Wise Quotes from the Past

(A dictated message written by a scribe:)

“He said that it was a great delusion to think that the

times of prayer ought to differ from other times; that we are

as strictly obliged to adhere to God by action in the time of

action as by prayer in the season of prayer. That his view of

prayer was nothing else but a sense of the Presence of God,

his soul being at that time insensible to everything but

Divine Love; and that when the appointed times of prayer were

past, he found no difference, because he still continued with

God, praising and blessing Him with all his might, so that he

passed his life in continual joy; yet hoped that God would

give him somewhat to suffer when he should have grown

stronger.”

 - dictated by Brother Lawrence (1605-1691) for transcription

“Those who complain that they make no progress in the life

of prayer because they "cannot meditate" should examine, not

their capacity for meditation, but their capacity for

suffering and love. For there is a hard and costly element, a

deep seriousness, a crucial choice, in all genuine religion.”

 - Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941)

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“For the first two or three years after my conversion, I

used to ask for specific things. Now I ask for God. Supposing

there is a tree full of fruits -— you will have to go and buy

or beg the fruits from the owner of the tree. Every day you

would have to go for one or two fruits. But if you can make

the tree your own property, then all the fruits will be your

own. In the same way, if God is your own, then all things in

Heaven and on earth will be your own, because He is your Father

and is everything to you; otherwise you will have to go and ask

like a beggar for certain things. When they are used up, you

will have to ask again. So ask not for gifts but for the Giver

of Gifts: not for life but for the Giver of Life -— then life and

the things needed for life will be added unto you.”

- Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929)

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Beautiful faces are they that wear

The light of a pleasant spirit there;

Beautiful hands are they that do

Deeds that are noble, good and true;

Beautiful feet are they that go

Swiftly to lighten another’s woe.

- McGuffey’s Second Reader