Here is a selection of thoughts and phrases by Saint Angela of Foligno about spirituality and Catholic doctrine.
Newsroom (07/01/2023 2:45 PM, Gaudium Press) January 4th, the Catholic Church celebrates the memory of Saint Angela of Foligno, born in 1248 in Foligno (Italy).
After a life distant from God, dedicated to parties and vanities, she was touched by the divine mercy and felt an existential emptiness that made her search for the sacraments and ask Our Lady for strength.
At the age of 40, she made a pilgrimage to Assisi, having a profound experience with God’s love. Soon after, she donated all her possessions to the poor, joined the Third Order of the Franciscan family, and lived a reclusive life, going out only for pilgrimages to Assisi.
Her example of virtue served as an instrument of conversion for many souls. Below is a selection of thoughts and phrases on spirituality and Catholic doctrine from St. Angela of Foligno.
Phrases of Saint Angela of Foligno
01 – “Whoever wishes to conserve grace, must not turn his eyes away from the Cross, either in joy or sorrow.
02 – “Through a little penance, done with effort and pain, (the soul) will possess with infinite docility and consolation the supreme Good, eternal God.”
03 – “True and pure love, which comes from God, makes it recognize its own defects and the divine goodness. Such love leads the soul to Christ and understands with certainty that there can be no verification or deception. To such love nothing of this world can be added.”
04 – “Through temporal poverty, the soul will find eternal riches; through contempt and shame, it will attain the highest honour and exalted glory.”
05 – “The soul (in sin) feels shame and bitterness, and does not yet experience love, but rather pain and feels unsatisfied.”
06 – “The more you pray, the more you will be enlightened; the more you are enlightened, the more deeply and intensely you will see the supreme Good, the supremely good Being; the more deeply and intensely you see Him, the more you will love Him; the more you love Him, the more you will be happy; and the more you are happy, the more you will understand and be able to understand Him. Then you will reach the fullness of light, because you will understand that you cannot understand.”
07 – “O children of God, become totally transformed into the God-Man in love, who loved you to the point of deigning to die for you in an extremely ignominious, totally and ineffable painful, painful and bitter death. And this only for love of you!”
08 – “O my God make me worthy to know the exalted Mystery, which your most ardent and ineffable love accomplished, together with the love for the Trinity, that is, the highest mystery of your most holy incarnation for us.”
09 – “O incomprehensible love! Above this love, which made my God become man to make me God, there is no greater love.”
10 – “The more the soul contemplates the ineffable pain of God and of Jesus Christ made man, the more it suffers and is transformed into pain.”
Prayer to Saint Angela of Foligno:
God our Father, when suffering comes to visit us, and in our affliction we do not want to accept it, give us the strength not to fall into despair. Through the intercession of Saint Angela, keep our hope alive and unshakable. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Saint Angela, pray for us (EPC)
Compiled by Camille Mittermeier
