Where Your Treasure Is, There your heart will Be
One treasure worth collecting is words that turn your heart into a home for God. Start watching out for words in the Bible, in sermons, in writings of the saints, or from the people in your life. Remember the ones that speak to you and keep them in your heart.
From a sermon by Saint Leo the Great:
There is no doubt that the Son of God took our human nature into so close a union with himself that one and the same Christ is present, not only in the firstborn of all creation, but in all his saints as well. The head cannot be separated from the members, nor the members from the head. Not in this life, it is true, but only in eternity will God be all in all, yet even now he dwells, whole and undivided, in his temple the Church. Such was his promise to us when he said: See, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.
From a conference to her spiritual daughters by St. Elizabeth Ann Seton:
What are our real trials? By what name shall we call them? One cuts herself out a cross of pride; another, one of causeless discontent; another, one of restless impatience or peevish fretfulness. But is the whole any better than children’s play if looked at with the common eye of faith? Yet we know certainly that our God calls us to a holy life, that he gives us every grace, every abundant grace; and though we are so weak of ourselves, this grace is able to carry us through every obstacle and difficulty.
From a work by St. Anthony Mary Claret:
The love of Christ arouses us, urges us to run, and to fly, lifted on the wings of holy zeal. The man who truly loves God also loves his neighbor. The truly zealous man is also one who loves, but he stands on a higher plane of love so that the more he is inflamed by love, the more urgently zeal drives him on. But if anyone lacks this zeal, then it is evident that love and charity have been extinguished in his heart. The zealous man desires and achieves all great things and he labors strenuously so that God may always be better known, loved and served in this world and in the life to come, for this holy love is without end.
Because he is concerned also for his neighbor, the man of zeal works to fulfill his desire that all men be content on this earth and happy and blessed in their heavenly homeland, that all may be saved, and that no one may perish for ever, or offend God, or remain even for a moment in sin. Such are the concerns we observe in the holy apostles and in all who are driven by the apostolic spirit.
A quote from St. Manuel González García:
Abandonment (leaving Jesus alone) is the evil of those who know that Jesus has eyes yet will not allow him to look at them. They know that he has ears, yet do not talk to him. They know Jesus has hands and they do not go to him to receive his gifts. They know that he has a Heart with a burning love for them and they do not love him or try to please him!
From a sermon by Saint Augustine for July 29th, the feast day of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus:
Thus was the Lord received as a guest who came unto his own and his own received him not; but as many as received him, he gave them the power to become sons of God, adopting those who were servants and making them his brothers, ransoming the captives and making them his co-heirs. No one of you should say: “Blessed are they who have deserved to receive Christ into their homes!” Do not grieve or complain that you were born in a time when you can no longer see God in the flesh. He did not in fact take this privilege from you. As he says: Whatever you have done to the least of my brothers, you did to me.
A quote from Narciso Irala, S.J.:
Happiness is not found, but made. It does not depend on what you do not have, but on the use you make of what you do have. It is not something far from yourself but the most intimate part of your being. It is the consciousness of a good, and the greater and more lasting this is, the greater will be your happiness.
From a homily by St. John Chrysostom:
Prayer stands before God as an honored ambassador. It gives joy to the spirit, peace to the heart. I speak of prayer, not words. It is the longing for God, love too deep for words, a gift not given by man but by God’s grace. The apostle Paul says: We do not know how we are to pray but the Spirit himself pleads for us with inexpressible longings.
When the Lord gives this kind of prayer to a man, he gives him riches that cannot be taken away, heavenly food that satisfies the spirit. One who tastes this food is set on fire with an eternal longing for the Lord: his spirit burns as in a fire of utmost intensity.
Practice prayer from the beginning. Paint your house with the colors of modesty and humility. Make it radiant with the light of justice. Decorate it with the finest gold leaf of good deeds. Adorn it with the walls and stones of faith and generosity. Crown it with the pinnacle of prayer. In this way you will make it a perfect dwelling place for the Lord. You will be able to receive him as in a splendid palace, and through his grace you will already possess him, his image enthroned in the temple of your spirit.
From a sermon by St. Augustine:
What man knows all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ, concealed in the poverty of his flesh? Scripture says: Although he was rich he became poor for our sake to enrich us by his poverty. He showed himself poor when he assumed our mortal nature and destroyed death, yet he promised us riches, for he had not been robbed of his wealth but was keeping it in reserve.
How great are the blessings of his goodness which he reserves for those who fear him and shows to those who hope in him! Until he gives them to us in their plenitude, we can have only the faintest conception of them; but to enable us to receive these blessings, he who in his divine nature is the equal of the Father assumed the condition of a slave and became like us, and so restored to us our likeness to God. The only Son of God became a son of man to make many men sons of God. He instructed slaves by showing himself in the form of a slave, and now he enables free men to see him in the form of God.
For we are the sons of God, and although what we shall be has not yet been revealed, we know that when he appears we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. For what are those treasures of wisdom and knowledge, what those divine riches, if not the one thing that can fulfill our longing? What are the great blessings of his goodness, if not the one thing that will content us? Therefore: Show us the Father, and all our desires will be satisfied.
The beginning of the first letter of St. John:
What was from the beginning,
what we have heard,
what we have seen with our eyes,
what we looked upon
and touched with our hands
concerns the Word of life —
for the life was made visible;
we have seen it and testify to it
and proclaim to you the eternal life
that was with the Father and was made visible to us—
what we have seen and heard
we proclaim now to you,
so that you too may have fellowship with us;
for our fellowship is with the Father
and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
We are writing this so that our joy may be complete.
A quote by Wilfrid Stinissen, OCD:
In the Eucharist, we become liberated from our deepest loneliness. When I receive the Eucharist, Jesus’ suffering and death become a suffering and death for me. God’s love becomes a love for me. I become a part of the Body of Christ. I can say “you are mine” to him. And by the fact that everyone who receives the Eucharist can say the same thing, we all become members. We enter into a new world where we share everything with each other.
There can never be a reason for rivalry or envy any longer, since we have become communicating vessels in the Body of Christ. If I am envious of another because he or she has received more than I have, it proves that I have not understood anything of the new physics that reigns in the Eucharistic world. The name of this new physics is communio: no one receives anything only for himself; everyone has everything in common. What you have is also mine; what I have is also yours. Envy is replaced by joy and gratitude.
See more quotes here!