Ungrateful soul, not to forego its own miserable gratifications, it consented to lose God. - Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

He who builds a house for himself takes great pains to make it commodious, airy, and handsome, and says: “I labour and give myself a great deal of trouble about this house, because I shall have to live in it all my life.” And yet how little is the house of eternity thought of!

The hope of those who commit sin because God is forgiving, is an abomination in his sight: their hope, says holy Job, is an abomination. Hence the sinner, by such hope, provokes God to chastise him the sooner, as that servant would provoke his master, who, because his master was good, took advantage of his goodness to behave ill.

Prayer must be humble: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Here St. James tells us that God does not listen to the prayers of the proud, but resists them; while, on the other hand, he is always ready to hear the prayers of the humble.