QUOTATION: Jesus' Patience is the Glory of the Father

Our Lord never so much glorified His Father as in His failures among men, and by bearing with patience the imperfections, the coarseness, and the weakness of His Apostles; by His patience in awaiting the will and the hour of His Father in order to act; by His patience in succeeding only in the measure that His Father willed during His public life; and by His patience in His Passion, in which He consented to go through, what would naturally annihilate His work forever.

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: No Part-Time Christians

We cannot be Christians part-time. If Christ is at the center of our lives, he is present in all that we do.

--Pope Francis

QUOTATION: The Hidden Life of Jesus

The largest part of Jesus' life was hidden. Jesus lived with his parents in Nazareth, "under their authority" (Luke 2:51), and there "increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and with people" (Luke 2:52). When we think about Jesus we mostly think about his words and miracles, his passion, death, and resurrection, but we should never forget that before all of that Jesus lived a simple, hidden life in a small town, far away from all the great people, great cities, and great events. Jesus' hidden life is very important for our own spiritual journeys. If we want to follow Jesus by words and deeds in the service of his Kingdom, we must first of all strive to follow Jesus in his simple, unspectacular, and very ordinary hidden life.

--Fr. Henry Nouwen

QUOTATION: The Servant is not Greater than his Master

True followers of Christ, be prepared to have a world make jokes at your expense. You can hardly expect a world to be more reverent to you than to Our Lord. When it does make fun of your faith, its practices, abstinences, and rituals — then you are moving to a closer identity with Him Who gave us our faith. Under scorn, Our Lord “answered nothing”. The world gets amusement from a Christian who fails to be Christian, but none from his respectful silence.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Jesus

The Eternal Being, who knows everything and who created the whole universe, became not only a man but (before that) a baby, and before that a foetus inside a Woman's body.

--C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

QUOTATION: Christ is All for All

In Christ we are all things, He is everything to us. If you have wounds to heal, He is a physician; if fever scorches you, He is a fountain. Would you punish evil doing, He is justice. If you need help, He is strength; if you fear death, He is life; if you hunger, He is food.

-- St. Ambrose of Milan

QUOTATION: Suffering

God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.

--St. Augustine of Hippo

QUOTATION: Jesus

Examine more fully the life history of such an individual [i.e. Jesus]….He was brought up in frugality and poverty. He did not receive a complete education. He had not studied systems and opinions…. How could such a person…have been able to teach in a manner not at all to be despised….so that not only the rustic and the ignorant persons were won by His words, but also many of those who were distinguished by their wisdom?... Now, would not anyone who investigated with ordinary care the nature of these facts be struck with amazement at this man’s victory? … This man, in addition to His other merits, is an objection of admiration for His wisdom, His miracles, and His power of government.

–Origen.