery, such the secret, such the price
Of all freedom.
That freedom of that creature is the most beautiful reflection in this world
Of the Creator's freedom. That is why we are so attached to it,
And set a proper price on it.
A salvation that was not free, that was not, that did not come from a free man could in no wise be attractive to us. What would it amount to?
What would it mean?
What interest would such a salvation have to offer?
A beatitude of slaves, a salvation of slaves, a slavish beatitude, how do you expect me to be interested in that kind of thing? Does one care to be loved by slaves?
If it were only a matter of proving my might, my might has no need of those slaves, my might is well enough known, it is sufficiently known that I am the Almighty.
My might is manifest enough in all matter and in all events.
My might is manifest enough in the sands of the sea and in the stars of heaven.
It is not questioned, it is known, it is manifest enough in inanimate creation.
It is manifest enough in the government,
In the very event that is man.
But in my creation which is endued with life, says God, I wanted something better, I wanted something more.
Infinitely better. Infinitely more. For I wanted that freedom.
I created that very freedom. There are several degrees to my throne.
When you once have known what it is to be loved freely, submission no longer has any taste.
All the prostrations in the world
Are not worth the beautiful upright attitude of a free man as he kneels. All the submission, all the dejection in the world
Are not equal in value to the soaring up point,
The beautiful straight soaring up of one single invocation
From a love that is free.
 
S

Sniffles

Guest
From Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, the "Little Flower" of Jesus:

therese2.jpg


"To be without Jesus is a grevious hell, and to be with Jesus a sweet paradise."

"Be not afraid to tell Jesus that you love Him; even though it be without feeling, this is the way to oblige Him to help you, and carry you like a little child too feeble to walk."

"O my God, Thou knowest I have never desired but to love Thee alone. I seek no other glory. Thy Love has gone before me from my childhood, it has grown with my growth, and now it is an abyss the depths of which I cannot fathom."
 
S

Sniffles

Guest
"Christianity taught men that love is worth more than intelligence."
--Jacques Maritain
 
S

Sniffles

Guest
Moving words from the blessed St. Padre Pio.

ppiobeneuw1.jpg


"Do not worry over things that generate preoccupation, and anxiety. One thing only is necessary: to lift up your spirit and love God."

"Often place your confidence in Divine Providence and be assured that sooner Heaven and earth shall pass away than that the Lord neglect to protect you."

"My past, O Lord, to your mercy; my present, to your love; my future, to your Providence!"

"The most beautiful credo is that which come from your lips in darkness, in sacrifice, in pain, in the supreme effort of an unbending will for good. It is this which, like a stroke of lightning, penetrates the darkness of the soul; it is this which in the flash of the tempest lifts you and leads you to God."

"Bear in mind that the more the enemy (devil) assaults you, the closer God is to your soul. Think about, and penetrate this great and comforting truth."

"Continue to pray that God may console you when you feel that the weight of the Cross is becoming too burdensome. Acting thus you are not doing anything against the will of God, but are with the Son of God, who in the garden, asked his Father for some relief."

"Pray, hope and don't worry. Anxiety doesn't help at all. Our Merciful Lord will listen to your prayer."

"The gates of Heaven are open for all creatures.(who repent) Remember Mary Magdalene."

"The longer the trial to which God subjects you, the greater the goodness in comforting you during the time of the trial and in the exaltation after the combat."

"The pivot of perfection is love; he who lives in love lives in God, because God is love, as the Apostle says."

"To fail in charity is like wounding God in the apple of His eye. What is more delicate than the pupil of the eye? To fail in charity is like failing against nature."

"Try always to advance more in charity; enlarge your heart with confidence for the divine gifts which the Holy Spirit is anxious to pour into it."

"God can reject everything in a creature conceived in sin and of which it bears the indelible impression inherited from Adam. But He can absolutely not reject the sincere desire to love Him."
 
S

Sniffles

Guest
"We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount....The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants."
--General Omar Bradley
 

gokartride

New member
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
100
MBTI Type
INFJ
Let him who cannot be alone, beware the community...
Let him who is not in community, beware of being alone.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
 
S

Sniffles

Guest
One of my favorite hymns

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

From all that dwell below the skies;
Let the Creator’s praise arise!
Let the Redeemer’s name be sung;
Through every land by every tongue.

Eternal are Thy mercies Lord;
And Truth Eternal is Thy Word;
Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore;
Till suns shall rise and set no more.
 

heart

heart on fire
Joined
May 19, 2007
Messages
8,456
---"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
The soul that rises with us, our life’s star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home...”


William Wordsworth
 

clueless

Permabanned
Joined
May 22, 2008
Messages
92
"Christianity taught men that love is worth more than intelligence."
--Jacques Maritain

Let me tell you something Peguy - you don't know what love is, you only know what lust is and hey, man of a gazillion faces, if you knew what love was you wouldn't have to morph and play.
 
S

Sniffles

Guest
Let me tell you something Peguy - you don't know what love is, you only know what lust is and hey, man of a gazillion faces, if you knew what love was you wouldn't have to morph and play.

Take your business elsewhere troll!
 

Polgara

New member
Joined
Jul 15, 2008
Messages
2
MBTI Type
INTP
I saw Grief drinking a cup of sorrow and called out, “It tastes sweet!”

“You caught me!” Grief answers,

“and you’ve ruined my sorrow business.

How can I sell sorrow

when everyone knows

it’s a blessing?”

Rumi
 

dnivera

New member
Joined
May 4, 2008
Messages
165
MBTI Type
ISTJ
Enneagram
6w5
Instinctual Variant
sp
From a recent sermon I heard:

What is that we're searching for? The scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited. (CS Lewis)
The answer is, and always has been, Christ. We only need the ears to be able to hear.

Also, my favorite Science and Religion quote:
The most beautiful and most profound experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manfesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms - this is knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.

Albert Einstein
 

Edasich

Member
Joined
Dec 15, 2007
Messages
192
Enneagram
4w5
MONEY DIVINELY ACQUIRED

Money is the joy of the poor.
More money is the joy of the rich.

Joy is the money of the budding seeker.
More joy is the money of the blossomed seeker.

Money divinely acquired and used,
Joy divinely achieved and distributed
Can alone
Touch the very Heart
Of God.
 

StrawberryBoots

New member
Joined
Dec 29, 2016
Messages
407
The promise of God's presence limits how far down you can go. Sometimes, you may feel like you're out of control and free falling, or the things you counted on let you down. Instead of bemoaning your circumstances, you can look to God for help. Not only is He with you, He is holding you by your right hand. He guides you with His counsel.

(Zephaniah 3:17; Psalm 73:23-24)
 
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