Book detail: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653 is presented as a focused source page for quotations connected with this book, collection, transcript, or source record.
The book is a compilation of historical documents, including letters, discussions, and records from the specified time period. It provides a detailed look into the political, social, and cultural context of the era, offering readers a glimpse into the events and conversations that shaped the period.
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“Put your trust in Him and following His example, always act humbly, graciously, and in good faith.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“Let us do our duty well; let us go straight to God; let us work to become very humble, very patient, very mortified, and very charitable.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“If your men grow weary of the work or balk at obedience, you must bear with them. Get what you can gently from them. True, it is good to be firm in attaining your goal, but use appropriate, attractive, and agreeable means.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“[M]ay you be more advanced in the school of solid virtue, which is practiced in an excellent way in the midst of suffering, and which keeps good servants of God in fear when they have nothing to suffer!”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“I can understand that the man you told me about has offended you, and I am very annoyed that he forgot himself like that. However, you must not consider what he did as coming from him but rather as a trial which God wishes to make of your patience. This virtue will be even more a virtue in you who are more sensitive by nature and have given less cause for the offense that you have received.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“Even convicts, with whom I have spent some time, are not won over in any other way. Whenever I happened to speak sharply to them, I spoiled everything; on the contrary, when I praised them for their resignation and sympathized with them in their sufferings; when I told them they were fortunate to have their purgatory in this world, when I kissed their chains, showed compassion for their distress, and expressed sorrow for their misfortune, it was then that they listened to me, gave glory to God, and opened themselves to salvation.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“. . . . [P]ersons who love very much, easily take offense at trifles. No doubt your excessive affection for me makes you a little diffident about mine. But there is no harm done; I hope you will soon be over this slight jealousy and be convinced that nothing can change the genuine affection Our Lord has given me for you”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“We must be full reservoirs in order to let our water spill out without becoming empty, and we must possess the spirit with which we want them to be animated, for no one can give what he does not have.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“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.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“Rarely is any good done without difficulty; the devil is too subtle and the world too corrupt not to attempt to nip such a good work in the bud”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“God has seen fit that, since our services are useful to many persons, everyone approves them, but only when they are carried out in the spirit of Our Lord.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“In this way, through experience they will be formed adequately, will be encouraged, and will be capable of rendering service to God.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“Be acted upon rather than active. In this way, God will do through you alone what all men put together could not do without Him.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“To this end, we should help and support one another and strive for peace and union among ourselves. This is the wine that cheers and strengthens travelers along the narrow path of Jesus Christ.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“Oh! how happy the man of means who uses his wealth and his life for the greater glory of God, from whom he has received them!”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“In the name of God, Monsieur, let us have greater confidence in Him than we do; let us allow Him to steer our little bark; if it is useful and pleasing to Him, He will save it from shipwreck.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“If we want to find the manna hidden in our vocation, let us restrict and confine all our desires within it.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“If you do not see any good in these persons, then say nothing, but if you do see some, speak about it to honor God in them because all good proceeds from Him.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“Three can do more than ten when Our Lord puts His hand to things, and He always does so when He takes away the means of doing otherwise.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“I have never made any distinction between those who have taken vows and those who have not; some should not be overburdened in order to spare others.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“Good works are often spoiled by moving too quickly. . . . The good which God desires is accomplished almost by itself, without our even thinking of it.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“. . . [R]estlessness usually stems from pride and from being discontented with one's lot in life.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“And what are we doing if we are not doing God's Will?”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“If you no longer have any income, you will not be neglected-you will not starve to death. . . . We panic at first, but God does not always allow the evil that is feared to happen.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“If we divested ourselves, once and for all, of all self-will, we would then be in a position of being sure of doing the Will of God, in which the angels find all their delight and men all their happiness.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“You know that you yourself are not always in the same state. If you are exact today, closely united to God, and a consolation to the whole house, tomorrow you will be out of sorts, indolent, and a source of affliction to others. Then you will need their support, as you have supported them.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“I thank God for having given the Company subjects who belong more to Him than to themselves, and who serve the neighbor at the risk of their lives! They are like unrefined gold, which becomes visible in fire and which would otherwise remain hidden under ordinary actions and sometimes under faults and failings.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“We are still tossed about by the disturbances of this life, which is like a stormy sea, where those who are not attached to J[esus] C[hrist] and the duties of their state, as was our dear departed, are shipwrecked.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“[E]ven if the whole world should rise up to destroy us, nothing will happen except that God, in whom we have put our hope, will allow.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“It is a good sign when He burdens us with [crosses] and we carry them well, but woe to the person who runs away from them, for he will find such heavy ones that they will overwhelm him.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“It will be most pleasing to O[ur] L[ord] if you husband your strength in order to serve Him better.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“I see that you are not sure of what you should do. You must remain steadfast, Monsieur. It would be a great wrong for you to leave and an irreparable scandal to the town and the Company. If you were to abandon the house, I do not think people would ever be willing to welcome us back. Fear not; calm will follow the storm, and perhaps soon.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“But the blessed Bishop of Geneva taught his nuns another kind of prayer, which even the sick can make: to remain peacefully in the presence of God, manifesting our needs to Him with no other mental effort, like a poor person who uncovers his sores and by this means is more effective in inciting passers-by to do him some good than if he wore himself out trying to convince them of his need.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“So, we pray well when we remain in this way in the presence of God, with no exertion of the understanding or will. Therefore, you will do well to listen to God in the urge you feel to return to us.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“Foresight is good when it is subject to the latter, but it becomes excessive when we are in a hurry to avoid something we fear. We rely more on our own efforts than on those of his Providence, and we think we are doing a great deal by anticipating His orders by our own disorder, which causes us to rely on human prudence rather than on his Word.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“It is not light they need but strength, and strength permeates through the external balm of words and good example.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“Cast from your heart the bitterness.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“Fear not; calm will follow the storm, and perhaps soon.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“...a great good is worth being long desired.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“A doctor who keeps a person from becoming ill deserves more merit than one who cures him.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“There is nothing good that does not meet with opposition, and it should not be valued any less because it encounters objections.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“Since you know the means of getting better, in the name of God, make use of them. Do not take on anything beyond your strength, do not be anxious, do not take things too much to heart, go gently, do not work too long or too hard.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“People are made in such a way that even the holiest ones are liable to offend one another.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“Nevertheless, when one is ill, one should be submissive to the doctor and obey him.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“Far from being a bad thing to seek advice, you must, on the contrary, do so when the matter is of any importance, or when we cannot come to a clear decision on our own.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“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.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“Peace is never so complete that we may not have something to suffer. . . . Since it is impossible to please all of [those you serve], they offer you the occasion for practices which increase your merit in the measure that you make them meritorious by your patience.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“. . . [T]hose persons who console you today may humiliate you tomorrow.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“Laws must never be made compatible with crimes, no more than lying should be in harmony with the truth.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653
“Man's condition is never the same; he is humbled, then exalted; sometimes at peace, sometimes persecuted; enlightened today and plunged into darkness tomorrow. What is to be done? As I said, let us be prepared for whatever may happen.”
Source: Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653