Wise Words To Live By...

[ironmonk]

Words to live by... From "The Way" by Saint Josemaria Escriva...
[url="http://www.escrivaworks.org/book/the_way/contents"]http://www.escrivaworks.org/book/the_way/contents[/url]

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[b]2 [/b]How I wish your bearing and conversation were such that, on seeing or hearing you, people would say: This man reads the life of Jesus Christ.

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[b]3 [/b]Maturity. Stop acting the child; drop that affectation that only suits a silly girl. Let your outward conduct reflect the peace and order of your soul.

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[b]4 [/b]Don't say: 'That's the way I'm made... it's my character'. It's your lack of character: Be a man.

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[b]6 [/b]Turn your back on the tempter when he whispers in your ear: 'Why make life difficult for yourself?'

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[b]14 [/b]Don't waste your time and your energy — which belong to God — throwing stones at the dogs that bark at you on your way. Ignore them.

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[b]24 [/b]You are ambitious: for knowledge, for leadership, for great ventures.

Good. Very good. But let it be for Christ, for Love.

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[b]34 [/b]Don't be afraid of the truth, even though the truth may mean your death.

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[b]40 [/b]Faith, cheerfulness, optimism. But not the idiocy of closing one's eyes to reality.

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[b]45 [/b]Why are you hurt by what people say about you? How much worse you would be if God were to leave you. Persevere in doing good, and shrug your shoulders.

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[b]54 [/b]'One must compromise' I Compromise is a word found only in the vocabulary of those who have no will to fight — the lazy, the cunning, the cowardly — for they consider themselves defeated before they start.

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[b]81 [/b]Action is worth nothing without prayer: prayer grows in value with sacrifice.

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[b]103 [/b]Engrave in your memory those words which struck you while praying, and repeat them slowly many times throughout the day.

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[b]116 [/b]Don't neglect your spiritual reading. — Reading has made many saints.

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[b]149 [/b]Detach yourself from people and things until you are stripped of them. For, says Pope Saint Gregory, the devil has nothing of his own in this world, and naked he comes to battle. If you go clothed to fight him, you will soon be pulled to the ground: for he will have something to catch you by.

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[b]150 [/b]It's as if your guardian Angel were saying to you: 'You fill your heart with so much human attachment!... And that, then, is what you want your Guardian to guard!'

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[b]154 [/b]You are afraid of becoming cold and distant towards everyone. For you want to be so detached!

There is no need to worry: if you belong to Christ — completely to Christ! — from him you will get fire, light and warmth for all men.

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[b]155 [/b]Jesus isn't satisfied 'going halves': he wants the lot.

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[b]159 [/b]Your heart weakens and you clutch at an earthly support. Very good: but take care that what you grasp to stop you from falling doesn't become a dead weight dragging you down, a chain enslaving you.

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[b]169 [/b]Suffering overwhelms you because you take it like a coward. Meet it bravely, with a christian spirit: and you will regard it as a treasure.

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[b]172 [/b]If you don't deny yourself you will never be a soul of prayer.

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[b]174 [/b]Don't say: 'That person gets on my nerves.' Think: 'That person sanctifies me.'

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[b]175 [/b]No ideal becomes a reality without sacrifice. Deny yourself. It's so beautiful to be a victim !

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[b]182 [/b]Let us drink to the last drop the chalice of pain in this poor present life. What does it matter to suffer for ten years, twenty, fifty... if afterwards there is heaven for ever, for ever... for ever?

And, above all — rather than because of the reward, propter retributionem — what does suffering matter if we suffer to console, to please God our Lord, in a spirit of reparation, united to him on his Cross; in a word: if we suffer for Love?...

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[b]183 [/b]The eyes! Through them many iniquities enter the soul. — What experiences like David's! — If you guard your sight you have assured the guard of your heart.

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[b]188 [/b]Remember that the heart is a traitor. Keep it locked with seven locks.

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[b]189 [/b]Anything that does not lead you to God is a hindrance. Root it out and throw it far from you.

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[b]332 [/b]There is no excuse for those who could be scholars and are not.

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[b]335 [/b]An hour of study, for a modern apostle, is an hour of prayer.

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[b]336 [/b]If you are to serve God with your mind, to study is a grave obligation for you.

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[b]349 [/b]As long as the opinion you expressed was orthodox there is no reason to be upset, even though the malice of whoever heard you caused him to be scandalized. For his scandal is pharisaical.

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[b]364 [/b]Ah, if you would only resolve to serve God 'seriously', with the same zeal with which you serve your ambition, your vanity, your sensuality!...

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[b]472 [/b]Serve your God unwaveringly, be faithful to him, and worry about nothing else. For it is indeed true that 'if you set your hearts on the kingdom of God and on his righteousness, he will give you all these other things — material necessities, the means — as well'.
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[b]595 [/b]If you knew yourself, you would find joy in being despised and your heart would weep before honours and praise.

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[b]601 [/b]Pride? Why Before long — years, days, — you will be a heap of rotting flesh: worms, foul-smelling liquids, filthy shreds of cloth, and no one, on earth, will remember you.

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[b]613 [/b]If you wish to be humble — you, who are so empty and self-satisfied — just consider these words of Isaias: you are 'a drop of water or dew that falls on the ground and is scarcely seen.'

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[b]658 [/b]If things go well, let us rejoice, blessing God who makes them prosper. And if they go badly? Let us rejoice, blessing God who allows us to share in the sweetness of his Cross.

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[b]662 [/b]You are unhappy? — Think: there must be an obstacle between God and me. You will seldom be wrong.

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[b]663 [/b]You ask me to suggest a cure for your sadness. I'll give you a prescription from an expert adviser, the Apostle Saint James:

Tristatur aliquis vestrum, are you sad, my son? Oret! Pray! Try it and you will see.

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[b]672 [/b]You can be sure that you are a man of God if you suffer injustice gladly and in silence.

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[b]676 [/b]All the things of this world are no more than earth. Place them in a heap under your feet and you will be so much the nearer to heaven.

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[b]680 [/b]At meals don't speak about food: that's vulgar and unworthy of you. Speak about something noble — of the soul or of the mind — and you will have dignified this physical duty.

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[b]681 [/b]The day you leave the table without having done some small mortification you have eaten like a pagan.

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[b]682 [/b]You generally eat more than you need. And that fullness, which often causes you physical heaviness and discomfort, benumbs your mind and renders you unfit to taste supernatural treasures.

What a fine virtue, even for this earth, temperance is!

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[b]683 [/b]I see you, christian gentleman — that is what you say you are — kissing an image, mumbling a vocal prayer, crying out against those who attack the Church of God..., and even frequenting the holy Sacraments.

But I don't see you making any sacrifice, or avoiding certain conversations of a 'worldly' nature (I could with justice use another term), or being generous towards those in need or towards that Church of Christ, or putting up with a failing in one of your brothers, or checking your pride for the sake of the common good, or getting rid of your tight cloak of selfishness, or... so many things more!

I see you... I don't see you... And yet you say that you are a christian gentleman? What a poor idea you have of Christ!

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[b]684 [/b]Your talents, your personality, your opportunities... are being wasted: you are not allowed to make full use of them.

Meditate well these words of a spiritual writer: 'The incense offered to God is not wasted. Our Lord is more honoured by the immolation of your talents than by the vain use of them.'

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[b]712 [/b]How low you have fallen this time! Begin the foundations from down there. Be humble. Cor contritum et humiliatum, Deus, non despicies, God will not despise a contrite and humble heart.

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[b]729 [/b]Each day, my God, I am less sure of myself and more sure of you!

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[b]731 [/b]Depend on Jesus for everything. You have nothing, are worth nothing, are capable of nothing. He will act, if you abandon yourself to him.

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[b]738 [/b]For 'others', death is a stumbling block, a source of terror. For us, death — Life — is an encouragement and a stimulus.

For them it is the end: for us, the beginning.

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[b]747 [/b]Worldly souls are very fond of thinking of God's mercy. And so they are encouraged to persist in their follies.

It is true that God our Lord is infinitely merciful, but he is also infinitely just: and there is a judgment, and he is the Judge.

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[b]749 [/b]There is a hell. Not a very original statement, you think. I will repeat it, then: there is a hell!

Echo it for me, at the right moment, in the ear of one friend, and of another, and another.

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[b]754 [/b]This is the key to open the door and enter the Kingdom of Heaven: qui facit voluntatem Patris mei qui in coelis est, ipse intrabit in regnum coelorum — he who does the will of my Father... he shall enter!

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[b]772 [/b]Ask yourself many times during the day: Am I doing at this moment what I ought to be doing?

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778 It only takes a second. Before setting about anything, ask yourself: What does God want of me in this?

Then, with divine grace,... do it!

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[b]832 [/b]How anxious people are to get out of place! Think what would happen if each bone and each muscle of the human body wanted to occupy some position other than that proper to it.

There is no other reason for the world's discontent. Persevere in your place, my son; there... what work you can do to establish our Lord's true kingdom!

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[b]983 [/b]To begin is easy; to persevere is sanctity. Let your perseverance not be a blind consequence of the first impulse, the work of inertia: let it be a reflective perseverance.

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[b]985 [/b]You went astray, and did not come back because you were ashamed to. It would be more logical if you were ashamed not to return.

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[b]995 [/b]Unshakable: that is what you must be. If your perseverance is disturbed by other people's weaknesses or by your own, I cannot but form a poor opinion of your ideal.

Make up your mind once and for all.

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[b]996 [/b]You have a poor idea of your way, if lack of enthusiasm makes you think you have lost it. Can't you see that it is the moment of trial? That is why you have been deprived of sensible consolations.

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[phatcatholic]

thanks for the link

[Dave]

[quote name='ironmonk' date='Jun 1 2004, 10:43 PM'] [b]4 [/b]Don't say: 'That's the way I'm made... it's my character'. It's your lack of character: Be a man.

[/quote]
That's my favorite of all the quotes ironmonk listed. I'm so tired of those who try and excuse their behavior or that of others by saying, "It's just the way I am," "That's just Tom/Johnsonville brat/Harry," etc.