Ignatius Loyola famous quotes

It is not hard to obey when we love the one whom we obey.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Catholic

If God gives you an abundant harvest of trials, it is a sign of great holiness which He desires you to attain. Do you want to become a great saint? Ask God to send you many sufferings. The flame of Divine Love never rises higher than when fed with the wood of the Cross, which the infinite charity of the Savior used to finish His sacrifice. All the pleasures of the world are nothing compared with the sweetness found in the gall and vinegar offered to Jesus Christ. That is, hard and painful things endured for Jesus Christ and with Jesus Christ.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Jesus #Sacrifice #Flames

He who carries God in his heart bears Heaven with him wherever he goes.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Heart #Heaven #Bears

After you have made a decision that is pleasing to God, the Devil may try to make you have second thoughts. Intensify your prayer time, meditation, and good deeds. For if Satan's temptations merely cause you to increase your efforts to grow in holiness, he'll have an incentive to leave you alone.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Prayer #Effort #Meditation

Teach us to give and not to count the cost.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Generosity #Giving #Cost

One of the most admirable effects of Holy Communion is to preserve the soul from sin, and to help those who fall through weakness to rise again. It is much more profitable, then, to approach this divine Sacrament with love, respect, and confidence, than to remain away through an excess of fear and scrupulosity.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Fall #Soul #Weakness

Remember that bodily exercise, when it is well ordered, as I have said, is also prayer by means of which you can please God our Lord.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Prayer #Mean #Exercise

There is no doubt that God will never be wanting to us, provided that He finds in us that humility which makes us worthy of His gifts, the desire of possessing them, and the promptitude to co-operate industriously with the graces He gives us.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Humility #Giving #Grace

Let your modesty be a sufficient incitement, yea, an exhortation to everyone to be at peace on their merely looking at you.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Catholic #Modesty #Incitement

The servant of God earns half a doctorate through illness
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Half #Illness #Servant

We must speak to God as a friend speaks to his friend, servant to his master; now asking some favor, now acknowledging our faults, and communicating to Him all that concerns us, our thoughts, our fears, our projects, our desires, and in all things seeking His counsel.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Prayer #Desire #Favors

Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will. All that I am and all that I possess You have given me. I surrender it all to You to be disposed of according to Your will. Give me only Your love and Your grace; with these I will be rich enough, and will desire nothing more.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Memories #Giving #Grace

He who goes about to reform the world must begin with himself, or he loses his labor.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Reform #World #Labor

The enemy is like a woman, weak in face of opposition, but correspondingly strong when not opposed. In a quarrel with a man, it is natural for a woman to lose heart and run away when he faces up to her; on the other hand, if the man begins to be afraid and to give ground, her rage, vindictiveness and fury overflow and know no limit.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Running #Strong #Heart

No idle word should be uttered. I understand a word to be idle when it serves no good purpose, either for myself or for another, and was not intended to do so.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Saint #Purpose #Should

O my God, teach me to be generous to serve you as you deserve to be served to give without counting the cost to fight without fear of being wounded to work without seeking rest and to spend myself without expecting any reward but the knowledge that I am doing your holy will. Amen
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Fighting #Giving #Cost

For those who love, nothing is too difficult, especially when it is done for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Jesus #Done #Christ

God our Lord would have us look to the Giver and love Him more than His gift, keeping Him always before our eyes, in our hearts, and in our thoughts.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Heart #Eye #And Love

It is one thing to be eloquent and charming in profane speech, and another when the one speaking as a religious.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Religious #Speech #Charming

May God our Lord never let me harm anyone when I cannot help him!
-- Ignatius Loyola

#May #Helping #Lord

SPIRITUAL EXERCISES whereby to conquer oneself, and order one's life, without being influenced in one's decision by any inordinate affection.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Spiritual #Exercise #Order

Calisto, a companion of Ignatius, and who on recovering from a severe illness had heard of the imprisonment of Ignatius, hastened from Segnovia, where he was staying, and came to Alcala, that he, too, might be cast into prison.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Might #Prison #Illness

Realize that illness and other temporal setbacks often come to us from the hand of God our Lord, and are sent to help us know ourselves better, to free ourselves of the love of created things, and to reflect on the brevity of this life and, thus, to prepare ourselves for the life which is without end.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Hands #Helping #Realizing

Be generous to the poor orphans and those in need. The man to whom our Lord has been liberal ought not to be stingy. We shall one day find in Heaven as much rest and joy as we ourselves have dispensed in this life.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Men #Joy #Heaven

Concerning the harsh treatment of the body for our Lord's sake, I would say, avoid anything that would cause the shedding even of a drop of blood.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Blood #Body #Sake

It is proper to ask for sorrow with Christ in sorrow, anguish with Christ in anguish, tears and deep grief because of the great affliction Christ endures for me.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Grief #Sorrow #Tears

The principal end both of my father and of myself in the conquest of India... has been the propagation of the holy Catholic faith.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Father #Catholic #India

So with that will prompt and prepared to serve all those whom I perceive to be servants of my Lord, I will speak of three things with simplicity and love as if I were speaking to my own soul.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Simplicity #Soul #And Love

If our church is not marked by caring for the poor, the oppressed, the hungry, we are guilty of heresy.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Caring #Church #Guilty

What seems to me white, I will believe black if the hierarchical Church so defines.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Believe #White #Black

To withdraw from creatures and repose with Jesus in the Tabernacle is my delight; there I can hide myself and seek rest. There I find a life which I cannot describe, a joy which I cannot make others comprehend, a peace such as is found only under the hospitable roof of our best Friend.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Jesus #Joy #Delight

Discouragement is not from God.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Faith #Faith In God #Discouragement

Finding God in All Things.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Awareness #Finding God #Findings

We should always be disposed to believe that that which appears white is really black, if the hierarchy of the Church so decides.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Fake People #Believe #White

Love ought to show itself in deeds more than in words.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Deeds #Shows

Let me look at the foulness and ugliness of my body. Let me see myself as an ulcerous sore running with every horrible and disgusting poison.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Running #Poison #Looks

The safest and most suitable form of penance seems to be that which causes pain in the flesh but does not penetrate to the bones, that is, which causes suffering but not sickness.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Pain #Suffering #Doe

To have prevented one single sin is reward enough for the labors and efforts of a whole lifetime.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Effort #Rewards #Sin

Dearest Lord, teach me to be generous; teach me to serve you as you deserve; to give and not to count the cost.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Giving #Cost #Lord

A person with imprecise ideas can understand little and be of less help to others.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Ideas #Littles #Helping

Imagine that leader of all the enemy, in that great plain of Babylon, sitting on a sort of throne of smoking flame, a horrible and terrifying sight. Watch him calling together countless devils, to despatch them into different cities till the whole world is covered, forgetting no province or locality, no class or single individual.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Sight #Flames #Class

The picture. A great plain, comprising the entire Jerusalem district, where is the supreme Commander-in-Chief of the forces of good, Christ our Lord: another plain near Babylon, where Lucifer is, at the head of the enemy.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Enemy #Jerusalem #Christ

The more completely we focus our attention on our Creator and Lord, the less chance there is of our being distracted by creatures.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Focus #Attention #Chance

We should not have a petty regard for God's gifts, though we may and should despise our own imperfections.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Imperfection #May #Should

All the honey that can be gathered from the flowers of this world has less sweetness than the vinegar and gall of Jesus Christ our Lord.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Jesus #Flower #World

You have given it all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and grace. That is enough for me.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Faith #Inspiration #Giving

Above all, remember that God looks for solid virtues in us, such as patience, humility, obedience, abnegation of your own will - that is, the good will to serve Him and our neighbor in Him. His providence allows us other devotions only insofar as He sees that they are useful to us.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Humility #Looks #Remember

Soul of Christ, sanctify me. Body of Christ, save me. Blood of Christ, inebriate me. Water from the side of Christ, wash me. Passion of Christ, strengthen me. O good Jesus, hear me. Within Thy wounds hide me. Permit me not to be separated from Thee. From the wicked foe defend me. At the hour of my death call me. And bid me come to Thee. That with Thy saints I may praise Thee For ever and ever. Amen.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Jesus #Passion #Blood

Teach us, Good Lord, to give and not count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labor and not to ask for any reward save that of knowing that we do thy will.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Fighting #Knowing #Giving

Among the many signs of a lively faith and hope we have in eternal life, one of the surest is not being overly sad at the death of those whom we dearly love in our Lord.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Hope And Faith #Lord #Eternal Life

May it please Christ our Lord to grant us true humility and abnegation of will and judgment, so that we may deserve to begin to be His disciples.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Humility #May #Judgment

May the perfect grace and eternal love of Christ our Lord be our never-failing protection and help.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Perfect #Grace #Eternal Love

Occupy yourself in beholding and bewailing your own imperfections rather than contemplating the imperfections of others.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Imperfection #Contemplating

Remember that the good angels do what they can to preserve men from sin and obtain God's honor. But they do not lose courage when men fail.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Angel #Men #Honor

Spiritual infirmities such as tepidity are caused, not only by chills but also by fevers, that is, by excessive zeal.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Spiritual #Fever #Chill

Considering that the blessed life we so long for consists in an intimate and true love of God Our Creator and Lord, which binds and obliges us all to a sincere love.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#True Love #Blessed #Long

If God causes you to suffer much it is a sign that He has great designs for you and that He certainly intends to make you a saint. And if you wish to become a great saint, entreat Him yourself to give you much opportunity for suffering; for there is no wood better to kindle the fire of holy love than the wood of the cross, which Christ used for His own great sacrifice of boundless charity.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Faith #Inspiration #Sacrifice

Few souls understand what God would effect in them if they should give themselves entirely into his hands and allow his grace to act.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#Faith #Inspiration #Hands

True, I am in love with suffering, but I do not know if I deserve the honor.
-- Ignatius Loyola

#True Love #Honor #Suffering