What good does it do you to be able to give a learned discourse on the Trinity, while you are without humility and, thus, are displeasing to the Trinity? Esoteric words neither make us holy nor righteous... I would rather experience repentance in my soul than know how to define it.

If you knew the entire Bible inside out and all the maxims of the philosophers, what good would it do you if you were, at the same time, without God's love and grace? This is the most worthless! Everything is worthless, except our loving God and serving only Him. This is the highest wisdom: to despise the world and seek the Kingdom of Heaven.

It is worthless to seek riches that are sure to perish and to put your hope in them. It is worthless to pursue honors and to set yourself up on a pedestal. It is worthless to follow the desires of the flesh and to crave the things that will eventually bring you heavy punishment. It is worthless to wish for a long life and to care little about living a good life. It is worthless to give thought only to this present life and not to think of the one that is to come. It is worthless to love what is transiftory and not to hasten to where everlasting joy abides.

Keep this proverb often in your mind: The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. Therefore withdraw your heart from the love of things visible and turn yourself to things invisible.

** Thomas a' Kempis