Ponder the fact that God has made you a gardener, to root out vice and plant virtue.
O unfathomable depth! O Deity eternal! O deep ocean! What more could You give me than to give me Yourself?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses a longing for a deep spiritual connection with the divine, emphasizing that the ultimate gift is the presence of God.
In this quote by St. Catherine of Siena, the speaker reflects on the profound nature of divinity and the deep yearning for a close relationship with God. It suggests that the most valuable offering one can receive is not material wealth or earthly pleasures, but rather the essence and presence of the divine itself, portraying spirituality as a depth that transcends understanding and highlights the importance of faith and connection.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a sermon addressing the importance of faith, one might share this quote to emphasize the value of seeking a personal relationship with God.
More from St. Catherine Of Siena
All quotes →When it seems that God shows us the faults of others, keep on the safer side-it may be that your judgment is false. On your lips let silence abide. And any vice that you may ascribe to others, ascribe at once to them and yourself, in true humility. If that vice really exists in a person, he will correct himself better, seeing himself so gently understood, and will say of his own accord the thing that you would have said to him.
To a brave man, good and bad luck are like his left and right hand. He uses both.
There is no perfect virtue-none that bears fruit- unless it is exercised by means of our neighbor.
Eternal Trinity... mystery deep as the sea, You could give me no greater gift than the gift of Yourself. For You are a fire ever burning and never consumed, which itself consumes all the selfish love that fills my being.
Everything comes from love, all is ordained for the salvation of man, God does nothing without this goal in mind.
Similar quotes
When you say, "I need more confidence," what you're really saying is, "I need those people over there to approve of me." That is the desire to control other people and what they think. The first person who figures out how to do this owns the world.
Hurt feelings or discomfort of any kind cannot be cause by another person. No one outside me can hurt me. That’s not a possibility. It’s only when I believe a stressful thought that I get hurt. And I’m the one who’s hurting me by believing what I think. This is very good news, because it means that I don’t have to get someone else to stop hurting me. I’m the one who can stop hurting me. It’s within my power.
The real meaning of the spoken word has to be demonstrated by practical deeds
There is something suspect about our inability to enjoy anything.
Because men have a history, it is difficult for them to imagine what it is like to grow up without one, or the sense of personal expansion that comes from discovering that we women have a worthy heritage. Along with pride often comes rage – rage that one has been deprived of such a significant knowledge.
Every minute you are thinking of evil, you might have been thinking of good instead. Refuse to pander to a morbid interest in your own misdeeds. Pick yourself up, be sorry, shake yourself, and go on again.