Vincent de Paul Quotes - Page 4

I have made to God the offering you made to me of your heart and have asked him to unite mine with yours in that of Our Lord.

Do not be afraid of undertaking too much of what you can do without coming and going; but fear only the thought of doing more than you are doing and more than God is giving you the means to do.

Remember the maxim of the Romans which states that by union and counsel we can achieve anything.

That's what our Rules engage us to do, to help poor persons, our lords and masters.

I have never come away from you without reflecting that the Spirit of God and His holy workings reside in you.

...a great good is worth being long desired.

Your soul will be blessed, Sister, if you bear patiently the troubles of mind and body His Providence sends you, or which come to you from within and without.

I beg Our Lord, Monsieur, that we may be able to die to ourselves in order to rise with Him, that he may be the joy of your heart, the end and soul of your actions, and your glory in heaven. This will come to pass if, from now on, we humble ourselves as He humbled Himself, if we renounce our own satisfaction to follow Him by carrying our little crosses, and if we give our lives willingly, as He gave His, for our neighbor whom He loves so much and whom He wants us to love as ourselves.

We must be firm but not rough in our guidance and avoid an insipid kind of meekness, which is ineffective.

God has great plans for you, directed towards helping you do what Jesus Christ did when He was on earth. This requires you do resist temptation vigorously, with special confidence in the assistance of His Divine Goodness. Courage then, Monsieur. Be faithful to Him, and the Divine Goodness will be favorable to you.

Remember, Monsieur, that the downfall of most Communities comes from the cowardice of Superiors in not holding firm and in not purging them of the troublesome and incorrigible.

The wisest persons, surprised by some passion, often say things they later regret.

It is not easy to find perfect men in whom there is nothing to criticize.

[P]resent misfortune presupposes good luck in the future.

[M]ost people offend God by passing judgment on the things others do, especially important people, not knowing the reasons why they are doing what they do; for when one does not know the primary cause of some matter, what conclusions can he draw from it?

[I]n order to raise a soul to the highest perfection, He allows it to pass through dryness, brambles, and combats, causing it thereby to honor the times of weariness in the life of His Son, Our Lord, who suffered various kinds of anguish and abandonment.

The children of our Lord walk gladly in his ways; they have confidence in him, and so when they fall, they rise again; and if, instead of stopping to grumble about the stone they have tripped over, they humble themselves at their fall, this helps them to advance with great strides in his love.

Divine Providence is never wanting in things undertaken at Its command. Even though the whole world should rise up and destroy us, nothing could happen but what is pleasing to God. The less there is of man in affairs, the more there is of God.

Our Lord and the saints accomplished more by suffering than by acting.

Let us reflect that we shall always do God's Will and He will do ours when we carry out that of our Superiors.

[I]t is the maxim of the saints that when a matter has been decided in the presence of God after many prayers and the seeking of advice, we must reject and consider as a temptation whatever is suggested to the contrary.

Far from rejecting such a good man as you, He never even abandons a wicked man who hopes for His mercy.

. . . [T]hose persons who console you today may humiliate you tomorrow.

Use gentle methods to get whatever good you can from priests and monks who are slaves, as well as from merchants and captives. Resort to severe measures only in extreme cases, for fear lest the hardship they are already enduring in their state of captivity, joined to the strictness you might want to exercise in virtue of your authority, drive them to despair. . . . It is not light they need, but strength, and strength permeates through the external balm of words and good example.

Things arrange themselves with time. Only God can have everything to His liking; His servants should act as Our Lord did.