St. Catherine of Siena Quotes

There is no perfect virtue-none that bears fruit- unless it is exercised by means of our neighbor.

Obedient people never trust in themselves.

Whoever loves himself or the world inordinately becomes incompatible with himself.

The soul is in God and God in the soul, just as the fish is in the sea and the sea in the fish.

Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring.

Start being brave about everything. Drive out darkness and spread light. Don’ look at your weaknesses. Realize instead that in Christ crucified you can do everything.

Of course you are unworthy. But when do you hope to be worthy? You will be no more worthy at the end than at the beginning. God alone is worthy of Himself, He alone can make us worthy of Him.

Penance to be sure must be used as a tool, in due times and places, as need may be. If the flesh, being too strong, kicks against the spirit, penance takes the rod of discipline, and fast, and the cilice of many buds, and mighty vigils; and places burdens enough on the flesh, that it may be more subdued. But if the body is weak, fallen into illness, the rule of discretion does not approve of such a method.

A full belly does not make for a chaste spirit.

The Devil often places himself upon the tongues of creatures, causing them to chatter nonsensically.

Do not be satisfied with little things, because God wants great things!

We've been deceived by the thought that we would be more pleasing to God in our own way than in the way God has given us.

Make yourself a "capacity" and I will make myself a "torrent."

One who knows more, loves more.

A soul cannot live without loving. It must have something to love, for it was created to love.

Merit consists in the virtue of love alone, flavored with the light of true discretion without which the soul is worth nothing.

Perfection does not consist in macerating or killing the body, but in killing our perverse self-will.

Enrich your soul in the great goodness of God: The Father is your table, the Son is your food, and the Holy Spirit waits on you and then makes His dwelling in you.

For there is no obedience without humility, nor humility without charity.

The strongest and purest love is not the one that starts from impressions, but the one that comes from admiration.

Let us enter into the house of knowledge of ourselves.

And let the truth be your delight...Proclaim it..., but with a certain congeniality.

O fire of love! Was it not enough for You to have created us to Your image and likeness, and to have recreated us in grace through the Blood of Your Son, without giving Yourself wholly to us as our Food, O God, Divine Essence? What impelled You to do this? Your charity alone.

Every evil, harm and suffering in this life comes from the love of riches.

Out of darkness is born the light.

This my goodness does to endow the souls of the just more fully with spiritual riches when for my love they are stripped of material goods because they have renounced the world and all its pleasures and even their own will. These are the ones who fatten their souls, enlarging them in the abyss of my charity. Then I become their spiritual provider. The Holy Spirit becomes their servant.

Love does not stay idle.

Ponder the fact that God has made you a gardener, to root out vice and plant virtue.

Everything comes from love, all is ordained for the salvation of man, God does nothing without this goal in mind.

You are obliged to love your neighbor as yourself, and loving him, you ought to help him spiritually, with prayer, counseling him with words, and assisting him both spiritually and temporally, according to the need in which he may be, at least with your goodwill if you have nothing else.

Obedience shows whether you are grateful.

Father, I am hungry; for the love of God give this soul her food, her Lord in the Eucharist

All the way to heaven is heaven, because Jesus said, "I am the way.

To join two things together there must be nothing between them or there cannot be a perfect fusion. Now realize that this is how God wants our soul to be, without any selfish love of ourselves or of others in between, just as God loves us without anything in between.

Charity is the sweet and holy bond which links the soul with its Creator: it binds God with man and man with God.

He has never left you.It is justthat your soul is so vastthat just likethe earth in its innocence,it may think,"I do not feel my lover's warmthagainst my face rightnow."But look, dear,is not the sun reaching down its armsand always holding a continentin its light?God cannot leave us.It is just that our soul is so vast,we do not always feel His lipsupon theveil.

Lord, take me from myself and give me to yourself.

The human heart is always drawn by love.

It is only through shadows that one comes to know the light.

The city is the image of the soul, the surrounding walls being the frontier between the outward and inward life. The gates are the faculties or senses connecting the life of the soul with the outward world. Living springs of water rise within it. And in the centre, where beats the heart, stands the holy sanctuary.

Heaven is along the way.

From self-knowledge flows the stream of humility, which never seizes on mere report, nor takes offense at anything, but bears every insult, every loss of consolation, and every sorry, from whatever direction they may come, patiently, with joy.

God is more ready to pardon that we have been to sin.

O my soul, what are you doing? Are you not aware that God sees you always? You can never hide yourself from His sight. O Father, have pity on us because we are blind and in darkness. Drive out the darkness and give me light. Melt the ice of my self-love and kindle in me the fire of Your charity.

God cannot leave us. It is just that our soul is so vast, we do not always feel His lips upon the veil.

Lose yourself wholly; and the more you lose, the more you will find.

We've had enough of exhortations to be silent! Cry out with a hundred thousand tongues. I see that the world is rotten because of silence.

You must believe in truth that whatever God gives or permits is for your salvation.