The feelings of my smallness and my nothingness always kept me good company.
Interpretation
Embracing one's humility can lead to self-awareness and contentment.
In this quote, Pope John XXIII reflects on the importance of recognizing one's own limitations and insignificance in the grand scheme of life. This acknowledgment of 'smallness and nothingness' fosters a sense of groundedness and companionship with one's genuine self, allowing for personal growth and connection with others.
In practice
In a speech about personal development, one might say, 'As Pope John XXIII once said, my smallness and nothingness keeps me good company, reminding us to stay grounded.'
Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.
Prayer is the raising of the mind to God. We must always remember this. The actual words matter less.
To keep me from sin and straying from Him, God has used devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. My life vows destined to be spent in the light irradiating from the tabernacle, and it is to the Heart of Jesus that I dare go for the solution of all my problems
Anybody can be Pope; the proof of this is that I have become one.
The Catholic Church has a dignity far surpassing that of every merely human society, for it was founded by Christ the Lord. It is altogether fitting, therefore, that the language it uses should be noble, majestic, and non-vernacular.
Prudent is he who can keep silent that part of truth which may be untimely, and by not speaking it, does not spoil the truth of what he said.
If I relegate impossible Salvation to the prop room, what remains? A whole man, composed of all men and as good as all of them and no better than any.
Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.
In the products of the unconscious we discover mandala symbols, that is, circular and quaternity figures which express wholeness, and whenever we wish to express wholeness, we employ just such figures.
Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this.
The most important problems we face are complex, and require sustained attention. But we don't speak in terms of nuance or complexity. Is that by accident? It's because our minds have been entrained to expect shorter and shorter bite-sized bits.
Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues.
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