I would like to be able to strongly reprimand you for having so little confidence in our Lord. You should not fear Him, this greatly offends Him Who is so good, so sweet, so kind and so full of tenderness and mercy toward us. You may stand before Him in complete embarrassment because of your poverty and abjectness, but this embarrassment should be that of the prodigal son, after his return—confident and full of tenderness. This is the way you should appear before Jesus, our good Father and Lord. You are still in fear of not loving Him. It is more likely, in these moments, my dearest, that you love Him the most and that He is closer to you than ever. Don’t measure your love of our Lord by the depth of your feelings; this is truly a small measure. Abandon yourself into His hands with confidence; your love will increase more and more, but you will not notice it, and that does not matter.
Ven. François-Marie-Jacob Libermann, quoted in Searching for and Maintaining Peace by Fr. Jacques Philippe
Sincere convictions and the ardent longing that others should share them can coexist with complete respect for every conscience and every conviction.
Élisabeth Leseur, from The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur, pg. 153
People in the world do not realize that one can be very detached from all human things and live a keen spiritual life, and yet find sweetness in the interests, occupations, and joys of life. However, it is only when one has rooted oneself in eternity that one can let one’s humble little barque float upon the surface of the waves and rejoice full in the view from earthly rivers. Storms no longer frighten one; the clear sky makes one more bold. The sun is always shining behind the clouds; the light, for all its beauty, does not conceal the eternal and splendid light that guides us to port and waits for us there.
Élisabeth Leseur, from The Secret Diary of Elisabeth Leseur, pg. 102
Do not say / "I love her for her smile — her look — her way / Of speaking gently, — for a trick of thought / That falls in well with mine, and certes brought / A sense of pleasant ease on such a day" — / For these things in themselves, Beloved, may / Be changed, or change for thee, — and love, so wrought, / May be unwrought so.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese, XIV
I could see / the whole span of human love / and its precipitous edges. / When someone slips over such an edge / he finds it very hard to get back, / and wanders alone below the road he should be on.
Karol Wojtyla, The Jeweler's Shop, 53