QUOTATION: Living Within Our Means

Make it a point of honor to owe no man, and you will thus enjoy peaceful slumbers, a quiet conscience, a contented life, and a happy death. The means of acquiring these precious results is to control your desires and appetites and to govern your expenditure by your income, not by your caprices. Our debts proceed from our ill-regulated, uncontrolled desires more than from our necessities, and consequently moderation is more profitable than the largest revenues.

--Louis de Granada, The Sinner's Guide

QUOTATION: The Rejection of Dogma

It is a fashion of the day, then, to suppose that all insisting upon precise Articles of Faith is injurious to the cause of spiritual religion, and inconsistent with an enlightened view of it; that it is all one to maintain, that the Gospel requires the reception of definite and positive Articles, and to acknowledge it to be technical and formal; that such a notion is superstitious, and interferes with the "liberty wherewith Christ has made us free;" that it argues a deficient insight into the principles and ends, a narrow comprehension of the spirit of His Revelation. Accordingly, instead of accepting reverently the doctrinal Truths which have come down to us, an attempt is made by the reasoners of this age to compare them together, to weigh and measure them, to analyze, simplify, refashion them; to reduce them to system, to arrange them into primary and secondary, to harmonize them into an intelligible dependence upon each other. The teacher of Christianity, instead of delivering its Mysteries, and (as far as may be) unfolding them, is taught to scrutinize them, with a view of separating the inward holy sense from the form of words, in which the Spirit has indissolubly lodged them. He asks himself, what is the use of the message which has come down to him? what the comparative value of this or that part of it? He proceeds to assume that there is some one end of his ministerial labours, such as to be ascertainable by him, some one revealed object of God's dealings with man in the Gospel. Then, perhaps, he arbitrarily assigns this end to be the salvation of the world, or the conversion of sinners. Next he measures all the Scripture doctrines by their respective sensible tendency to effect this end. He goes on to discard or degrade this or that sacred truth as superfluous in consequence, or of inferior importance; and throws the stress of his teaching upon one or other, which he pronounces to contain in it the essence of the Gospel, and on which he rests all others which he retains. Lastly, he reconstructs the language of theology to suit his (so-called) improved views of Scripture doctrine.

--Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman, "The Gospel, a Trust Committed to Us", Parochial and Plain Sermons

QUOTATION: Patience

If you behold God in the neighbor, you will put up with his defects, you will reprove him without sharpness, you will treat him as you would have treated Jesus Christ going to Calvary laden with His Cross; you will pity his misery, and it will not irritate you; you will patiently and kindly render him service, and for all this you must love God in him.

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Spiritual Apathy

Stagnant water soon grows putrid; a soul left at ease, without any struggle or temptation, stands in great danger of perishing from some self-conceit of her own merit; she perhaps imagines herself to have already attained to perfection, and therefore has little fear; and consequently takes little pains to recommend herself to God and to secure her salvation; but when, on the contrary, she is agitated by temptations, and sees herself in danger of rushing headlong into sin, then she has recourse to God; she goes to the divine Mother; she renews her resolution rather to die than to sin; she humbles herself, and casts herself into the arms of the divine mercy: in this manner, as experience shows us, the soul acquires fresh strength and closer union with God.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Holy Eucharist

QUOTATION: Conditional Crosses

We meet often enough with souls who desire to suffer and to carry the cross, and I know there are some who even ask afflictions from God, but it is on condition that He will frequently visit and console them in their pains and sufferings, and that He will show them He is much pleased with their sufferings, and intends to reward them with eternal glory.

--St. Francis de Sales, Consoling Thoughts

QUOTATION: Be Prepared for Crosses

Make the resolution to suffer any kind of cross without excluding or choosing any: any poverty, injustice, loss, illness, humiliation, contradiction, slander, spiritual dryness, desolation, interior and exterior trials, saying always, "My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready." Be prepared, then, to be forsaken by men and angels, and seemingly by God himself; to be persecuted, envied, betrayed, slandered, discredited and abandoned by everyone; to suffer hunger, thirst, poverty, nakedness, exile, imprisonment, the gallows, and all kinds of torture, even though you have done nothing to deserve it.

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

QUOTATION: The Blessed Mother's Mercy

The greater sinners we are, the more tenderness and compassion Mary has for us. The child who has cost the Mother the most tears is closest to her heart.

--St Jean Vianney, the Curé of Ars

QUOTATION: Peace

Unless souls are saved, nothing is saved; there can be no world peace without soul peace.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Feelings of Guilt

Whenever you feel guilty, even if it is because you have consciously committed a sin, a serious sin, something you have kept doing many, many times, never let the devil deceive you by allowing him to discourage you. Whenever you feel guilty, offer all your guilt to the Immaculate, without analyzing it or examining it, as something that belongs to her…

--St. Maximillian Kolbe

QUOTATION: Rebuke

If one must censure, it is necessary also to rebuke. For it is the time to wound the apathetic soul. I do not mean mortally, but salutarily, securing exemption from everlasting death by a little pain.

--St. Clement of Alexandria

QUOTATION: Love of Poverty

Remember also that it is not poverty but the love of poverty which is a virtue. Hence all who voluntarily forsake wealth bear a striking resemblance to Our Saviour, who, being rich with the riches of God, became poor for love of us. They who are compelled to live in poverty, but bear it with patience, never coveting the wealth which is denied them, convert their necessity into a meritorious virtue. As the poor by their poverty conform themselves to Jesus Christ, so the rich by their alms can conform their hearts to the merciful Heart of this Divine Model, who in His lowly crib received not only the shepherds with their simple tokens of affection, but also the wise and powerful men of the East, who came to lay at His feet the treasures of their gold and frankincense and myrrh.

--Louis de Granada, The Sinner's Guide

QUOTATION: Fight One's Own Weaknesses

Against one's innate misery, against that weakness it entails, which mounts not upward, which incessantly falls back on self, neither struggle nor violence must be employed, but the humility and the patience of meekness. One must accept his state just as it is, and take it to God in the same way. You are weak in mind, and still more in heart? Offer that to God. Otherwise, what will you do? We cannot kill ourselves to change ourselves. In vain, will you be angry against yourself and vex yourself for not being perfect.

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Christ's Ascension

Christ's Ascension to the right hand of God is marvellous, because it is a sure token that heaven is a certain fixed place, and not a mere state.

--Blessed John Henry Newman

QUOTATION: The Holy Souls in Purgatory

The holy souls in purgatory feel no pain more acutely than that of their yearning to possess God, from whom they remain still at a distance. And this sort of pain will afflict those especially who in their lifetime had but little desire of paradise.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Holy Eucharist

QUOTATION: Perfection

Christian perfection consists in suffering well. To acquire solid virtues, complain not of your pains. Endure contradictions patiently.

--St. Francis de Sales, Consoling Thoughts

QUOTATION: Love of the Cross

And so there is a third kind of love, which is called by the masters of the spiritual life the love of the summit of the soul, and which is known to philosophers as the love of the intellect. In this, without any feeling of joy in the senses or pleasure in the mind, we love the cross we are carrying, by the light of pure faith, and take delight in it, even though the lower part of our nature may be in a state of conflict and disturbance, groaning and complaining, weeping and longing for relief. In this case, we can say with our Lord, "Father, let your will be done, not mine;" or with our Lady, "I am the slave of the Lord: let what you have said be done to me."

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

QUOTATION: Repentance

A first path of repentance is the condemnation of your own sins: be the first to admit your sins and you will be justified. For this reason, too, the prophet wrote: I said: I will accuse myself of my sins to the Lord and you forgave the weakness of my heart. Therefore, you too should condemn your own sins; that will be enough reason for the Lord to forgive you, for a man who condemns his own sins is slower to commit them again. Rouse your conscience to accuse you within your own house, lest it become your accuser before the judgment seat of the Lord.

-- St. John Chrysostom

QUOTATION: Crosses

He permits mental crosses, like worries, fear, anxieties, to make us feel His absence. If our love of goodness does not draw us to Him, at least our weariness will throw us back to Him. He permits physical crosses like sufferings to make us feel His Presence. Sickness forcibly draws us away from the world and its pleasures, and makes us realize that His scarred Hands cannot touch us without leaving wounds.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, About Crosses

QUOTATION: Freedom from God

God, in the end, gives people what they most want, including freedom from himself. What could be more fair?

--C. S. Lewis

QUOTATION: Transubstantiation

When Christ gave the bread he did not say, ‘This is the symbol of my body,’ but, ‘This is my body.’

--Theodore of Mopsuestia

QUOTATION: Christ's Mediatorship

God became a man for this purpose: since you, a human being, could not reach God, but you can reach other humans, you might now reach God through a man. And so the man Christ Jesus became the mediator of God and human beings. God became a man so that following a man, something you are able to do, you might reach God, which was formerly impossible to you.

--St. Augustine

QUOTATION: Be Kind to Yourself

A poor person comes to you. You give him an alms, because of his need, without inquiring into the cause, more or less legitimate, of his poverty. To what purpose would you inquire and discuss? He is poor, you receive him as such, and give him charity. Treat yourself in the same way. Your spiritual weakness and indigence are the condition of humility for you. Accept your impotence with meekness. That will engender a certain peace, which will sufficiently unite you with God.

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Riches

The more worldly prosperity you enjoy, the more destitute you are likely to be of spiritual riches, for an abundance of this world's goods leads you to trust in them rather than in God. Oh! That you knew the misery which such prosperity prepares for you! The desire of more which springs from the love of riches is a torment which far exceeds the pleasure we derive from their possession. It will entangle you in a thousand temptations, fill you with cares, and under the delusive image of pleasure plunge you into renewed sin and prove an inexhaustible source of trouble and disquiet. Again, riches are acquired only at the expense of pain and labor; they are preserved only by care and anxiety; and they are never lost without bitter vexation and grief. But, worse than all this, they are rarely accumulated without offense against God; for, as the proverb says, "A rich man is either a wicked man or a wicked man's heir."

--Louis de Granada, The Sinner's Guide

QUOTATION: Faith and Love

Faith knows because it is tied to love, because love itself brings enlightenment. Faith’s understanding is born when we receive the immense love of God which transforms us inwardly and enables us to see reality with new eyes.

--Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei

QUOTATION: Sin and Lack of Faith

Weakness of faith, however, in those who live in sin, does not spring from the obscurity of faith; for though God, in order to make our faith more meritorious, has veiled the objects of faith in darkness and secrecy, he has at the same time given us so clear and convincing evidence of their truth, that not to believe them would argue not merely a lack of sense, but sheer madness and impiety. The weakness of the faith of many persons is to be traced to their wickedness of living. He who, rather than forego the enjoyment of forbidden pleasures, scorns the divine friendship, would wish there were no law to forbid, and no chastisement to punish, his sin; on this account he strives to blind himself to the eternal truths of death, judgment, and hell, and of divine justice; and be cause such subjects strike too much terror into his heart, and are too apt to mix bitterness in his cup of pleasure, he sets his brain to work to discover proofs, which have at least the look of plausibility; and by which he allows himself to be flattered into the persuasion that there is no soul, no God, no hell, in order that he may live and die like the brute beasts, without laws and without reason.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Holy Eucharist

QUOTATION: Crosses

Let us receive with love the crosses that we have not chosen, that God gives us from His hand; let us bless them, let us love them: they are all perfumed with the excellent odor of the place from which they come.

--St. Francis de Sales, Consoling Thoughts

QUOTATION: Spiritual Progress

Let each one remember that he will make progress in all spiritual things only insofar as he rids himself of self-love, self-will, and self-interest.

-- St. Ignatius Loyola

QUOTATION: Suffering Well

God considers not so much what we suffer as how we suffer. To suffer a great deal, but badly, is to suffer like the damned; to suffer much, even bravely, but for an evil cause, is to suffer as a disciple of the devil; to suffer little or much for God's sake is to suffer like a saint.

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

QUOTATION: Being Insulted

When harmed, insulted or persecuted by someone, do not think of the present but wait for the future, and you will find he has brought you much good, not only in this life but also in the life to come.

--St. Mark the Ascetic

QUOTATION: Jesus on the Cross

This figure upon the Cross is not a Gestapo inquisitor, but a Divine Physician, Who only asks that we bring our wounds to Him in order that He may heal them.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: History

Human history is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.

--C.S. Lewis