A collecion of St. Thomas of Villanova’s sermons. We call “Words of Wisdom” from the patron of studies of the Order of Saint Augustine.
#Glory, #honor, #Dignity
“If glory delights and honors please you, if dignity and pomp delight you, then do not refuse them, follow them, but seek true glory, true honors, true dignities: ‘This is our glory, the testimony of our conscience (2 Cor 1:12). He who glories, let him glory in the Lord (2 Cor 10:17). I do not forbid glory, but seek your glory in the Lord. There is no greater dignity than to serve Christ, for to swerve God is to reign.”
(Homily on the 16th Sunday After Pentecost, St. Thomas of Villanova)
God as a friend, do not seek glory
How much honor will it be to have God as a friend, to be citizen of heaven, a companion of angels, a friend of heavenly powers, to be acknowledged in heaven, to be visited by angels? You should not seek glory in this small village, but in the celestial city.
(Homily on the 16th Sunday After Pentecost, St. Thomas of Villanova)
love is the life of the heart
“What is easier, what is lighter? What is life without love but the most horrible death? He who loves not is dead in heart even while he lives, for love is the life of the heart.”
Sermon 1.2 | on the 17th Sunday After Pentecost, St. Thomas of Villanova
God’s gift
“Love holds the highest place of all goods, for nothing is more precious, nothing more excellent than love in all of God’s house. It is the greatest of all God’s gifts, the gift above all gifts, which is given only to friends.”
Sermon .7 | on the 17ths Sunday After Pentecost
Perfect love
This is imperfect love if it does not ascend any higher; rather it is not genuine love at all, but greed, having only this benefit: that it makes us serve God as though through a pretext and to become accustomed to good works, whereby the ascent to that perfect love, when the grace of God is present, becomes easier.
Sermon 3.1, 17th Sunday After Pentecost
the bed of the heart is restricted
It is impossible to be fruitful to both God and the world; these cannot occur at the same time; the bed of the heart is restricted in size, so that when one comes the other falls out. It is necessary for the person who wants to bear fruit for God to purify the field of his heart from desires, lusts, and delights of the world.
Sermon 1.4, Sexagesima Sunday
God converts hearts
Only God is able to convert such hearts, because he is omnipotent; for rarely do the words of preachers enter into their hearts on account of its immense hardness.
Sermon 3.8 | Sexagesima Sunday
The great evil
Beware of so great an evil; turn your heart far away, examine your heart daily, and do not cease from exhortations, chastisements, and holy thoughts, lest any of you be hardened by the deception of sin, which hardens the heart and makes it like stone.
Sermon 3.8 | Sexagesima Sunday
Gift from above
There can be no gift from the earth which lifts the soul to heavenly things; from above is the gift through which the soul must ascend upward.
Sermon 2.1 | 3rd Sunday After Pentecost
God’s word is healthy
Behold how the bread of God’s word is tasty for the healthy, but insipid and punishing for the sick
Sermon 2.2 | 4th Sunday after Pentecost
The great power of mercy
Great is the power of mercy, which makes us like unto God and true children of God. Do not be cruel, hard, and dry like stones; try to be kind to each other, that another’s need might touch you and mercy for a neighbor move you. Woe to the hard and cruel!
Sermon 1.4 | 6th Sunday After Pentecost
The danger of riches
O how great is the danger of riches! Observe the example of the rich banqueter: he was damned because he showed no mercy; not because he stole, but because he did not give.”
Sermon 1.5, 6th Sunday After Pentecost
As you love, you exist
O lovely virtue of love, from which everything good exists! As you love, so you exist.
Sermon 1.4, 7th Sunday After Pentecost
Grace pushes down and humbles us
The weight of grace does not lift up saints, but rather pushes down and humbles them.
Sermon 1.1 | 8th Sunday After Pentecost
Pride is carnal and spritual
Pride is also twofold: spiritual and carnal. Some are proud about spiritual goods, some about temporal goods.
Sermon 1.1 | 10th Sunday After Pentecost
Pride is the most dangerous of vices
Pride is the most dangerous of vices for this reason: because it is hidden. Other vices are manifest, such as gluttony, avarice, anger, but we may be up to our eyes in pride and not know it. It is a spiritual vice, and under the appearance of humility and sheepskin a certain haughtiness and demonic ambition often lies hidden in the soul.
Sermon 1.1 | 10th Sunday After Pentecost
Pride is the source and root of all sins
Not only is pride a great sin, but it is the source and root of all sins. The proud person is greedy in order to sustain his magnificence; he is envious because he wants no one else to be equal to him; he is full of anger if anyone touches him; he is gluttonous, having an ample table to match his arrogance; he is also lazy, for since he deems himself good enough, he does not try to advance; and although he is greed, he is also wasteful for the sake of display.
Sermon 1.3 | 10th Sunday After Pentecost
Why is there evil in the world?
It was fitting for there to be evils in the world so that evil, in opposition to good, might make the good more prominent.
Sermon 1.4 | 11th sunday after Pentecost
I love you O Lord even if you threatened me with thousand hells
You command me to love you, O Lord; indeed, if you commanded otherwise, that I should not love you, I could not fulfill it; even if you threatened me with a thousand hells if I love you, I would not give up loving you.
Sermon 1.10 | 12th Sunday After Pentecost
Three kinds of blind people
There are three kinds of blind people: first, one who does not see; second, one who does not see, nor desires to see, nor cares to see; third, one who does not see but thinks that he sees. The last is the worst blindness.
Sermon 1.3 | 13th Sunday After Pentecost
Our rebellious wills
God saves no one against his will, but he makes him willing: he compelled them to enter because he compelled them to want to enter. If only God would thus compel our rebellious wills!
Sermon 1.6 | 19th Sunday after Pentecost
Understand by faith
This is the right order: listen that you may see, do not see that you may listen; believe that you may understand, do not understand that you may believe, for we come to understanding by faith.
Sermon 2.7 | 19th Sunday After Pentecost
The fruit of prayer
Oh how great is the fruit of prayer! Prayer is the most efficacious remedy of all for the soul. If you are in tribulation, pray; if you are tempted, pray; if you want to restrain your body, pray; if you wish to strengthen your spirit; if you hope for something from God; if you want sins to be canceled, if you want to obtain grace, prayer accomplishes it all; if you hope to mitigate God’s wrath, if, finally, you desire something from God, you will attain it by prayer.
Sermon 1.1 | 21st Sunday After Pentecost
To render tribute among people is our duty, to render tribute to God is our glory.
Sermon 1.7 | 22nd Sunday After Pentecost
I owe him my entire life
What shall I render to the Lord for all he has given me? For me I owe him my entire self. He gave himself; what shall I give for him?
Sermon 1.7 | 22nd Sunday After Pentecost
You are created wonderful
I consider what I am and for what I am made. I am small and I am lowly, but I was created for something wonderful. What I am is little, but what I was created for is great. I lack much, but knowledge of my end shows me how much a person who concerns himself with earthly matters lacks of heavenly desire and richness.
Sermon 1.9 | 23rd Sunday After Pentecost
Do not forget where you are going
This is what you must do, brothers and sisters. Do not forget where you are going. Keep this always in your memory. Do not concern yourself with the delights of the journey in this present life. Despise them and hasten on your way. Do not concern yourself with the ways of others, with what they are doing, whether they are going; just continue on your way.
Sermon 4, Quinquagesima Sunday
What happens when you know God
Every Christian soul is a temple of God, and is it to be full of demons? Believe me, all this proceeds from ignorance of God. Take away the veil from your heart, and you will know God and you will love him and, loving him, you will share his glory, to which (and so on).
Sermon 2 on the First Commandment of the Decalogue, No. 7
the dangers of riches
Riches are like horses: if you master it and make it obedient to you, it carries you more quickly, and by its speed, it rescues you from danger, if this arises; but if it is not submissive to you, it easily throws you and hurls you down. A person who uses riches badly is like a person who eats to excess and piles up clothing he does not need.
Sermon 2 on the fifth Commandment of the Decalogue No. 4
Do not waste time
We must be careful not to waste time but always to bear in mind that on the present moment of our life depends everlasting glory in the future.
Treatise 1 A short Method, in Ten Rules, for Serving our Lord
