What so many people today fail to realize is that forgiveness is a door to peace and happiness. Forgiving is not ignoring wrongdoing, but overcoming the evil inside us and in our world with love. To forgive is not just a command of Christ but the key to reconciling all that is broken in our lives and relationships. We get rid of an enemy by getting rid of enmity. ~Johann Christoph Arnold

I ascended to what is highest in my soul and, Lo, the Word loomed loftier. I descended to the depths and found that he was yet deeper. If I looked out, I saw him beyond my outer limits. If I gazed within, more inward yet was he. It was then that I realized the truth of what I had read, “In him we live and move and have our being.” Happy the soul in whom dwells the One by whom she lives; happy the soul who lives for and is moved by such a One. ~St Bernard of Clairvaux

There is often more wisdom to be found at the edges of life than in its middle. Life-threatening illness may shuffle our values like a deck of cards. Sometimes a card that has been on the bottom of the deck for most of our lives turns out to be the top card, the thing that really matters. Having watched people sort their cards and play their hands in the presence of death for many years, I would say that rarely is the top card perfection, or possessions, or even pride. Most often the top card is love. ~Rachel Naomi Remen

Most high and glorious God, bring light to the darkness of my heart. Give me right faith, certain hope and perfect charity. Lord, give me insight and wisdom, so I might always discern your holy and true will. ~St. Francis’ prayer for discernment

It is amusing to see souls who, while they are at prayer, fancy they are willing to be despised and publicly insulted for the love of God, yet afterwards do all they can to hide their small defects. If anyone unjustly accuses them of a fault, God deliver us from their outcries! Prayer does not consist of such fancies. No, our Lord expects works from us. Beg our Lord to grant you perfect love for your neighbor. If someone else is well spoken of, be more pleased than if it were yourself; this is easy enough, for if you were really humble, it would vex you to be praised…Comply in all things with others’ wishes although you lose your own rights. Forget your self-interests for theirs, however much nature may rebel. ~St Teresa of Ávila, The Interior Castle

Once a young man fell over a cliff. By the time he was rescued he had lost so much blood that he was almost dead. His father rushed him to a doctor, but the doctor said, “He will certainly die, unless someone can be found who is willing to provide enough blood for a massive transfusion.” Now the father’s heart overflowed with such love for his son that he offered his own blood, though he knew it would cost him his own life. So by the sacrificial love of his father, the young man was given new life. We, too, have fallen headlong from the mountain of righteousness and lie broken and wounded by sin, with our life fast ebbing away. But if we turn to the Master, he freely gives us his spiritual blood so that we might be saved from death and regain life. Indeed, he came to us for this very purpose. ~Sadhu Sundar Singh, Wisdom of the Sadhu