Quotes About Detachment

Do not let your heart be chained to creatures who have no claim to it. Detach from the will and desire for the things of the world. Do not permit the love of temporal goods to be an obstacle to you and God. Destroy every attachment which hinders you from following God and becoming like God. Woe to them that make this wretched life the object of their love. Woe to them who cling closely to this perishable life and care nothing for the kingdom of God. Do not look to what pleases the flesh nor what flourishes in this life for a time. Put all hopes and aims in the good things of eternity.

Detach me from the things of this world and give me a determined resolution to trample them beneath my feet should they become a danger to my eternal salvation.

One of the most asked questions I receive is "What does 'poor in spirit' mean?" Simply put, being "poor in spirit" means being detached from things. A dictionary definition of detachment might be something like this: "the withholding of undue affection for creatures for the sake of the Creator." A normal condition for growth in holiness is the detachment from any created good that is an obstacle to our service to God and union with Him. Being detached is being able to possess goods without being possessed by them. It means seeing material things only as means for serving God and serving the needs of others. It means loving creatures only insofar as they help you to unite to God.

Although this list is by no means exhaustive, it is a large collection of quotes pertaining to detachment that I have collected over the last five years. These quotes have all been shared on my Instagram page, either as posts or as stories, and I have collected them here for convenience. I have tried to arrange them in an orderly fashion, beginning with Scripture, then the Early Church, then the Doctors of the Church, and so on.

Scriptural Quotes About Detachment

Luke 12:15 "And He said to them, 'Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." 1 Timothy 6:7-8

"For we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these." Luke 12:16-21: "And he spoke a similitude to them, saying: The land of a certain rich man brought forth plenty of fruits. And he thought within himself, saying: What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said: This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and will build greater; and into them will I gather all things that are grown to me, and my goods. And I will say to my soul: Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thy rest; eat, drink, make good cheer. But God said to him: Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee: and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God." Acts 20:35:

"In all things I have shown you that by so toiling one must help the weak remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

Luke 21:32-36:

"Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be weighed down with carousing, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man."

Matthew 6:19-21

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Matthew 19:28-29

"Amen I say to you, that you who have left all things and followed me shall receive a hundred-fold, and shall possess life everlasting." Colossians 3:2

"Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth." Romans 12:2

"Be not conformed to this world." Ecclesiasticus 31:8-9

"Blessed is the man who lives unreproved, who has no greed for gold and puts no trust in his store of riches. Show us such a man and we will be loud in his praise; here is a life to wonder at." 2 Timothy 2

"No man, being a soldier to God, entangles himself with worldly business, that he may please Him to Whom he has engaged himself." Col 3:1-2

“If you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth.” 1 John 2:15

"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him." Early Church St. James: “As long as we are occupied with the things of the world, as long as our soul is fettered with possessions and revenues, we cannot think freely of God.” (Letter 71:3)

St. Jerome:

“He who is trustworthy over a little sum, that is over material things, ‘is trustworthy over a greater,’ that is spiritual things. But ‘he who plays false over a little sum’ so that he refuses his brethren the use of goods created by God for all, such a one will also play false in his distribution of spiritual wealth. He will dispense the Lord’s teaching according to men’s importance, not their needs. If you do not use well the material riches which perish, who will entrust to you the true and everlasting riches of divine doctrine?”

St. Basil the Great: "Take heed, that is, Look around you on all sides, keeping an ever watchful eye to the guardianship of your soul. He says not, Take heed to your own or to the things around, but to yourselves. For you are mind and spirit, your body is only of sense. Around you are riches, arts, and all the appendages of life, you must not mind these, but your soul, of which you must take especial care. .... But the reason why we should take heed He adds as follows, Lest at any time your hearts be overcharged . But carefulness, or the care of this life, although it seems to have nothing unlawful in it, nevertheless if it conduce not to religion, must be avoided. And the reason why He said this He shows by what comes next, And so that day come upon you unawares. St. John Chrysostom:

"A rich man is not one who has much but who gives much. For what he gives away remains his forever."

"If you would rise, shun luxury, for luxury lowers and degrades."

"The only person who is free is the one who lives for Christ."

"What folly to leave our goods where we cannot stay, instead of sending them before us where we are going: to heaven!" St. Cyril of Jerusalem:

"The purpose of clothing is to keep you warm in the winter and to cover your nakedness, not to serve your vanity." Pope St. Clement I: "The world and the world to come are two enemies. We cannot therefore be friends to both, but we must decide which we will forsake and which we will enjoy." St. Ignatius of Antioch: "Do not have Jesus Christ on your lips and the world in your hearts."

St. Cyprian:

“Put Christ first, because He put us first, and let nothing deter us from loving Him.”

St. Ambrose:

"Whoever separates himself from Christ is exiled from his country, is a citizen of the world." St. Augustine:

"Christ is not valued at all unless He is valued above all."

"If I wanted to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ."

"The love of worldly possessions is a sort of bird line which entangles the soul and precents it flying to God." "Seek what suffices, seek what is enough, and don't desire more. Whatever goes beyond that produces anxiety, not relief: it will weigh you down instead of lifting you up."

"Henceforward, O Lord, it is You alone whom I love, follow, seek, and serve. You alone have the right to command, and to You alone do I wish to be subject."

"You, O Lord, art my love! I love You with all the ardor of my heart, and I trample underfoot all earthly attractions, resolving to pass them by."

"We must therefore get to work and follow the Lord; we must break the chains which impede our following Him."

"...I know only one thing - that I must despise the ephemeral and trivial and seek the immutable and eternal."

“Because we cannot endure perpetually the hardships of life, we seek rest in some earthly things. It may be our house, our family, our children, a little farm, an orchard, or a book we have published. God allows us to suffer tribulations even in these innocent delights in order that we may love life eternal. Otherwise, as travelers going to their country, we might choose the inn - this world – instead of our true home: eternal life.”

"If you are caught in the river of time and are drifting down the rapids, you have a choice. Either you may drown in the water or you can catch hold of a tree by the stream and save your life. Similarly, you have a choice in the world. Either you may love the world that passes away with time, or you may hold on to Christ and live eternally with God."

“Why, O dissipated and wandering soul, dost thou seek content in created objects, in the goods and pleasures of life? Seek within thyself, by recollection, the only true and sovereign Good Who is there, and Who alone can satisfy thy desires.” "Consider that God wants to fill you up ith honey, but if you are already full of vinegar, where will you put the honey? What was in the vessel must be emptied out; the vessel itself must be washed out and made clean and scoured, hard work though it may be, so that it be made fit for something else."

Doctors of the Church

Pope St. Gregory the Great: "Do not be anxious about what you have but about what you are."

St. Bernard: "True riches do not consist in worldly wealth. They consist in the virtues that we make part of our lives and that will become our eternal treasure." St. Catherine of Siena "Worldly goods are always bound up with so many evils that I never wished my relations that kind of riches." St. Bonaventure "If you learn everything except Christ, you learn nothing."

St. Peter Damian

"Nobody can fight properly and boldly for the faith if he clings to a fear of being stripped of earthly possessions."

St. Thomas Aquinas

"[People become stupid] by withdrawing their thoughts from things spiritual and burying them in things of the earth."

“God alone satisfies and infinitely surpasses man’s desire, which for that reason is never at rest save in God."

"Non nisi te Domine," Nothing but You, Lord.

“Oh my Jesus, Supreme Goodness, I ask of You a heart so enraptured with You that nothing can distract it. I wish to become indifferent to everything that goes on in the world, and to want You alone, to love everything that refers to You, but You above everything else.”

St. Alphonsus Ligouri

"Whoever desires to love Jesus Christ with his whole heart must banish from his heart all that is not God, but is merely self-love. This is the meaning of those words, 'seeketh not her own;' not to seek ourselves, but only what pleaseth God."

"Two things are needful to love God with your whole heart: 1. to clear it of earth, 2. to fill it with holy love. It follows that a heart in which any earthly affections longer can never belong wholly to God." What good shall their ever be in the world that shall separate me from my Jesus?

It is only right that I should employ the remaining years of my life in loving Thee and pleasing Thee."

“When I think that Thou, the Son of God, did lead a life of such tribulation upon this earth, so poor and neglected, how is it possible that I should go about seeking the amusement and good things of the earth? Take me, I pray, my dear Redeemer, for Thy companion; admit me to live always united with Thee upon this earth, in order that, united with Thee in heaven, I may love Thee there, and be Thy companion throughout eternity. What goods, what pleasures, what dignities, what honors! All is vanity and folly. The only real riches, the only real good, is to possess Thee, who art the infinite God. If in times past I have sought after the vanities and pleasures of this world, I now detest them, and am sorry that I have done so. My savior, from this day forward Thou shalt be my only delight, my only love, my only treasure.”

My innocent Jesus, by the torment You suffered in being stripped of Your garments, help me to strip myself of all attachments for the things of the earth that I may place all my love in You.

"Attachment to our own inordinate inclinations is the greatest obstacle to true union with God."

St. Francis de Sales:

“Everything that has no bearing on eternity is mere vanity."

"Freedom is that state in which the heart is no longer attached to anything, but can follow God's will."

"It is a pity to sow vain and foolish affections in our heart's soil. They usurp the place of worthwhile interest and hinder the sap of our soul being used for good inclinations. I do not hold that we can never use these things, but I say that we can never put our affection on them without damage to devotion. When a man's heart is burdened with these useless, superfluous, and dangerous affections it certainly cannot run quickly, lightly, and easily after God, the true end of the devout life. Is it not ridiculous or rather lamentable to see mature men set their hearts and affections on worthless trifles? Things that are not only useless but put us in peril of being irregular and undisciplined? For such reasons I say that we must purge ourselves of these affections, although such acts are not always opposed to devotion, the affections are always damaging."

"Lord, I am Yours, and I must belong to no one but You. My soul is Yours and must live only for You. I must love You as my first cause, since I am from You. I must love You as my end and rest, since I am for You. I must love You more than my own being, since my being subsists by You. I must love You more than myself, since I am all Yours and all in You."

"My God, if I knew that even one fiber of my heart did not beat for You, I would tear it out at once and throw it far from me." Carmelite St. John of the Cross: "In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possession and human success, but rather on how much we have loved."

"What possesses and harms the soul is not the things of this world but rather the will and desire for them; for what enters the soul and dwells in it is not things but the desire for things."

"The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for, until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly."

"Live in the world as if only God and your soul were in it; then your heart will never be made captive by any earthly thing."

"God does not fit in an occupied heart."

“Make me understand, O Lord, that beauty and all other gifts of creatures are but dust; that their charm and attractiveness are only smoke and wind, and that I must esteem them for what they are, so as not to fall into vanity. In all these things help me to direct my heart to You, joyfully and cheerfully, remembering that You are, and have in Yourself, all beauties and graces in a most infinite degree; You are infinitely high above all created things, for, as David says, ‘They are all like a garment which shall grow old and pass away, and You alone remain immutable forever.’”

St. Teresa of Avila:

"Remember that you have only one soul; that you have only one death to die; that you have only one life. If you do this, there will be many things about which you care nothing."

"O my God, grant that I may no longer think whether I am to gain or lose but let my one aim be to serve and please You. "

"It will be a great help towards this if we keep constantly in our thoughts the vanity of all things and the rapidity with which they pass away, so that we may withdraw our affections from things which are so trivial and fix them upon what will never come to an end."

"It is when I possess least that I have the fewest worries, and the Lord knows that, as far as I can tell, I am more afflicted when there is excess of anything than when there is lack of it."

"Our body has this defect that the more it is provided care and comfort, the more needs it desires and finds."

“O Jesus, how long is man’s life, although we say that it is short! It is short, O my God, since by it we are to gain a life without end; but it seems very long to the soul who aspires to be with You quickly...”

St. Therese of Lisieux

"True love is found only in complete self-forgetfulness and it is only after we have detached ourselves from every creature that we find Jesus."

St. John of Avila

"Your life consists in drawing nearer to God. To do this, you must endeavor to detach yourself from visible things and remember that in a short time they will be taken from you."

St. Teresa Margaret of the Heart of Jesus:

"I resolve, O my God, to have no other purpose but to love in all my actions, interior as well as exterior, always saying and asking myself: what am I doing now? Am I loving God?"

Mother Catherine Thomas: "Don't let the uninterrupted tension of modern living sap the spiritual life from your soul. Consecrate even a small part of each hour each day to mental prayer, to thinking about Our Blessed Lord, Who loves you so much and has done so much for you, and in Whose company you are to spend your Eternity. Separate yourself for this short interval of silence from all the "weighty concerns" that seem to demand your attention. Forget them for this moment, and think rather of the one thing that really matters, your soul, and its relationship to its Creator. Don't, I plead, permit your daily obligations to make you forget your chief purpose in life; don't be "troubled about many thing," like Martha, and be unmindful of the one thing that is necessary. The world needs the perfume of your prayers. One faint spark from your heart burning with love could set the world on fire." (From My Beloved: The Story of a Carmelite Nun)

Franciscans St. Padre Pio:

"Worldly goods prevent us from keeping our eyes fixed on our heavenly home." St. Francis of Assisi:

"Remember when you eave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received, only what you have given: a heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice, and courage." St. Anthony of Padua:

"Earthly riches are like the reed. Its roots are sunk in the swamp and its exterior is fair to behold, but inside it is hollow. If a man leans on such a reed, it will snap off and pierce his soul."

"Give all of yourself and God will give you all of Himself."

St. Clare of Assisi "Our labor here is brief but the reward is eternal. Do not be disturbed by the clamor of the world, which passes like a shadow. Do not let false delights of a deceptive world deceive you."

Imitation of Christ

Thomas A. Kempis:

"Blessed are the simple of heart for they shall enjoy peace in abundance. Why were some of the saints so perfect and so given to contemplation? Because they tried to mortify entirely in themselves all earthly desires and thus were able to attach themselves to God with all their heart and freely concentrate their innermost thoughts."

“Seldom do we find anyone so spiritual as to be stripped from all things. Who will find a man that is truly poor in spirit and divested in attachment to all created things? If a man give his whole substance, still it is nothing. And if he do great penance, it is but little. And if he attain to all knowledge, he is far off still. And if he had great virtue and very fervent devotion, there is still much wanting to him, namely, the one thing which is supremely necessary for him. That is, having left all things else, he leave also himself and wholly goes out of himself, and retain nothing of self-love. And when he shall have done all things which he knows he ought to do, let him think that he has done nothing. Let him not make great account of that which may appear much to be esteemed but let him in truth acknowledge himself to be an unprofitable servant. Then may he be truly poor in spirit. There is no one richer than such a man, none more powerful, none more free; who knows how to leave himself in all things, and to put himself in the very lowest place.”

“The reason why many things displease you and disturb you is that you are not yet perfectly dead to self, nor detached from earthly things. There is nothing that so defiles and entangles the heart of men as an impure attachment to created things. Your home must be in heaven, and you should look upon all earthly things as passing. All things pass away, and you too, along with them.”

Other Saints

St. Isaac of Antioch: "Just as a man whose head is under water cannot inhale pure air, so a man whose thoughts are plunged into the cares of this world cannot absorb the sensation of the world to come."

St. Benedict

"Prefer nothing, absolutely nothing, to the love of Christ."

St. Aloysius Gonzaga:

"It is better to be the child of God than king of the whole world." St. Nicolas of Flue "Remove from me, O my God, everything that leads me away from You; give me everything that will bring me nearer to You. Enrapture me, so that I will live wholly and always for You."

St. Ignatius Loyola:

"The shortest and almost the only way to achieve sanctity is to have a horror for all which the world embraces."

"Before choosing, let us examine well whether the attachment we feel for an object springs solely from the love of God." St. Vincent de Paul "Our business is to gain heaven; everything else is a sheer waste of time."

St. Gerard Majella:

"Consider the shortness of time, the length of eternity, and reflect how everything here below comes to an end and passes by. Of what use is it to lean upon that which cannot give support?"

"Who except God can give you peace? Has the world ever been able to satisfy the heart?"

St. John Vianney:

"The eyes of the world see no further than this life, as mine see no further than this wall when the church door is shut. The eyes of the Christian see deep into eternity." - St. John Vianney

"To make us appreciate more keenly the necessity to turn our eyes to eternal blessings, God has filled our hearts with desires so vast and so magnificent that nothing in creation is capable of satisfying them. Thus it is that in the hope of finding some pleasure, we attach ourselves to created objects and that we have no sooner possessed and sampled that which we have so ardently desired than we turn to something else, hoping to find what we wanted. We are, then, through our own experience, constrained to admit that it is but useless for us to want to derive our happiness here below from transient things. If we hope to have any consolation in this world, it will only be by despising the things which are passing and which have no lasting value and in striving towards the noble and happy end for which God has created us. Do you want to be happy, my friends? Fix your eyes on Heaven; it is there that your hearts will find that which will satisfy them completely."

"Do you want to be happy, my friends? Fix your eyes on Heaven; it is there that your hearts will find that which will satisfy them completely."

"Consider, children, a Christian's treasure is not on earth, it is in heaven. Well then, our thoughts should turn to where our treasure is."

St. Claude de la Colombiere

“If ever you have a fit of sadness or trouble, remember that it is because you are still attached to life, or health, or some comfort, or person, or thing that you ought to forget and despise that you may desire Jesus Christ only.”

St. Camillus de Lellis:

"I do not put a penny's value on this life, if only Our Lord will give me a tiny corner in paradise."

King St. Louis IX:

“I think more of the private chapel where I was baptized than of the Cathedral of Rheims where I was crowned; for the dignity of a child of God, which was bestowed upon me at Baptism, is greater than that of the ruler of a Kingdom. The latter I shall lose at death, the other will be my passport to everlasting glory.”

St. John Henry Newman:

"Nothing is so likely to corrupt our hearts and to seduce us from God as to surround ourselves with comforts."

St. John Gabriel Perboyre:

"Only one thing is necessary: Jesus Christ. Think unceasingly of Him."

St. Peter of Alcantara:

“Although I am but dust and ashes, shall I speak to You, O Lord? Yes, from this vale of tears, from this place of exile, I dare to raise my eyes and fix them on You... O good God, have pity on the work of Your hands. I am incapable, Lord, of formulating by myself any good thought, since all my sufficiency comes from You; nor can I worthily invoke Your name without the help of the Holy Spirit. May it please You, then, to send me Your Spirit, in order that the rays of Your light may shine down upon me from the height of heaven.”

St. Vincent Pallotti:

“Not the good of the world, but God. Not riches, but God. Not honors, but God. Not distinctions, but God. Not dignities, but God. Not advancement, but God. God always and in everything.”

St. Bernadette Soubirous:

"Jesus gives all to those who surrender all."

"My heart is made for God. I want it to belong to Him undividedly." St. Joan Antide-Thouret: “But to merit this happiness let’s not tire of fighting during this exile. Let’s despise the world and its false gods. Let’s despise its honors. In vain would we seek our happiness in them. It will benefit us greatly to receive nothing from the world but ingratitude and opposition. This will detach us from it and attach us closely to God alone.”

St. Margaret Mary Alocoque

"Say often to Him: O my kind Shepherd, detach me from all earthly things and from myself, that I may be united to Thee."

St. Joan Antide-Thouret

“But to merit this happiness let’s not tire of fighting during this exile. Let’s despise the world and its false gods. Let’s despise its honors. In vain would we seek our happiness in them. It will benefit us greatly to receive nothing from the world but ingratitude and opposition. This will detach us from it and attach us closely to God alone.”

St. Maria Bertilla "One must work only for Jesus. All else is nothing."

Blessed M. Thérèse Soubiran

“Oh Lord, grant that I may never cease to turn to You, and to look only at You. In consolation or desolation I shall run to you, stopping at nothing else; I shall run so quickly that I shall have no time to look at anything, nor to see the things of earth, because my pace will be so rapid. Therefore, out of love for You, I shall spurn pleasure, repose, dread of physical discomfort, sadness of spirit, and success or failure. In a word, a shall spurn everything that is not God.”

Bl. Alexandra da Costa:

"Do not sin anymore. The pleasures of this world are worth nothing."

Fr. Thomas Dubay:

“No where in scripture are we asked for much or most or quite a bit. Always it is everything. The God of revelation is never a God of fractions. It is not enough to love him with 95% of our heart, not enough to be detached from major obstacles, not enough to be regular in prayer. No, we are to love with a whole heart, to be detached from all we possess, to enjoy a complete communal unity, to pray always. (Mt 22:37; Lk 14:33; Jn 17:23; Lk 18:1).”

Ven. Fulton J. Sheen:

"It is a well attested fact that those people who are most impoverished in their souls try to cover this inner destitution by extreme luxury on the outside. The more naked the soul, that is, the more devoid of virtue, the greater the need of the body to give the appearance of possession through fantastic dress, display and ostentation. The more the soul is clothed with virtue, the less is the need for outer compensation."

Mother Angelica

"And I see that all is vanity and vexation of spirit under the sun, and that the only good is to love God with all one's heart and to be poor in spirit here on earth." - St. Therese of Lisieux

"The riches of heaven are the things we should be desirous of - not the things of the world. God's concept of treasure is a soul that deeply loves Him and deeply loves its neighbor. That invisible reality is far more valuable than the passing trinkets of the world."

Fr. Charles Arminjon:

"It is the height of human folly to become attached to the perishable and corruptible goods of this life."

"The earth is afflicted with a dreadful desolation, because the majority of men, fascinated by the lure of fleeting pleasures, and absorbed in their worldly interests and the care of their material affairs, no longer fix their thoughts on the principal considerations of the Faith, and stubbornly refuse to recollect within themselves. It may be said of our present generation what the prophet Daniel said in his time, of the two old men of Babylon: 'They suppressed their consciences; they would not allow their eyes to look to heaven, and they did not keep mind God's just judgments." (The End of the Present World)

Rev. L. Dooley:

"Too often we give more thought to the things of the earth, to the things around us - fine clothes, amusements, making money, comforts and conveniences - and too little thought to the things of the life to come."

Rev. Joseph A. Dunney

"There are many people around us who forget God, they never think of Him, they set their hearts not toward heaven but elsewhere. They have their hearts down on the ground; they are of the earth, earthly. Beg of God the grace not to be like that, but to have your heart lifted up. Sursum corda! Love heaven, not earth. Set your heart on the things above."

QUOTES ON DETACHMENT FROM DIVINE INTIMACY BY FATHER GABRIEL

"Human prudence values time as a means to accumulate earthly goods; supernatural prudence values it as a means to accumulate eternal goods."

“The soul that has tried to drink at the spring of earthly delights has found that they do not serve to quench its thirst, instead if they have given the soul a tiny drop of truth, justice, peace, joy, they have left it more thirsty than before. Only then does the soul understand that God alone is the fountain which can quench its thirst.”

“Exterior things, fame, earthly glory, have no longer any attraction for me; is it not all vanity, a simple secession of circumstances which will soon cease to be? The only life which attracts me and which will last forever beyond all earthly contingencies, is that of intimate union with You.”

"It is always true: material goods present themselves like flowers, attractive, yes, but doomed to quickly vanish and decay..."

"When the soul no longer has any attachments and is entirely free from love of self and of creatures, it can adhere to God alone, acting according to His Good pleasure. The soul thus transformed has lost its will in the will of God and therefore is perfectly united to God Himself. This is the essence and apex of holiness."

“When love of God and desire for Him have taken full possession of a soul, there is no longer room in it for other loves, other desires, other preoccupations. All its movements are directed to God, and through all things the soul does nothing but seek God alone.”

"Renouncement frees the powers of the soul so entirely that they can be wholly employed in loving and serving God alone. If we really want to love God with our whole heart, we must be very generous in renunciation and detachment."

"O God, tear from my heart all secondary intentions, all sentiments of self-love, so that I may have no other aim but Thy glory."

Random Prayers / Unattributed

"Oh what avail to me will be health, strength, beauty, fortune, and every other earthly possessions, if death will rob me of them all? It is only my good works and the virtues I have practiced that will follow me beyond the tomb."

Oh Lord, hush all the voices of the world, of creatures, and of self, so that I may listen to no voice but Yours.

"I implore Thee to so inflame me with Thy love that it may quickly consume me, and soon I may reach the vision of Thy glorious face in heaven." - From the back of a Holy Face holy card

"O Lord, strengthen my will so that it can leave all things and apply itself only to You."

"O God, I only ask of Thee to obtain for me that I may love Thee during the time that is left me in this life.

"Between God and the soul, all that is not God is a constraint, a hindrance to union."

A soul which is separated from all the amusements of the senses, seeks and finds in God that pure satisfaction which it can never meet with in creatures. A respectful and frequent remembrance of the presence of God occupies the mind, and an ardent desire of pleasing Him and of becoming worthy of His love engages the heart. It is absorbed in Him alone, all things else dwindle into nothing. It buries itself in its dear solitude, and dies to itself and all things in God. It breathes only His love, it forgets all to remember only Him; it renounces all desire of finding any satisfaction than that of pleasing Him. Oh God, when will silence, retirement, and prayer become the occupations of my soul? Come Jesus, and impress my mind with a lively conviction of Thy presence that all within me may yield to its influence.

Mans happiness is not the having of temporal goods in abundance; but a moderate portion is sufficient for him.

But take heed to heavenly riches, and thou wilt see that all these temporal ones are nothing. Woe to them that make this perishable life the object of their love. The saints and devoted friends of Christ looked not to what pleases the flesh, nor to what flourished for the time of this life: but all their hopes and aims aspired after the good things that are eternal.

I want to be detached from all things and uninfluenced by the allurements of self-love, so that I may breathe only Your love and be engaged with You alone, and attentive only to You, and neither seek nor love anything but You alone.

Let blind and infatuated worldlings intoxicate themselves with the false, transient and fading happiness of this life; for my part, nothing besides Thyself can content me, either in heaven or on earth. O God of my heart, let me neither love, seek, nor think, on any other object but Thyself alone; for Thou alone art my consolation, my treasure, my joy, my life, my all.

Your way of acting should be different from the world's way: the love of Christ must come before all else.

Happy ears which receive the breathings of the Divine Whisperer and take not notice of the whisperings of this world!

I want to be detached from all things and uninfluenced by the allurements of self-love, so that I may breathe only Your love and be engaged with You alone, and attentive only to You, and neither seek nor love anything but You alone.

Mans happiness is not the having of temporal goods in abundance; but a moderate portion is sufficient for him. But take heed to heavenly riches, and thou wilt see that all these temporal ones are nothing. Woe to them that make this perishable life the object of their love. The saints and devoted friends of Christ looked not to what pleases the flesh, nor to what flourished for the time of this life: but all their hopes and aims aspired after the good things that are eternal.

O God, when shall I be so free from all attachments to creatures, and from all self-seeking, as to keep my mind and my heart solely upon Thee? Grant that I may forget everything which I ought not to know or see, and thus live only for Thee, with Thee, and in Thee. Vanities, pleasures, news, amusements, and curiosities, how little and really nothing they are to a soul for whom God is its all. Suffer me not to seek, to know, to love, or to possess anything but Thee, who art more than anything else. Inflame my heart with an ardent desire to please Thee and with humble acceptance of all things that come from Thee. Amen.