QUOTATION: Love in Action

You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them.

--St. Therese of Lisieux

QUOTATION: Prayer

Prayer ought to be humble, fervent, resigned, persevering, and accompanied with great reverence. One should consider that he stands in the presence of a God, and speaks with a Lord before whom the angels tremble from awe and fear. 

--St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi

QUOTATION: Duty

Never allow yourself to believe that time lost which is spent in performing your charge well. For this is a thing so acceptable to the Lord that He gives in a little time what He would otherwise be much longer in giving, and even doubles what has been abandoned in His service.

--St. Teresa of Avila

QUOTATION: Orthodoxy and Communion

The practice of the Church has always been the same, as is shown by the unanimous teaching of the Fathers, who were wont to hold as outside Catholic communion, and alien to the Church, whoever would recede in the least degree from any point of doctrine proposed by her authoritative Magisterium. Epiphanius, Augustine, Theodore drew up a long list of the heresies of their times. St. Augustine notes that other heresies may spring up, to a single one of which, should any one give his assent, he is by the very fact cut off from Catholic unity. "No one who merely disbelieves in all (these heresies) can for that reason regard himself as a Catholic or call himself one. For there may be or may arise some other heresies, which are not set out in this work of ours, and, if any one holds to one single one of these he is not a Catholic" (S. Augustinus, De Haeresibus, n. 88).

Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum,  On the Unity of the Church. 1896.

QUOTATION: Fear of Public Opinion

Ah, how true it is that we love ourselves too much and proceed with too much human prudence, that we may not lose an atom of our consideration! Oh, what a great mistake that is! The Saints did not act thus.

--St. Teresa of Avila

QUOTATION: Worldly Sentiments

Let us beware of worldly sentiments, for often by the pretext of zeal or the glory of God they cause us to adopt plans which never proceeded from Him and will not be prospered by His Divine Majesty.

--St. Vincent de Paul

QUOTATION: Suffering and Predestination

We have never so much cause for consolation, as when we find ourselves oppressed by sufferings and trials; for these make us like Christ our Lord, and this resemblance is the true mark of our predestination.

--St. Vincent de Paul

QUOTATION: Suffering and Predestination

There is no more evident sign that anyone is a saint and of the number of the elect, than to see him leading a good life and at the same time a prey to desolation, suffering, and trials.

--St. Aloysius Gonzaga

QUOTATION: Riches

Riches are not forbidden, but the pride of them is.

-–St. John Chrysostom

QUOTATION: Defending oneself

One who wishes to become truly holy ought not, except in a few unusual cases, to excuse himself, although that for which he is blamed be not true. Jesus Christ acted thus. He heard Himself charged with evil which He had not done, but said not a word to free Himself from the disgrace.

--St. Philip Neri

QUOTATION: Dying to the Self

A soul truly resigned to God has no affection for any created thing, for it sees clearly that all its possessions, except God, are vain and a nullity. So its single object and aim is to die to itself, and to resign itself actually and always in all things.

--Bl. Henry Suso

QUOTATION: Recourse to God

Whoever does not lose courage in unexpected difficulties, but immediately has recourse to God with confidence, shows that this virtue is well rooted in his heart.

--St. Alphonsus Rodriguez

QUOTATION: Women and the Priesthood

The divine law indeed has excluded women from this ministry, but they endeavour to thrust themselves into it; and since they can effect nothing of themselves, they do all through the agency of others.

–St. John Chrysostom

QUOTATION: Deceit in Managing One's Affairs

Whoever manages his affairs with artifices and subterfuges offends the providence of God and renders himself unworthy of his parental care.

--St. Vincent de Paul

QUOTATION: Who Should Be a Priest?

When one is required to preside over the Church, and be entrusted with the care of so many souls, the whole female sex must retire before the magnitude of the task, and the majority of men also.

–-St. John Chrysostom

QUOTATION: Relying on People

Be careful not to depend or rely much upon the friendship and protection of men. For they cannot sustain us by themselves; and when the Lord sees us leaning upon them, He withdraws from us.

--St. Vincent de Paul

QUOTATION: Freedom

Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.

--Pope John Paul II

QUOTATION: Virtue

When you see anyone who desires esteem and honors and avoids contempt, and who when contradicted or neglected, shows resentment and takes it ill, you may be sure that such a one, though he were to perform miracles, is very far from perfection, for all his virtue is without foundation.

--St. Thomas Aquinas

QUOTATION: Humility

Let us endeavor to conceive a very great diffidence of ourselves and to establish ourselves firmly in this virtue; for, of ourselves, we are good for nothing, except to spoil the designs of God. This will keep us in entire dependence upon His guidance and make us have recourse constantly to His help.

--St. Vincent de Paul

QUOTATION: America

Radical changes in world politics leave America with a heightened responsibility to be, for the world, an example of a genuinely free, democratic, just and humane society.

--Pope John Paul II

QUOTATION: Mortification and Love

God does not command us to live in hair shirts and chains, or to chastise our flesh with scourges, but to love Him above all things and our neighbor as ourselves.

--St. Charles of Sezze

QUOTATION: Science and Religion

Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.

--Pope John Paul II

QUOTATION: Prayer

The air which we breathe, the bread which we eat, the heart which throbs in our bosoms, are not more necessary for man that he may live as a human being, than is prayer for the Christian that he may live as a Christian.

--St. John Eudes

QUOTATION: Collectivism

The historical experience of socialist countries has sadly demonstrated that collectivism does not do away with alienation but rather increases it, adding to it a lack of basic necessities and economic inefficiency.

--Pope John Paul II

QUOTATION: Holy Indifference

How beautiful it is to behold a person destitute of all attachment, ready for any act of virtue or charity, gentle to all, indifferent as to any employment, serene in consolations and tribulations, and wholly content if only the will of God is done!

--St. Francis de Sales

QUOTATION: Freedom

When freedom does not have a purpose, when it does not wish to know anything about the rule of law engraved in the hearts of men and women, when it does not listen to the voice of conscience, it turns against humanity and society.

--Pope John Paul II

QUOTATION: The Papacy and Unity

Indeed no true and perfect human society can be conceived which is not governed by some supreme authority. Christ therefore must have given to His Church a supreme authority to which all Christians must render obedience. For this reason, as the unity of the faith is of necessity required for the unity of the church, inasmuch as it is the body of the faithful, so also for this same unity, inasmuch as the Church is a divinely constituted society, unity of government, which effects and involves unity of communion, is necessary jure divino.

--Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum, On the Unity of the Church 1896.

(Note: jure divino= by divine law).

QUOTATION: Pleasing God

When a soul that truly loves God knows that a thing is of greater perfection, and more for God's service, it pursues it immediately and without difficulty, on account of the pleasure it finds in pleasing Him.

--St. Teresa of Avila