QUOTATION: Preaching

When the malice of wicked men increases, and converts are abused with insults, preaching, far from being curtailed, should be increased.

--St. Thomas Aquinas

QUOTATION: Human Preaching

Those preachers are foolish and improvident  who, in speaking of religion and proclaiming the things of God, use no words but those of human science and human prudence, trusting to their own reasonings rather than those of God. Their discourses may be brilliant and fine, but they must be feeble and they must be cold, for they are without the fire of the utterance of God  (Jeremiah 23:29).

--Pope Leo XIII, Providentissmius Deus

QUOTATION: Preaching Against Heretics

I have always said that whoever preaches with love is preaching effectively against the heretics, even though he does not say a single controversial word against them.

--St. Francis de Sales

QUOTATION: Sermons

I wouldn’t want you to leave a sermon saying: Oh, what a great orator! Oh, he has an incredible memory! Oh, what erudition! How well he speaks! I would rather you say this: Oh, how beautiful repentance is! Oh, how necessary it is! My God, how good and just you are!.

--St. Francis de Sales

QUOTATION: Now is the Time to Preach the Gospel

Now more than ever, in a world that is often without light and without the courage of noble ideals, people need the fresh vital spirituality of the gospel. Do not be afraid to go out on the streets and into public places, like the first apostles who preached Christ and the good news of salvation in the squares of cities, towns, and villages. This is no time to be ashamed of the gospel. It is the time to preach it from the rooftops. Do not be afraid to break out of comfortable and routine modes of living in order to take up the challenge of making Christ known in the modern metropolis. It is you who must “go out into the roads and lanes” and invite everyone you meet to the banquet that God has prepared for His people.

--Pope John Paul II