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

QUOTATION: The Duty of a Parish Priest

If a parish priest doesn't want to be damned, and if there is any loose living in his parish, he must spurn the very thought of public opinion and the fear of being despised or hated by his parishioners. Even if he were certain of being lynched when he came down from the pulpit, that must not stop him from speaking out against it.

--St. Jean Vianney, the Cure of Ars

QUOTATION: Fidelity to the Church

The Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life's different stresses.Our duty is not to abandon ship, but to keep her on her course.

--St. Boniface

QUOTATION: The Political Health of a Nation

The political health of any nation can be measured by how much the people expect the state to give them and how little they expect to do for themselves, or how much they believe the world owes them a living.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Humility

A good Christian should be humble as was Jesus Christ, Who knelt down to wash the feet of His apostles. He washed even Judas’ feet, although He knew that the traitor was going to betray Him. The true Christian should consider himself to be the least among others and the servant of all.

--St. John Bosco

QUOTATION: Filthy Talk

Filthy talk makes us feel comfortable with filthy action. But the one who knows how to control the tongue is prepared to resist the attacks of lust.

--St. Clement of Alexandria

QUOTATION: Obedience

The obedience which we render to a superior is paid to God, Who says, ‘He that hears you hears Me;’ so that whatever he who holds the place of God commands, supposing it is not evidently contrary to God's law, is to be received by us as if it came from God Himself; for it is the same thing to know His Will, either from His Own, from an Angel's, or from a man's mouth.

--St. Bernard of Clairvaux

QUOTATION: Love and the Blessed Virgin Mary

Think of what the Saints have done for their neighbor because they loved God. But what Saint's love for God can match Mary's? She loved Him more in the first moment of her existence than all the Saints and angels ever loved Him or will love Him. Our Lady herself revealed to Sister Mary Crucified that the fire of her love was most extreme. If Heaven and earth were placed in it, they would be instantly consumed. And the ardors of the seraphim, compared with it, are like cool breezes. Just as there is not one among all the Blessed who loves God as Mary does, so there is no one, after God, who loves us as much as this most loving Mother does. Furthermore, if we heaped together all the love that mothers have for their children, all the love of husbands and wives, all the love of all the angels and Saints for their clients, it could never equal Mary's love for even a single soul.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary

QUOTATION: Daily Crosses

Many who would willingly let themselves be nailed to a Cross before the astonished gaze of a thousand onlookers cannot bear with a christian spirit the pinpricks of each day! Think, then, which is the more heroic.

--St. Josemaria Escriva, The Way

QUOTATION: The Church of the Meek

It will be hard-going for the Church, for the process of crystallization and clarification will cost her much valuable energy. It will make her poor and cause her to become the Church of the meek … The process will be long and wearisome as was the road from the false progressivism on the eve of the French Revolution – when a bishop might be thought smart if he made fun of dogmas and even insinuated that the existence of God was by no means certain … But when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church. Men in a totally planned world will find themselves unspeakably lonely. If they have completely lost sight of God, they will feel the whole horror of their poverty. Then they will discover the little flock of believers as something wholly new. They will discover it as a hope that is meant for them, an answer for which they have always been searching in secret.


And so it seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end: not the Church of the political cult, but the Church of faith. She may well no longer be the dominant social power to the extent that she was until recently; but she will enjoy a fresh blossoming and be seen as man’s home, where he will find life and hope beyond death.

--Pope Benedict XVI, predicting our current situation back in 1969

QUOTATION: Utiliarianism

In the utilitarian view that dominates our age, the principle that human life is an end in itself, not a means to an end, is always subject to a calculation that would justify harm to another, if we deem it to produce enough of a benefit to ourselves. Every human life is thus vulnerable to being on the losing side of the utilitarian’s cost/benefit analysis.

--Cardinal Timothy Dolan