It is essential to begin the practice of prayer with a firm resolution of persevering in it.

-- St. Teresa of Avila

He who truly desires Love, seeks it truly. And he who truly seeks it, surely finds it. And he who finds it has found the Fountain of Life.

-- St. Francis de Sales.

What he was, he remained and what he was not, he assumed.

-- St. Leo the Great, Sermo in nativitate Domini

Why are we so sad? Why do we blame God? Evils abound in the world so that the world will fail to seduce us into loving it.

-- St. Augustine

Don't worry about me no matter what happens in this world. Nothing can happen to me that God doesn't want. And all that He wants, no matter how bad it may appear to us, is really for the best.

-- St. Thomas More

Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace.

-- St. Thomas Aquinas

Take notice that if souls do not find themselves quite resolved to pardon any injury or affront which may be inflicted upon them, they cannot trust much to their prayer. For the soul which God truly unites to Himself by so lofty a method of prayer, feels none of these things, and no longer cares whether she is esteemed or not, or whether she is spoke well of or ill; nay rather honors and repose give her more pain than dishonor and trials.

-- St. Teresa