If you are rich, your homeland needs your money; if you are poor, give from your writings, your prayers and your talk.
Pain and disease
● In order to love those who suffer, we should see Jesus in their person.
● The patient is a blessing: let’s watch over his preservation and safety.
● In disease the spiritual person is tested.
● Like Saint Veronica, we can wipe the face of Jesus our beloved Savior. The face of Jesus can be found in the poor people, the hungry, the weepers, the ill, the blind, the lame and the mental patients.
Slackness
● As long as the moisture is in the wood, it does not burn but smokes.
● A feather dipped in clay won't be lifted by the wind.
● It is difficult for a tree planted on the road to save its fruit.
Faith
● Faith is a sublime grace because it is the light of reason.
● As long as the tree is watered, it remains alive and bears leaves and fruit. The divine water is the spirit of faith.
● As the sunlight shines and reveals things for sight, so does the light of faith.
Humility
● There is no sainthood without humility.
● He who looks for himself doesn’t succeed. Only the humble people succeed.
● As much as the building is high, as much its basis is deep.
● The soul of the humble is the house of God, he likes to live there.
Repentance
● He who closes his eyes from the sun does not see it, but the sun sees him.
● God does not repel who comes to him repentant, even if he was the greater sinner. Trust him and you shall be saved.
● Confession opens heaven, erases sins and gives peace.
● Confession is a grace because it is a comfort for the conscience, mind and heart.
Religious life
● Religious life is a ladder by which we go up to God.
● It is not necessary to be perfect to get into the convent, but as soon as we enter it, it is essential that we work to attain perfection.
● The life of Jesus should be reflected in us, as the clear water reflects our image.
● The convent is a school to reach perfection, not a house full of angels.
● The real monk uses things like a bird that takes seeds according to its need, and once picked, it rises higher.
● The vow is pronounced in a minute, while its effect lasts a lifetime.
● Vows are the monk’s jewels.
Vocation
● God calls to His service generous hearts, strong people and characters full of strength, zeal and enthusiasm.
● Vocation is a call we answer with unshaken determination. With it we pledge to serve God all our lives having no aim other than glorifying Him and the salvation of souls.
Hope
● Hope is the sun of our soul.
● The subject of our hope is heaven, and God has a strong desire to admit us to it; he showed his desire by coming down to earth to lift us to eternity.
Spiritual retreat
● Retreat is a scaffold with which we reach the summit of Christian perfection.
● Retreat increases our knowledge of Jesus, thus our love for him increases and his love sanctifies us.
● Retreat is a grace that illuminates, purifies and grants us fervor.
● Retreat is a time of reconciliation with God.
Marriage
● Marriage is a contract blessed by God in the earthly paradise.
● Marriage is a tree in the field of the Lord, which fruit are righteous children.
● Marriage represents the union of Christ with his Church.
Happiness
● Happiness is not in prestige or high positions, but by staying away from all evil and owning all the good.
● Human happiness is not weighed with the money one owns, but with the good he makes.
● The Cross convinces us that happiness is not in creatures, but in the knowledge of God alone and his love.
Peace
● The humble person always has peace because God is with him and loves him.
● We can lose all the blessings despite us, but we do not lose peace except it is with our will.
Thanks and gratitude
● Sow ten deeds and rejoice if you get at least, one thank you.
● Gratitude is courage and consolation.
● He who receives must be grateful, while the one giving deserves to be rewarded.
Patience
● The Christian knows that calamities are inevitable, but with patience he he prevents any ordeal from harming him.
● Patience is a means for salvation.
● He who has patience rises above the one who works miracles.
Friendship
● Friendship with good people increases good in human.
● Choose your friends, and beware of being united with a person that insulates you from the love of Jesus.
● A true friend is one who brings others to Jesus.
Honesty
● The tongue is the interpreter of the thought.
● Honesty in our words is our strength, and the lies in our actions are like venom.
● Honest people are the children of God and his followers.
Charity
● Be keen on doing good for the love of good, for the love of God and in obedience to Him.
● Be a giver and fear not.
Prayer
● The prayer is the key of heaven.
● The prayer is to the soul like the breath is to the body.
● The lantern shines in the shelter and goes off in the wind: as such is the light of the Holy Spirit within us.
The Cross
● Our biggest Cross is our fear from the Cross.
● The Cross of Jesus is a machine that creates saints.
● The Cross is the throne of grace.
● A bit of the Cross is better than one million books of prayers.
● O Cross of Christ protect us, O Cross of Christ fight for us, O Cross of Christ save us.
● He who loves Jesus loves the Cross, and who loves the Cross resembles to Jesus.
Virgin Mary
● The rosary is the best way for the repentance of sinners.
● Be a son of Virgin Mary until death; she is the gate to heaven and the refuge of sinners.
● Mary’s servant never perishes.
● God lifted Mary above all creatures, because she humbled herself more than anyone in love of God.
● Mary, Mother of God, went up to heaven carrying with her the gold of love, fragrance of piety and virtues, and the precious stones of patience and pain.
● Mary, by accompanying Christ on the road to Calvary, gave us the life of grace.
● The basis of the greatness of Mary is humility.
Work
● Devote your strength to master your work for God’s sake.
● Work is the use of time, according to the will of God.
● Do each work as if it is the last in your life.
Divine Providence
● Without the divine providence, you can't take any steps.
● Be sure that the divine providence bank never goes bankrupt.
Sainthood
● Sainthood is not accomplished by miracles, mortifications nor sciences, but by doing our duties, and bearing what God sends to us.
● Free your heart from the world attachment to pour in it the oil of grace.
● Saints strive to be saints, not to show themselves as being saints.
● Humility is the scale of sainthood.
The Holy Eucharist
● Love is to be always near the beloved: behold the sacrament of the Eucharist.
● Without the Eucharist our monastery becomes empty, cold and sad.
● Sow Eucharist and reap saints.
● Eucharist is the companion of our exile.
● Our altar is our heart, and we are the sacrifice. Let's make our bodies a living offering, acceptable to God.
Priest
● The priest is God’s ambassador, God’s minister and distributor of sacraments in the church.
● Like the heart is to the body, so is the sainthood to the priest.
Perfection
● The goodwill gives value to the simplest things.
● When the lower branches of the tree are cut, it grows and rises.
● Progress in perfection is the cornerstone, once shaken, the building falls.
● The great lofty palace is only an installation of small stones.
Perseverance
● When winds blow, the blossoming tree gives more fragrance and perfume.
● Life is a school. At the school, the student gets introduced to what is unknown, completes what he knows and remembers what he forgot.
● If you save your soul, you save everything and all the people around you; and if you forfeit your soul, you forfeit everything forever.
● We build slowly and demolish quickly, while God builds quickly and destroys slowly.
Homeland
● If you are rich, your homeland needs your money; if you are poor, give from your writings, your prayers and your talk.
● Our duties towards homeland: love and obedience.
● My religion is: Lebanon and those who suffer
Time
● Our life is like a flower which leaves are extracted day after day.
● Long life is worthless to God, unlike the work with zeal and love.
● Gold is precious and time is more precious, because the latter allows us to possess eternity. Every minute equals a treasure for eternity.
● كلّ دقيقة توازي كنزًا للأبديّة.
The love of the neighbor
● Mercy is an essential part of love; it is the love taking care of the needy neighbor.
● Be careful! If the neighbor is in need for you, you need God. Let this thought be a means to always lead you to mercy.
The love of God
● Give me the love that denies fear and converts every moment into grace.
● The love of God is like the lamp illuminated with oil, it illuminates with the good deeds.
● He who loves God resembles to the sunflower, always directed to the sun even though the clouds withheld it.
● He who loves God loves his image on earth, and God’s image is the neighbor.
● Love is the queen that gives orders, the shiny and reviving sun. There is no act rewarded in heaven without love.
● With acts of love we increase the love of God within us, as when we blow into the fire we add to the flames.
● Think of God. The lover always brings in his thoughts the subject of his love.
