Ponder the fact that God has made you a gardener, to root out vice and plant virtue.
St. Catherine Of SienaRead
What is it you want to change? Your hair, your face, your body? Why? For God is in love with all those things and he might weep when they are gone.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of self-acceptance and warns against superficial changes for external validation.
St. Catherine of Siena reminds us to reflect on our desires for change, questioning whether such changes stem from societal pressures or a lack of self-love. The essence of this quote highlights that our physical attributes are cherished by a divine presence, implying that we should embrace ourselves as we are and understand that seeking to alter our appearance excessively may lead to a loss of our true selves.
Themes
Self-AcceptanceChangeBeautyIdentityDivine Love
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about self-love.
More from St. Catherine Of Siena
All quotes βWhen 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.
St. Catherine Of SienaRead
O unfathomable depth! O Deity eternal! O deep ocean! What more could You give me than to give me Yourself?
St. Catherine Of SienaRead
To a brave man, good and bad luck are like his left and right hand. He uses both.
St. Catherine Of SienaRead
There is no perfect virtue-none that bears fruit- unless it is exercised by means of our neighbor.
St. Catherine Of SienaRead
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.
St. Catherine Of SienaRead
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