The Wisdom of the Saints about charity (part 5)

“Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way. If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” St. Paul the Apostle (1st century)

“We lose all the material things we leave behind us in this world...but we carry with us the reward of our charity.” St. Francis of Assisi (12th-13th centuries)

“Love is the life of the soul, its nuptial garment, its perfection.” St. Albert the Great (13th century, Doctor of the Church)

“As wax melts before the fire, so vice perishes before love. Such is the power of love that it alone closes hell, opens heaven, restores the hope of salvation, and makes a soul agreeable to God. Such is the power of love that, of all the virtues, it is called ‘the virtue,’ for with it a man is rich, fortunate, and happy...” St. Bonaventure (13th century, Doctor of the Church)
“Love is always stirring and thinking about what it will do. It cannot contain itself.” St. Teresa of Avila (16th century, Doctor of the Church)

“So, since our souls have come from God and are soon to be gathered to Him again in heaven, let us despise, dearest brothers, the perishable globe that is this earth, this dark prison that keeps from us the glorious eternal light and involves us, beaten and troubled, in the tangles of a thousand errors, snares, vanities, and concupiscences. One refuge and solace alone remains, which is that we who are bound to one another by charity’s beautiful engagements should graft and establish our souls in Christ, serve Him with a freeman’s service, drink of His Spirit, win Him in our sufferings and our dying, and possess Him in everlasting beatitude.” St. Peter Canisius (16th century)

“O how glorious our Faith is! Instead of restricting hearts, as the world fancies, it uplifts them and enlarges their capacity to love, to love with an almost infinite love since it will continue unbroken beyond our mortal life.” St Therese of Lisieux (19th century, Doctor of the Church)
“Hatred destroys. Only love creates.” St. Maximilian Kolbe (19th-20th centuries)
“The human spirit without the flame of divine love tends to reach the level of the beast, while on the other hand, charity, the love of God, raises it up so high that it can reach even to the throne of God. Give thanks without ever growing weary for the liberality of such a good Father and ask Him to increase holy charity more and more in your heart.” St. Pio of Pietrelcina (19th-20th centuries)

“You can love the lovable without being religious; you can respect those who respect you without religion; you can pay debts without being religious, but you cannot love those who hate you without being religious...Possibly the only reason in the world for loving the unlovely, for forgiving the enemy, is that God is love; and since as such He loves me who am so little deserving of His love, I also ought to love those who hate me.” Ven. Fulton Sheen (19th-20th centuries)

"From the first day in the garden of Eden, when God said 'it is not good for man to be alone' on even to the crack of doom, man has thirsted and will thirst for love." Ven. Fulton Sheen
“Mediocrity is the penalty of all those who refuse to add sacrifice to their love, and thus to prepare it for a wider horizon and a higher peak.” Ven. Fulton Sheen