St. Philip Neri said.....

[Denise]

"The love which our Blessed Lady had for God was so great, that she suffered keenly through her desire of union with Him; hence the Eternal Father, to console her, sent her His only and beloved Son."

[Denise]

"If you wish to come where I am going, that is, to glory, you must come down this road, that is, through thorns."

[Denise]

"Before communion, we ought to exercise ourselves in many acts of virtue."

[Denise]

"Prayer and communion are not to be made or desired for the sake of the devotion we feel in them, for that is seeking self, and not God; but we must be frequent in both the one and the other in order to become humble, obedient, gentle, and patient."

[Denise]

"When we see these virtues--humility, obedience, gentleness, and patience--in a man, then we know that he has really gathered the fruit of prayer and of communion."

[Denise]

"Our sweet Jesus, through the excess of His love and liberality, has left Himself to us in the Most Holy Sacrament."

[Denise]

"Let all go to the Eucharistic Table with a great desire for that Sacred Food. Sitientes! Sitientes! (Thirsting)"

[Denise]

"To feel any displeasure because we are refused the Communion, is a sign of hardiness, pride, and a want of mortification."

[Denise]

"Those who are going to Communion should prepare themselves for more temptations than usual, for the Lord will not have us stand idle."

[Denise]

"It is a good thing, during the week that follows our communion-day, to do something more than usual; for example, to say five Our Fathers and Hail Mary's with our arms extended, or an extra rosary."

I mentioned here before that when I was a teenager we prayed the The Franciscan Crown (or Seraphic Rosary), which is a rosary consisting of seven decades, every night during Lent with our arms extended as though hanging on a cross. It was painful and wasn't easy and I didn't particularly care to do that, but now as I think back on it I am hoping that we received many graces from this. ✝

[Denise]

"It is not a good thing to load ourselves with many spiritual exercises; it is better to undertake a little, and go on with it: for if the devil can persuade us to omit an exercise once, he will easily get us to omit it the second time, and the third, until at last all our pious practices will melt away."

[Denise]

"We must take care of little faults: for he who once begins to go backward, and to make light of such defects, brings a sort of grossness over his conscience, and then goes wrong altogether."

[Denise]

"The servant of God ought to seek knowledge, but never to show it or make a parade of it."

[Denise]

"Let us always go to confession with sincerity, and take this as our rule - Never out of human respect to conceal anything from our confessor, however inconsiderable it may be."

[Denise]

"He who conceals a grave sin in confession, is completely in the devil’s hands."