Quotes from Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange

Talent by itself does nothing but make a bit of noise.

We should note that mortification prepares for mental prayer, and the latter, in its turn, facilitates mortification. Therefore, prayer and mortification influence one another. Mortification and patience prepare for prayer through the purification and detachment they produce in us. They enable the person to take flight toward God, and this flight is prayer itself.

Man will be fully a person, a per se subsistens and a per se operans, only in so far as the life of reason and liberty dominates that of the senses and passions in him; otherwise he will remain like the animal, a simple individual, the slave of events and circumstances, always led by something else, incapable of guiding himself; he will be only a part, without being able to aspire to the whole.

To develop one's individuality is to live the egoistical life of the passions, to make oneself the centre of everything, and end finally by being the slave of a thousand passing goods which bring us a wretched momentary joy. Personality, on the contrary, increases as the soul rises above the sensible world and by intelligence and will binds itself more closely to what makes the life of the spirit.

Instead of dissipating our life in mere commotion, let us endeavor to recollect it so that our activity may be more profound, more consistent and lasting, and directed to eternity.

The Church is intolerant in principle because she believes; she is tolerant in practice because she loves. The enemies of the Church are tolerant in principle, because they do not believe, and intolerant in practice because they do not love.

St. Augustine says: "God who created you without yourself, will not sanctify you without yourself." Our consent is needed and likewise our obedience to the precepts. God's help is given us, he says again, not that our will should do nothing, but that it may act in a salutary and meritorious manner. Actual grace is constantly offered to us for the accomplishment of the duty of the present moment, just as air comes constantly into our lungs to permit us to breathe.

There will be only saints in heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death or after purification in purgatory. No one enters heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin though it should be venial, must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself.

The goal of society constituted in this way is consequently the common good, which is superior to the proper good of each individual, despite what individualism claims. The common good, nevertheless, ought not to absorb the proper good as communism claims. "The common good of the multitude is greater and more divine than that of an individual" (De Regno, Ch. IX). It is peace, the tranquility of order in the city or the nation.

There are two classes of people who hide themselves: the criminal who flees punishment, and the saint who through humility wishes to remain unknown.

Let us perform all our actions with the thought that God dwells in us. We shall thus be His temples, and He Himself will be our God, dwelling in us (cf. Eph. 15: 3).

the nearer we approach to God, the more we are drawn by Him.

Genuine strength of will, the effect of divine grace, is drawn from humble, trusting, and persevering prayer.

A reproach given with great kindness is often well received, whereas when given with sharpness it produces no results. Thus Christ tells us: "Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart.

Happy the old people who after long experience and many trials reach this superior simplicity of true wisdom, which they had glimpsed from a distance in their childhood! With this meaning it can be said that a beautiful life is a thought of youth realized in maturity.

We read in Ecclesiasticus also: "In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin.

The nearer a soul is to God, the more it deserves our esteem; the closer the ties that bit it to us, the more sensible is our love for it, and the more whole-hearted should be the devotion we show in all that concerns family, country, vocation, and friendship. Thus, instead of destroying patriotism, charity exalts it, as we see in the case of St. Joan of Arc or St. Louis.

The life of God is above the past, the present, and the future; it is measured by the single instant of immobile eternity.

As the bee knows how to find honey in flowers, the gift of wisdom draws lessons of divine goodness from everything.

Obscure faith enlightens us somewhat like the night, which, though surrounding us with shadows, allows us to see the stars, and by them the depths of the firmament. There is here a mingling of light and shade which is extremely beautiful. That we may see the stars, the sun must hide, night must begin. Amazingly, in the obscurity of night we see to a far greater distance than in the day; we see even the distant stars, which reveal to us the immense expanse of the heavens.

St. Thomas sums up all this briefly: "Now the aspect under which our neighbor is to be loved, is God, since what we ought to love in our neighbor is that he may be in God. Hence it is clear that it is specifically the same act whereby we love God, and whereby we love our neighbor. Consequently the habit of charity extends not only to the love of God, but also to the love of our neighbor.

In your patience you shall possess your souls." Luke 21:19

Charity is patient." I Cor. 13:4 Patience, says St. Thomas,1360 is a virtue attached to the virtue of fortitude, which hinders a man from departing from right reason illumined by faith by yielding to difficulties and to sadness. It makes him bear the evils of life with equanimity of soul, says St. Augustine,1361 without allowing himself to be troubled by vexations.

This gift prevents us from weakening, from letting ourselves be disheartened, and it lifts up our courage in the midst of difficulties.