On faith...

Spiritual Reflections

"It is an error to think that faith is so entirely a gift of God that it is not in our power to increase and strengthen it. Some admit that they have very little faith and excuse themselves on this account for their bad lives. Therefore when they are reproached for having so little faith, it makes no more impression upon them than if you told them they had not the gift of miracles. They admire faith in the saints as a purely gratuitous grace; they persuade themselves that they can do nothing to increase their own faith and that the only thing to do is to remain passive until God grants them that favor; they will make no effort to grow in faith, saying that to do so is quite useless. "I know my faith is weak," they say, "but it is no good me trying to rekindle it; I cannot do it. I wish I were like those saints who without any trouble were detached from everything but God. What is the good of me wishing for these things if God does not intend to give them to me?"
We must get rid of these ideas, see why it is our faith is so weak, and acknowledge that it is our own fault and that, whatever we may say, the truth is that we do not believe because we do not wish to believe.
Of all states to be in, the most wretched is that of a Christian who has but little faith. It would be better to have none because such a one suffers more even in his pleasures than a man of real faith does in the greatest trials: the little he possesses is enough to damn him but not enough to save him. To him faith is like a light which disturbs the rest one finds in darkness and not like the light which brings the joy of day."
--The Spiritual Direction of St. Claude De La Colombiere (1998, Ignatius Press); Translated and arranged by Mother M. Philip, I.B.V.M (1934), the Bar Convent, York, England

"My Immaculate Heart is the way which leads you to His reign. In fact, the triumph of my Immaculate Heart will coincide with the triumph of my Son, Jesus, in His glorious reign of holiness and of grace, of love and of justice, of mercy and of peace, which will be established in the whole world.
For this reason I am inviting you today to prayer and to trust; I am calling you to peace of heart and to joy because the glorious reign of the Lord Jesus is already at the gates..."
--To the Priests-Our Lady's Beloved Sons, MMP [2009]; Interior Locutions to Father Stefano Gobbi, MMp, [1973-97]. #339, pp.488-89.