"Now in us there is a distinction between our love and our person: love is part of us, something we do. Only God is love. His whole being is love, just as his power, wisdom, faithfulness, all his attributes are one with him: he is his attribute. And because God is love, he cannot act out of anything but love." (B Perquin, Abba Father)
"For to give life is to be a father, and to receive life is to be a child." (B Perquin, Abba Father)
How good is God who forgives in confession, even if our sorrow is only one of attrition, of fear of hell.
"If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" Si vos, cum sitis mali, nostis bona data dare filiis vestris, quanto magis Pater vester de caelo dabit bona petentibus se! (Mt 7:11)
"As one whom his mother
comforts, so I will comfort you;
and you shall be comforted...
You shall see,
and your heart shall
rejoice."
Sicut mater consolatur
filios suos, ita consolabor vos...
Et videbitis, et
gaudebit cor vestrum.
"When I look at thy
heavens,
the work of thy fingers,
the moon and the stars
which thou hast established;
what is man
that thou art mindful
of him,
and the son of man
that thou dost care
for him?
Yet thou hast made
him little less than God,
and dost crown him
with glory and honor." (Ps 8:3-5)
"Father, who art Lord of heaven and earth, I give thee praise that thou hast hidden all this from the wise and the prudent, and revealed it to little children." (Mt 11:25)
"For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom 8:39)
"The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods." (St Thomas Aquinas, Opusc 57, quoted in the CCC 460)
"Blessed be the man
that trusts in the Lord,
and the Lord shall
be his confidence.
And he shall be as
a tree that is planted by the waters,
that spreads out its
roots toward moisture:
and it shall not fear
when the heat comes.
And the leaf thereof
shall be green,
and in time of drought
it shall not be solicitous,
neither shall it cease
at any time to bring forth fruit." (Jer 17:7-8)
"Behold my servant
whom I have chosen,
my beloved with whom
my soul is well pleased." (Mt 12:18; cf Is 42:1)
"Then God sent out his Son on a mission to us. He took birth from a woman, took birth as a subject of the law, so as to ransom those who were subject to the law, and make us sons by adoption. To prove that you are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying out in us, Abba, Father. No longer, then, are you a slave, you are a son; and because you are a son, you have, by Divine Appointment, the son's right of inheritance." (Gal 4:4-7)
"...children of God without blemish in the midst of a depraved and perverse generation." (Phil 2:15)
"...creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious freedom of the children of God. (Rom 8:21)
"...if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him." (Rom 8:17)
"Often we wish to do
good, but we desire too greatly that we should do it in our way...
He cures us sometimes
by rebuffs and trials administered to our self-love and pride. He correct
us thus until we no longer wish to do our work; then, after permitting
the lower part of our nature to be broken by events, and when selfishness
has been overcome, he makes use of us for his work, the salvation of souls.
Then zeal, though it preserves its spiritual ardor, is calm, humble, and
meek, like that of Mary and the saints, and nothing can any longer crush
it...." (Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life,
vol II)
See Job 38-39