The Three Ages Of The Interior Life Quotes

“St. Augustine wrote: “Two loves have built two cities: the love of self even to the despising of God, the city of the earth; the love of God even to the despising of self, the city of God. One glorifies itself in self, and the other in the Lord. One seeks its glory from men, the other places its dearest glory in God, the witness of its conscience. The one in the pride of its glory walks with head high; the other says to its God: ‘Thou art my glory, and it is Thou who dost lift up my head.’ The former in its victories lets itself be conquered by its passion to dominate; the latter shows us its citizens united in charity, mutual servants, tutelary governors, obedient subjects. The former loves its own strength in its princes; the latter says to God: ‘Lord, Thou art my only strength, I shall love Thee.’ “968”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“There are two classes of people who hide themselves: the criminal who flees punishment, and the saint who through humility wishes to remain unknown.”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“the nearer we approach to God, the more we are drawn by Him.”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“Let us perform all our actions with the thought that God dwells in us. We shall thus be His temples, and He Himself will be our God, dwelling in us (cf. Eph. 15: 3).”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“Genuine strength of will, the effect of divine grace, is drawn from humble, trusting, and persevering prayer.”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“St. Thomas Aquinas deeply loved this beautiful chant thus understood. It is told of him that he could not keep back his tears when, during Compline of Lent, he chanted the antiphon: “In the midst of life we are in death: whom do we seek as our helper, but Thou, O Lord, who because of our sins art rightly incensed? Holy God, strong God, holy and merciful Savior, deliver us not up to a bitter death; abandon us not in the time of our old age, when our strength will abandon us.” This beautiful antiphon begs for the grace of final perseverance, the grace of graces, that of the predestined. How it should speak to the heart of the contemplative theologian, who has made a deep study of the tracts on Providence, predestination, and grace!”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“Happy the old people who after long experience and many trials reach this superior simplicity of true wisdom, which they had glimpsed from a distance in their childhood! With this meaning it can be said that a beautiful life is a thought of youth realized in maturity.”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“A reproach given with great kindness is often well received, whereas when given with sharpness it produces no results. Thus Christ tells us: “Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart.”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“With grace we can overcome it, because, as the Council of Trent says, quoting St. Augustine: “God never commands the impossible; but in giving us His precepts, He commands us to do what we can, and to ask for the grace to accomplish what we cannot do.”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“We read in Ecclesiasticus also: “In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin.”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“The life of God is above the past, the present, and the future; it is measured by the single instant of immobile eternity.”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“We must begin to detach ourselves from earthly goods in order to grasp clearly the following truth often uttered by St. Augustine and St. Thomas: ‘Contrary to spiritual goods, material goods divide men, because they cannot belong simultaneously and integrally to a number.’ A number of persons cannot possess integrally and simultaneously the same house, the same field, the same territory; whence dissensions, quarrels, lawsuits, wars. On the contrary, spiritual goods, like truth, virtue, God Himself, can belong simultaneously and integrally to a number; many may possess simultaneously the same virtue, the same truth, the same God who gives Himself wholly to each of us in Communion. Therefore, whereas the unbridled search for material goods profoundly divides men, the quest for spiritual goods unites them. It unites us so much the more closely, the more we seek these superior goods. And we even possess God so much the more, the more we give Him to others. When we give away money, we no longer possess it; when, on the contrary, we give God to souls, we do not lose Him; rather we possess Him more. And should we refuse to give Him to a person who asks for Him, we would lose Him.”
― Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages Of The Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“As the bee knows how to find honey in flowers, the gift of wisdom draws lessons of divine goodness from everything.”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“St. Augustine says: “God who created you without yourself, will not sanctify you without yourself.” Our consent is needed and likewise our obedience to the precepts. God’s help is given us, he says again, not that our will should do nothing, but that it may act in a salutary and meritorious manner. Actual grace is constantly offered to us for the accomplishment of the duty of the present moment, just as air comes constantly into our lungs to permit us to breathe.”
― Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life

“Obscure faith enlightens us somewhat like the night, which, though surrounding us with shadows, allows us to see the stars, and by them the depths of the firmament. There is here a mingling of light and shade which is extremely beautiful. That we may see the stars, the sun must hide, night must begin. Amazingly, in the obscurity of night we see to a far greater distance than in the day; we see even the distant stars, which reveal to us the immense expanse of the heavens.”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“The virtue of religion, which renders to God the worship due Him, is also inferior to the theological virtues; it is meritorious only by reason of the charity that animates it. If we should forget this, we would perhaps become more attentive to worship, to the liturgy, than to God Himself, to the figures rather than to the reality, to the manner in which we ought to say an Our Father or a Credo rather than to the sublime meaning of these prayers: the service of God would take precedence over the love of God.”
― Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life

“There will be only saints in heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death or after purification in purgatory. No one enters heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin though it should be venial, must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself.”
― Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life

“As soon as a man seriously seeks truth and goodness, this intimate conversation with himself tends to become conversation with God. Little by little, instead of seeking himself in everything, instead of tending more or less consciously to make himself a center, man tends to seek God in everything, and to substitute for egoism love of God and of souls in Him. This constitutes the interior life. No sincere man will have any difficulty in recognizing it. The one thing necessary which Jesus spoke of to Martha and Mary consists in hearing the word of God and living by it.”
― Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life

“It is the purification of the intellect which prepares for contemplation.”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“St. Thomas sums up all this briefly: “Now the aspect under which our neighbor is to be loved, is God, since what we ought to love in our neighbor is that he may be in God. Hence it is clear that it is specifically the same act whereby we love God, and whereby we love our neighbor. Consequently the habit of charity extends not only to the love of God, but also to the love of our neighbor.”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“Thus trial causes hope to grow, and hope does not deceive us, for God does not abandon those who trust Him.”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“He humbled Himself... even to the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a name which is above all names.” Phil. 2:8 f.”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“Meekness disarms the violent.”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“Charity is patient.” I Cor. 13:4 Patience, says St. Thomas,1360 is a virtue attached to the virtue of fortitude, which hinders a man from departing from right reason illumined by faith by yielding to difficulties and to sadness. It makes him bear the evils of life with equanimity of soul, says St. Augustine,1361 without allowing himself to be troubled by vexations.”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“In your patience you shall possess your souls.” Luke 21:19”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“Let us remember that false prudence is tin, true acquired prudence is silver, infused prudence is gold, and the inspirations of the gift of counsel are diamonds, of the same order as the divine light. “He that followeth Me walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”1339”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“No one can know the true meaning of the language of spiritual writers if he is unable to explain it theologically; and, on the other hand, no one can know the sublimity of theology if he is ignorant of its relations to mysticism.”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“depends on the principle formulated by Aristotle and often recalled by St. Thomas: “The terms of language are the signs of our ideas, and our ideas are the similitude of realities.”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“She writes: “I see nothing and I see all; certitude is obtained in the darkness;”1166 that is, I see nothing determinate, but I see all the divine perfections united, fused in an ineffable manner in the eminence of the Deity.”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life

“Thus talent sometimes wishes to correct genius, as if the eaglet wished to teach the eagle to fly.”
― Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life: Prelude of Eternal Life