Inspirational Spiritual Quotes | The Saints Speak

Hello dear reader and welcome to our article on inspirational spiritual quotes.  A good spiritual quote can give us fuel for our spiritual life and assist us with meditation. Among the greatest marvels we observe in human beings, and unfortunately, something very rare, is the marvel of sanctity. 

When a person becomes more like God, they speak more like God! Let’s hear what some of these extraordinary persons have to say about the supernatural and interior life.

“For He hath regarded the humility of His handmaid.” – Blessed Virgin Mary.

When reciting Her wonderful canticle, the Magnificat, the most holy Virgin recognises that She has been raised so high in the blessings and favours of the Lord because of the boundless depths of her humility.

Humility is known as the Foundation Virtue, upon which the other virtues depend and take their roots. The deeper the roots, the taller and more formidable the virtues will be. Since Mary understood better than any other Saint how incapable a creature is of itself to be and do anything good, She had the most profound humility, exceeding that of all the other Saints and Angels, so She was raised the highest in sanctity.

If we too wish to attain to the blessings of sanctity, we must be prepared to study, to strive for and to embrace the virtue of holy humility; both humility of the intellect and humility of the will, also called humility of heart. “Learn of Me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” (Matt. 11:29).

“Live in this world as though only you and God existed.” – St. John of the Cross.

If taken the right way, this quote from the Mystical Doctor, St. John of the Cross can be deeply inspirational. It does not mean that we ignore other people but that we should always live and act in the presence of God.

Creatures should not have the power to distract us to the point where we completely lose our awareness of the Divine.

All that happens in life is meant to happen, whether by God’s direct will or by His permissive will. But either way, everything is meant for the person’s good. God turns all things to your good and always aims at your salvation and increase in holiness.

God really does give you the same amount of attention as though you were the only person in existence.

“All the Saints became Saints through Mental Prayer.” – St. Alphonsus Liguori.

We all have to be communicating on a deeper level with God if we are to arrive at anything like holiness. And what is this deeper level? It is a way of prayer that is more than external, more interior than what is formal and vocal. It is prayer that really engages the mind and heart, it is mental prayer.

We ordinarily start with sessions of mental prayer which are commonly called meditations. To do your meditation for the day is to do the minimal amount of mental prayer that we should engage in everyday.

But ideally, we should so advance in the ways of mental prayer that we no longer have short and occasional prayer sessions with God, but eventually our whole life becomes a prayer. Even while working or recreating, it is possible if we are advanced enough, to live in a state of continual communion with God. Every Saint lives in some degree of habitual prayer.

“If you wish to obtain a favour from God, go through Mary unless you wish to be refused.” – St. Bernard de Clairvaux.

To those who are not Catholic and perhaps even some misguided Catholics, this can seem to be a false statement, and one that gives offense to God. However, nothing could be further from the truth if it is only understood correctly.

What it means is that we should actually have a habit and spirit of going to Jesus with the support of His holy Mother. She can speak with us and for us to Her Son. Imagine the persuasive power of such prayer! We are not going to Mary Herself but we are going through Her to Christ.

To illustrate this with an example, we can consider the Gospel scene of the Wedding at Cana. Here it is quite clear that Jesus only worked that first miracle because of the gentle persuasions of His blessed Mother. Often, God wants to do something good for us but either waits until we render ourselves more deserving or wills to do it sooner, through His Mother. This is just one of the ways in which He chooses to honour Her.

What we pray for must still align with God’s will but if we do actually get Mary to intercede for us, (which She will only do if God wills Her to intervene) Her prayers are never refused, as countless Saints and Doctors of the Church testify. We do not always have to actually say ‘through Mary I ask,’ but until we get into a spirit of approaching the Divine Majesty through Her, we may well make use of verbal expressions.

“This is the will of God; your Sanctification.” – St. Paul.

Often we are troubled by the thought that we do not know what God wants of us. But if we neglect the most important duty of all which is our sanctification, how do we expect to know our way in life according to God’s plan?

If our first priority is to seek God through working on our spiritual life, we will find that other things start to fall into place just as they should. Things that we didn’t see or that we were subconsciously closed off to will become clear and so the way forward for us will become more and more manifest.

Confusion about what we should do is often a result of neglect on our part. Feeling at a loss is just one of many consequences of failing to lead a good prayer life. And a prayer life is an essential part of growing in all the virtues that make up a healthy spiritual life.

May the Lord always find us prepared to do His holy will through a ready cooperation on our part to attend to our spiritual lives. Amen.