It is the Sacrament of Love that excites the soul to ardent prayer. It stirs up the virtue of impetration and, as it were, forces God to grant our petition. It deepens the abyss of humility, above all it enkindles the flame of love in the heart; hence the Sacrament is the Gift of gifts, and the Grace of graces

Angela of Foligno

Categorized in : Heart Prayer Humility

This Sacrament really contains You, O my God, You whom the Angels adore, in whose presence the Spirits and mighty Powers tremble. Oh! if we could only see You clearly as they do, with what reverence would we approach this Sacrament, with what humility would we receive You.

Angela of Foligno

angel humility god

Without humility of heart all the other virtues by which one runs toward God seem - and are - absolutely worthless.

Angela of Foligno

humility heart running

Humility exists only in those who are poor enough to see that they possess nothing of their own.

Angela of Foligno

poor humility enough

If we but paused for a moment to consider attentively what takes place in this Sacrament, I am sure that the thought of Christ's love for us would transform the coldness of our hearts into a fire of love and gratitude.

Angela of Foligno

fire-of-love gratitude heart

No one can be saved without divine light. Divine light causes us to begin and to make progress, and it leads us to the summit of perfection. Therefore if you want to begin and to receive this divine light, pray. If you have begun to make progress and want this light to be intensified within you, pray. And if you have reached the summit of perfection, and want to be super-illumined so as to remain in that state, pray.

Angela of Foligno

progress light perfection

Our perfection certainly consists in knowing God and ourselves.

Angela of Foligno

knowing perfection god

This whole world is full of God!

Angela of Foligno

whole god world

O my soul, how can you refrain from plunging yourself ever deeper and deeper into the love of Christ, who did not forget you in life or in death, but who willed to give Himself wholly to you, and to unite you to Himself forever?

Angela of Foligno

soul forever giving

... God cometh sometimes unto the soul when it hath neither called, nor prayed unto, nor summoned Him. And He doth instil into the soul a fire and a love and a sweetness not customary, wherein it doth greatly delight and rejoice ... Thus doth the soul feel that God is mingled with it and hath made companionship with it.

Angela of Foligno

delight soul fire

In that time and by God's will there died my mother, who was a great hindrance unto me in following the way of God; my husband died likewise, and in a short time there also died all my children. And because I had commenced to follow the aforesaid way and had prayed God that He would rid me of them, I had great consolation of their deaths, albeit I did also feel some grief.

Angela of Foligno

family husband mother

So great was my joy in God that I took no heed of looking at the angels and the saints, because all their goodness and all their beauty was from Him and in Him.

Angela of Foligno

angel god joy

By virtue of love is the lover transformed in the beloved and the beloved transformed in the lover.

Angela of Foligno

beloved lovers love-is

The Sacrament [of the Holy Eucharist] is the Gift of gifts, and the Grace of graces. When the almighty and eternal God comes to us with all the perfection of His thrice holy humanity and His divinity, He surely does not come empty-handed.

Angela of Foligno

holy-eucharist humanity perfection

Holy Scripture is so exalted that there is no one in the world ... wise enough to understand it so fully that his intellect is not overcome by it. Nevertheless, man can stammer something about it.

Angela of Foligno

wise bible men

There is neither father, nor mother, nor son, nor any other person whatsoever who can embrace the object beloved with so great a love as that wherewith God embraceth the soul.

Angela of Foligno

mother father son

Our condition is most noble, being so beloved of the Most High God that He was willing to die for our sake- which He would not have done if man had not been a most noble creature and of great worth.

Angela of Foligno

noble god men