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Overview
THE WISDOM OF THE SAINTS
“There is more value in a little study of humility and in a single act of it than in all the knowledge of the world.”
—Saint Teresa of Avila
The saints’ lives represent the divine will on earth, and their words offer hope when we are uncertain, security when we feel unsafe, and wisdom when we need it most. Here on these pages is a treasury of inspirational guidance on such diverse subjects as work, love, money, fear, indecision, peace, freedom, compassion, politics, health, and more. Drawn from the traditions of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism, The Wisdom of the Saints offers enlightenment that transcends all boundaries—hope that speaks to all of us, no matter what faith we follow.
“The most deadly poison of our times is indifference.” –Saint Maximilian Kolbe
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780806540047 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Kensington |
| Publication date: | 07/31/2018 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 192 |
| File size: | 300 KB |
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Section One
FREEDOM
The word freedom has powerful connotations. We see freedom as our birthright, a way to behave without inhibition. To the spiritually minded in almost every discipline, freedom is also our inherent nature, but because we are mortal, we are separate from the true experience of being free. To regain freedom, we must spend time with God.
Concerning jealous folk, however, whom you have endured till now as accusers and plotters, I tell you what you already know: that vice always envies virtue. If you want to be free of the persecution of jealousy, therefore, either find a place where you can hide concealed from wicked people, or renounce virtues. But you will do neither of these, because one is impossible and the other detestable. All that remains for you is, armed with the arms of justice at the right and at the left, to pass over with the Apostle through glory and dishonor, through disgrace and good reputation; and whatever these folk plot, direct your thoughts never to them but with a strong calm mind to your own steps.
— Saint Anselm of Canterbury
When I hear your words, I am both full and hungry; full, because nothing delights me except your words; hungry, because the more I hear them the more fervently I want them. Therefore, blissful God, give me help always to do your will.
— Saint Birgitta
On the 4th of July
Behold, the dark clouds melt away,
On the 4th of July 1898, Swami Vivekananda was traveling with some American disciples in Kashmir, and as part of a celebration of the anniversary of their Declaration of Independence, he prepared the preceding poem to be read aloud at the day's early breakfast.
Free your mind from all that troubles you; God will take care of things. You will be unable to make haste in this (choice) without, so to speak, grieving the heart of God, because he sees that you do not honor him sufficiently with holy trust. Trust in him, I beg you, and you will have the fulfillment of what your heart desires.
— Saint Vincent de Paul
No chains of slavery are stronger than those of passion.
— Edith Stein
It is really a perfect misery to be alive when we have always to be going about like men with enemies at their gates, who cannot lay aside their arms even when sleeping or eating, and are always afraid of being surprised by a breaching of their fortress in some weak spot.
— Saint Teresa of Avila
If a light does not differ from another light, is not more or less intense than the other, we do not say that it is the same light; each one has its own precise Being; but we do say that it is exactly and invariably similar in Being.
— Saint Basil the Great
I want to console You for the ingratitude of the wicked, and I beg of You to take away my freedom to displease You. If through weakness I sometimes fall, may Your Divine Glance cleanse my soul immediately, consuming all my imperfections like the fire that transforms everything into itself.
— Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
Peter said of the slaves: "We must speak to them with our hands by giving, before we try to speak to them with our lips."
— Saint Peter Claver
Saint Catherine has told me that I shall have help; I do not know if this will be delivery from prison, or if, whilst I am being tried, some disturbance may happen, by which I shall be delivered. The help will come to me, I think, in one way or the other. Besides this, my Voices have told me that I shall be delivered by a great victory; and they add: "Be resigned; have no care for thy martyrdom; you will come in the end to the Kingdom of Paradise." They have told me this simply, absolutely, and without fail. What is meant by my martyrdom is the pain and adversity that I suffer in prison; I do not know if I shall have still greater suffering to bear; for that I refer me to God.
— Saint Joan of Arc
In the future, be made powerful in the Lord, and in the might of his strength. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Because our wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly order.
— Saint Luke Epistle to the Ephesians
The following quote comes from correspondence between Naropa, a Tibetan student, and Tilopa, a Tibetan teacher, who both lived during the tenth century. In the Buddhist tradition, freedom comes with exiting the ocean of samsara, the word for the cycle of birth and death in which all humans are caught.
When I depend on the ship, the Guru, the precious Jewel of the Mind, I am sure of freedom From Samsara's ocean. This practice teaches that the path towards maturity is bliss.
Tilopa said:
— Naropa and Tilopa from letters
Be not fearful of the flesh, nor love it.
— Philip the Gnostic The Gospel of Philip
If a man wishes to take your coat, give him also whatever other article of clothes you have.
— Augustine of Hippo
Every Holy Mass, heard with devotion, produces in our souls marvelous effects, abundant spiritual and material graces which we, ourselves, do not know. ... It is easier for the earth to exist without the sun than without the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!
— Padre Pio
Christ is both the way and the door. Christ is the staircase and the vehicle, like the "throne of mercy over the Ark of the Covenant," and "the mystery hidden from the ages." A man should turn his full attention to this throne of mercy, and should gaze at him hanging on the cross, full of faith, hope, and charity, devoted, full of wonder and joy, marked by gratitude, and open to praise and jubilation. Then such a man will make with Christ a "pasch," that is, a passing-over. Through the branches of the cross he will pass over the Red Sea, leaving Egypt and entering the desert. There he will taste the hidden manna, and rest with Christ in the sepulcher, as if he were dead to things outside. He will experience, as much as is possible for one who is still living, what was promised to the thief who hung beside Christ: "Today you will be with me in paradise."
— Saint Bonaventure from Journey of the Mind to God
He who has yet to master Self-Awareness Should not expect freedom from ghosts and Devas.
— Milarepa
It must not be supposed that the heavens or the luminaries are endowed with life. For they are inanimate and insensible. So that when the divine Scripture saith, Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad, it is the angels in heaven and the men on earth that are invited to rejoice. For the Scripture is familiar with the figure of personification, and is wont to speak of inanimate things as though they were animate: for example, The sea saw it and fled: Jordan was driven back. And again, What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? Thou, O Jordan, that thou was driven back? Mountains, too, and hills are asked the reason of their leaping in the same way as we are wont to say, the city was gathered together, when we do not mean the buildings, but the inhabitants of the city: again, the heavens declare the glory of God, does not mean that they send forth a voice that can be heard by bodily ears, but that from their own greatness they bring before our minds the power of the Creator: and when we contemplate their beauty we praise the Maker as the Master-Craftsman.
— Saint John of Damascus
The soul, who is lifted by a very great and yearning desire for the honor of God and the salvation of souls, begins by exercising herself, for a certain space of time, in the ordinary virtues, remaining in the cell of self- knowledge, in order to know better the goodness of God towards her. This she does because knowledge must precede love, and only when she has attained love, can she strive to follow and to clothe herself with the truth. But, in no way, does the creature receive such a taste of the truth, or so brilliant a light therefrom, as by means of humble and continuous prayer, founded on knowledge of herself and of God; because prayer, exercising her in the above way, unites with God the soul that follows the footprints of Christ Crucified, and thus, by desire and affection, and union of love, makes her another Himself.
— Saint Catherine of Siena from On Divine Providence
When a man gives up all desires that emerge from the mind, and rests contented in the Self by the Self,
Theologians debate situation ethics and the new morality (leaving out of account the problem of means and ends) while the screams of the flaming human torches, civilian and soldiers, rise high to heaven. The only conclusion I have ever been able to reach is that we must pray God to increase our faith, a faith without which one cannot love or hope. "Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief."
— Dorothy Day
The only true sacrifice to offer God, O lovers of God, the only authentic renunciation that can clear away obstacles to spiritual porgies, is to abandon once and for all this constant drive for self-perpetuation, this instinctive urge to survive and dominate which manifests in so many subtle and obvious forms — including the obsession with becoming holy or elevated.
— Sri Ramakrishna
Children of the world say they are free when they are not subject to another's will, when no one stops them from satisfying their wishes and inclinations. For this dream of freedom, they engage in bloody battles and sacrifice life and limb. The children of God see freedom as something else. They want to be unhindered in following the Spirit of God; and they know that the greatest hindrances do not come from without, but lie within us ourselves.
— Edith Stein
CHAPTER 2Section Two
PEACE
In times of uncertainty we are drawn to think of peace as a state of behavior between nations, between people. Rarely do we think of achieving a state of peace within ourselves, the process often seems so daunting and abstract. Saints have spent their lives seeking inner peace, which they've discerned comes from spending time in conversation with God. The Eastern traditions tell us that gazing inward will show us the direction to peace. The saints of Christianity knew that true divinity dwelled within a realm known as Peace. Christ himself was known as the Prince of Peace, the savior who would deliver human kind from evil. The wisdom here reminds us that peace, whether a state of the world or a state of a human being, is also a state of mind.
That where there should be the lovely feet of those who bear the torch of the Gospel peace, there may not be the dark and wandering footsteps of apostates, but that when our loins are girded the Father all-merciful may put blazing torches in our hands to enlighten the hearts of the Gentiles to the vision of the Gospel of the Glory of Christ.
— Saint Boniface
Have patience in persevering in the holy exercise of meditation, and be content to progress in slow steps until you have legs to run and wings with which to fly.
— Padre Pio
My life is of no value ... I can offer it in peace.
— Blessed Maria Gabriella
For peace and freedom are not otherwise won, than by ceaseless and unyielding struggles with our lusts.
— Saint Clement of Alexandria
In that (divine) state I see myself as alone with God, totally cleansed, totally sanctified, totally true, totally upright, totally certain, totally celestial in him. And when I am in that state, I do not remember anything else ... When I leave that supreme state in which I do not remember anything else, I come back and see myself in those good things I have just spoken about, but at the same time I see myself completely full of sin and obedient to it, devious, impure, totally false and erroneous, and yet I am in a state of quiet. For what remains with me is a continual divine unction, the highest of all and superior to any I have ever experienced in all my life.
— Angela of Foligno
But we are not blissfully safe, in having of our endless joy, till we be all in peace and in love: that is to say, full pleased with God and with all His works, and with all His judgments, and loving and peaceable with our self and with our even-Christians and with all that God loveth, as love beseemeth. And this doeth God's Goodness in us.
— Julian of Norwich
I would say that we are living in a hard school where from day to day there is a war going on in which we can only use the weapons of the spirit, and try to practice the nonviolence we talk so much about,.
— Dorothy Day
Peace Behold, it comes in might,
For he is our peace, which has made of both one, and has broken down the wall that was a stop between us, and has also put away through his flesh, the cause of hatred (that is to say, the law of commandments contained in the law written) for to make of two one new man in himself, so making peace.
— Saint Luke Epistle to the Ephesians
It follows that the perfect peacemaking is that which keeps unchanged in all circumstances what is peaceful; calls Providence holy and good; and has its being in the knowledge of divine and human affairs, by which it deems the opposites that are in the world to be the fairest harmony of creation. They also are peacemakers, who teach those who war against the stratagems of sin to have recourse to faith and peace.
— Clement of Alexandria
There must be diversity in the divine vision, in that some see the divine substance more perfectly, some less perfectly. Hence, in order to indicate this difference in happiness, our Lord says, (John 14:2): "In my father's house, there are many mansions."
— Saint Thomas Aquinas
In the last few months one has often heard the complaint that the many prayers for peace are still without effect. What right have we to be heard? Our desire for peace is undoubtedly genuine and sincere. But does it come from a completely purified heart?
— Edith Stein
Heavenly Father, you have given us a model of life in the Holy Family of Nazareth. Help us, O loving Father to make our family another Nazareth where love, peace and joy reign. May it be deeply contemplative, intensely Eucharistic and vibrant with joy.
Help us to stay together in joy and sorrow through family prayer. Teach us to see Jesus in the members of our family especially in their distressing disguise. May the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus make our hearts meek and humble like His and help us to carry out our family duties in a holy way.
May we love one another as God loves each one of us more and more each day, and forgive each other's faults as You forgive our sins.
Help us, O loving Father to take whatever You give and to give whatever You take with a big smile.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, cause of our joy, pray for us. Saint Joseph, pray for us. Holy Guardian Angels be always with us, guide and protect us. Amen.
— Prayer by Mother Teresa of Calcutta
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Wisdom of the Saints"
by .
Copyright © 2002 Suzanne Clores.
Excerpted by permission of KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP..
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Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Title Page,
Copyright Page,
Dedication,
Epigraph,
INTRODUCTION,
Section One - FREEDOM,
Section Two - PEACE,
Section Three - FEAR AND PROTECTION,
Section Four - COMPASSION (FORGIVENESS OF SINS),
Section Five - POLITICS,
Section Six - LOVE,
Section Seven - THE PHYSICAL BODY,
Section Eight - SERVICE,
Section Nine - INDECISION,
Section Ten - DISEASE/HEALING,
Section Eleven - EDUCATION,
Section Twelve - MONEY,
Section Thirteen - HOPE,
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON THE SOURCES,
BIBLIOGRAPHY,