QUOTATION: The Eyes of Faith

Faith does not merely gaze at Jesus, but sees things as Jesus himself sees them, with his own eyes: it is a participation in his way of seeing.

--Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei

QUOTATION: Riches

He who guards his riches like a slave is their victim; but he who throws off their yoke possesses them as their lord and master.

--St. Jerome

QUOTATION: Two Definitions of Faith

For the name of faith is one in speech, but has two distinct meanings. For there is one kind of faith, dogmatic, involving an assent of the soul to some particular point.... But there is a second kind of faith, which is bestowed by Christ as a gift of grace.

--St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Discourses, 5, 10-11

QUOTATION: Justice and Mercy

God has two feet, one of justice and the other of mercy. We must embrace both, lest justice separated from mercy should cause us to despair, or mercy without justice should excite in us presumption.

--St. Bernard of Clairvaux

QUOTATION: Trials

God's way in dealing with those whom He intends to admit the soonest after this life into the possession of His everlasting glory, is to purify them in this world by the greatest afflictions and trials.

--St. Ignatius Loyola, Letter 126

QUOTATION: Crosses

Plant the cross of Jesus Christ crucified in your heart, and all the crosses of this world will appear to you as so many roses.

--St. Francis de Sales, Consoling Thoughts

QUOTATION: If the Church Gets with the Times...

If the Church marries the mood of the current age, it will become a widow in the next.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Drunkenness

In the country of the Moors no one feels affronted if called black, because it is the color of all the inhabitants. So where the vice of drunkenness prevails no one thinks it disgraceful to drink to excess, notwithstanding the degrading nature of this sin.

--Louis de Granada, The Sinner's Guide

QUOTATION: When in Doubt, Entrust Oneself to a Guide

Of a hundred, and perhaps a thousand, of these articulated locutions, there is hardly one genuine. It is difficult, even for spiritual masters, to discern the true from the false, those of the Spirit of truth from those of the devil, who knows so well how to feign effects like in appearance to those of the Spirit of God. Therefore it is best to enjoin on him who has them to drive them away, to humble himself before God, and to protest that faith, with the Scriptures and the advice of his spiritual father, who speaks in God's name, are sufficient for him. Thus he glorifies God in distrusting himself, in humbling himself, in esteeming himself unworthy of such favors, and is thereby freed from illusion.

--St. Paul of the Cross

QUOTATION: A Refined Soul

As the soul increases in piety, she becomes more refined, for refinement flourishes, expands very naturally on love. A refined soul comes to shun venial sins with as much solicitude as others use in fleeing mortal offences. A certain sin may be only venial by nature, but it is mortal for her heart.

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Grudgingly Carrying One's Cross

But if you are not willing to suffer patiently and carry your cross with resignation like God's chosen ones, then you will have to carry it, grumbling and complaining like those on the road to damnation. You will be like the two oxen that drew the Ark of the Covenant, lowing as they went; like Simon of Cyrene who unwillingly took up the very cross of Christ and did nothing but complain while he carried it. And in the end you will be like the impenitent thief, who from the summit of his cross plunged into the abyss.

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

QUOTATION: Vatican II Doctrine

Whatever were our opinions about the Council's various doctrines before its conclusions were promulgated, today our adherence to the decisions of the Council must be whole hearted and without reserve; it must be willing and prepared to give them the service of our thought, action and conduct. The Council was something very new: not all were prepared to understand and accept it. But now the conciliar doctrine must be seen as belonging to the magisterium of the Church and, indeed, be attributed to the breath of the Holy Spirit.

--Pope Paul VI to the Roman Curia, 23 April, 1966

QUOTATION: Lack of Resolve

The slothful man is ever desiring, but never resolves to take the means suitable to his state of life to become a saint. He says: "Oh, if I were but in solitude, and not in this house! Oh, if I could but go and reside in another monastery, I would give myself entirely up to God!" And meanwhile he cannot support a certain companion; he cannot put up with a word of contradiction; he is dissipated about many useless cares; he commits a thousand faults of gluttony, of curiosity, and of pride; and yet he sighs loud to the wind: "Oh, if I had but!" or "Oh, if I could I but!" etc. Such desires do more harm than good; be cause some regale themselves upon them, and in the meantime go on leading a life of imperfection.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Holy Eucharist

QUOTATION: Fraternal Correction

Don't neglect the practice of fraternal correction, which is a clear sign of the supernatural virtue of charity. You may find it hard, for it's easier to be inhibited. It's easier to behave that way, but it's not supernatural. And you will have to render an account to God for such omissions.

--St. Josemaria Escriva, The Forge, #146

QUOTATION: Idolatry is the Opposite of Faith

The history of Israel also shows us the temptation of unbelief to which the people yielded more than once. Here the opposite of faith is shown to be idolatry. While Moses is speaking to God on Sinai, the people cannot bear the mystery of God’s hiddenness, they cannot endure the time of waiting to see his face. Faith by its very nature demands renouncing the immediate possession which sight would appear to offer; it is an invitation to turn to the source of the light, while respecting the mystery of a countenance which will unveil itself personally in its own good time

--Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei

QUOTATION: Focus on God

When we look at ourselves, we are saddened by our feelings; when we look at God, we rejoice in his love.

--St. Bernard of Clairvaux

QUOTATION: Suffering

We were promised sufferings, they were part of the program. We were even told, "Blessed Are They That Mourn"

--C. S. Lewis

QUOTATION: Fervour

Be assured that in the study of perfection, as in that of the sciences, any act animated by holy fervor makes more progress than a thousand others produced by sloth; so that what the careless man acquires with trouble, after many years, the fervent man readily obtains in a short time.

--St. Ignatius Loyola, Letter 50

QUOTATION: Jesus Cares

"My daughter…why do you not tell me about everything that concerns you, even the smallest details? Tell Me about everything, and know that this will give Me great joy."

I answered, "But You know about everything, Lord."

And Jesus replied to me, “Yes I do know; but you should not excuse yourself with the fact that I know, but with childlike simplicity talk to Me about everything, for my ears and heart are inclined towards you, and your words are dear to Me.”

---St. Faustina Kowalska, Divine Mercy in my Soul

QUOTATION: The Bible

The Bible was composed in such a way that as beginners mature, its meaning grows with them.

--St. Augustine, Confessions

QUOTATION: Purgatory

Purgatory is nothing else than the last effort of God's mercy in behalf of the sinner. Above the portals of that fiery prison is written : Misericordia Dei!

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Self-Sacrifice Must Be Unconditional

But we sometimes see persons, who, coming to the service of God, say: Lord! I commend my spirit into Thy hands, but on condition that Thou wilt always give me consolations, without anything to contradict my will, and wilt give me superiors in all respects according to my liking.

Alas! What are you doing? Do you not see that this is not to resign your soul into the hands of God, as our Lord did? Do you not know that this is only one of those reserves from which all our troubles, disquietudes, and other imperfections, usually arise? For, as soon as things happen not according to our expectations and anticipations, a sudden desolation seizes on our poor souls. Why is this, unless because we are not resigned with indifference into the hands of God? Oh, how happy should we be, if we faithfully practiced this virtue!

--St. Francis de Sales, Consoling Thoughts

QUOTATION: Expect to Be Treated Like Jesus

If you are guided by the same spirit, if you live with the same life as Jesus, your thorn-crowned Head, you must expect only thorns, lashes and nails; that is, nothing but the cross; for the disciple must be treated like the master and the members like the head.

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

QUOTATION: Salvation Through the Church

Also well known is the Catholic teaching that no one can be saved outside the Catholic Church. Eternal salvation cannot be obtained by those who oppose the authority and statements of the same Church and are stubbornly separated from the unity of the Church and also from the successor of Peter, the Roman Pontiff, to whom "the custody of the vineyard has been committed by the Savior." The words of Christ are clear enough:

"If he refuses to listen even to the Church, let him be to you a Gentile and a tax collector;"

"He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you, rejects me, and he who rejects me, rejects him who sent me;"

"He who does not believe will be condemned;"

"He who does not believe is already condemned;"

"He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters."

The Apostle Paul says that such persons are "perverted and self-condemned;" the Prince of the Apostles calls them "false teachers . . . who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master. . . bringing upon themselves swift destruction."

-- Pope Pius IX, Quanto Conficiamur Moerore


(Formatted for easier reading).

QUOTATION: Grace

You will ask, perhaps, what is the source of this liberty and the glorious victory which it enables us to gain. After God, its source is grace, which, by means of the virtues it nourishes in us, subdues our passions and compels them to submit to the empire of reason. Certain men are said to charm serpents to such a degree that, without injuring them or lessening their venom, the snakes are rendered perfectly harmless. In like manner, grace so charms our passions-the venomous reptiles of the flesh – that, though they continue to exist in our nature, they can no longer harm us or infect us with their poison.

--Louis de Granada, The Sinner's Guide

QUOTATION: Tolerance of One's Faults

Some there are who shake hands with their faults, and from that springs their ruin; especially when the fault is accompanied with some passionate attachment of self-esteem, of ambition, of liking to be seen, of heaping up money, of resentment against a neighbor, or of inordinate affection for a person of different sex.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Holy Eucharist

QUOTATION: Satan

Satan never gains so many cohorts as when, in his shrewdness, he spreads the rumor that he is long since dead

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Atheism

I am an atheist. I don't believe in the god you don't believe in either.

--Peter Kreeft

QUOTATION: Justification By Works

Paul rejects the attitude of those who would consider themselves justified before God on the basis of their own works. Such people, even when they obey the commandments and do good works, are centered on themselves; they fail to realize that goodness comes from God. Those who live this way, who want to be the source of their own righteousness, find that the latter is soon depleted and that they are unable even to keep the law. They become closed in on themselves and isolated from the Lord and from others; their lives become futile and their works barren, like a tree far from water.

--Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei

QUOTATION: God's Love for Us

God showed that we were dear to Him when He made us after His own image, but far stronger was the proof He gave of His love, when He made Himself in the image of man. He abased Himself to raise us to His level; He became man to make us as gods; He descended from heaven that He might raise us to dwell there with Him, and above all, He died to give us life. And shall we lie slumbering, and make Him no return for this great love?

--St. John of Avila, Letters, XXI

QUOTATION: Peace of Soul

The cowardly, for not wishing to fight against themselves, will never enjoy, or only late, true peace of soul and the possession of any perfection ; the brave and the earnest possess both in a short time.

--St. Ignatius Loyola