Excerpts from famous Catholic people

These are some beautiful excerpts from St Pio and Fulton Sheen:

St Pio

There are such sublime joys and such deep sufferings that words cannot express them. Silence is the last resort of the soul in ineffable joy as in extreme oppression.

(I have yet to blog about our trip and my silent retreat, much less to reply to an email on how they went. This excerpt explains why, I guess. Everything is stored in my heart, from the proceedings to the musings. On the other hand, I am now not so regular at updating my own personal journal. Sometimes, the sadness is so extreme that I can't bring myself to write about it. It gets too painful halfway through writing.)

Fulton Sheen

Silence is not dependent upon a place but upon a state of mind. It is not based on where we are but what we are thinking about. It is being alone as far as the world is concerned, even though one is in the very midst of it - an activity by which every faculty of the heart and mind and soul is bent inward, awaiting the voice of God.

(I can't possibly go for a silent retreat everyday or extend the duration of the one I went to, but the seeds of the one I attended had been sown within me. I realised that the silence allowed me to hear God and appreciate His gift of nature to us. His words just flowed into my mind. Thus, I bring that experience with me. I am blessed with the communicative experience between God and me even when I am in a secular setting. Being alone does not mean being lonely because God is in me. This is the difference in perception between we Catholics and others.)

Satan on the mount of temptation tried to induce Our Lord to a short cut of saving men, and not by the Cross of Redemption. Patience is not absence of action. It waits for the right time to act, for the right principles and in the right way. It is a result of thought.

(Knowing the potential consequences of Jesus's other option is chilling. If he had not chosen the Cross, we wouldn't have known such unconditional love and great salvation. Patience is then not passivity or mere thoughts, but awaiting the promptings of the Holy Spirit to act. Perhaps this can explain my journey towards discerning my vocation....)