QUOTATION: Mothers as Co-Redeemers

The pains which a woman bears in labor help to expiate the sins of mankind, and draw their meaning from the Agony of Christ on the Cross. Mothers are, therefore, not only co-creators with God; they are co-redeemers with Christ in the flesh.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Three to Get Married

QUOTATION: Pride and Humility

Pride seeks after honours and is grieved when it is despised; humility is averse to being treated well and rejoices in contempt, which it knows that it deserves, and its own uprightness renders it desirous that justice should be done.

Pride never has what it wants, for whatever it possesses, or has given to it, it considers that it deserves still more; while humility always thinks it has more than enough, for it believes that it is unworthy to walk the earth, and that hell itself is not sufficient punishment for its sins.

Pride can live in peace with no one, not even with itself, while humility agrees with all men, for it abases itself before everyone and bears patiently with them, believing with all its heart that they are better than itself.

Pride finds it insupportable to submit to others, whether to God, or a mortal creature, but humility gives way and bows down, so that it is able to pass through the "narrow gate" of obeying the will of God and man.

--St. John of Avila, Letters, XXIII

(Formatted for easier reading)

QUOTATION: God's Forgiveness

Man in pardoning shames the culprit, and the fear of shame prevents the child from asking forgiveness. The good God pardons with goodness. His forgiveness is a grace which restores honor, purifies, sanctifies, embellishes. It is one same act to be pardoned and to become holy. It at once restores the robe of innocence, the white robe. One abases himself only to be raised up immediately by mercy.

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: How to Tell We're Working Solely for God

The following are the signs which indicate whether we work solely for God in any spiritual undertaking:

1. If we are not disturbed at the failure of our plans, because when we see it is not God s will, neither is it any longer our will.

2. If we rejoice at the good done by others, as heartily as if we ourselves had done it.

3. If we have no preference for one charge more than for another, but willingly accept that which obedience to Superiors enjoins us.

4. If after our actions we do not seek the thanks or approbation of others, nor are in any way affected if we be found fault with or scolded, being satisfied with having pleased God. And if when the world applauds us we are not puffed up, but meet the vain glory, which might make, itself felt, with the reply of the venerable John of Avila " Get away, thou comest too late, for all has been already given to God."

--St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Holy Eucharist

QUOTATION: God Loves You But...

God loves us just the way we are; yet He loves too much to leave us that way...

--Scott Hahn, from his Facebook account

QUOTATION: Homosexuality

Indeed, this scourge [of homosexuality] destroys the foundations of faith, weakens the force of hope, dissipates the bonds of charity, annihilates justice, undermines fortitude, ... and dulls the edge of prudence.

--St. Peter Damian

QUOTATION: The Obstacle to Virtue

When man rebelled against God, the passions rebelled against reason – and from this arose all the difficulties which we encounter in the practice of virtue. Thus we see that many who appreciate virtue refuse to practice it, just as sick men earnestly desire health, but refuse the unpalatable remedies which alone would restore it. As this repugnance is the principal barrier to virtue, which, when known, is always valued and loved, if we succeed in proving that there is little foundation for such repugnance we shall have accomplished a good work.

The principal cause of this illusion is that we only regard the obstacles to virtue, and do not consider the grace which God gives us to overcome these obstacles. The servant of Eliseus was frightened at the numbers who were coming armed against his master, until God, at the prayer of the prophet, opened his eyes and caused him to see that Eliseus was surrounded by a still greater number of defenders. A like fear leads men to reject virtue, when they know not the succors which God reserves for it.

--Louis de Granada, The Sinner's Guide

QUOTATION: Poverty

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.

--Mother Teresa of Calcutta 

QUOTATION: Hell

But if the punishment due for our sins is put off till the next world, then it will be God's avenging justice, which puts everything to fire and sword, which will inflict the punishment, a dreadful, indescribable punishment: "Who understands the power of your anger?" Judgement without mercy, without relief, without merit, without limit and without end. Yes, without end. That serious sin you committed in a few brief moments, that deliberate evil thought which now escapes your memory, that word carried away by the wind, that brief action against the law of God - they shall all be punished for eternity, in the company of the devils in hell, so long as God is God. And this avenging God will have no pity on your torments, on your cries and tears, violent enough to cleave the rocks. To suffer forever, without merit, without mercy, and without end.

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

QUOTATION: The Church

Lukewarm Christians are those who want to build a Church to their own specifications... but it is not the Church of Jesus.

--Pope Francis

QUOTATION: After Making a Decision

After you have made a decision that is pleasing to God, the Devil may try to make you have second thoughts. Intensify your prayer time, meditation, and good deeds. For if Satan's temptations merely cause you to increase your efforts to grow in holiness, he'll have an incentive to leave you alone.

--St. Ignatius of Loyola

QUOTATION: Forgiveness

If God forgives us we must forgive ourselves otherwise it's like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than him.

-- C.S. Lewis, Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis

QUOTATION: God's Forgiveness

Men grow weary of pardoning. They are more severe toward the relapsing sinner, and impose more conditions on him. But the more He pardons, the more merciful does God seem to become. Great sinners who return to Him are His greatest friends. He came for the sick, and for one sinner, He left the angels. Provided there are some humility and confidence in our confession, we are always sure of being welcomed.

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Equality

There is nothing more opposed to equality than identity.

--Alice von Hildebrand, Man and Woman

QUOTATION: The Agony in the Garden

Thus He was sorrowful event to a bloody sweat in the Garden of Olives, not only through the bitter grief He felt in the inferior part of His soul, but also through the immense love He bore us in the rational part: the one giving Him a horror of death, the other an extreme desire of it:so that between this horror and this desire He suffered a most cruel agony, even to a great effusion of blood, which flowed as from a fountain, trickling down upon the ground.

--St. Francis de Sales, Consoling Thoughts

QUOTATION: Pleasing God

He that undertakes a thing solely for the glory of God, is not troubled at all, though his undertaking may fail of success; for, in truth, by working with a pure intention, he has already gained his object, which was to please Almighty God. 

--St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Holy Eucharist

QUOTATION: Justification

The self-contented conscience does not content God; and that man alone is just before Him, who knows that all justice and grace proceed from the divine mercy.

--St. John of Avila, Letters, XXIII

QUOTATION: Adversity

To arrive at union with God, the contrarieties which God sends us are absolutely necessary; his purpose is, to consume in us, by means of them, all irregular movements, both within and without. And hence all contempt, ailments, poverty, temptations, and other trials, are all indispensable, to give us the opportunity of fighting; that so, by the way of victory, we may eventually extinguish all inordinate movements, so as to be no more sensible of them; furthermore, until we begin to find contradictions sweet for God's sake, instead of bitter, we shall never arrive at divine union.

--St. Catherine of Bologna

QUOTATION: The Work of Grace

There is nothing in the world more astonishing, no more interesting spectacle, than that afforded by the action of grace upon the soul of a just man. How it transforms him, sustains him, strengthens him and comforts him! How it subdues and governs him exteriorly and interiorly! How it altars his affections, making him love what he formerly abhorred, and abhor what he formerly loved! How strong it makes him in combat! What peace it gives him! What light it pours into his soul to enable him to learn God's will, to realize the vanity of the world, and to set a true value on the spiritual blessings which he formerly despised! And still more wonderful is the short space of time in which these great changes are made. It is not necessary to spend long years in study, or to wait until old age helps us by experience. Men in the fire of youth are sometimes so changed in the space of a few days that they hardly seem the same beings. Hence St. Cyprian says that the sinner finds himself converted even before he has learned how to bring about such a change, for it is the work of grace, which needs neither study nor time, but which acts in an instant, like a spiritual charm.

--Louis de Granada, The Sinner's Guide

QUOTATION: Punishment for Sin

Dear Friends of the Cross, we are all sinners; there is not one of us who has not deserved hell, and I more than anyone. Our offences have to be punished either in this world or in the next. If we suffer for them now, we shall not suffer for them after death. If we willingly accept punishment for them, this punishment will be an act of God's love; for it is mercy which holds sway and chastises in this world, and not strict justice. This punishment will be light and temporary, accompanied by consolation and merit, and followed by rewards both here and in eternity.

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

QUOTATION: After Communion

After Communion let us be careful not to lose so good an opportunity of negotiating with God. His divine majesty is not accustomed to pay badly for his lodging, if he meets with a good reception.

--St. Teresa of Avila

QUOTATION: Truth Needs Love

Love cannot be reduced to an ephemeral emotion. True, it engages our affectivity, but in order to open it to the beloved and thus to blaze a trail leading away from self-centredness and towards another person, in order to build a lasting relationship; love aims at union with the beloved. Here we begin to see how love requires truth. Only to the extent that love is grounded in truth can it endure over time, can it transcend the passing moment and be sufficiently solid to sustain a shared journey. If love is not tied to truth, it falls prey to fickle emotions and cannot stand the test of time. True love, on the other hand, unifies all the elements of our person and becomes a new light pointing the way to a great and fulfilled life. Without truth, love is incapable of establishing a firm bond; it cannot liberate our isolated ego or redeem it from the fleeting moment in order to create life and bear fruit.

--Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei

QUOTATION: What is Impossible to God?

What is impossible to God? Not that which is difficult to His power, but that which is contrary to His nature.

--St. Ambrose

QUOTATION: How God Forgives

God pardons absolutely and forever. He casts our sins behind His back, say the Scriptures, He plunges them into the sea, and the scarlet of crime assumes the whiteness of snow, of innocence, in the bath of His mercy. They will never again rise up to accuse us! I love this thought of a large number of theologians, according to whom, they will not even be mentioned at the Last Judgment, because the Lord says "I will pardon you them, and I shall remember them no more!"

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Ministry

In our ministry to men, we must imitate the angels; they do not neglect any means to procure their salvation, but the result, whether good or bad, causes them to lose nothing of their blessed and eternal peace.

--St. Ignatius Loyola

QUOTATION: The Soul Who Loves God

When the love of God has taken possession of a soul, it produces an insatiable desire to work for the beloved; insomuch that however many and however vast the works which she does, and however prolonged the duration of her service, all seems nothing in her eyes, and she is afflicted at doing so little for God ; and were it permitted her to die and consume herself for him, she would be most happy. Hence it is that she esteems herself an unprofitable servant in all that she does; because she is instructed by love to know what God deserves, and sees by this clear light all the defects of her actions, and finds in them motives for confusion and pain, well aware how mean is all that she can do for so great a Lord.

--St. John Chrysostom

QUOTATION: The Church Will Defend the Truth

The Church… intends to continue to raise her voice in defense of mankind, even when policies of States and the majority of public opinion moves in the opposite direction. Truth, indeed, draws strength from itself and not from the amount of consent it arouses.

--Pope Benedict XVI