Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

“ But, amongst all who mourn, none shall be sooner consoled than those who weep for their own sins. In every other case, grieving over a trouble, far from being a remedy, only increases the evil itself. Sin is the only evil that can be cured by deploring it. Let us sinners, then, weep without ceasing. Let our eyes be turned into inexhaustible streams, whose incessant flow shall furrow our cheeks, as the Psalmist says. The remission of sins is the fruit of such holy tears. Ah! ten thousand times happy those who mourn their sins! ”

“ Blessed are those who desire justice as eagerly as they long for meat and drink when they are exhausted with hunger and thirst; for then shall they be filled. With what, indeed, should we be filled if not with justice? We shall be partly satisfied even in this life; for the just man will become more just, and the holy man more holy in return for his eager longing; but perfect satisfaction will come in heaven, where eternal justice will be given to us, together with the fulness of the love of God. ”

“ Fear, in all your good works, that your intention is not pure enough, nor sufficiently free from worldly motives. Let God alone see the merit of your actions; do good without reflecting on yourself. Be occupied solely with the work, so as never to think about what you may gain by it, but to leave all to the judgment of God. Thus, He alone will gaze upon you, and you will be hidden from your own sight.
'Sound not a trumpet before thee,’ [9] like those who are incessantly talking of their own sayings and doings. They are their own trumpeters, being so much afraid that they may escape notice. ”

“ If the sun were suddenly to disappear — that torch of the world to be extinguished in full noon; if the heavens were to fall on us with a crash, or to roll back from overhead like a self-revolving roof; if the earth gave way under our feet, and its firm foundation were in a moment reduced to powder: — how utterly should we be lost! Yet for the least of God’s commandments to be broken is a much worse misfortune and a much more complete loss of all things.
Suppose they are broken, will Jesus Christ — who has said that they shall be kept — be therefore accounted a deceiver? ”

“ Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' All this is a continuous act of love. To sanctify the name of God means to glorify Him in all things, and to long for nothing but His glory. To desire His kingdom means to wish with one’s whole heart to be subject to Him in all things, and to have Him reign not only over us, but over all creatures. His kingdom is in heaven ”

“ These impure spirits sully afresh the dwelling purged by penance, and there establish their home: — ‘and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.’ Now, if after each relapse our state becomes worse, if the devil’s yoke grows heavier, if we plunge deeper and deeper into evil, and our strength incessantly diminishes, where shall we be at last, and how come forth from the abyss? God can draw us out: — that we know; but if there is nothing to be despaired of, there is everything to be feared. ”

“ Let us, then, love such a Father. Let us say over and over again, Our Father, Our Father, Our Father! Shall we never love you? Shall we never be like true children, pierced to the heart by your fatherly tenderness? ”

“ By ‘fasting' must here be understood all other austerities that are used to mortify the body. They must be carefully hidden. ‘Be not, like the hypocrites, sad.' ‘Anoint thy head and wash thy face.’ That is, we are to show meekness and joy to everyone; we are not to be like people who bear austerities impatiently, and who seem, by treating all those they come across harshly and irritably, as if they laid the blame of their sufferings on them. Austerity to ourselves ought to make us gentler and more docile: — to correct, and not to increase, bad temper. ”

“ To see so perfect an object, and to love it, are one and the same thing. The man who is pure in heart, then, will behold and love; but he will also be loved; he will sing the praises of God whom he is to see and love for ever. He will be filled with the abundance of his dwelling-place, and intoxicated with the torrent of his delights. Happy being! But this can only be for the pure in heart, and hence he is blessed. ”

“ At the word ' blessed ’ the heart swells with joy; when 'poverty ’ is named it contracts; but it expands afresh at the sound of 'kingdom' still more when it is the ' Kingdom of Heaven.’ For who would not suffer for the sake of such a kingdom : a realm to be enjoyed in company with God Himself, and inseparably from Him: — eternal, spiritual, abounding in all things, and whence all trouble is banished for ever? ”

“ Here, then, is the true Christian, the real just man. He believes himself to have done nothing; for, should he think himself virtuous enough, he is not virtuous at all. He must therefore be incessantly advancing and going forth from one state to another. ‘Be you therefore perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.’ [9] At least have the will to be so; for to rest upon what one has done, as if one thought it sufficient, is, in fact, to renounce the attainment of true justice. ”

“ God chooses to be our Father by a special adoption. He has an only Son Who is equal to Him, and in Whom He is well pleased, but He adopts sinners. Men adopt children only when they have none of their own; God, Who had such a Son as this, nevertheless adopts us. Adoption is an effect of love, for we choose whom we will adopt; Nature bestows other children, but love alone makes adopted ones. God, Who loves His only begotten Son with the whole of His love, and to infinity, extends to us the love He bears to Him. ”

“ He will rather, of his own accord, go two other miles with those who shall have forced him to go one than seek to do justice to himself, or dream of taking vengeance for any violence that may have been offered to him. Peace of heart is dearer to him than the possession of whatsoever things may have been unjustly snatched away; and as to failing in charity for the sake of getting back anything he has been deprived of, he would not have it at the price. Oh, how pure and lovable is Christian and Evangelical doctrine ”

“ The sun, when it rises, bears witness to His all-embracing goodness, for it appears no later, nor with any less brilliant colours, for the enemies of God than for His friends. Do you, then, at sunrise adore the God of pardon; and never show an ungracious countenance to your neighbour when the heavens, and God himself — if one may say so — look on him with such a gentle and serene one. ”

“ Here, then, we see this second defect of the Jews’ ‘justice’: — the thinking that we are just by our own merit; which defect makes such virtue impure, and — as St Paul calls it — nothing but dung, because it is nothing but pride. Let us, then, make it our study to avoid this spirit, by humbly attributing to God whatever little good we may do.
But the third defect of justice in the Jewish people was that its actual works were exceedingly imperfect in comparison with the perfection to which man is raised by the Gospel. ”

“ BLESSED are they that suffer persecution for Justice’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.’ All those who suffer for having done right — for having set a good example — for having obeyed with simplicity — or for having put people who live irregularly to shame, so that the blame of causing others to be justly reproved is laid upon them, suffer persecution for Justice’ sake. Those also who daily carry their cross, and constantly persecute their own evil desires, suffer persecution for Justice’ sake. ”

“ Are we, then, evil even to our own children? This is what the Son of God would have us to understand here; and experience proves only too clearly that it is so, and that we think of ourselves rather than of them in the very goods that we bestow upon them. God alone, Who is generosity itself and the very essence of goodness, can do nothing but good to those who have recourse to Him. ”

“ God takes pleasure in seeing Himself reflected in it, as in a highly-polished glass, in all His beauty; and, piercing it with His rays, He makes the mirror itself appear all resplendent as a sun. God’s own purity then becomes united to that which He Himself has worked in us; and our illuminated sight beholds Him shining within our souls and lighting them up with an everlasting radiance. ”

“ Who could fail to love Him Who makes us not only His heirs, but co-heirs with His beloved Son? And who could fail to desire that lovely inheritance? It is given only to those who love Him. Our inheritance is God Himself: He is our one good and our sole reward. ”

“ You would still have ‘ a kingdom.’ And what Kingdom? God’s own. ‘ Fear not, little flock, for God will give you His Kingdom.’ That is, not one intended for the great of this world, but a kingdom meant for the poor and humble: — for that little flock that the world counts as nothing, but on which the Father looks down: — which, in fact, seems to be actually nothing in comparison with the enormous multitude, and the brilliant appearance, of the wicked. Yet it is for the sake of this ‘little flock’ that God preserves the rest of the world. ”

“ He who both listens and performs — in whom virtue becomes a habit by force of practice — is 'the wise man who built his house upon a rock.' Temptations may come — disease may enfeeble — every sort of trial may afflict that soul; but it will not succumb. Those, on the contrary, who only listen — who take delight in the beauty or truth of the Sacred Word, without putting it into practice, or doing so but imperfectly — 'have built their house upon the sand,’ and it will fall upon the first occasion, 'and great ’ will be ' the fall thereof.’ [1] ”

“ Come, then, ye holy souls — come to Jesus! Desire — drink — be satisfied! Fear not that this heavenly stream will ever fail you; the fountain is greater than your thirst; its abundance far beyond your need. ”

“ Here, then, we find three degrees of charity towards our enemies — to love them, to do them good, to pray for them. The first of these produces the second; if we love, we give. The last is commonly believed to be the easiest, but as a matter of fact it is the most difficult, because it has to be done purely for the sake of God; and nothing ought to be more sincere, hearty, or genuine than what we offer to Him Who sees even to the very depths of the heart. ”

“ Let the Christian soul remind itself of this with regard to every point of conduct. What reward, O Christian woman, do you deserve for merely despising vain ornaments? The heathen have despised them. And what great glory will you have for despising riches? ”

“ We make gods for ourselves out of all the objects we love. Every vicious attachment is idolatry: — and who would willingly serve an idol, and transfer the glory due to God to a false divinity? The very thought horrifies one; and yet it is what everybody, who loves anything more than God, does. ”

“ Of what use to us is Christianity, if we lead heathen lives? Yet, alas! how much paganism there is amongst the faithful: — how many Christians living as though they knew not God! There exists, in fact, no God for them. Where shall we find tears enough wherewith to mourn our blindness? ”

“ Those who count themselves happy at being allowed to suffer poverty, grief, and misfortune for ‘justice sake’ willingly enter in by the narrow gate; and those who hunger for justice are not satisfied to say 'Lord, Lord!' with their lips, but feed their hearts on God’s Truth, and so build their house firmly on a rock. ”

“ Our heart is pure, moreover, when we keep our good deeds for the eyes of God alone; when we are content to be seen by Him, and do not make virtue serve as a cloak for deceiving the world and attracting the notice and love of our fellows. ”

“ You are not to look at a woman with an evil thought — that is, 'Blessed are the pure in heart'; and your heart will be pure when you have purged it of all sensual desires. Hence, those are happy who spend their lives in mourning and in a saving sadness rather than in pleasures that intoxicate. ”

“ He would have us use natural things in a higher way than we are inclined to do, and with a more penetrating eye, as the Image of God. The heavens are His throne; the earth is His footstool; the capital of a kingdom is the seat of His Empire; the sun rises and the rain falls to assure us of His goodness. ”

“ At each fresh Truth proposed we must pause a little to make an act of Faith: — 'I believe; that is true; He who says it is Truth itself.’
Thus we shall look at each particular Truth that He reveals as a portion of that Truth which is Jesus Christ Himself: that is to say, which is God Himself; but God coming near to us — communicating and uniting Himself to us : — for this is what Jesus Christ is. ”

“ Rejoice in this deficiency: accept with gladness and consolation this portion of poverty that has fallen to your lot. Love it, as a mark of Christianity and an imitation of Christ. Love your need and your nakedness. ”

“ But Christ, in order to show how slight a thing is human justice compared to Divine, allots the penalty of ‘judgment’ — that is, the extreme punishment inflicted by human judgments — to the lowest degree of injury: to simple anger. He means by this that anger against a brother is in itself a sin worthy of death before God. Hence we must not doubt that a mortal sin is committed when anybody remains voluntarily estranged from his brother, which is the case when we keep up anger against him, because then anger is turned into hate. ”