The 12 Steps to Holiness and Salvation Quotes

“The proud man is guilty of falsehood, for all the goods that he possesses both in the order of nature and grace are the gifts of God. “By the grace of God I am what I am,” says the Apostle (1 Cor. 15:10), for “we are not sufficient to think any thing of ourselves, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.” (2 Cor. 3:5).”
― Alfonso María de Liguori, The 12 Steps to Holiness and Salvation

“When a thief is trying to break in a door,” says St. Francis de Sales, “it is a sign he is not yet in the house. So, too, when the devil continues to tempt a soul it is a sign that soul is still in the grace of God.”
― Alfonso María de Liguori, The 12 Steps to Holiness and Salvation

“O blessed violence that God does not punish with His wrath but receives with mercy and reward! The greater this violence the more pleasing it is to Jesus Christ.” He concludes with the following words: “We must rule over ourselves by subduing our evil passions in order to win Heaven which Jesus Christ has merited for us.”
― Alfonso María de Liguori, The 12 Steps to Holiness and Salvation

“says the prophet Isaias; “and if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee in my hands.” (Is. 49:15-16). The Lord has written us in His hands with His own blood. Therefore we should allow nothing to disquiet us, for He arranges and disposes everything with these very hands which were nailed to the Cross as a proof of His love for us.”
― Alfonso María de Liguori, The 12 Steps to Holiness and Salvation

“St. John says: “This is the victory which overcometh the world, our faith.” (1 John 5:4). God has created us simply to labor at our souls’ salvation and to become holy. “This is the will of God, your sanctification,” says the Apostle. (1 Thess. 4:3). To this end all our efforts must be directed, and faith puts us in a position to overcome all the obstacles which the world opposes to the realization of our object, obstacles such as human respect, the inordinate desires of the flesh, in a word, all the temptations of Hell.”
― Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, The 12 Steps to Holiness and Salvation