John of St. Samson Quotes

Whoever refuses to follow Christ in His poverty will never possess Him in the abundance of His graces and virtues in this life, nor in His glory in the next. To possess nothing and to be nothing is to be full of God.

The obedience of those, purified in soul and body in the furnace of humiliation, is of infinite worth to God.

The more a person strives after God, the more earnest he will become--the les he will converse with men.

Make use of this very simple aspiration: you and I, my love, you and I, you and I, and never another nor more! To which you could add some burning words like: "since you are entirely good and all goodness itself; since you are entirely glorious and all glory itself; since you are entirely holy and all holiness itself!

We have been created in order to return to God through love, through his own love. In us it must be ardent, pure and unceasingly active, so that we expend all our energies and are consumed by it. Actually, we shall never be able to do or give anything that can sufficiently recompense him who is infinite Love. Before him every creature is deceitful, and in comparison with him, man is nothing. p. 140

Those who apply themselves more ardently to the practice of love, by that very face bring more devils upon their heads.

The heavenly Bridegroom allows small failings and common weaknesses in order to deliver his loved ones from pride.

True solitude is in the soul. The soul has as its desert and homeland God Himself, the father and teacher of all souls

Whether great attraction and strong interior occupations are of nature or of grace can be known by the fact that they are accompanied by perfect rest or subtle disquiet.

Modesty enables physical deformity.

When the soul has been deeply touched, it is by love alone that it desires to be intimately joined to God. This is why we advocate reducing ardent aspiration to a few words, even to the mere word ‘love’. This love sends forth ardent and fiery flames with all its strength. As a result. A blazing divine fire is enkindled in the soul. It is in this way that God stirs up the soul and draws it strongly inward. p. 86

The sight of the intuitive and ravishing Beauty of God holds her as if asleep in its delectable bosom...This state surpasses all human definition and comparison.

Aspiration practiced as a familiar, loving respectful conversation with God, is such an excellent method, that, by means of it, one soon arrives at the summit of all perfection and falls in love with love. p. 74

The forgetting of all things and of one's self, combined with contemplation, makes a man divine

Such is the effect of love's flood rushing into its lovers. It sweeps them away, ravishes them, and swamps them in its waves. These people become love itself — its spirit, its divinity — insofar as it is possible for any creature in this life.