QUOTATION: Pride Kills Mercy

Our sins will never be so great as the mercy of God. There is one thing, however, one thing that it cannot conquer, and against which it can do nothing, and that is, the pride of supernatural gifts, which with full knowledge rejects God's goodness, and kills itself.

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: It's Not All Up to the Bishops

If laypeople don’t love their Catholic faith enough to struggle for it in the public square, nothing the bishops do will finally matter.

--Archbishop Charles J. Chaput

QUOTATION: Sexual Orientation

The human person, made in the image and likeness of God, can hardly be adequately described by a reductionist reference to his or her sexual orientation. Every one living on the face of the earth has personal problems and difficulties, but challenges to growth, strengths, talents and gifts as well. Today, the Church provides a badly needed context for the care of the human person when she refuses to consider the person as a “heterosexual” or a “homosexual” and insists that every person has a fundamental Identity: the creature of God, and by grace, his child and heir to eternal life.

--Pope John Paul II

QUOTATION: If Jesus Suffered, So Will You

You are the members of Christ, a wonderful honour indeed, but one which entails suffering. If the Head is crowned with thorns, can the members expect to be crowned with roses? If the Head is jeered at and covered with dust on the road to Calvary, can the members expect to be sprinkled with perfumes on a throne? If the Head has no pillow on which to rest, can the members expect to recline on feathers and down? That would be unthinkable!

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

QUOTATION: Faith is Everywhere

It is not only among us, who are marked with the name of Christ, that the dignity of faith is great; all the business of the world, even of those outside the Church, is accomplished by faith. By faith, marriage laws join in union persons who were strangers to one another. By faith, agriculture is sustained; for a man does not endure the toil involved unless he believes he will reap a harvest. By faith, seafaring men, entrusting themselves to a tiny wooden craft, exchange the solid element of the land for the unstable motion of the waves. Not only among us does this hold true but also, as I have said, among those outside the fold. For though they do not accept the Scriptures but advance certain doctrines of their own, yet even these they receive on faith.

-- St. Cyril of Jerusalem

QUOTATION: Compromise

Compromise is a word found only in the vocabulary of those who have no will to fight — the lazy, the cunning, the cowardly — for they consider themselves defeated before they start.

--St. Josemaria Escriva, The Way, #5

QUOTATION: Guardian Angels on Judgement Day

It is to be feared that the angels, who are at present our guardians, will become our accusers at the day of judgment.

--St. Aloysius Gonzaga

QUOTATION: Human Frailty

From the lukewarmness that is unavoidable, the saints themselves are not exempt; and this comprises all the failings that are committed by us without full consent, but merely from our natural frailty. Such are, for example, distractions at prayers, interior disquietudes, useless words, vain curiosity, the wish to appear, tastes in eating and drinking, the movements of concupiscence not instantly repressed, and such like. We ought to avoid these defects as much as we possibly can; but, owing to the weakness of our nature, caused by the infection of sin, it is impossible to avoid them altogether.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Holy Eucharist

QUOTATION: The Pleasure of Piety

Hence it is that they who serve God very often find more pleasure, even sensible pleasure, in recollection, silence, pious reading, meditation, prayer, and other devout exercises, than in any worldly amusement. In this happy state the work of subduing the flesh is rendered very easy.

--Louis de Granada, The Sinner's Guide.

QUOTATION: Discouragement

Whatever leads to discouragement, to despair, to trouble, is contrary to charity, which teaches us to make every effort, though with fear and trembling, but never to distrust the goodness of God, who wills all men to be saved, and to come to penance.

--St. Francis de Sales, Consoling Thoughts

QUOTATION: Laughter

Lest we become slaves to the killjoys, it might be well to reaffirm man’s right to laugh. Man is the only joker in the deck of nature. Man alone laughs because he lives in two worlds.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: The Sinner's Despair

The sinner of necessity, as it were, despairs. That is the effect which always follows sinful pleasure, and the second effect is much more certain than the first. Adam and Eve, who fled and doubted of mercy, Cain, who rejected it and exclaimed: "My sin is too great for pardon, " are types of the sinner after his fall. They are discouraged for having been unfaithful; and the majority of sinners who put off their conversion are held back by despair " It is impossible for me to be pardoned. I have too deeply offended God!" The day on which they would weep, they would be converted.

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Faith

There is an urgent need, then, to see once again that faith is a light, for once the flame of faith dies out, all other lights begin to dim.

--Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei

QUOTATION: Humanity is the Church's Business

The union of a man and a woman is being put on a par with the pairing of two people of the same sex, and tacitly confirms those fallacious theories that remove from the human person all the importance of masculinity and femininity, as though it were a question of the purely biological factor.

Such theories hold that man - that is, his intellect and his desire - would decide autonomously what he is or what he is not. In this, corporeity is scorned, with the consequence that the human being, in seeking to be emancipated from his body - from the "biological sphere" - ends by destroying himself.

If we tell ourselves that the Church ought not to interfere in such matters, we cannot but answer: are we not concerned with the human being? Do not believers, by virtue of the great culture of their faith, have the right to make a pronouncement on all this? Is it not their - our - duty to raise our voices to defend the human being, that creature who, precisely in the inseparable unity of body and spirit, is the image of God?

--Pope Benedict XVI

QUOTATION: God's Will

God gives to each one of us sufficient grace ever to know His holy will, and to do it fully.

--St. Ignatius Loyola, Letters

QUOTATION: Crosses

If your heavenly Father does not send you some worthwhile crosses from time to time, it is because he no longer cares about you and is angry with you; he is treating you as an outsider, no longer belonging to his family and deserving his protection, or as an illegitimate child, who, having no claim to a share of the inheritance, deserves neither care nor correction.

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

QUOTATION: Works

Many people value themselves in proportion to the number of their good works, forgetting that God cares more for the motive or our actions than for their quantity, and that far fewer works would be better pleasing to Him, were they accompanied by warmer love.

--St. John of Avila, Letters, XXII

QUOTATION: Salvation and Invincible Ignorance

Here, too, our beloved sons and venerable brothers, it is again necessary to mention and censure a very grave error entrapping some Catholics who believe that it is possible to arrive at eternal salvation although living in error and alienated from the true faith and Catholic unity. Such belief is certainly opposed to Catholic teaching. There are, of course, those who are struggling with invincible ignorance about our most holy religion. Sincerely observing the natural law and its precepts inscribed by God on all hearts and ready to obey God, they live honest lives and are able to attain eternal life by the efficacious virtue of divine light and grace. Because God knows, searches and clearly understands the minds, hearts, thoughts, and nature of all, his supreme kindness and clemency do not permit anyone at all who is not guilty of deliberate sin to suffer eternal punishments.

-- Pope Pius IX, Quanto Conficiamur Moerore

QUOTATION: Humiliation

Often, actually very often, God allows his greatest servants to make the most humiliating mistakes.

--St.Thomas More

QUOTATION: How Satan Gets Christians to Deny Christ

In former times, Christians were incited to renounce Christ; now they are taught to deny Christ. Then they were forced, now they are taught; then violence was used, now it is deception; then one heard the shouts of the Enemy; now, when he prowls around, gentle and insinuating, it is difficult to recognize him. Everyone knows how he tried to force Christians to deny Christ: he tried to attract them to himself so that they would renounce him; but they confessed Christ and were crowned by him. Now they are taught to deny Christ by trickery, because he doesn’t want them to realize that he is drawing them away from Christ.

--St. Augustine, Commentaries on the Psalms, 39:1

QUOTATION: Serving God Must Be Unconditional

Many, on the other hand, are willing to serve God, but it must be in such an employment, in such a place, with such companions, or under such circumstances, or else they either quit the work, or do it with an ill-will. Such persons have not freedom of spirit, but are slaves of self-love; and on that account gain very little merit by what they do; they lead a troubled life, because the yoke of Jesus Christ becomes a burden to them.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Holy Eucharist

QUOTATION: Modesty

While we are on the subject of dress and its relevance to the problem of modesty and immodesty it is worth drawing attention to the functional significance of differences in attire. There are certain objective situations in which even total nudity of the body is not immodest, since the proper function of nakedness in this context is not to provoke a reaction to the person as an object for enjoyment, and in just the same way the functions of particular forms of attire may vary. Thus, the body may be partially bared for physical labour, for bathing, or for a medical examination. If then we wish to pass a moral judgement on particular forms of dress we have to start from the particular functions which they serve. When a person uses such a form of dress in accordance with its objective function we cannot claim to see anything immodest in it, even if it involves partial nudity. Whereas the use of such a costume outside its proper context is immodest, and is inevitably felt to be so. For example, there is nothing immodest about the use of a bathing costume at a bathing place, but to wear it in the street or while out for a walk is contrary to the dictates of modesty.

--Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), Love and Responsibility

QUOTATION: How Do The Pious Fall?

And the pious, why do they fall? Because they, too, despair. They are discouraged by their falls. They have not succeeded. That is not what they were hoping for. The demon fills their soul with diffidence. That is his best secret for entering into the soul and ruining it. May this sentiment never rule in yours!

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: The Power of Evil Men

The power of evil men lives on the cowardice of the good.

--St. John Bosco

QUOTATION: God's Mercy Won't Save You from His Justice

 

Who taught you to reason that because God was good you could sin with impunity? Such is not the teaching of the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, those who listen to His voice reason thus: God is good; therefore, I must serve Him, obey Him, and love Him above all things. God is good; therefore, I will turn to Him with all my heart; I will hope for pardon, notwithstanding the number and enormity of my sins. God is good; therefore, I must be good if I would imitate Him. God is good; therefore, it would be base ingratitude in me to offend Him by sin.

Thus, the greater you represent God's goodness the more heinous are your crimes against Him. Nor will these offenses remain unpunished, for God's justice, which protects His mercy, cannot permit your sinful abuse of it to remain unavenged.

--Louis de Granada, The Sinner's Guide

QUOTATION: Politics

Politics is one of the highest forms of charity because it seeks the common good.

--Pope Francis

QUOTATION: Discernment

Pay attention to the people God puts in your path if you want to discern what God is up to in your life.

--Henri Nouwen

QUOTATION: The Value of Patience as Penance

How fortunate we are to be able to exchange a never-ending and unprofitable punishment for a temporary and rewarding one just by bearing our cross with patience! How many of our debts are still unpaid! How many sins have we committed which, despite a sincere confession and heartfelt contrition, will have to be atoned for in purgatory for many years, simply because in this world we contented ourselves with a few slight penances! Ah, let us settle our debts with good grace in this life by cheerfully carrying our cross. In the next, a strict account is demanded down to the last penny, to the last idle word. If we were able to snatch from the devil the book of death in which he has entered all our sins and the punishment due to them, what a heavy debt we should find, and how delighted we should be to suffer for long years on earth rather than a single day in the world to come!

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

QUOTATION: Satan's Torment

When the enemy cannot succeed in making you sin, and has lost the hope of attaining this end, he strives at least to torment you.

--St. Ignatius Loyola, Letters, 4.

QUOTATION: Christ's Vision of Hell

Those who object to the dogma of Hell on the grounds that it would mean that man would suffer more than God, do not understand God “descended into Hell” on the Cross and in the Garden of Gethsemane more deeply than any man could. The vision in the garden that so terrified Christ that He sweated bloody tears and asked His Father whether it was possible to avoid this “cup” was probably a vision of Hell—a vision of all human souls suffering eternal torment after having rejected Christ’s love.

--Peter Kreeft

QUOTATION: Patience

The best way to become patient is to put up with others.

--St. Francis de Sales