Brentt Russel > Brentt Russel's Quotes

“What the spiritual journey is all about is uniting our will with God's will, wanting what He wants, loving what He loves, living a life that in all its aspects honors Him and gives Him glory.”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire

“the surest way to love our neighbor, Teresa advises, is not to dream of doing big deeds for our neighbor “one day,” but to take advantage of the little, everyday opportunities that present themselves in ordinary life.”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“The focus now is not on what we are getting from the relationship but on what we can give, by way of profound filial love, faithful friendship, and spousal union. Our focus is on the Other and how to please Him.15”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“What if we don't have a strong desire for God? What if we only half-heartedly desire to make progress on the path to full union with God? The Scripture and the teaching of the saints makes clear that when we lack something essential for the spiritual journey—such as a strong desire for God—then we are to ask for it, and it will be given. Not all at once necessarily, but gradually, over time, as we persevere in asking.”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“shun rash judgment. Even if you should see your neighbor doing what is wrong, refuse to pass judgment on him, excuse him instead. Excuse his intention even if you cannot excuse his act, which may be the fruit of ignorance or surprise or chance.27”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“The Father tells Catherine that the more the soul grows in love for God, the more the soul will also grow in love for its neighbor. Some of the specific ways of loving our neighbor that Catherine lists are intercessory prayer, good example, counsel, advice, and spiritual and material help.”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“Are you incapable of doing what these men and women have done? Do you think them capable of achieving this by their own resources and not by the Lord their God? . . . Why are you relying on yourself, only to find yourself unreliable? Cast yourself upon him, do not be afraid. He will not withdraw himself so that you fall. Make the leap without anxiety, he will catch you and heal you.”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“More strictly defined, meditation is thinking about God. Prayer is actually speaking to God, either in words or in silent contemplation.”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“As soon as we wake up turn to the Lord, thank Him for another day, dedicate it to Him and ask His help for living it in a way pleasing to Him. Take a substantial time for personal prayer (including spiritual reading) as early in the morning as feasible. Attend daily Mass as often as possible. As far as circumstances permit, pray the Liturgy of the Hours.25 Withdraw into the cell of our souls periodically during the day to remember the Lord, to be aware of His presence and speak to Him. We can do this even in the midst of activities.”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“We have to receive, not achieve, in order to be saved.”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“The saints tell us that usually, even in the very midst of exterior and interior trials, a deep-seated peace is felt. Persevering in the midst of these trials is a very important part of uniting our will to God's—and in His will is our peace.”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“Even if our prayer doesn't seem to be bearing fruit on the level of our conscious intellect, it may very well bear fruit on the level of strengthening our will. By persevering we embrace the Cross. For there are many who begin, yet they never reach the end. I believe this is due mainly to a failure to embrace the cross from the beginning; thinking they are doing nothing, they become afflicted. When the intellect ceases to work, they cannot bear it. But it is then perhaps that their will is being strengthened and fortified, although they may not be aware of this.8”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“Knowing what we are called to is important, but so is desiring it with all our heart.”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“There is a powerful tendency in fallen human nature to drift from God-reliance to self-reliance, with the woeful results to which Teresa of Avila testified. At the very heart of the biblical revelation is a profound insight into the incapacity of the human being, apart from Christ, to live the Christian life. The primacy of grace, and our response in faith to this gift, is the clear biblical witness and an absolutely foundational element of the spiritual life. We have to be very clear on this as we proceed in exploring the elements of the spiritual journey. To neglect the very foundation, the primacy of grace, is to build a shaky structure that won't stand.”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“Bernard also counsels us to be careful how we respond when a wrong has been done to us. So when an offence is committed against you, a thing hard to avoid at times in communities like ours, do not immediately rush, as a worldly person may do, to retaliate dishonorably against your brother; nor, under the guise of administering correction, should you dare to pierce with sharp and searing words one for whom Christ was pleased to be crucified; nor make grunting, resentful noises at him, nor mutter and murmur complaints, nor adopt a sneering air, nor indulge the loud laugh of contempt, nor knit the brow in menacing anger. Let your passion die within, where it was born; a carrier of death, it must be allowed no exit or it will cause destruction, and then you can say with the Prophet: “I was troubled and I spoke not.”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“It is not the consolations we seek but the Consoler, not their sweetness but the sweet Savior, not their tenderness but him who is the delight of heaven and earth. In this spirit we must resolve to stand fast in a holy love of God even though we may never find any consolation throughout our whole life.”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“When there is union of love, the image of the Beloved is so sketched in the will, and drawn so intimately and vividly, that it is true to say that the Beloved lives in the lover and the lover in the Beloved. Love produces such likeness in this transformation of lovers that one can say each is the other and both are one.”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“Francis de Sales makes clear that the essence of holiness is to be completely ordered towards love—love of God and neighbor, thereby being fully conformed to God's will.”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“The most beautiful thoughts are nothing without good works.34”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“There is a particular spiritual practice that Francis highly recommends that is possible for all of us: even on those “impossible” days when we are perhaps unable to undertake our normal spiritual practices, we can stay rooted in prayer by constantly addressing brief prayers to the Lord. These can be acts of love, of adoration, of faith, of hope, of petition, or simply of saying the name of Jesus—throughout the course of the day.”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“There's a certain progression in the journey to God regarding our attitude towards suffering. In the beginning, we flee from suffering. As we mature, we reluctantly accept it as necessary. As the Spirit works more deeply in our hearts, we little by little lose our fear of suffering and become able to rejoice in it, even to love it.”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“But above all, fight by your very holiness of life; fight by becoming the saint that God wants you to be; fight by encouraging a decent young man to become a priest; fight by doing a Holy Hour every day for the sanctification of the Church; fight by coming to Mass regularly; fight by evangelizing; fight by doing the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.”
― Robert Barron, Letter to a Suffering Church: A Bishop Speaks on the Sexual Abuse Crisis

“In the end, we are not Catholics because our leaders are flawless, but because we find the claims of Catholicism both compelling and beautiful. We are Catholics because the Church speaks of the Trinitarian God whose very nature is love; of Jesus the Lord, crucified and risen from the dead; of the Holy Spirit, who inspires the followers of Christ up and down the ages; of the sacraments, which convey the Christ-life to us; and of the saints, who are our friends in the spiritual order. This is the treasure; this is why we stay.”
― Robert Barron, Letter to a Suffering Church: A Bishop Speaks on the Sexual Abuse Crisis

“the spiritual journey is all about is uniting our will with God's will, wanting what He wants, loving what He loves, living a life that in all its aspects honors Him and gives Him glory.”
― Ralph Martin, The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook to God Based on the Wisdom of the Saints

“One of the strange things about living in the world is that it is only now and then one is quite sure one is going to live forever and ever and ever. One knows it sometimes when one gets up at the tender solemn dawn-time and goes out and stands out and throws one's head far back and looks up and up and watches the pale sky slowly changing and flushing and marvelous unknown things happening until the East almost makes one cry out and one's heart stands still at the strange unchanging majesty of the rising of the sun--which has been happening every morning for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. One knows it then for a moment or so. And one knows it sometimes when one stands by oneself in a wood at sunset and the mysterious deep gold stillness slanting through and under the branches seems to be saying slowly again and again something one cannot quite hear, however much one tries. Then sometimes the immense quiet of the dark blue at night with the millions of stars waiting and watching makes one sure; and sometimes a sound of far-off music makes it true; and sometimes a look in someone's eyes.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, Secret Garden

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“What makes the desert beautiful,' said the little prince, 'is that somewhere it hides a well...”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring