Benedicta Ward Quotes

#1. Antony said to Poemen, 'Our great work is to lay the blame for our sins upon ourselves before God, and to expect to be tempted to our last breath.

Benedicta Ward

#2. Mathois said, 'The nearer a man comes to God, the more he sees himself to be a sinner. Isaiah the prophet saw the Lord and knew himself to be wretched and unclean (Is. 6:5).

Benedicta Ward

#3. Evagrius said, 'A wandering mind is strengthened by reading, and prayer. Passion is dampened down by hunger and work and solitude. Anger is repressed by psalmody and long-suffering and mercy. But all these should be at the proper times and in due measure.

Benedicta Ward

#4. The hermit said, 'This is the way to be strong: when temptations start to speak in your mind do not answer them but get up, pray, do penance, and say "Son of God, have mercy upon me."

Benedicta Ward

#5. The devil appeared to a monk disguised as an angel of light, and said to him, 'I am the angel Gabriel, and I have been sent to you.' But the monk said, 'Are you sure you weren't sent to someone else? I am not worthy to have an angel sent to me.' At that the devil vanished.

Benedicta Ward

#6. A monk was told that his father had died. He said to the messenger, "Do not blaspheme. My Father cannot die.

Benedicta Ward

#7. Macarius said also, 'If you are stirred to anger when you want to reprove someone, you are gratifying your own passions. Do not lose yourself in order to save another.

Benedicta Ward

#8. Daniel said, 'If the body is strong, the soul weakens. If the body weakens, the soul is strong.

Benedicta Ward

#9. Evagrius said, 'Cut the desire for many things out of your heart and so prevent your mind being dispersed and your stillness lost.

Benedicta Ward