QUOTATION: Worldly Pleasures

How sweet it has been to me to be deprived of the delights of a frivolous world! What incomparable joy have I felt after a privation once so dreaded.

-- St. Augustine

QUOTATION: Sacred Tradition

The very tradition, teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church from the beginning, which the Lord gave, was preached by the apostles and was preserved by the Fathers. On this was the Church founded, and if anyone departs from this, he neither is, nor any longer ought to be called, a Christian.

-- St. Athanasius

QUOTATION: Conservatives

He is a very shallow critic who cannot see an eternal rebel in the heart of a conservative.

--G.K. Chesterton, “Varied Types”

QUOTATION: Sin

The rabbis and priests and ministers stopped talking about sin. The jurists picked it up and turned sin into a crime, and finally psychiatrists converted it into a complex. The result is that no one is a sinner.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: God is Close

When we face the most difficult and painful situations, when it seems that God does not hear, we must not be afraid to entrust the whole weight of our overburdened hearts to Him, we must not fear to cry out to Him in our suffering, we must be convinced that God is close, even if He seems silent.

--Pope Benedict XVI

QUOTATION: Communion

Upon receiving Holy Communion, the Adorable Blood of Jesus Christ really flows in our veins and His flesh is really blended with ours.

--St. Jean Vianney, the Cure of Ars

QUOTATION: Jesus Born in a Stable

The King of heaven deigned to be born in a stable, because He came to destroy pride, the cause of man's ruin.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori

QUOTATION: Humility is the Path to Jesus

Anyone wishing to enter the place of Jesus' birth has to bend down. It seems to me that a deeper truth is revealed here, which should touch our hearts on this holy night: if we want to find the God who appeared as a child, then we must dismount from the high horse of our "enlightened" reason. We must set aside our false certainties, our intellectual pride, which prevents us from recognizing God's closeness. We must follow the interior path of Saint Francis the path leading to that ultimate outward and inward simplicity which enables the heart to see. We must bend down, spiritually we must as it were go on foot, in order to pass through the portal of faith and encounter the God who is so different from our prejudices and opinions than the God who conceals himself in the humility of a newborn baby.

--Pope Benedict XVI, Christmas Homily 2011

QUOTATION: Baby Jesus

He has become so small — you see: a Child-so that you can approach him with confidence.

--Josemaria Escriva, The Way, 94

QUOTATION: Crosses

Our Lord sends the crosses; we do not have to invent them.

--St. Padre Pio

QUOTATION: Collective Worship

The New Testament does not envisage solitary religion: regular assembly for worship is everywhere in the epistles.

--C.S. Lewis

QUOTATION: Faith

The sea is surging and the waves are high: but we have nothing to fear because we stand on a rock—the rock of faith. Let the sea surge with all the power at its command, and let the waves rise as high as mountains; the rock on which we stand will remain firm and unshaken. Do I fear death? No, because on the rock of faith I know that death is the gateway to eternal life. Do I fear exile? No, because on the rock of faith I know that I am never alone; Christ is always beside me, my friend and my brother. Do I fear slander and lies? No, because on the rock of faith I know that I am always protected by the truth—Christ who is the truth, is my protector. Do I fear poverty? No, because on the rock of faith God also provides for my needs. Do I fear ridicule? No, because however low I may sink in the esteem of those without faith, on the rock of faith all are treated with respect. Far from fearing the surge of the sea, I enjoy it, because it assures me that the rock on which I stand is immovable.

--St. John Chrysostom

QUOTATION: Judgement and Hell

It is just as difficult to make a free nation without judges and prisons as it is to make a free world without judgement and Hell.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

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: Suffering

Let us understand that God is a physician, and that suffering is a medicine for salvation, not a punishment for damnation.

—St Augustine

QUOTATION: Self-Crucifixion

The Beatitudes cannot be taken alone: they are not Ideals; they are Hard-Facts and Realities inseparable from the Cross of Calvary. What He taught was Self-Crucifixion:

* to Love those who Hate us;

* to pluck-out-eyes and cut-off-arms in order to prevent Sinning;

* to be Clean on the Inside when the Passions clamor for Satisfaction on the Outside;

* to Forgive those who would put us to Death;

* to overcome Evil with Good;

* to Bless those who Curse us;

* to stop mouthing Freedom until we have Justice, Truth and Love of God in our Hearts as the condition of Freedom;

* to live in the World and still keep oneself Unpolluted from it;

* to Deny ourselves sometimes Legitimate Pleasures in order the better to Crucify our Egotism - all this is to sentence the Old-Man in us to Death.


--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Pride and Humility

We put pride into everything like salt. We like to see that our good works are known. If our virtues are seen, we are pleased; if our faults are perceived, we are sad. I remark that in a great many people; if one says anything to them, it disturbs them, it annoys them. The saints were not like that -- they were vexed if their virtues were known, and pleased that their imperfections should be seen.

--St. Jean Vianney, the Cure of Ars

QUOTATION: Faith

Convenience, ease, no demands, no sacrifice, blending in, drifting along, just-like-everybody-else, no “cost of discipleship”—that’s a poisonous recipe for faith.

Hardship, sacrifice, tough choices, harassment, ridicule, standing for Gospel values, loyalty to our faith to the point of persecution or even blood—that’s the recipe for a deep, sincere, dynamic faith.

--Cardinal Timothy Dolan

QUOTATION: Loving Mary is Loving Jesus

Let us not imagine that we obscure the glory of the Son by the great praise we lavish on the Mother; for the more she is honored, the greater is the glory of her Son. There can be no doubt that whatever we say in praise of the Mother gives equal praise to the Son.

--St. Bernard of Clairvaux

QUOTATION: Spiritual Reading

When you receive any special light in reading, or any instruction that penetrates the heart, it will be very useful to stop, and to raise the mind to God by making a good resolution, or a good act, or a fervent prayer. St. Bernard says, that it is useful then to interrupt the reading, and to offer a prayer, and to continue to pray as long as the lively impression lasts. Let us imitate the bees, that pass not from one flower to another until they have gathered all the honey that they found in the first. This we should do, although all the time prescribed for the reading should be spent in such acts; for thus the time is spent with greater spiritual profit. Sometimes it may happen that you draw more fruit from reading a single verse than from reading an entire page.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori, The True Spouse of Jesus Christ

QUOTATION: The Secret to Happiness

One of the best ways to get happiness and pleasure out of life is to ask ourselves, “How can I please God?" It is the pleasure-seeker who is bored, for all pleasures diminish with repetition.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Petitioning God

The best time to ask and obtain favors from God is the time of the Elevation.

--St. John Bosco

QUOTATION: Lying

Of lies are many sorts, which indeed all, universally, we ought to hate. For there is no lie that is not contrary to truth. For, as light and darkness, piety and impiety, justice and iniquity, sin and right-doing, health and weakness, life and death, so are truth and a lie contrary the one to the other. Whence by how much we love the former, by so much ought we to hate the latter.

--St. Augustine, To Consentius, Against Lying

QUOTATION: Severe Self-Judgement

There are, again, some who think that it is penitence to abstain from the heavenly sacraments. These are too cruel judges of themselves, who prescribe a penalty for themselves but refuse the remedy, who ought to be mourning over their self-imposed penalty, because it deprives them of heavenly grace.

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

QUOTATION: The Blessed Virgin Mary

The reason why Christ is unknown today is because His Mother is unknown

--Blessed John Henry Newman

QUOTATION: Answering and Keeping Silent

We are sensitive to words and quickly want to answer back, without taking any regard as to whether it is God’s will that we should speak. A silent soul is strong; no adversities will harm it, if it perseveres in silence. The silent soul is capable of attaining the closest union with God.

--St. Faustina Kowalska

QUOTATION: Love of God

He that loves God does not desire to be esteemed and loved by his fellow men; the single desire of his heart is to enjoy the favor of the Almighty God, who alone forms the object of his Love.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori

QUOTATION: Obedience

Many people [in authority] oppose us, persecute us, and would like even to destroy us, but we must be patient. As long as their commands are not against our conscience, let us obey them, but when the case is otherwise, let us uphold the rights of God and of the Church, for those are superior to all earthly authority.

--St. John Bosco

QUOTATION: Asleep at the Wheel

Across the centuries, it is the drowsiness of the disciples that opens up possibilities for the power of the Evil One. Such drowsiness deadens the soul, so that it remains undisturbed by the power of the Evil One at work in the world and by all the injustice and suffering ravaging the earth. In its state of numbness, the soul prefers not to see all this; it is easily persuaded that things cannot be so bad, so as to continue in the self-satisfaction of its own comfortable existence. Yet this deadening of souls, this lack of vigilance regarding both God’s closeness and the looming forces of darkness, is what gives the Evil One power in the world.

--Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Volume 2

QUOTATION: Turning the Other Cheek

Why should we turn the other cheek? Because hate multiplies like a seed. If one preaches hate and violence to ten men in a row, and tells the first to strike the second, and the second to strike the third, the hatred will envelop all ten. The only way to stop this hate is for one man to turn his other cheek. Then the hatred ends. It is never passed on. Absorb violence for the sake of the Savior, who will absorb sin and die for it.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Little Sins

How dearly we shall pay for all those faults that we look upon as nothing at all, like those little lies that we tell to amuse ourselves, those little scandals, the despising of the graces which God gives us at every moment, those little murmurings in the difficulties that He sends us!

--St. Jean Vianney, the Cure d’Ars

QUOTATION: Star of the Sea

The Blessed Virgin Mary is called the Star of the Sea. Those who sail the ocean seas are guided to the port they seek by carefully observing the stars. In the same way, Christians are guided to heavenly glory by keeping their eyes on Mary.

--St. Thomas Aquinas

QUOTATION: Silence

A soul that has never tasted the sweetness of inner silence is a restless spirit which disturbs the silence of others. I have seen many souls in the depths of hell for not having kept their silence.

--St. Faustina Kowalska

QUOTATION: The Blessed Virgin Mary

The Immaculate must be the Queen over all nations, and this as soon as possible, and not only over all taken together, but over each person individually. Whoever goes contrary to this and refuses to believe in her love, will perish. But he who shall acknowledge her as Queen and strive, as her soldier, for the conquest of the world for her - he will live, he will thrive, and will always wonderfully prosper.

--St Maximilian Kolbe

QUOTATION: Atheism

A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.

--C. S. Lewis

QUOTATION: Humility

Whoever is humble, on being humiliated, humbles himself the more; on being rejected, rejoices in the disgrace; on being placed in low and mean occupations, acknowledges himself to be more honored than he deserves, and performs them willingly; and only abhors and avoids exalted and honorable offices.

-- St. Jane Frances de Chantal

QUOTATION: Temptation

The tempter, ever on the watch, wages war most violently against those whom he sees most careful to avoid sin.

--Pope St. Leo the Great

QUOTATION: Persecutors Come and Go

All past persecutors of the Church are now no more, but the Church still lives on. The same fate awaits modern persecutors; they, too, will pass on, but the Church of Jesus Christ will always remain, for God has pledged His Word to protect Her and be with Her forever, until the end of time.

--St. John Bosco

QUOTATION: Every sin has a price

Every wrongdoing–be it large or small–is fittingly punished, either by the penitent or by a vengeful God. Therefore we cannot avoid God’s punishment in any other way than by punishing ourselves.

--Pope Clement XIII, Appetente Sacro (On the Spiritual Advantages of Fasting) 1759

QUOTATION: You Cannot Argue with God

When you are arguing against God you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all.

--C.S. Lewis

QUOTATION: The Fire of Purgatory

The fire of Purgatory is the same as the fire of Hell; the difference between them is that the fire of Purgatory is not everlasting.

--St. Jean Vianney, the Cure d’Ars

QUOTATION: Heaven is a difficult path

The way to Heaven is straight and narrow: they who wish to arrive at that place of bliss by walking in the paths of pleasure shall be disappointed; and therefore few reach it, because few are willing to use violence to themselves in resisting temptations.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori

QUOTATION: The Test of Time

So far as a man may be proud of a religion rooted in humility, I am very proud of my religion; I am especially proud of those parts of it that are most commonly called superstition. I am proud of being fettered by antiquated dogmas and enslaved by dead creeds (as my journalistic friends repeat with so much pertinacity), for I know very well that it is the heretical creeds that are dead, and that it is only the reasonable dogma that lives long enough to be called antiquated.

--G. K. Chesterton, Autobiography

QUOTATION: Personal Conflict

You clash with the character of one person or another... It has to be that way - you are not a dollar bill to be liked by everyone. Besides without those clashes which arise in dealing with your neighbors, how could you ever lose those sharp corners, the edges - imperfections and defects of your character - and acquire the order, the smoothness, and the firm mildness of charity, of perfection?

If your character and that of those around you were soft and sweet like marshmallows, you would never become a saint.

-- St. Josemaria Escriva

QUOTATION: Truth

Today the concept of truth is viewed with suspicion, because truth is identified with violence. Over history there have, unfortunately, been episodes when people sought to defend the truth with violence. But they are two contrasting realities. Truth cannot be imposed with means other than itself! Truth can only come with its own light. Yet, we need truth. … Without truth we are blind in the world, we have no path to follow. The great gift of Christ was that He enabled us to see the face of God.

--Pope Benedict XVI

QUOTATION: Going with the Flow

Believers today are relentlessly tempted to accept a halfway Christianity, to lead a "double life" — to be one person when we're in church or at prayer and somebody different when we're with our friends or family, or at work, or when we talk about politics.

Part of this temptation comes from normal social pressure. We don't want to stand out. We don't want to seem different, so we keep our religious beliefs to ourselves. It's as if we've internalized the old adage: "Never talk about religion or politics in polite company." I've never accepted that kind of thinking, myself. Religion, politics, social justice — these are precisely the things we should be talking about. Nothing else really matters. Few things could be more important than religious faith, which deals with the ultimate meaning of life, and politics, which deals with how we should organize our lives together for justice and the common good.

--Archbishop Charles J. Chaput

QUOTATION: Obligatory Witness

A Catholic who does not strive to spread his faith is a parasite on the life of the Church.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Worldliness

What do we mean when we talk about “worldly” people? It isn’t a very easy thing to explain or to define. But, roughly speaking, I think you can say worldly people are the people who either don’t believe in a future life, or don’t bother about a future life, and want to make this world as comfortable a place as possible for as many people as possible, always including themselves. They want everything to be efficiently run, trains going as punctually as possible, and food and drink and cinemas as cheap as possible, and newspapers as large and as chatty as possible, and nothing to make any disturbance in people’s lives–”Live and let live” is their motto. And of course all that was what Pontius Pilate stood for. He didn’t care a bit about whether our Lord was the Son of God or not, about whether he broke the sabbath or not, about whether he kept the law of Moses or not. He only wanted to keep the Jews reasonably contented, reasonably quiet; he didn’t want crowds of people going round shouting out slogans like “Hosanna to the Son of David”, or “Crucify him”-that kind of thing was bad for public safety, so it had got to be stopped. It wasn’t Judas, you see, it wasn’t Caiphas, that crucified our Lord. If they had done it, there was an intelligible motive for doing it. Caiphas and those others had at least the excuse of wounded professional pride, for wanting to put our Lord to death. Judas had a much more practical excuse–thirty pieces of silver. But Pilate didn’t dislike our Lord at all; he was rather impressed by him, he was certainly convinced of his innocence. And yet it was Pilate who crucified him. It was the world of worldly people, with its dislike of a scene, its dislike of a fuss, its doctrine of “Live and let live” that put Jesus Christ to death.

…No, the reason why Pilate consented to crucify our Lord was because the whole of our Lord’s teaching was a challenge to the worldly people who found the world a comfortable place, and wanted to go on being comfortable, and not thinking about God or heaven or hell. And that is really why the Christian Church is always being persecuted, century after century, in this part of the world or that. She will not let people alone, she will go on reminding them of uncomfortable things. You know what it’s like if seven people are sitting in a railway-carriage on a rather cold day, with both windows up and all the heating on and a really good fug to sit in; and then at some way-side station an eighth traveller gets in who opens the window to look out and say good-bye to his wife and then doesn’t quite pull it up to the top, so that some of the cold air gets in. That is how the world feels about the Christian Church, with her talk of heaven and hell. And all that, remember, affects you and me. Because there is always the temptation, for you and me, to lie rather low about being Christians, out of human respect, when we are living among people who don’t share our beliefs; to talk as if sin didn’t matter very much, and God didn’t mind very much, and there was no heaven or hell to worry about. But, although there is no sense in trying to ram our beliefs down people’s throats all the time, that temptation I have been speaking of is one we have got to be on our guard against. When we say the Credo, and find ourselves repeating the words, ” He suffered under Pontius Pilate “, we have got to remind ourselves that it is not our business, as Christians, to toady and flatter Pontius Pilate, that is, the world.

--Msgr. Ronald Knox

QUOTATION: Health

Health is God’s great gift, and we must spend it entirely for Him. Our eyes should see only for God, our feet walk only for Him, our hands labor for Him alone; in short, our entire body should serve God while we still have the time. Then, when He shall take our health and we shall near our last day, our conscience will not reproach us for having misused it.

--St. John Bosco

QUOTATION: The Blessed Virgin Mary

Jesus Christ, after having given us all He could give, that is to say, the merit of His toils, His sufferings, and His bitter death; after having given us His Adorable Body and Blood to be the Food of our souls, willed also to give us the most precious thing He had left, which was His holy Mother.

--St. Jean Vianney, the Cure of Ars

QUOTATION: 50 Maxims for Attaining Perfection in the Love of Jesus Christ

1. To desire ardently to increase in the love of Jesus Christ

2. To make acts of love toward Jesus Christ. Immediately on waking, and before going to sleep, make an act of love, seeking always to unite your own will to the will of Jesus Christ.

3. Often to meditate on His Passion.

4. Always to ask Jesus Christ for His love.

5. To communicate often and many times in the day to make spiritual communions.

6. Often to visit the Most Holy Sacrament.

7. Every morning to receive from the hands of Jesus Christ himself your own cross.

8. To desire Paradise and Death in order to be able to love Jesus Christ perfectly and for all eternity.

9. Often to speak of the love of Jesus Christ.

10. To accept contradictions for the love of Jesus Christ.

11. To rejoice in the happiness of God.

12. To do that which is most pleasing to Jesus Christ, and not to refuse Him anything that is agreeable to Him.

13. To desire and to endeavor that all should love Jesus Christ.

14. To pray always for sinners and for the souls in Purgatory.

15. To drive from your heart every affection that does not belong to Jesus Christ.

16. Always to have recourse to the Most Holy Mary, that she may obtain for us the love of Jesus Christ.

17. To honor Mary in order to please Jesus Christ.

18. To seek to please Jesus Christ in all of your actions.

19. To offer yourself to Jesus Christ to suffer any pain for His love.

20. To be always determined to die rather than commit a willful venial sin.

21. To suffer crosses patiently, saying, “Thus it pleases Jesus Christ.”

22. To renounce your own pleasures for the love of Jesus Christ.

23. To pray as much as possible.

24. To practice all the mortifications that obedience permits.

25. To do all your spiritual exercises as if it were for the last time.

26. To persevere in good works in the time of aridity.

27. Not to do nor yet to leave undone anything through human respect.

28. Not to complain in sickness.

29. To love solitude, to be able to converse alone with Jesus Christ.

30. To drive away melancholy.

31. Often to recommend yourself to those persons who love Jesus Christ.

32. In temptation, to have recourse to Jesus crucified, and to Mary in her sorrows.

33. To trust entirely in the Passion of Jesus Christ.

34. After committing a fault, not to be discouraged, but to repent and resolve to amend.

35. To do good to those who do evil.

36. To speak well of all, and to excuse the intention when you cannot defend the action.

37. To help your neighbor as much as you can.

38. Neither to say nor to do anything that might vex him. And if you have been wanting in charity, to ask his pardon and to speak kindly to him.

39. Always to speak with mildness and in a low tone.

40. To offer to Jesus Christ all the contempts and persecution that you meet with.

41. To look upon Superiors as the representatives of Jesus Christ.

42. To obey without answering and without repugnance, and not to seek your own satisfaction in anything.

43. To like the lowest employments.

44. To like the poorest things.

45. Not to speak either good or evil of yourself.

46. To humble yourself even towards inferiors.

47. Not to excuse yourself when you are reproved.

48. Not to defend yourself when found fault with.

49. To be silent when you are disquieted.

50. Always to renew your determination of becoming a saint, saying, “My Jesus, I desire to be all Thine, and Thou must be all mine.”

--St. Alphonsus Liguori

QUOTATION: Holiness

How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing, it is irresistible.

--C.S. Lewis