QUOTATION: Christianity and Intelligence

Anyone who is honestly trying to be a Christian will soon find his intelligence being sharpened: one of the reasons why it needs no special education to be a Christian is that Christianity is an education itself.

--C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

QUOTATION: If We Want to Follow Jesus, We Must Suffer

Abraham had a strong affection for his son Isaac, and that was the point on which the Almighty tried him. Job fondly loved his seven sons, and God took them from him in one day. In this manner He treats all those who are dear to Him, that they may testify their love for Him, while He bestows great graces on them by this means.

I know that human nature cannot understand this. It thinks only of the grief and the loss, and cares for nothing else. But if God dwells in us, we must restrain our feelings, and make them subservient to reason and to His will. Whatever our suffering may be, we must not let it overwhelm us. Remember our Lord's anguish, which wrung from Him a sweat of blood, and made Him cry out: "Father, not my will but thine be done." If we would beknown as His disciples we must say the same, for as His servants on earth, and His companions in heaven, He will have none but those who take up their cross and follow Him, as sheep do their shepherd, even though the path lead to death.

--St. John of Avila, Letters, V

QUOTATION: Perfection

He is not perfectly good who cannot be good among the wicked.

--St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: Angels at Mass

When the Eucharist is being celebrated, the sanctuary is filled with countless angels who adore the divine victim immolated on the altar.

--St. John Chrysostom

QUOTATION: Why Heretics Succeed

The heretics have made their false theology popular and presented it in a way that is within the capacity of the common people. They preach it to the people and teach it in the schools, and scatter pamphlets that can be bought and understood by many; they influence people by their writings when they cannot reach them by preaching. Their success is largely due to the negligence of those who should have shown some interest, and the bad example and the ignorance of Catholics, especially the clergy, have made such ravages in the vineyard of the Lord.

--St. Ignatius Loyola, Letter to St. Peter Canisius

QUOTATION: The Primacy of Rome

If Paul, the herald of the truth, the trumpet of the Holy Spirit, hastened to the great Peter, to convey from him the solution to those in Antioch, who were at issue about living under the law, how much more do we, poor and humble, run to the Apostolic Throne [Rome] to receive from you [Pope Leo] healing for wounds of the the Churches. For it pertains to you to have primacy in all things; for your throne is adorned with many prerogatives.

--Theodoret of Cyrus, in a letter to Pope Leo

QUOTATION: Unreasonable Patience

Further, the person who does not become irate when he has cause to be, sins. For an unreasonable patience is the hotbed of many vices: it fosters negligence, and stimulates not only the wicked, but above all the good, to do wrong.

--St. Thomas Aquinas

QUOTATION: Loving the Cross

God does not ask you to love the cross with the will of the flesh. Since the flesh is subject to sin and corruption, all that proceeds from it is perverted and, of itself, cannot be submissive to the will of God and his crucifying law. It was this human will our Lord referred to in the Garden of Olives when he cried out, "Father, let your will be done, not mine." If the lower part of Christ's human nature, although so holy, could not love the cross continuously, then with still greater reason will our tainted nature reject it.

--St. Louis de Montfort, Letter to the Friends of the Cross

QUOTATION: Poverty

When one is poor and really wants to be poor, freely and not by force, then he enjoys the sweetness of poverty. Moreover, God will take care of him in one of two ways --either by moving the hearts of those who have something to give so that they will give it to him, or else by helping him live without eating.

--St. Anthony Mary Claret

QUOTATION: Self-Giving

Only in self-giving does man find himself, and only by opening himself to the other, to others, to children, to the family; only by letting himself be changed through suffering, does he discover the breadth of his humanity.

--Pope Benedict XVI

QUOTATION: Prayer

No soul ever fell away from God without giving up prayer. Prayer is that which establishes contact with Divine Power and opens the invisible resources of heaven. However dark the way, when we pray, temptation can never master us. The first step downward in the average soul is the giving up of the practice of prayer, the breaking of the circuit with divinity, and the proclamation of one’s owns self sufficiency.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Characters of the Passion

QUOTATION: Suffering's Silver Lining

Though the divine Providence has left in man, along with the grace of its mercy, several striking marks of its severity, such as, for example, the necessity of death, the pains of sickness, the obligation of labour, the rebellion of sensuality, yet celestial clemency, rising above these, takes pleasure in turning every misery to the greater advantage of those who love it, making patience spring up from labour, contempt of the world from the necessity of death, and a thousand victories from conscupiscence; and, as the rainbow touching the thorny apalathus renders it more odourous than the lily, so the redemption of Our Lord touching our miseries, renders them more useful and more amiable than original innocence would ever have been.

--St. Francis de Sales, Consoling Thoughts

QUOTATION: Christ's Words

Look at Christ's words, and this same character of them will strike you; whatever He says is fruitful in meaning, and refers to many things. It is well to keep this in mind when we read Scripture; for it may hinder us from self-conceit, from studying it in an arrogant critical temper, and from giving over reading it, as if we had got from it all that can be learned.

--Blessed John Henry Newman, "The Resurrection", Parochial and Plain Sermons, Volume 1

QUOTATION: Abstinence

One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting every one else to give it up. That is not the Christian way.

--C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

QUOTATION: Twelve Degrees of Humility

The first degree is the fear of God.

The second, is to deny our own will.

The third, is obedience.

The fourth, is patience.

The fifth, is the confession of sins.

The sixth, is contempt of oneself.

The seventh, is to prefer others to oneself, esteeming them more highly.

The eighth, is to avoid singularity in outward things.

The ninth, is to be silent unless spoken to.

The tenth, is not to be prompt to laughter.

The eleventh, is to speak little and with gravity.

The twelfth, is to prefer a low estate and occupation.

--St. John of Avila, Letters, II

QUOTATION: The Threats to Chastity

These are the weapons by which a chaste soul is overcome: looks, speeches, touches, embraces.

--St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: Boredom

You're bored? That's because you keep your senses awake and your soul asleep.

--St. Josemaría Escriva

QUOTATION: After Communion

In affections and prayers it is, then, that the soul should entertain itself with Jesus after Communion; for we must know, that the acts formed in prayer after Communion are far more precious and meritorious in the sight of God than when made at another time; for the soul being then united with Jesus, the value of the acts is increased by the presence of Jesus. We should, moreover, know, that after Communion Jesus Christ is more disposed to grant graces.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Holy Eucharist

QUOTATION: Service

He who does something good and expects a reward is serving not God but his own will.

--St. Mark the Ascetic

QUOTATION: Love Redeems

It is not power, but love that redeems us! This is God’s sign: he himself is love. How often we wish that God would make show himself stronger, that he would strike decisively, defeating evil and creating a better world. All ideologies of power justify themselves in exactly this way, they justify the destruction of whatever would stand in the way of progress and the liberation of humanity. We suffer on account of God’s patience. And yet, we need his patience. God, who became a lamb, tells us that the world is saved by the Crucified One, not by those who crucified him. The world is redeemed by the patience of God. It is destroyed by the impatience of man.

--Pope Benedict XVI, Mass for the Inauguration of His Pontificate

QUOTATION: You Only Own Sin

I have recognized quite clearly that all that I can call truly my own is sin. If I am or have anything else, I have received it all from God.

--St. Anthony Mary Claret, Autobiography

QUOTATION: Pleasure Seeking

Lenten practices of giving up pleasures are good reminders that the purpose of life is not pleasure. The purpose of life is to attain to perfect life, all truth and undying ecstatic love – which is the definition of God. In pursuing that goal we find happiness. Pleasure is not the purpose of anything; pleasure is a by-product resulting from doing something that is good. One of the best ways to get happiness and pleasure out of life is to ask ourselves, “How can I please God?” and, “Why am I not better?” It is the pleasure-seeker who is bored, for all pleasures diminish with repetition.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Bad Thoughts

Do not be disturbed about bad thoughts; it is one thing to have them and quite another to consent to them.

--St. Francis de Sales

QUOTATION: Sentiments Are Not a Substitute for Faith

Beware lest your religion be one of sentiment merely, not of practice. Men may speak in a high imaginative way of the ancient Saints and the Holy Apostolic Church, without making the fervour or refinement of their devotion bear upon their conduct. Many a man likes to be religious in graceful language; he loves religious tales and hymns, yet is never the better Christian for all this. The works of every day, these are the tests of our glorious contemplations, whether or not they shall be available to our salvation; and he who does one deed of obedience for Christ's sake, let him have no imagination and no fine feeling, is a better man, and returns to his home justified rather than the most eloquent speaker, and the most sensitive hearer, of the glory of the Gospel, if such men do not practice up to their knowledge.

--Blessed John Henry Newman, “Forms of Private Prayer”, Parochial and Plain Sermons, Volume 1.

QUOTATION: Singularity

Avoid every kind of singularity, for it is generally the hot-bed of pride, especially spiritual pride.

--St. Philip Neri

QUOTATION: Poverty and Tribulations

Poverty and tribulations are given us by God as trials of our fidelity and virtue, as well as to enrich us with more real and lasting riches in heaven.

--St. Philip Neri

QUOTATION: Humility

If you are humble nothing will touch you, neither praise nor disgrace, because you know what you are.

--Blessed Mother Teresa

QUOTATION: Perfection

The best perfection is to do ordinary things in a perfect manner. Constant fidelity in little things is a great and heroic virtue.

--St. Bonaventure

QUOTATION: The Church Always Resurrects

And if in our days we look sorrowfully into the future, and if the enemy presses hard upon our mother, the Church, she, too, our Church, will rise from the grave of oppression. That this will be the case every century testifies; the deeper they dig her grave, the tighter they seal and close it, the more gloriously has she ever arisen from the grave, and the more victoriously does she unfurl her flag.

--St. Jean Vianney, the Cure of Ars

QUOTATION: Sense of Sin

The devil presents minor sins as insignificant in our eyes, because otherwise he would not be able lead us into major ones.

--St. Mark the Ascetic

QUOTATION: The Rich

Let us not, however judge or despise those who live delicately and are clothed sumptuously. God is their Lord as well as ours, and He is powerful enough to call them to His service, and having called, to justify them. Let us therefore reverence them as our Brothers and master. They are our Brethren, because formed by the same Creator; they are our masters because they help the virtuous do penance by ministering to their temporal wants.

--St. Francis of Assisi

QUOTATION: Atheism

Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning.

--C.S. Lewis