Wednesday, October 31, 2012

QUOTATION: Respect for Authority

If it be true that the world has lost its respect for authority, it is because it lost it first in the home.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

QUOTATION: Suffering

The more I am crucified, the more I rejoice.

--St. Bernadette Sourbirous

Monday, October 29, 2012

QUOTATION: Scandal

Woe to those who give scandal! The guardian angels of their innocent victims will cry out for vengeance to God.

--St. John Bosco

Sunday, October 28, 2012

QUOTATION: Suffering

Every affliction accepted for God’s sake is a genuine act of holiness.

--St. Mark the Ascetic

Saturday, October 27, 2012

QUOTATION: Self-Preservation

If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.

--St. Thomas Aquinas

Friday, October 26, 2012

QUOTATION: A Strong Faith

A strong faith must endure tests. A living faith must always grow. Our faith in Jesus Christ, to be such, must frequently face others’ lack of faith.

--Pope Benedict XVI

Thursday, October 25, 2012

QUOTATION: Satanic

The essence of the satanic is the hatred of the cross of Christ.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

QUOTATION: Honouring Mary

We never give more honour to Jesus than when we honour his Mother, and we honour her simply and solely to honour him all the more perfectly. We go to her only as a way leading to the goal we seek - Jesus, her Son.

--St. Louis de Montfort

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

QUOTATION: Charity

If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small.

--C.S. Lewis

Monday, October 22, 2012

QUOTATION: Jesus' Greatest Anguish

Nothing afflicts the heart of Jesus so much as to see all His sufferings of no avail to so many.

--St. Jean Vianney, the Cure d’Ars

Sunday, October 21, 2012

QUOTATION: Your Guardian Angel

How many people in mortal sin were saved from death by their angel, that they might have a chance for confession!

--St. John Bosco

Saturday, October 20, 2012

QUOTATION: Loving God

He who wishes to love God does not truly love Him if he has not an ardent and constant desire to suffer for His sake.

--St. Aloysius Gonzaga

Friday, October 19, 2012

QUOTATION: Christ's Redemption and Atonement

In Jesus’ Passion, all the filth of the world touches the infinitely pure one, the soul of Jesus Christ and hence, the Son of God himself. While it is usually the case that anything unclean touching something clean renders it unclean, here it is the other way around: when the world, with all the injustice and cruelty that make it unclean, comes into contact with the infinitely pure one-- then he, the pure one, is stronger. Through this contact, the filth of the world is truly absorbed, wiped out, and transformed in the pain of infinite love. Because infinite good is now at hand in the man Jesus, the counterweight to all wickedness is present and active within world history, and the good is always infinitely greater than the vast mass of evil, however terrible it may be.

If we reflect more deeply on this insight, we find the answer to an objection that is often raised against the idea of atonement. Again and again people say: It must be a cruel God who demands infinite atonement. Is this not a notion unworthy of God? Must we not give up on the idea of atonement in order to maintain the purity of our image of God? In the use of the term hilasterion with reference to Jesus, it becomes evident that real forgiveness accomplished on the Cross functions in exactly the opposite direction. The reality of evil and injustice that disfigures the world and at the same time distorts the image of God-- this reality exists, through our sin. But here it is not a case of a cruel God demanding the infinite. It is exactly the opposite: God himself becomes the locus of reconciliation, and in the person of his Son takes the suffering upon himself. God himself grants his infinite purity to the world. God himself “drinks the cup” of every horror to the dregs and thereby restores justice through the greatness of his love, which through suffering, transforms the darkness.

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

Thursday, October 18, 2012

QUOTATION: Alcoholism

No cure for alcoholism will ever be perfect without the introduction of love. Alcoholism cannot be driven out; it must be crowded out.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

QUOTATION: The Greater the Suffering

Suffering is a great grace; through suffering the soul becomes like the Saviour; in suffering love becomes crystallised; the greater the suffering, the purer the love.

--St. Faustina Kowalska

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

QUOTATION: Suffering

I do not desire to die soon, because in Heaven there is no suffering. I desire to live a long time because I yearn to suffer much for the love of my Spouse.

--St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi

Monday, October 15, 2012

QUOTATION: Mary's Role in Redemption


Mary having co-operated in our redemption with so much glory to God and so much love for us, Our Lord ordained that no one shall obtain salvation except through her intercession.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori

Sunday, October 14, 2012

QUOTATION: The Mark of Holiness

If God gives you an abundant harvest of trials, it is a sign of great holiness which He desires you to attain. Do you want to become a great saint? Ask God to send you many sufferings. The flame of Divine Love never rises higher than when fed with the wood of the Cross, which the infinite charity of the Savior used to finish His sacrifice. All the pleasures of the world are nothing compared with the sweetness found in the gall and vinegar offered to Jesus Christ. That is, hard and painful things endured for Jesus Christ and with Jesus Christ.

--St. Ignatius Loyola

Saturday, October 13, 2012

QUOTATION: Justice in the Afterlife

That the saints may enjoy their beatitude and the grace of God more abundantly they are permitted to see the punishment of the damned in hell.

--St. Thomas Aquinas

Friday, October 12, 2012

QUOTATION: Judging the Catholic Church

Judge the Catholic Church not by those who barely live by its spirit, but by the example of those who live closest to it.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Thursday, October 11, 2012

QUOTATION: Frequent Communion

I would like to rid you of a false notion quite common…that you have to be a saint to receive often. This is a lie, a fraud. Communion is not primarily for saints, but for those who want to become saints. It’s the sick and the weak who need medicine and food.

--St. John Bosco

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

QUOTATION: Correction in Anger

Correction given in anger, however tempered by reason, never has so much effect as that which is given altogether without anger;for the reasonable soul being naturally subject to reason, it is a mere tyranny which subjects it to passion, and whereinsoever reason is led by passion it becomes odious, and its just rule obnoxious.

--St. Francis de Sales

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

QUOTATION: A Remedy for Concupiscence

There is no remedy so powerful against the heat of concupiscence as the remembrance of our Savior’s Passion. In all my difficulties I never found anything so efficacious as the wounds of Christ: In them I sleep secure; from them I derive new life.

--St. Augustine

Monday, October 8, 2012

QUOTATION: Chastity

When you decide firmly to lead a clean life, chastity will not be a burden on you: it will be a crown of triumph.

--St. Josemaria Escriva

Sunday, October 7, 2012

QUOTATION: The Cross

The Cross is laid on the shoulders of our pride and envy, our lusts and our angers, until by its friction it wears them away.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Saturday, October 6, 2012

QUOTATION: Private Prayer vs. Public Prayer

Private prayer is like straw scattered here and there: If you set it on fire it makes a lot of little flames. But gather these straws into a bundle and light them, and you get a mighty fire, rising like a column into the sky; public prayer is like that.

--St. Jean Vianney, the Cure d’Ars

Friday, October 5, 2012

QUOTATION: God Speaks to Us

Read some chapter of a devout book....It is very easy and most necessary, for just as you speak to God when at prayer, God speaks to you when you read.

--St. Vincent de Paul

Thursday, October 4, 2012

QUOTATION: Petitioning God

You pay God a compliment by asking great things of Him.

--St. Teresa of Avila

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

QUOTATION: Good and Evil

I have…seen many die, but I have never yet seen anyone who regretted at that moment that he had done too much good or who felt happy that he had lead an evil life. The reason is obvious, and you should never forget it, my dear sons. Evil may please momentarily, but it leaves us nothing but remorse. On the contrary, the good we do, not only gladdens us then and there, but also gives us a lifelong feeling of contentment. Which of the two will please us more at the moment of death?

--St. John Bosco

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

QUOTATION: Obedience

Obedience, is rightly placed before all other sacrifices, for in offering a victim as sacrifice, one offers a life that is not one’s own; but when one obeys one is immolating one’s own will.

--Pope St. Gregory the Great

Monday, October 1, 2012

QUOTATION: Christianity

People are turning away from Christianity today not because it is too hard but because it is too soft.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen