QUOTATION: The Blessed Virgin Mary

The world being unworthy to receive the Son of God directly from the hands of the Father, he gave his Son to Mary for the world to receive him from her.

--St. Augustine

QUOTATION: Christianity

If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity

--C.S. Lewis

QUOTATION: Mary's Suffering

Even while living in the world, the heart of Mary was so filled with motherly tenderness and compassion for men that no-one ever suffered so much for their own pains, as Mary suffered for the pains of her children.

--St. Jerome

QUOTATION: Fasting and Nourishment

Behold, my brethren, how much a fast can do, and in what manner the law commands us to fast. It is required that not only with the body should we fast, but with the soul. Now the soul is humbled when it does not follow wicked opinions, but feeds on becoming virtues. For virtues and vices are the food of the soul, and it can eat either of these two meats, and incline to either of the two, according to its own will. If it is bent toward virtue, it will be nourished by virtues, by righteousness, by temperance, by meekness, by fortitude, as Paul says; 'Being nourished by the word of truth (1 Timothy 4:6.)' Such was the case with our Lord, who said, 'My meat is to do the will of My Father which is in heaven (John 4:34.)' But if it is not thus with the soul, and it inclines downwards, it is then nourished by nothing but sin. For thus the Holy Ghost, describing sinners and their food, referred to the devil when He said, 'I have given him to be meat to the people of Æthiopia. ' For this is the food of sinners. And as our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, being heavenly bread, is the food of the saints, according to this; 'Unless you eat My flesh, and drink My blood (John 6:53);' so is the devil the food of the impure, and of those who do nothing which is of the light, but work the deeds of darkness. Therefore, in order to withdraw and turn them from vices, He commands them to be nourished with the food of virtue; namely, humbleness of mind, lowliness to endure humiliations, the acknowledgment of God. For not only does such a fast as this obtain pardon for souls, but being kept holy, it prepares the saints, and raises them above the earth.

--St. Athanasius, Letter 1

QUOTATION: The Role of Mary

Mary has the authority over the angels and the blessed in heaven. As a reward for her great humility, God gave her the power and mission of assigning to saints the thrones made vacant by the apostate angels who fell away through pride. Such is the will of the almighty God who exalts the humble, that the powers of heaven, earth and hell, willingly or unwillingly, must obey the commands of the humble Virgin Mary. For God has made her queen of heaven and earth, leader of his armies, keeper of his treasure, dispenser of his graces, mediatrix on behalf of men, destroyer of his enemies, and faithful associate in his great works and triumphs.

--St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin

QUOTATION: The Crucifixion is Now

The Cross is not something that has happened; the Crucifixion is something that is happening. It can be found at any place and at any hour in the human race, for it is the epic struggle of the forces of good and evil.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: The Blessed Virgin Mary

Men do not fear a powerful hostile army as the powers of hell fear the name and protection of Mary.

--St. Bonaventure

QUOTATION: Humility and Meekness

Humility makes our lives acceptable to God, meekness makes us acceptable to men.

--St Francis De Sales

QUOTATION: Death in the State of Grace

When the just man dies, God, whom he has loved and served, together with the Blessed Virgin, hastens to assist him, consoles him in his agony, fills him with courage, confidence, and resignation, and leads him triumphantly into heaven.

--St. John Bosco

QUOTATION: Love's Witness

Ultimately, in the battle against lies and violence, truth and love have no other weapon than the witness of suffering.

--Pope Benedict XVI

QUOTATION: We are what we love

We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God´s compassionate love for others.

--St. Clare of Assisi

QUOTATION: Loving Jesus

What a weakness it is to love Jesus Christ only when He caresses us, and to be cold immediately once He afflicts us. This is not true love. Those who love thus, love themselves too much to love God with all their heart.

--St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

QUOTATION: Love

Love to be real, it must cost—it must hurt—it must empty us of self.

--Mother Teresa of Calcutta

QUOTATION: Hell

Saint Teresa, as the Roman Rota attests, never fell into any mortal sin; but still Our Lord showed her the place prepared for her in Hell; not because she deserved Hell, but because, had she not risen from the state of lukewarmness in which she lived, she would in the end have lost the grace of God and been damned.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori

QUOTATION: Pride

Pride is an admission of weakness; it secretly fears all competition and dreads all rivals.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Academic Ignorance and Bad Exegesis

Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he hold to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods and on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason? Reckless and incompetent expounders of Holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion.

--St. Augustine

QUOTATION: True Humility

It is no great thing to be humble when you are brought low; but to be humble when you are praised is a great and rare attainment.

--St. Bernard of Clairvaux

QUOTATION: The Power of the Rosary

If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins "you shall receive a never-fading crown of glory." Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practice black magic, and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil, sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and save your soul, if - and mark well what I say - if you say the Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins.

--St. Louis de Montfort

QUOTATION: For God to Hear Our Prayers

If you want God to hear your prayers, hear the voice of the poor. If you wish God to anticipate your wants, provide those of the needy without waiting for them to ask you. Especially anticipate the needs of those who are ashamed to beg. To make them ask for alms is to make them buy it.

--St. Thomas of Villanova

QUOTATION: Self-Satisfaction

If you happen to be doing some good, the devil and your own sense of self-satisfaction will tell you that you’ve probably done more than enough already; maybe people will even tag you as a fanatic and over scrupulous. At death, though, the good you have done will seem so slight that you will realize you have been deceived. Strive to be aware of this now.

--St. John Bosco

QUOTATION: Temptation

Virtue is nothing without the trial of temptation, for there is no conflict without an enemy, no victory without strife.

-- Pope St. Leo the Great

QUOTATION: Rights

If we wish to have the light, we must keep the sun; if we wish to keep our forests we must keep our trees; if we wish to keep our perfumes, we must keep our flowers- and if we wish to keep our rights, then we must keep our God.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Anger

Depend upon it, it is better to learn how to live without being angry than to imagine one can moderate and control anger lawfully; and if through weakness and frailty one is overtaken by it, it is far better to put it away forcibly than to parley with it; for give anger ever so little way, and it will become master, like the serpent, who easily works in its body wherever it can once introduce its head.

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

QUOTATION: Forgiveness

If a man finds it very hard to forgive injuries, let him look at a Crucifix, and think that Christ shed all His Blood for him, and not only forgave His enemies, but even prayed His Heavenly Father to forgive them also. Let him remember that when he says the Pater Noster, every day, instead of asking pardon for his sins, he is calling down vengeance on himself.

--St. Philip Neri

QUOTATION: Perdition

The devil does not bring sinners to hell with their eyes open: he first blinds them with the malice of their own sins. Before we fall into sin, the enemy labours to blind us, that we may not see the evil we do and the ruin we bring upon ourselves by offending God. After we commit sin, he seeks to make us dumb, that, through shame, we may conceal our guilt in confession.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori

QUOTATION: Anger

There are two methods to subdue anger. First, that before a person undertakes to act, he places before his mind the contumelies and sufferings which he will likely encounter, and, by reflecting on the shame borne by our Saviour, prepares himself to bear them patiently. Secondly, that when we behold the excesses of others, we direct our thoughts to our own excesses, by which we offend others. This consideration of our own faults will lead us to excuse those of others. For a person who piously considers that he also has something which others must bear patiently in him will be easily disposed to bear patiently injuries he receives from others.

--Pope St. Gregory the Great

QUOTATION: Statism

In the parable of the Good Samaritan it is said that a priest and a Levite passed by the wounded man and help was given him by one of another race-namely, the Samaritan. We do not know whatever happened to the priest and the Levite, but it is very likely that they went into Jerusalem and reported the condition of the dying man to a social service agency.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Presumption of God's Mercy

Others think that licence is granted them to sin, because the hope of penitence is before them, whereas penitence is the remedy, not an incentive to sin. For the salve is necessary for the wound, not the wound for the salve, since a salve is sought because of the wound, the wound is not wished for on account of the salve. The hope which is put off to a future season is but feeble, for every season is uncertain, and hope does not outlive all time.

--St. Ambrose of Milan, On Repentence, Book 2

QUOTATION: False Mildness

Many appear full of mildness and sweetness as long as everything goes their own way; but the moment any contradiction or adversity arises, they are in a flame, and begin to rage like a burning mountain. Such people as these are like red-hot coals hidden under ashes. This is not the mildness which Our Lord undertook to teach us in order to make us like unto Himself.

--St. Bernard of Clairvaux

QUOTATION: Devotion to Mary

When the devil wishes to make himself master of a soul, he seeks to make it give up devotion to Mary.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori

QUOTATION: Meekness

Nothing is more powerful than meekness. For as fire is extinguished by water, so a mind inflated by anger is subdued by meekness. By meekness we practice and make known our virtue, and also cause the indignation of our brother to cease, and deliver his mind from perturbation.

--St. John Chrysostom