Eugene Boylan > Quotes

“Metaphysics is… at the root of all other sciences, which indeed presuppose it. It has been abandoned by the modern mind, which seems to be unable to think otherwise than with its imagination. What cannot be imagined is—according to it—impossible; what can be imagined is, therefore, capable of being and existence. From this disease of the mind, we get sentiment in place of principle in morals, the particular in place of the general in argument, metaphor in place of reality, opinion in place of certainty, prejudice in place of judgment, quantity in place of quality, matter in place of the ultimate reality, and all the whole host of false coins that are current in the intellectual commerce of today.”
― Dom Eugene Boylan, This Tremendous Lover: The Beloved Spiritual Classic on God's Pursuit of the Soul

“And so, out of the nothingness that was not God, He created us.”
― Dom Eugene Boylan, This Tremendous Lover: The Beloved Spiritual Classic on God's Pursuit of the Soul

“There is a close connection between prayer and rest in the spiritual life. In fact, as progress is made, the distinction between them tends to disappear, and prayer overflows from the times set apart for it, and begins to penetrate the rest of the day, so that, whether in word or in work, the soul is always lifted up to God in a union of love.”
― Eugene Boylan, Difficulties in mental prayer

“But the sins of others need not interfere with our trust in God’s providence. We cannot improve on God’s plan for our happiness. God loves us better than we love ourselves, and He has a better knowledge of our needs and of our heart than we have ourselves, and He has the will and the power to satisfy all the longings of our heart, if we only trust Him. We need never be afraid to abandon ourselves to God’s will, for God’s will is God Himself—and God is infinite goodness.”
― Dom Eugene Boylan, This Tremendous Lover

“The perfect picture that St. Therese of Lisieux has drawn of the spiritual life will help to give us courage. She sees it as a stairway to be climbed, at the top of which God is waiting looking own in Fatherly love at His child's efforts to surmount the first step. The child, who represents ourselves, fails to manage to climb even the first step; it can only keep on lifting up its tiny little foot. Sooner or later, God takes pity on it, and comes down and sweeps the child right up to the top in His arms; but - and St. Therese insists on this as much as she insists on God's loving kindness - we must keep lifting up our foot. The soul must never be discouraged by the fruitlessness of its repeated efforts.”
― Eugene Boylan, Difficulties in mental prayer

“For, when all is said and done, meditation is only "thinking about God" while prayer is "talking to God," a conversation which may develop into 'looking at God and loving him.”
― Eugene Boylan, Difficulties in mental prayer

“The great difficulty in prayer is that our wills -- in other words, our hearts -- are not wholly given to God.”
― Eugene Boylan, Difficulties in mental prayer

“As long as the heart is occupied with God, whether in speech or in silence, that is enough.”
― Eugene Boylan, Difficulties in mental prayer

“A Christian who does not pray is like a man who neither thinks nor wills–a mere animal in the spiritual life.”
― Dom Eugene Boylan, Difficulties in Mental Prayer

“This may lead to a harmful pre-occupation with self instead of with God. This is the ruin of any prayer, for prayer is a pre-occupation with God, and the higher ways of prayer are absolutely impossible if a soul refuses to lose sight of itself and its own efforts.”
― Eugene Boylan, Difficulties in mental prayer

“Even in the dry and arid stages of contemplative prayer, when the soul seems incapable of a good thought or affection, when God seems to be nothing more than a word of three letters -- we can still keep in touch with Jesus. The real contact with Him is made by faith - faith in his love and mercy. We lay hold of Him by hope and we cling to Him by love, however dry our act of love may be, as long as it is an act of the will accepting the will of God.”
― Eugene Boylan, Difficulties in mental prayer

“Under purity of mind we include the careful and constant control of our thoughts and memories, by prudently excluding all that is unnecessary, frivolous and vain, and by gradually building up a continual recollection of God and His works. This is also one of the most important of all mortifications of those who would progress in the spiritual life, and far more effective than the most penitential macerations of the flesh. In fact, without it, corporal penance is almost useless.”
― Eugene Boylan

“Purity of heart consists in keeping all the affections of the heart for God alone. It is not enough to rule out all sinful attachments, for if our heart is divided by any inordinate attachment, even to a lawful recreations, to our work, to persons, or to anything else, we cannot say we love God with our whole heart. There always will be attachments in the human heart, but they must be subordinate to God and to His will, so that they can never upsurp His place as the mainspring of our actions. ... Without this willingness, it i impossible to remain in loving silence before Our Lord. Nothing so darkens our gaze on God, nothing so weakens our desire for God, nothing so lessens our striving for God, nothing so deafens our hearing for God, as a single inordinate attachment.”
― Eugene Boylan

“It is true, of course, that prayer is a supernatural act, and is, therefore, completely dependent on the grace of God.”
― Eugene Boylan

“In any case, there are many paths to holiness, and while the graces of advanced prayer are powerful, if not the greatest, help to progress, they do not in themselves constitute holiness. If a man love God with his whole heart and with his whole soul, and with all his mind and with all his strength, he has fulfilled all the law, and he is perfect, no matter in what way he prays.”
― Eugene Boylan, Difficulties in mental prayer

“A different type of error is that of trying to feel our acts. The essential act of love of God is made in the will - it in itself cannot be felt. If our acts proceed from our will, it does not matter whether they affect our feeling or not. As long as we will to love God, by that very fact, with the help of grace, we do love Him.”
― Eugene Boylan

“In our relations with God we can sometimes say all that He wants us to say in silence and repose. This, of course, is not a prayer for all souls, nor for all times. Yet, if we pause occasionally between our acts and just kneel before God in a state of sincere resignation to His will, it will often happen that we find it possible and profitable to remain in this disposition for a short while.”
― Eugene Boylan, Difficulties in mental prayer

“The essential core of prayer is the act of will, turning to God, seeking God, and uniting itself to God.”
― Eugene Boylan

“The man whose hope, love and trust are fixed in God does not give way to anger when God sends him trials or when people try his patience to its limits, nor does he vainly fear God's loving Providence, which he knows covers every single detail of his life. Nor, again, does sorrow at his material losses enter deeply into his heart when it is set on the riches of God; and the joys of this life seem trivial, aye, unworthy even, to one knows the delights of God's love.”
― Eugene Boylan, Difficulties in mental prayer

“It seems to be a law of the spiritual life that, since all progress ultimately depends on God, He lets us first learn our complete helplessness by long and weary efforts that come to naught. But we have His words: 'I myself will come and save you.”
― Eugene Boylan, Difficulties in mental prayer

“Loving intimacy with God is impossible if the conscience is stained with a deliberate habit of sin, for that is a direct denial of love of God and a definite withdrawal of part of our heart and our life from Him. Even an habitual infringement of a rule, in which we deliberately persist after we have adverted to it, makes it impossible for us to try to look God in the face, so to speak, to go into His presence with that readiness of heart for His service, which is the secret of all true devotion and prayer.”
― Eugene Boylan, Difficulties in mental prayer

“There are some errors to be avoided. A common one is endeavoring to do all the talking oneself. The soul should stop now and then and listen to Our Lord. He replies to us, in our conscience, in our heart, often quite unmistakably. Of course, in this matter, one should be on guard against self-deception and vain imaginings and wishful thinking.”
― Eugene Boylan, Difficulties in mental prayer

“The great thing is to talk to Our Lord in one's own words, quite simply, about any topic of mutual interest. There should be no attempt at fine words or fine phrases. Not only does Our Lord not look for fine speeches, but He does not even ask for good grammar.In fact, affective prayer is often quite incoherent, one word being used to express quite a multitude of sentiments. For some souls, whose minds are filled with the truths therein contained, the Holy Name of Jesus is sufficient prayer. That one wonderful word says far more than we can ever realize. Other souls cannot find any words to give expression to their desires. And Our Lord understands.”
― Eugene Boylan, Difficulties in mental prayer

“The soul is driven to praying with its will alone. This it does, writes Fr. Piny, O.P, 'by willing to spend all the time of prayer in loving God, and in loving Him more than itself; in willing to pray to God for the grace of charity; in willing to remain abandoned to the Divine Will. One must clearly understand that if we will to love God, by that very action we actually do love Him; if, by a real act of the will, we choose to unite ourselves in loving submission to the Will of Him Whom we love, or desire to love - by that very act of the will, we immediately effect this union. Love is in truth nothing else but an act of the will.”
― Eugene Boylan