Category: Words of Wisdom

He who loves purity of heart and speaks gracefully is the king’s friend. – Proverbs 22:11, WEB-BE

“A clean heart is a free heart. A free heart can love Christ with an undivided love in chastity, convinced that nothing and nobody will separate it from his love. Purity, chastity, and virginity created a special beauty in Mary that attracted God’s attention.”- Mother Teresa

“Only the chaste man and the chaste woman are capable of true love.”-Pope John Paul II

“Purity prepares the soul for love, and love confirms the soul in purity.”-John Henry Cardinal Newman

“He alone loves the Creator perfectly who manifests a pure love for his neighbor.”- Saint Bede the Venerable

“Holy Purity, the queen of virtues, the angelic virtue, is a jewel so precious that those who possess it become like the angels of God in heaven, even though clothed in mortal flesh.”- Saint John Bosco

“A pure soul is like a fine pearl. As long as it is hidden in the shell, at the bottom of the sea, no one thinks of admiring it. But if you bring it into the sunshine, this pearl will shine and attract all eyes. Thus the pure soul, which is hidden from the eyes of the world, will one day shine before the Angels in the sunshine of eternity.”- Saint John Vianney

“Chastity is the lily of virtues, and makes men almost equal to Angels. Everything is beautiful in accordance with its purity. Now the purity of man is chastity, which is called honesty, and the observance of it, honor and also integrity; and its contrary is called corruption; in short, it has this peculiar excellence above the other virtues, that it preserves both soul and body fair and unspotted.”- Saint Francis de Sales

“The state of grace is nothing other than purity, and it gives heaven to those who clothe themselves in it. Holiness, therefore, is simply the state of grace purified, illuminated, beautified by the most perfect purity, exempt not only from mortal sin but also from the smallest faults; purity will make saints of you! Everything lies in this!”- Saint Peter Julian Eymard

“Chastity, or cleanness of heart, holds a glorious and distinguished place among the virtues, because she, alone, enables man to see God; hence Truth itself said, ‘Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.’”- Saint Augustine

God desires from you the least degree of purity of conscience more than all the works you can perform.-St. John of the Cross

“Deep within yourself, listen to your conscience which calls you to be pure . . . a home is not warmed by the fire of pleasure which burns quickly like a pile of withered grass. Passing encounters are only a caricature of love; they injure hearts and mock God’s plan.”-Pope John Paul II

“Many live like angels in the middle of the world. You, … why not you?”-St. Josemaria Escriva

“Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure.” – 1 John 3:3, WEB

It was not to the wise nor to the strong that Jesus promised the heavenly vision. It was to the PURE that Jesus spoke of when He said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

Why purity? Is it not possible to remain corrupted in some way and still see God? Is it not possible to be impure somewhat and still love?

We know from experience how it is like to be betrayed. We know how to be hurt by those whom we love. By those who reserve some parts of their hearts for their own selfish ends. By those who express their love for us one day and then withdraw it from us the next day.

Unless love be pure, it could never be sincere. Unless love be pure, it could never be given in full.

We are afraid that heaven is a bribe, and that if we make it our goal we shall no longer be disinterested. It is not so. Heaven offers nothing that a mercenary soul can desire. It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to. – C. S. Lewis

“And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” – John 13:34, GNT

I do believe that if we really learn to love another person truly, we would eventually learn also to love God. Why do I think so? Because when we learn to love another person with all sincerity, we begin to do all we can for their sake. We try our best not to hurt them. We give them everything in our power to make them happy. And if we remain honest with ourselves, we find out that the only way to do all these is to seek God’s help. By ourselves alone, we hurt the ones we love most. Left to our own powers, we can’t shield them from every want or pain.

We may see ourselves as good people. We may even consider ourselves as loving and kind. But are we kind enough? Is our love always far from our own selfishness and insecurities? If we truly love another, we can only find true hope and assurance if we can entrust them in God’s loving, all powerful and merciful hands. We can only avoid hurting them if we allow God to heal us from our own pain, if we let Him change us more into His own likeness.

Only with God’s love in me can I love you unselfishly and unafraid. Only with God’s love can I love you with a love that you deserve, a love that can truly make you happy!

“There are times when the burden of need and our own limitations might tempt us to become discouraged. But precisely then we are helped by the knowledge that, in the end, we are only instruments in the Lord’s hands; and this knowledge frees us from the presumption of thinking that we alone are personally responsible for building a better world. In all humility we will do what we can, and in all humility we will entrust the rest to the Lord.”- Pope Benedict XVI, God Is Love

“Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” – Luke 23:34, WEB-BE

Sometimes, people are not really as bad as they seem to be. That is why we should give a little more room to doubt rather than judgment, and to forgiveness rather than hate.

It’s not always easy to understand where people are coming from. We can try our very best to guess, but that doesn’t mean we’d be a hundred percent correct.

We may see people acting in annoying ways today and then see them doing kindly deeds tomorrow. We may hear people saying hurtful words today and then see them encouraging others sometime soon.

We can easily get discouraged if we judge people just by what we see and know about them today. But there is hope when we remember that every human being has been created in the very image of God. Somehow, this hope can lead us to believe in the goodness that can still remain in one’s soul. Somehow, we can humble ourselves in not knowing whether the people we find so sinful today will be the heroic saints of tomorrow, praying for us and guiding us when we ourselves have lost our way.

“For myself, I find I become less cynical rather than more–remembering my own sins and follies; and realize that men’s hearts are not often as bad as their acts, and very seldom as bad as their words.” – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

“Love cannot be love if it doesn’t get angry with evil. God cannot be truly merciful if He cannot be just.” – Jocelyn Soriano

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the Word of God, and for the testimony of the Lamb which they had. They cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” – Revelations 6:9-10, WEB-B=E

We should never presume so quickly that our anger is just, for we often get angry for all the wrong reasons. We are also prone to exaggerating both the wrongs done to us and the punishment that our transgressors deserve.

But there is an anger that is just, an anger that seeks for God’s mercy and for God’s vengeance. There is an anger that is lit by a true thirst for justice and for virtue. There is such an anger that is almost like a prayer. It ascends towards heaven and reaches the ears of God.

“You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child. If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry; and my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.

“If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be to him as a creditor. You shall not charge him interest. If you take your neighbour’s garment as collateral, you shall restore it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. What would he sleep in? It will happen, when he cries to me, that I will hear, for I am gracious.

-Exodus 22:22-27, WEB-BE

God of my praise, don’t remain silent,
for they have opened the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of deceit against me.
They have spoken to me with a lying tongue.
They have also surrounded me with words of hatred,
and fought against me without a cause.
In return for my love, they are my adversaries;
but I am in prayer.
They have rewarded me evil for good,
and hatred for my love.
Set a wicked man over him.
Let an adversary stand at his right hand.
When he is judged, let him come out guilty.
Let his prayer be turned into sin.
…
because he didn’t remember to show kindness,
but persecuted the poor and needy man,
the broken in heart, to kill them.
-Psalm 109:1-7,16 WEB-BE