Daily Inspiration- 365 Quotes From Saints

by Wyatt North

  “Most emphatically I say it, if possible, fall out with no one, and on no pretext whatever suffer your heart to admit anger and passion. Saint James says, plainly and unreservedly, that ‘the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.’”

  – St. Francis de Sales

  Bishop Francis remained in a guest house on the grounds of the Visitation convent in Lyon during the last month of his life in 1622. One of the sisters, aware of his rapidly declining health, begged him to pray for healing, but he refused. He assured her that Mother de Chantal and his good friend, Vincent de Paul, the Visitation order’s new spiritual director, would be doing enough praying for him. As frail as he was, he preached and counseled the sisters though a busy Christmas season. He suffered a stroke on the day after Christmas, slipped in and out of consciousness, and on the Feast of Holy Innocents, December 28, he succumbed. The last word he spoke was “Jesus.”

  “Obedience is a virtue of so excellent a nature, that Our Lord was pleased to mark its observance upon the whole course of His life; thus He often says, He did not come to do His Own will, but that of His Heavenly Father.”

  – St. Francis de Sales

  St. Francis de Sales was beatified in 1661, canonized in 1665, and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1877. His heart is enshrined in the church of the Visitation in Lyon, France, where he died. His body was originally entombed near the high altar of the church of the first convent of the Visitation in Annecy but was removed during the French Revolution to prevent its desecration. It lies there again today in the Basilica of the Visitation in Annecy, France, next to the casket holding the remains of his dear friend, St. Jane de Chantal. The Basilica, built in the 1930s, features stained glass windows depicting events in the lives of both St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane de Chantal.

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  “I will attempt day by day to break my will into pieces. I want to do God’s Holy Will, not my own.”

  – St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows (St. Gabriel Possenti)

  Francis Possenti, born in Italy in 1838, was the eleventh of thirteen children. Two siblings and his mother died by the time he was four, and he would lose two more brothers by the time he was thirteen. Though Francis was known to be pious and charitable, he was also vain, short-tempered, and a ladies’ man deeply involved in the social scene. Twice he narrowly escaped death, first from illness and then from a stray bullet. Each time he promised to enter religious life if he recovered, and each time he failed to keep his promise. The third time he made this promise, he recovered and actually made plans to join the Jesuits but didn’t follow through. The end of a cholera epidemic that took the life of another sibling was marked by a procession of the icon of the Virgin Mary. As it passed him, he heard an inner voice asking why he was still alive. He entered the Passionist novitiate in Morrovalle in 1856, took the name Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, and excelled in his studies. He soon started showing symptoms of tuberculosis but kept up his studies and spiritual formation, saying that he welcomed a slow death so he would have time to prepare spiritually. He was admired by his community for his devotion to the Virgin Mary. Gabriel died in 1862, before he could be ordained, and was canonized in 1920.

  “If you really want to love Jesus, first learn to suffer, because suffering teaches you to love.”

  – St. Gemma Galgani

  Through much of her brief life, Gemma Galgani, born in Italy in 1878, had mystical experiences including a remarkable relationship with her guardian angel. After her death, her spiritual director and biographer, Father Germano, would write, “Gemma saw her guardian angel with her own eyes, touched him with her hand, as if he were a being of this world, and would talk to him as would one friend to another.” He appeared to her hovering in the air, with wings outstretched, and would also kneel with her in prayer. When she was ill, she saw him standing beside her bed, blessing her. He guided her in spiritual matters, corrected her behavior, and taught her how to act in the presence of God. She also sent him on “errands,” carrying a question or request to Heaven for her, and he would return to her with a response. Gemma’s guardian angel also delivered letters she wrote to her confessor, which she would leave beneath a shrine in the house where she was living because she had no money for postage and never knew where to find Father Germano on his travels. The unstamped letters unfailingly appeared wherever Father Germano was.

  “Just as thoughts send out vibrations to which there is a creative and attractive power, gratitude stimulates the field of etheric energy that surrounds you on a subtle level to bring into your life more of what brings you joy.”

  – St. Genevieve

  The exact date of St. Genevieve’s birth is not known, but she is believed to have been in her late eighties when she died in Paris, France in 512. When St. Germain and St. Lupus were traveling through France on a mission to combat heresy, they stopped briefly in the village of Nanterres, just outside of Paris. St. Germain saw a little girl in the crowd that gathered around the travelers and instantly recognized her as having been chosen by God to carry out an important mission. He called the girl and her parents forward and told them that she would be an example that would inspire many to convert, and he asked Genevieve if she would remain pure and consecrate herself to Christ as His spouse. She said that was her greatest desire and asked for St. Germain’s blessing, which he bestowed, along with a brass medal engraved with a cross. He told her to wear the medal always as a sign of her consecration to God and her devotion to Christ, and she did so for the remainder of her life.

  “Focusing upon the positive by counting your blessings, or using positive affirmations in the fertile time before you fall asleep is an invitation to both your subconscious mind and your pre-conscious mind to use your dreams as a way to show you insights, solutions and new creative ideas.”

  – St. Genevieve

  Having saved Paris on several occasions, St. Genevieve is the city’s patron and protector. With the intervention of St. Germain, Genevieve convinced the citizens of Paris that the city would be spared the wrath of Attila the Hun and his hordes during their campaign to conquer Gaul, and when they were, she was acclaimed as the savior of Paris. A little more than 30 years later, when Paris was blockaded and under siege by Childeric, king of a Germanic tribe, Genevieve once again came to the aid of the starving population. She led an expedition of small boats that slipped past the blockade and back again with supplies gathered from neighboring villages. When the siege was over, Childeric, impressed by Genevieve’s courage, granted her request to free the prisoners he was holding. After her death, Genevieve miraculously ended the epidemic that was sickening and killing people throughout France. The Bishop of Paris ordered her casket to be carried through the streets of the city, and according to reports of the day, thousands who saw or touched it were cured.

  “Who except God can give you peace? Has the world ever been able to satisfy the heart?”

  – St. Gerard Majella

  Born into poverty in Muro, Italy in 1726, Gerard Majella trained as a sewing apprentice and became a servant in the household of the local bishop. He gave his earnings to his widowed mother, to the poor of Muro, and as offerings to the Church. He fasted for long periods and became so pale and thin that he was turned down twice by the Capuchin monastery because of poor health. At age 23 he joined the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer and became a professed lay brother. He died six years later and was canonized in 1904 by Pope St. Pius X for the miracles attributed to him.

  “The Most Blessed Sacrament is Christ made visible. The poor sick person is Christ again made visible.”

  – St. Gerard Majella

  St. Gerard Majella had the mystic abilities of levitation, bilocation, and reading souls. He performed several miracles during his lifetime. He cured with the sign of the cross a child who had fallen into boiling water and restored life to a boy who had fallen from a cliff. He got rid of the mice infesting a farmer’s crop and caused a poor family’s scant supply of wheat to last until th
e next harvest through simple blessings, and on several occasions, he caused bread to multiply for poor people. Shortly before his death in 1755 he performed the miracle for which he became the patron saint of pregnancy. Years earlier, he had dropped his handkerchief, which a young girl picked up and tried to return to him. He told her to keep it, telling her that she might need it someday. As a married woman, she went into labor prematurely and was in danger of losing the baby. When Gerard’s handkerchief was applied to her body while prayers were said, her pains stopped, and she gave birth to a healthy baby.

  O Sacred Heart of Jesus, fountain of eternal life, Your Heart is a glowing furnace of Love. You are my refuge and my sanctuary.

  – St. Gertrude the Great

  Gertrude was born in Germany in 1256 and is believed to have entered the Cistercian monastery school of Helfta in Saxony at the age of four, though the circumstances surrounding such an early enrollment are unknown. As a Benedictine nun, at the age of 25, Gertrude began having visions and would continue having them until the day she died. She regarded her first vision as a rebirth that changed her life forever, describing her former self as a “blind and insane woman.” Gertrude is remembered as one of the great mystics of the 13th century. Hers was a form of nuptial mysticism, as she saw herself as the bride of Christ. She once had a vision in which she rested her head near the wound in Jesus’ side and was able to hear his beating heart. Gertrude wrote prolifically, though many of her works have been lost. The second of the five books of The Herald of Divine Love includes her descriptions of her visions. Gertrude died in 1301 at the age of 46. She was never formally canonized but was declared a saint in 1677 by Pope Clement XII because of her veneration by her community.

  “Affliction strengthens the vigor of our soul, whereas happiness weakens it.”

  – Pope St. Gregory the Great

  Pope St. Gregory the Great never aspired to the papacy. In fact, he wanted nothing more than a monastic life, but he felt that he had no choice but to serve God in whatever capacity he was called to. He was born around 540 into a Rome that was but a vestige of the once powerful Western Roman Empire. Wealthy, aristocratic families still wielded great influence, however, and Gregory’s father, Gordianus, was a senator and Prefect of Rome, until he retired and entered religious life. When he was 33, Gregory would also become Prefect of Rome, but after his father’s death he converted the family’s Roman villa into a monastery dedicated to St. Andrew and became a Benedictine monk in 574. He subsequently established six more monasteries on estates his family owned in Sicily.

  “There are in truth three states of the converted: the beginning, the middle, and the perfection. In the beginning, they experience the charms of sweetness; in the middle, the contests of temptation; and in the end, the fullness of perfection.”

  – Pope St. Gregory the Great

  Gregory counted his first three years of monastic life as the happiest period of his life, but it was also a life of rigorous discipline. He fasted for days at a time and deprived himself of sleep, and he expected the same austerity of his fellow monks. Upon returning to the monastery after a six-year absence, he was displeased to see that the monks had become worldlier and seemed have relaxed in ways that diminished the holiness of St. Andrew’s. After a deathbed confession by one of the monks, Brother Justus, revealed that he had stolen three gold coins, Gregory ordered everyone to leave the man to die alone. He then ordered the monk’s body and the three coins to be thrown onto the dung heap. Taking mercy on the man’s soul, Gregory offered 30 masses for the confessed thief.

  “The greatness of contemplation can be given to none but those who love.”

  – Pope St. Gregory the Great

  During Gregory’s time, Rome was threatened by the Germanic Lombards who practiced Arian Christianity. The Roman senate was nearly defunct, civil authority rested with the Byzantine emperor, and waves of deadly plagues and famine decimated the population. These were only some of the challenges facing Rome. Gregory wrote extensively of the depravities of the Lombards and the suffering they inflicted on the population of Rome. It was Gregory’s desire to protect the people of Rome that led him to accept the Prefecture when what he craved was a life of quiet monasticism. Pope Pelagius II sent Gregory, as Prefect of Rome, to serve as permanent ambassador to the imperial court in Constantinople and ordered him to seek military assistance to defend Rome against the Lombards, but the request was denied. During the six years he spent in Constantinople, Gregory gained an understanding of the political situation in the East that would be of great value during his papacy.

  “The only true riches are those that make us rich in virtue. Therefore, if you want to be rich, beloved, love true riches. If you aspire to the heights of real honor, strive to reach the kingdom of Heaven. If you value rank and renown, hasten to be enrolled in the heavenly court of the Angels.”

  – Pope St. Gregory the Great

  Gregory was in the Roman Forum one day when a group of English slaves were being sold. When told that the tall, blond youths were Angles, he became determined that they should know God’s grace. He bought them all and brought them to the monastery to be educated in the Catholic faith and baptized. In the process, he decided to seek permission from Pope Pelagius II to travel with some of his monks to England to convert the English people. Though he was granted permission, the people of Rome were so upset about him leaving that they demanded his recall. Three days after Gregory’s party set off for England, papal messengers caught up with them and bore Gregory back to Rome in triumph, to the delight of the people of Rome. Later, as pope, Gregory sent forty monks from St. Andrew’s, led by the Italian prior Augustine, to preach Catholicism to the English. Their success resulted in the canonization of Augustine of Canterbury and earned Gregory the title of Apostle to the English.

  “To do penance is to bewail the evil we have done, and to do no evil to bewail.”

  – Pope St. Gregory the Great

  When Pope Pelagius II was felled by plague during an epidemic that left bodies piled up in the streets of Rome, the people of Rome elected Gregory to succeed him. The prospect of leaving the monastery dismayed him, and he wrote to his friend, St. Leander, of his reluctance to assume the papacy: “The burden of this honor weighs me down.” He wrote to Emperor Maurice asking him to void the election, but the letter was intercepted by the Roman Prefect who replaced it with his own letter begging the emperor to confirm the election without delay. In the interim, Gregory preached a sermon asking the people to gather together in a procession from each of the regions of Rome to the Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary, praying all the way for God to end the plague that was decimating the city. Eighty of the marchers fell dead of the plague before reaching the basilica.

  “The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist.”

  – St. Gregory the Great

  Gregory was the first monk to become pope, and he managed to retain his monastic spirit for the remainder of his life while providing both civil and religious leadership. During the 14 years of his pontificate, he was a zealous guardian of Catholic doctrine and made significant changes to the Mass. But he also saw to the practical needs of the people of Rome, many of whom were refugees forced to flee the advancing Lombards. With the Roman economy in ruins, Gregory set up a system of charitable relief for the poor and fed the hungry from his family’s remaining estates in Sicily and from the vast land holdings of the Church. The wealthy families of Rome followed his example and donated generously in expiation of their sins. Beloved by the people, Gregory was canonized immediately by popular acclamation upon his death in 604 at the age of 64. He was later named a Doctor of the Church and one of the Latin Fathers.

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  To imitate our Lord’s own humility, we must return to the simplicity of God’s little ones.”