The greatest gift one can receive from God in this world is wisdom, power and will to conquer himself, by denying self-will. - Saint Francis of AssisiThe greatest gift one can receive from God in this world is wisdom, power and will to conquer himself, by denying self-will. - Saint Francis of Assisi
The Abbot Pastor had the highest opinion of this exercise, and used to say that our own will is an iron wall that disunites and separates us from God.
Saint Colette, of the Order of Saint Francis, often said that she thought it a greater mortification to deny one's own judgment and will than to abandon all the riches in the world, and therefore she practiced it to the utmost of her ability. Saint Bernard also entertained the same sentiments, and said that all evils spring from a single root, which is self-will.
- text taken from A Year with the Saints, composed by an unknown Italian, translated by a member of the Order of Mercy; it has the Imprimatur of Archbishop Michael Augustine Corrigan, Archdiocese of New York, New York, 21 January 1891