QUOTATION: Imperfection

You should never be displeased at the sight of your own imperfections, except with a displeasure humble, tranquil and peaceful, not excited and angry; for this latter kind does more harm than good.

--St. Francis de Sales

QUOTATION: Meekness

The highest degree of meekness consists in seeing, serving, honoring, and treating amiably, on occasion, those who are not to our taste, and who show themselves unfriendly, ungrateful, and troublesome to us.

--St. Francis de Sales

QUOTATION: Self-Will

The greatest gift one can receive from God in this world is wisdom, power and will to conquer himself, by denying self-will. 

--St. Francis de Sales

QUOTATION: Mortification

The more one mortifies his natural inclinations, the more he becomes capable of receiving the divine inspirations, and the more he gains in virtue.

--St. Francis de Sales

QUOTATION: The Litany of Humility

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, Hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being loved, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being honored, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being praised, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being consulted, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the desire of being approved, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being humiliated, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being despised, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of suffering rebukes, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being calumniated, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being forgotten, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being ridiculed, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being wronged, Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being suspected, Deliver me, O Jesus.

That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I go unnoticed, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be preferred to me in everything, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

--Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, from the prayer book for Jesuits, 1963.

QUOTATION: Suffering

If anyone, O Lord does You a service, You repay him by some trial. Oh, what an inestimable reward is this for those who truly love You, if it might be given them to know its value!

--St. Teresa of Avila

QUOTATION: Prayer and Salvation

If you pray, you are positive of saving your soul. If you do not pray, you are just as positive of losing your soul.

-- St. Alphonsus Liguori

QUOTATION: Guardian Angels

The servants of Christ are protected by invisible, rather than visible, beings. But if these guard you, they do so because they have been summoned by your prayers.

--St. Ambrose

QUOTATION: Spiritual Progress

There are no plains in the spiritual life; we are either going uphill or coming down.

--Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, Peace of Soul

QUOTATION: Praise and Blame

Praise does not make you holier than you are, nor blame more wicked.

--Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

QUOTATION: Judgement of Religion

Is not this the error the common and fatal error, of the world, to think itself a judge of religious truth without preparation of heart?

--Bl. John Henry Newman, Oxford University Sermons

QUOTATION: Abortion

A woman who intentionally destroys a fetus is guilty of murder. And we do not even talk about the fine distinction as to its being completely formed or unformed.

--Saint Basil the Great

QUOTATION: Evil and God's Goodness

Take away all evil, and much good would go with it. God's care is to bring good out of the evils which happen, not to abolish them.

--St. Thomas Aquinas, Compendium of Theology, 142

QUOTATION: Chastity and Love

A soul adorned with the virtue of chastity cannot help loving others; for it has discovered the source and font of love-- God.

--St. Jean M. Vianney, The Cure of Ars.

QUOTATION: Faith and Understading

Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.

--St. Augustine

QUOTATION: Doubt

Life in fact can never be grounded upon doubt, uncertainty or deceit; such an existence would be threatened constantly by fear and anxiety.

--Pope John Paul II, Fides et Ratio

QUOTATION: Contemplation

Seek in reading and thou shalt find in meditation; knock in prayer and it shall be opened to thee in contemplation.

--St. John of the Cross, Spiritual Sentences and Maxims

QUOTATION: Virginity and the Priesthood

To sow the seeds of perfect purity and to arouse a desire for virginity has always belonged to the function of the priesthood.

--St. Ambrose, De Virginitate 5: 26

QUOTATION: Crosses

Many would be willing to have afflictions provided that they be not inconvenienced by them.

--St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life

QUOTATION: Poverty

To desire to be poor but not to be inconvenienced by poverty, is to desire the honour of poverty and the convenience of riches.

-- St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life

QUOTATION: Catholicism

There are men who will build up a hundred weak and frivolous arguments against Catholicity, that they may have the easy pleasure of refuting them. They remind me of children who build up houses of tile-shards, such sport it is for them to cast them down again.

--St. Thomas More

QUOTATION: Faith and Love

It is love makes faith, not faith love.

--Cardinal St. John Henry Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, 8

QUOTATION: Evangelical Zeal

Yours is only a small love if you are not zealous for the salvation of souls. Yours is only a poor love if you are not eager to inflame other apostles with your madness.

--St. Josemaria Escriva, The Way

QUOTATION: Obedience and Submission to God

Obedience is not servitude of man to man, but submission to the will of God, Who governs through the medium of men.

--Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei

QUOTATION: Holy Virginity

Holy Virginity and that perfect chastity which is consecrated to the service of God are without a doubt the most precious treasures which the Founder of the Church has left in the hertiage to the society which He established. -

-Pope Pius XII, Sancta Virginitas

QUOTATION: The Contemplative Life

The contemplative life has its most desirable sweetness which uplifts the soul above itself, opens the way to heavenly things, and makes spiritual things plain to the eyes of the soul.

--Pope St. Gregory I, Morals, 6:38

QUOTATION: Possessions

In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human successes, but on how well we have loved.

-- Saint John of the Cross

QUOTATIONS: Impatience

There is no sin nor wrong that gives a man such a foretaste of hell in this life as anger and impatience.

--St. Catherine of Siena

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QUOTATION: Humility

When a proud man thinks he is humble his case is hopeless.

--Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation

QUOTATION: Faith

Ultimately faith is the only key to the universe. The final meaning of human existence, and the answers to the questions on which all our happiness depends cannot be found in any other way.

--Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation

QUOTATION: Happiness

No one is really happy merely because he has what he wants, but only because if he wants things he ought to want.

--St. Augustine

QUOTATION: Communion with the Pope

They have not the heritage of Peter who have not the see of Peter, rent by their impious division.

--Tertullian, De Poenitentia

QUOTATION: Sainthood

What saint has ever won his crown without first contending for it?

--St. Jerome, Letters, 22:39.

QUOTATION: Crosses

If you bear the cross gladly, it will bear you.

--Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ

QUOTATION: Prayer

If we pray, we will believe; If we believe, we will love; If  we love, we will serve.  

-- Mother Teresa.

QUOTATION: Confession

There are many souls stretched out on a psychoanalytic couch today who would be far better off if they brought their conscience to the confessional box.

--Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, Peace of Soul

QUOTATIONS: Agnosticism

Agnosticism is not an intellectual position, but a moral position, or better still, an intellectual defense for a life which is afraid of the light. 

--Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Purity

The impure then cannot love God; and those who are without love of God cannot really be pure. Purity prepares the soul for love, and love confirms the soul in purity.

--Cardinal Newman, Discourses on Mixed Congregations

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QUOTATION: Faith and Reason

It is an illusion to think that faith, tied to weak reasoning, might be more penetrating; on the contrary, faith then runs the grave risk of withering into myth or superstition. By the same token, reason which is unrelated to an adult faith is not prompted to turn its gaze to the newness and radicality of being.

--Pope John Paul II, Fides et Ratio

QUOTATION: Justice and Charity

Be convinced that justice alone is never enough to solve the great problems of mankind. When justice alone is done, do not be surprised if people are hurt: the dignity of man, who is a son of God, requires much more. Charity must penetrate and accompany justice because it sweetens and deifies everything.

--St. Jose Maria Escriva, Friends of God

QUOTATION: Spiritual Progress

Whoever desires to please God, to make any progress in spiritual life, and at length arrive at perfection, must as a first step detest all heresies and schisms, adhering firmly to the Church Catholic, and subjecting himself humbly to her.

--Louis de Blois (Blosius) , A Short Rule, I

QUOTATION: Interior Life

The man who lives the inward life puts the care of his own soul before all other cares.

--Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

QUOTATION: Faith

Faith then is not a conclusion from premises, but the result of an act of the will, following upon a conviction that to believe is a duty.

--Cardinal Bl. John Henry Newman

QUOTATION: Priests

To the carnal eye the priest looks like other men, but to the eye of faith he is exalted above the angels because he exercises powers not given even to angels.

--Cardinal James Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers, 28

QUOTATION: Prayer

Who can really pray to a Being, about whose existence he is seriously in doubt?

--Cardinal John Henry Newman, Apologia pro Vita Sua

QUOTATION: Obedience and Virtue

Obedience is in a way the mother and guardian of all other virtues in a rational creature, seeing that the rational creation has been so made that it is to man's advantage to be in subjection to God, and it is calamitous to act according to his own will, and not to obey the will of his Creator.

--St. Augustine, City of God, 14:12

QUOTATION: The Holocaust

The Holocaust was not committed by Christians in the name of Christ but by anti-Christians who also conceived of it as the first phase of the annhilation of Christianity.

--Cardinal Joseph Ratizanger, Salt of the Earth

QUOTATION: Obedience

Blessed are the obedient, for God will never suffer them to go astray.

--St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life 3: 11.

Image: Fetal Rights are Human Rights