Life Advice from the Saints for Achieving Your Dreams

By Rosemary Ellen Guiley

c. Visionary Living, Inc.

My book The Quotable Saint (Facts On File, 2002) is a compendium of wise words from Christian saints both Western and Eastern Orthodox.  Below are a few of my favorites — wisdom to keep in mind in the course of daily life.  Copy the ones that call to you and paste them on your refrigerator, mirror, computer monitor, or wherever you need an inspirational pick-me-up.

Thoughts

Keep the thought of God continually before you, and walk always in his presence.

– Peter of Alcantara, Treatise on Prayer & Meditation

Words

Words are truly the images of the soul.

– Basil the Great, letter

Will

It is only necessary to say energetically “I will” and all will go well.

–Margaret Mary Alacoque, Life and Writings of St. Margaret Mary

To have a good will man must have as his ultimate goal the ultimate good that God wills.

– Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica

Happiness

Above all, I beg of you to always be gay, joyful and happy, for this is the true mark of the spirit of God, who wishes that we should serve him in peace and contentment; do not be uneasy or anxious, but do all things with liberty of mind and in the presence of God.

–Margaret Mary Alacoque, Life and Writings of St. Margaret Mary

Real happiness will come, not in gratifying our desires or in gaining transient pleasures, but in accomplishing God’s will for us: even as we pray every day: “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.”

– Bernard of Clairvaux, On Loving God

Happiness is another name for God.

– Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica

Since happiness is nothing other than the enjoyment of the highest good and since the highest good is above, no one can be made happy unless he rises above himself, not by an ascent of the body, but of the heart. But we cannot rise above ourselves unless a higher power lifts us up.

– Bonaventure, The Soul’s Journey Into God

Faith

Faith is powerful to do all things, for nothing is impossible to the believer; faith makes all things attainable and possible.

– Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God

Many people have faith, but a faith which is habitual rather than active, like a sword buried in its scabbard.

– Robert Bellarmine, The Mind’s Ascent to God by the Ladder of Created Things

Faith gives wings to prayer, and without it no one can fly upward to heaven.

– John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent

Prayer

Never give up prayer, and should you find dryness and difficulty, persevere in it for this very reason. God often desires to see what love your soul has, and love is not tried by ease and satisfaction.

– John of the Cross, Degrees of Perfection

All prayers are good, when these are accompanied by the right intention and good will.

– Padre Pio, Spiritual Maxims

He will give either what we ask, or what he knows to be more profitable to us.

– Bernard of Clairvaux, sermon

You must pray not only with words but with the mind, and not only with the mind but with the heart, so that the mind understands and sees clearly what is said in words, and the heart feels what the mind is thinking. All these combined together constitute real prayer.

– Theophan the Recluse, letter

Prayer is called ‘of the mind,’ when it is recited by the mind with profound attention, and with the sympathy of the heart. Prayer is called ‘of the heart,’ when it is recited by the mind united with the heart, and send up the prayer from its depths. Prayer is called ‘of the soul,’ when it comes from the whole soul, with the participation of the body itself – when it is offered by the whole being, which becomes so to speak the mouthpiece of the heart.

– Bishop Ignatii, in The Art of Prayer

If you pray with your lips but your mind wanders, how do you benefit?

– Gregory of Sinai, in The Philokalia, v. IV

It is necessary to invoke His Name with a full and unwavering faith – with a deep certainty the He is near, sees and hears, pays a whole-hearted attention to our petition, and is ready to fulfil it and to grant what we seek. There is nothing to be ashamed of in such hope. If fulfilment is sometimes delayed, this may be because the petitioner is still not yet ready to receive what he asks.

– Theophan the Recluse, letter

We must persist in our prayers, and our persistence will quite certainly win us, as God has told us, everything we ask for. No doubts about this at all!

– John Cassian, Conferences

And finally…

We are angels in prayer and often devils in conversation and action.

–Francis de Sales, Oeuvres, vol. X

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