QUOTATION: Faith

Confess the Faith! All of it, not part of it! Safeguard this faith, as it came to us, by way of tradition: the whole Faith!

--Pope Francis

QUOTATION: Paying It Forward

Just as it is better to illuminate than merely to shine, so to pass on what one has contemplated is better than merely to contemplate.

--Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica

QUOTATION: Joy and Mortification

Joy is to be thought of as the true source of that liberty of mind which alone is able to unite the apparently incompatible qualities of the spiritual life, giving a freer rein to natural expressions of love while remaining inseparably attached to mortification. In our joy we must be careful to keep our spirit mortified, and practise mortification in order to increase our joy.

I must therefore remain always and invariably happy, while never for one moment desisting from self-denial. It is self-love which stunts the growth of the spirit and saddens us; self-denial restores life, serenity and peace.

--Pope St. John XXIII, Journal of a Soul

QUOTATION: How Not to Fight Poverty

The extermination of millions of unborn children, in the name of the fight against poverty, actually constitutes the destruction of the poorest of all human beings.

--Pope Benedict XVI, Message for the World Day of Peace, 2008

QUOTATION: Truth in Love

Cook the Truth in Charity until it is sweet.

--St. Francis de Sales

QUOTATION: Why Bad Things Happen

God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.

--C.S. Lewis

QUOTATION: Church and State

Bishops must not rashly assail kings, if there be no grave sins for which the latter deserve reproach; but, if there be grave sins, the bishop must not spare, that the offenders may be corrected by his just remonstrances.

--St. Ambrose

QUOTATION: Heaven

Let us not forget that we have to merit, purchase, and pay for heaven. The present time is intended only for amassing its price. The crown of justice is given only to victory. and to receive it we must persevere till death. It is not enough to run the race for some years, one is crowned only when he reaches the goal.

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Perfection in Little Things

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: Christianity

Christianity, unlike any other religion in the world, begins with catastrophe and defeat. Sunshine religions and psychological inspirations collapse in calamity and wither in adversity. But the Life of the Founder of Christianity, having begun with the Cross, ends with the empty tomb and victory.

-- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Confession

When we go to confession, we should accuse ourselves of our worst sins first, and of those things which we are most ashamed of, because by this means we put the devil to greater confusion, and reap more fruit from our confession.

--St. Philip Neri

QUOTATION: How to Pray

You don't know how to pray? Put yourself in the presence of God, and as soon as you have said, "Lord, I don't know how to pray!' you can be sure you have already begun.

--St. Josemaria Escriva

QUOTATION: The Parish

Many people today are disoriented and lost in search of genuine fellowship. Often their lives are either too superficial or shattered by brokenness. Their work often is dehumanizing. They long for an experience of genuine encounter with others, for true fellowship. Well, is this not precisely the vocation of a parish? Are we not called to be a warm, brotherly family together? Are we not people united together in the household of God through our common life? Your parish is not mainly a structure, a geographical area or a building. The parish is first and foremost a community of the faithful. This is the task of a parish today: to be a community, to rediscover its identity as a community. You are not a Christian all by yourself. To be a Christian means to believe and to live one’s faith together with others. For we are all members of the body of Christ…. For fellowship to grow, the priest’s role is not enough, even though he plays an essential role. The commitment of all parishioners is needed. Each of their contributions is vital.

--Pope John Paul II, Draw Near to God

QUOTATION: The Hidden Life of Jesus

The largest part of Jesus' life was hidden. Jesus lived with his parents in Nazareth, "under their authority" (Luke 2:51), and there "increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and with people" (Luke 2:52). When we think about Jesus we mostly think about his words and miracles, his passion, death, and resurrection, but we should never forget that before all of that Jesus lived a simple, hidden life in a small town, far away from all the great people, great cities, and great events. Jesus' hidden life is very important for our own spiritual journeys. If we want to follow Jesus by words and deeds in the service of his Kingdom, we must first of all strive to follow Jesus in his simple, unspectacular, and very ordinary hidden life.

--Fr. Henry Nouwen

QUOTATION: Modernism

During this retreat Jesus, my blessed Lord, has deigned to give me an even clearer understanding of the necessity of keeping whole and intact my 'sense of faith' and my 'being of one mind with the Church', for he has shown me in a dazzling light the wisdom, timeliness, and nobility of them measures taken by the Pope to safeguard the clergy in particular from the infection of modern errors (the so-called Modernist errors) which in a crafty and tempting way are trying to undermine the foundations of Catholic doctrine. The painful experiences of this year, suffered here and there, the grave anxieties of the Holy Father and the pronouncements of the religious authorities have convinced me, without the need for other proof, that the wind of Modernism blows very strongly and more widely than seems at first sight, and that it may very likely strike and bewilder even those who were at first moved only by the desire to adapt the ancient truth of Christianity to modern needs. Many, some of them good men, have fallen into the field of error. The worst of it is that ideas lead very swiftly to the spirit of independence and private judgement about everything and everyone.

--Pope St. John XXIII, Journal of a Soul, entry from 1910

QUOTATION: Seize the Day

Do now what you wish to have done when your moment comes to die.

--St. Angela Merici

QUOTATION: Temptation

God did not say, "You will not be tempted, you will not be belabored, you will not be disquieted, you will not suffer". But He did say, "You shall not be overcome."

--Julian of Norwich

QUOTATION: Faith and Unbelief

Let me tell you this: Faith comes and goes. But if it presumptuous to think faith will stay with you forever, it is just as presumptuous to think that unbelief will.

--Flannery O’Connor

QUOTATION: Purity

Are you sensitive on the subject of purity, avoiding even the appearance of sin, the least occasions, all that which, far or near, looks like sin? If so, you are on the straight road to Paradise; purgatory will have no work to do in you.

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Influence

Do not say: It is impossible for me to influence others. If you are a Christian, it is impossible for this not to happen.

--St. John Chrysostom

QUOTATION: Intention

If you want to do something but cannot, then before God, who knows our hearts, it is as if we have done it. This is true whether the intended action is good or bad.

--St. Mark the Ascetic

QUOTATION: Salvation

Salvation is shown to faith, it is prepared for hope, but it is given only to charity. Faith points out the way to the land of promise as a pillar of fire, hope feeds us with its manna of sweetness, but charity actually introduces us to the Promised Land.

--St. Francis de Sales

QUOTATION: Obligations

We must not be so insistent upon demanding our rights as in discharging our obligations.

--Pope Benedict XV

QUOTATION: Sin

Sin is a hard master; once sold over to it, we cannot break our chain; one evil concession requires another.

--Blessed John Henry Newman, "Jeroboam", Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. 3

QUOTATION: Prayers

Our prayers are so dear to God, that he has appointed the angels to present them to him as soon as they come forth from our mouths.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori

QUOTATION: Divinity

Divinity and its ways will always be a scandal to men.

-- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

QUOTATION: Temptations

Do not grieve over the temptations you suffer. When the Lord intends to bestow a particular virtue on us, He often permits us first to be tempted by the opposite vice. Therefore, look upon every temptation as an invitation to grow in a particular virtue and a promise by God that you will be successful, if only you stand fast.

-- St. Philip Neri

QUOTATION: Reason

Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all.

--G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

QUOTATION: Love and Hate

Love must precede hatred, hence it is that every hatred is caused by love.

--St. Thomas Aquinas

QUOTATION: Shadows

If God created shadows, it was to better emphasize the light.

--Pope St. John XXIII

QUOTATION: Aim for Perfection

Shun, then, the least faults, in order not lo force Our Lord to make you wait for your reward. It distresses Him much to put souls into purgatory. He does it, because His justice demands it, but it is most painful to His love.

--St. Peter Julian Eymard