QUOTATION: Discipleship

Being a disciple means being constantly ready to bring the love of Jesus to others, and this can happen unexpectedly and in any place: on the street, in a city square, during work, on a journey.

--Pope Francis, Gospel of Joy, 127

QUOTATION: The Person of Virtue

If a person has true virtue, nothing whatever can change him; he is like a rock in the midst of a tempestuous sea. If anyone scorns you, or calumniates you, if someone mocks at you or calls you a hypocrite or a sanctimonious fraud, none of this will have the least effect upon your peace of soul. You will love him just as much as you loved him when he was saying good things about you.

--St. Jean Vianney

QUOTATION: Confirmation

When persons are young, before their minds are formed, ere they have sullied their baptismal robe, and contracted bad habits, this is the time for Confirmation, which conveys to them grace whereby they may perform that "good work" which Baptism has begun in them. But when they have gone into the world,-whatever their age be, for it varies in different persons,-when they have begun the war with world, flesh, and devil, when their minds are now grown into some determinate shape, and much more when they have wilfully sinned in any gross way, are they likely to be fitly prepared for Confirmation, even if they are persuaded to offer themselves? When a grown person comes coldly, and indifferently, and merely because his friends send him to us, can we, ministers of Christ, receive him? Can we receive, as if being in a mere negative state, one who, as being of mature years, ought to be mature in his religious principles also? Beware, then, all who have the care of the young, lest you let slip the time of bringing them for God's grace, when you can bring them, for it will not return. Bring them while their hearts are tender: they may escape from you, and you may not be able to reclaim them.

--Blessed John Henry Newman, "Acceptance of Religious Privileges Compulsory", Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol.4

QUOTATION: Redemption

As a rich brother takes on himself the debt of his bankrupt brother, so Our Lord takes upon himself all the discords, disharmonies, all the sins, guilts, and blasphemies of man, as if he himself were guilty.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Peace of Soul, 1949

QUOTATION: The Gospels and Christ's Twofold Nature

In Christ a twofold nature is to be considered, a divine, and the Gospel of John is chiefly concerned with this, hence he begins, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.' And a human, and the other Gospels treat chiefly of this, and they are distinguished according to the threefold dignity that belongs to the man Christ. With respect to his royal honour, Matthew speaks. Hence in the beginning of his Gospel, he shows that Christ descended from kings and was adored by the Magi kings. With respect to his prophetic honour, Mark speaks, hence he begins with the preaching of the Gospel. With respect to his priestly dignity, Luke speaks, and he begins with the temple and the priesthood and ends his Gospel in the temple, and frequently returns to the temple, as the Gloss says about Luke chapter 2.46: 'and they found him sitting in the temple in the midst of the teachers.' 

--St. Thomas Aquinas, The Inaugural Sermons in Thomas Aquinas, Selected Writings, Penguin.

QUOTATION: Fake Religious

If you meet a religious person who never laughs he or she is a fake. Go on, tell him a joke. If he doesn’t laugh, don’t trust him.

--Fr. Dwight Longenecker, “Why Religious People Are Worse Than Darth Vader”, Standing on My Head, May 7, 2015

QUOTATION: Lifestyle

It is not wrong to want to live better; what is wrong is a style of life which is presumed to be better when it is directed toward having rather than being, and which wants to have more, not in order to be more but in order to spend life in enjoyment as an end in itself.

--Pope St. John Paul II

QUOTATION: Afflicted by God

Let us therefore be comforted, when we see ourselves afflicted by God for our sins in this world; for it is a sign that he will show mercy to us in the next.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Incarnation, Birth and Infancy of Jesus Christ

QUOTATION: Belief and Meaning

What is belief really? We can now reply like this: It is a human way of taking up a stand in the totality of reality, a way that cannot be reduced to knowledge and is incommensurable with knowledge; it is the bestowal of meaning without which the totality of man would remain homeless, on which man's calculations and actions are based, and without which in the last resort he could not calculate and act, because he can only do this in the context of a meaning that bears him up. For in fact man does not live on the bread of practicability alone; he lives as man and precisely in the intrinsically human part of his being, on the word, on love, on meaning. Meaning is the bread on which man, in the intrinsically human part of his being, subsists. Without the word, without meaning, without love, he falls into the situation of no longer being able to live, even when earthly comfort is present in abundance. Everyone knows how sharply this situation of "not being able to go on any more" can rise in the midst of outward abundance. But meaning is not derived from knowledge. To try to manufacture it in this way, that is, out of the provable knowledge of what can be made, would resemble Baron Munchausen's absurd attempt to pull himself up out of the bog by his own hair. I believe that the absurdity of this story mirrors very accurately the basic situation of man. No one can pull himself up out of the bog of uncertainty, of not being able to live, by his own exertions; nor can we pull ourselves up as Descartes still thought we could, by a cogito ergo sum, by a series of intellectual deductions. Meaning that is self-made is in the last analysis no meaning. Meaning, that is, the ground on which our existence as a totality can stand and live, cannot be made but only received.

--Cardinal Josef Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), Introduction to Christianity, 1968

QUOTATION: Abortion is Two Killings

I feel that in any abortion there are two killings, two murders: The child and the conscience of the mother.

--Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Where There is Love, There is God, Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C., Ed

QUOTATION: Changing Abortion Laws

Some people argue that changing laws will not eliminate abortions. It is certainly true that a change of heart is more important than a change of law. What is forgotten, however, is that the law is the great teacher. Children grow up believing that if a practice is legal, it must be moral.

--Cardinal John O’Connor

QUOTATION: Desire of Heaven

There are degrees in the desire of heaven. Some say “I want to go to heaven, because I shall be happy there, because people are so well-off there.” This is the first and lowest of desires for heaven. It is lawful, but it is chiefly the desire of those that live only for self, that work only for wages as the day-laborers. It is lawful, it fits in perfectly with the Christian law. But where is the love, where is the desire to see the good God?

Others say: “I want to go to Paradise, that I may no more offend God.” That is better, that desire is more noble, it has the interests of God's glory more in view. There is some love in that motive since it is to be forever faithful to Him that they desire heaven. But there are others who say: “I want to go to Paradise in order to love the good God, to see Him, to praise Him, and always to thank Him.” Oh! Here is perfection, since they want the good God for Himself What a pleasing thing to hear one speaking in this way! We say: Here are souls who really love. It is, indeed, beautiful!

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Saint Joseph

The prudence of Saint Joseph is part of our Catholic faith. It is especially shown in his remarkable practice of silence. Of course, Joseph talked. Yet the Gospels do not record a single word he spoke, no doubt to teach us that if we wish to practice the virtue of prudence, we must look to our practice of silence.

--Fr. John Hardon, “St. Joseph - Foster Father of Jesus”

QUOTATION: Saint. Joseph

When [St. Joseph] saw Our Lady was pregnant-- that she was going to have a baby-- immediately he was hurt. But he loved Our Lady. Deep down in his heart her loved her and knew in his mind, "If I go to the priest and tell, immediately they will stone her." He did not know that Our Lady had conceived by the power of the Spirit, but he knew that if told she would be stoned-- and that if he was silent, he would be stoned. So what did he decide? "I will not tell. I will leave her and go away and people will blame me." This is love.

--Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Where There is Love, There is God, Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C., Ed

QUOTATION: Religious Perfection

Religious perfection does not consist in having no failings, in never committing a fault, but in correcting our faults as soon as they are pointed out to us.

--St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, Conferences and Instructions

QUOTATION: What Kept St. Augustine in the Catholic Church?

For in the Catholic Church, not to speak of the purest wisdom, to the knowledge of which a few spiritual men attain in this life, so as to know it, in the scantiest measure, indeed, because they are but men, still without any uncertainty (since the rest of the multitude derive their entire security not from acuteness of intellect, but from simplicity of faith,)—not to speak of this wisdom, which you do not believe to be in the Catholic Church, there are many other things which most justly keep me in her bosom. The consent of peoples and nations keeps me in the Church; so does her authority, inaugurated by miracles, nourished by hope, enlarged by love, established by age. The succession of priests keeps me, beginning from the very seat of the Apostle Peter, to whom the Lord, after His resurrection, gave it in charge to feed His sheep, down to the present episcopate. And so, lastly, does the name itself of Catholic, which, not without reason, amid so many heresies, the Church has thus retained; so that, though all heretics wish to be called Catholics, yet when a stranger asks where the Catholic Church meets, no heretic will venture to point to his own chapel or house. Such then in number and importance are the precious ties belonging to the Christian name which keep a believer in the Catholic Church, as it is right they should, though from the slowness of our understanding, or the small attainment of our life, the truth may not yet fully disclose itself. But with you, where there is none of these things to attract or keep me, the promise of truth is the only thing that comes into play. Now if the truth is so clearly proved as to leave no possibility of doubt, it must be set before all the things that keep me in the Catholic Church; but if there is only a promise without any fulfillment, no one shall move me from the faith which binds my mind with ties so many and so strong to the Christian religion.

--St. Augustine, Against the Letter of Mani Called ‘The Foundation’, 397 AD

QUOTATION: Christians

Instead of seeming to impose new obligations, they should appear as people who wish to share their joy, who point to a horizon of beauty and who invite others to a delicious banquet. It is not by proselytizing that the Church grows, but "by attraction".

--Pope Francis, Gospel of Joy, 15

QUOTATION: The Present Moment

Let the hope of one day doing great things in the service of God not make you neglect the present moment.

--St. Ignatius Loyola

QUOTATION: The Nature of Man

Man is not an angel, nor is he a devil. He is not intrinsically corrupt (as theologians began claiming four hundred years ago) nor is he intrinsically divine (as philosophers began saying fifty years ago). Rather, man has aspirations to good which he finds it impossible to realize completely by himself; at the same time, he has an inclination toward evil which solicits him away from these ideals. He is like a man who is down a well through his own stupidity. He knows he ought not to be there, but he cannot get out by himself. Or to change the picture, he is like a clock whose mainspring is broken. He needs to be fixed on the inside, but the repairs must be supplied from without. He is mistaken if he is an optimist, who believes evolution will give him a mainspring, or a pessimist, who believes that nobody can fix him. He is a creature who can run well again, but only if some watchmaker will have the kindness to repair him.

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, Peace of Soul, 1949

QUOTATION: Religion

We do not really want a religion that is right where we are right. What we want is a religion that is right where we are wrong.

--G.K. Chesterton, The Catholic Church and Conversion

QUOTATION: Wisdom

In the general sense of the term wisdom means a delectable knowledge, a taste for God and his truth. There are several kinds of wisdom. First, true and false wisdom. True wisdom is a taste for truth without falsehood or deception. False wisdom is a taste for falsehood disguised as truth. This false wisdom is the wisdom or the prudence of the world, which the Holy Spirit divides into three classes: earthly, sensual, and diabolical. True wisdom may be divided into natural and supernatural wisdom. Natural wisdom is the knowledge, in an outstanding degree, of natural things in their principles. Supernatural wisdom is knowledge of supernatural and divine things in their origin. This supernatural wisdom is divided into substantial or uncreated Wisdom, and accidental or created wisdom. Accidental or created wisdom is the communication that uncreated Wisdom makes of himself to mankind. In other words, it is the gift of wisdom. Substantial or uncreated Wisdom is the Son of God, the second person of the most Blessed Trinity. In other words, it is eternal Wisdom in eternity or Jesus Christ in time.

--St. Louis de Montfort, The Love of Eternal Wisdom

QUOTATION: Belief

Man's natural inclination draws him to the visible, to what he can take in his hand and hold as his own. He has to turn around inwardly in order to see how badly he is neglecting his own interests by letting himself be drawn along in this way by his natural inclination. He must turn around to recognize how blind he is if he trusts only what he sees with his eyes. Without this change of direction, without this resistance to the natural inclination, there can be no belief. Indeed belief is the conversion in which man discovers that he is following an illusion if he devotes himself only to the tangible.

--Cardinal Josef Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), Introduction to Christianity, 1968

QUOTATION: No Boasting

There can be no boasting towards God even on the part of His most matured saints and exactest servants. There can, I say, be no boasting, because whatever we do is the fruit of His grace, and because we do very little, and because, in spite of His grace, what we do is infected with sin, and because even if we did all, we should be doing no more than we are bound to do.

--Blessed John Henry Newman, "Reliance on Religious Observances", Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol.4

QUOTATION: Capital Punishment

Some time back they phoned from the U.S.A. They were going to execute a man who had committed very serious crimes. They asked me to speak to the Governor, to try to do something for that man. God helped me; I said the first words that came to my mouth, "Do what Jesus would do if He were in your place." [That man] was not executed; he is still in prison.

--Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Where There is Love, There is God, Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C., Ed

QUOTATION: Four Prophets to Four Evangelists

Isaiah chiefly foretells the mystery of the Incarnation, which is why he is read during the time of Advent by the Church, and Jeremiah the mystery of the Passion, hence he is read in Passiontide, and Ezekiel the mystery of the Resurrection, hence his book finishes with the raising of the bones and the repair of the temple. Daniel, however, is included among the prophets insofar as he predicted future events in a prophetic spirit; although he did not speak to the people in the person of the Lord, he dealt with the divinity of Christ. Thus the four prophets answer to the four Evangelists, and also to the call to judgement.

--St. Thomas Aquinas, The Inaugural Sermons in Thomas Aquinas, Selected Writings, Penguin.

QUOTATION: The Community of Spiritual Goods

The selflessness of Christian love founds a kind of communism of spiritual goods, and the more perfectly a Christian develops this selfless love in himself, the more all others can live on his goods as if they were his own.

--Hans Urs von Balthasar, Mary, the Church at the Source, 1980

QUOTATION: Charity

When a soul is filled with true charity, nothing appears difficult, because this charity becomes the principle of all its operations, and it acts only under this influence.

--St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, Conferences and Instructions

QUOTATION: Excluding God

The greatest deception, and the deepest source of unhappiness, is the illusion of finding life by excluding God, of finding freedom by excluding moral truths and personal responsibility.

--Pope St. John Paul II, World Youth Day Homily, July 28, 2002

QUOTATION: Personal Relationships

For just as some people want a purely spiritual Christ, without flesh and without the cross, they also want their interpersonal relationships provided by sophisticated equipment, by screens and systems which can be turned on and off on command. Meanwhile, the Gospel tells us constantly to run the risk of a face-to-face encounter with others, with their physical presence which challenges us, with their pain and their pleas, with their joy which infects us in our close and continuous interaction.

--Pope Francis, Gospel of Joy, 88

QUOTATION: What Saddened Jesus During the Passion

But it was not so much the sorrows of his Passion which saddened and embittered the life of our Redeemer, as the sight of all the sins which men would commit after his death.

--St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Incarnation, Birth and Infancy of Jesus Christ

QUOTATION: What Is It Like to Be God?

“What is it like to be God?” This question cannot be answered by imagining God as an infinitely magnified human being any more than we can know what it would be like to be a bat by imagining ourselves with webbed arms, poor vision, perceiving things by sonar, flitting about at night catching insects, and hanging upside down in an attic during the day.

--Scott Hahn, Benjamin Wiker, Answering the New Atheism, 2008.