Meditation Quotes from Saints

How Famous Saints Describe Meditating with Mindfulness and Faith

meditation woman meditating
The spiritual discipline of meditation played an important role in the lives of many saints. John Lund/Getty Images

The spiritual practice of meditation played an important role in the lives of many saints. These meditation quotes from saints describe how it helps mindfulness and faith.

St. Peter of Alcantara

"The work of meditation is to consider, with attentive study, the things of God, now busy on one, now on another, in order to move our hearts to some appropriate sentiments and affections of the will -- striking the flint to secure a spark."

St. Padre Pio

“Whoever does not meditate is like someone who never looks in the mirror before going out, doesn’t bother to see if he’s tidy, and may go out dirty without knowing it.”

St. Ignatius of Loyola

“Meditation consists in calling to mind some dogmatic or moral truth, and reflecting on or discussing this truth according to each one’s capacity, so as to move the will and produce in us amendment.”

St. Clare of Assisi

“Never let the thought of Jesus leave your mind but meditate constantly on the mysteries of the cross and the anguish of his mother as she stood beneath the cross.”

St. Francis de Sales

“If you habitually meditate upon God, your whole soul will be filled with him, you will learn his expression, and learn to frame your actions after his example.” 

St. Josemaria Escriva

"You have to meditate often on the same themes, keeping on until you rediscover an old discovery." 

St. Basil the Great

“We become a temple of God when our continuous meditation on him is not constantly interrupted by ordinary worries, and the spirit is not disturbed by unexpected emotions.”

St. Francis Xavier

"When you meditate on all these things, I earnestly advise you to write down, as a help to your memory, those heavenly lights which our merciful God so often gives to the soul which draws near to him, and with which he will also enlighten yours when you strive to know his will in meditation, for they are more deeply impressed on the mind by the very act and occupation of writing them down. And should it happen, as it usually does, that in course of time these things are either less vividly remembered or entirely forgotten, they will come with fresh life to the mind by reading them over."

St. John Climacus

“Meditation gives birth to perseverance, and perseverance ends in perception, and what is accomplished with perception cannot easily be rooted out.”

St. Teresa of Avila

"Let the truth be in your hearts, as it will be if you practice meditation, and you will see clearly what love we are bound to have for our neighbors." 

St. Alphonsus Liguori

"It is by means of prayer that God dispenses all his favors, but particularly the great gift of divine love. To make us ask him for this love, meditation is a great help. Without meditation, we will ask little or nothing from God. We must then, always, every day, and several times in the day, ask God to give us the grace to love him with our whole heart."

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

"But the name of Jesus is more than a light, it is also food. Do you not feel increase of strength as often as you remember it? What other name can so enrich a man who meditates?"

St. Basil the Great

"One should aspire at keeping the mind in quietude. The eye that wanders continually around, now sideways, now up and down, is unable to distinctly see what lies under it; it ought rather to apply itself firmly to the viable object if it aims at a clear vision. Likewise, the spirit of man, if it is dragged about by the world's thousand cares, has no way to attain a clear vision of the truth."

St. Francis of Assisi

"Where there is rest and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor restlessness."

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Hopler, Whitney. "Meditation Quotes from Saints." Learn Religions, Sep. 12, 2021, learnreligions.com/meditation-quotes-from-saints-4008906. Hopler, Whitney. (2021, September 12). Meditation Quotes from Saints. Retrieved from https://www.learnreligions.com/meditation-quotes-from-saints-4008906 Hopler, Whitney. "Meditation Quotes from Saints." Learn Religions. https://www.learnreligions.com/meditation-quotes-from-saints-4008906 (accessed March 28, 2024).