QUOTATION: Who Am I to Judge?

During the return flight from Rio de Janeiro I said that if a homosexual person is of good will and is in search of God, I am no one to judge. By saying this, I said precisely what the Catechism says.

--Pope Francis, My Door is Always Open: a Conversation on Faith, Hope and the Church in a Time of Change

QUOTATION: The Church Endures

Our Lord seems to sleep; then the tempest threatens, hell rises up against the Church and by persecution endeavours to annihilate it; but cry of distress is heard and our loving Saviour rises, with word appeases the storm, and the holy Ark of God continues its triumphant progress throughout all ages.

--St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, Conferences and Instructions

QUOTATION: Preaching

When the malice of wicked men increases, and converts are abused with insults, preaching, far from being curtailed, should be increased.

--St. Thomas Aquinas

QUOTATION: The Light of Christ

If we do not radiate the light of Christ around us, the sense of the darkness that prevails in the world will increase.

--Mother Teresa of Calcutta, No Greater Love

QUOTATION: No Compromise on Freedom

Better to be a beggar in freedom than to be forced into compromises against my conscience.

--Dietrich von Hildebrand

QUOTATION: Excessive Attachment

The fly that clings to honey hinders its flight, and the soul that allows itself attachment to spiritual sweetness hinders its own liberty and contemplation.

--St. John of the Cross, Sayings of Light and Love, #24

QUOTATION: Deism

The Deist attempt to found a natural religion broke down because it was the result of a superficial synthesis, which only succeeded in uniting the etiolated ghost of historic Christianity with the phantasm of pseudo-scientific rationalism. It claimed to be the Religion of Nature, when it was as abstract and artificial as any metaphysical system. It professed to base itself on purely rational grounds, when it really drew it spiritual vitality from the religious tradition that it rejected. It was neither truly religious nor completely rational, and consequently it was rejected alike by the most living religion and by the most serious scientific thought of the new age.

--Christopher Dawson, Progress and Religion

QUOTATION: Judgement Day

Alas! How will you present yourselves before the judgement-seat of Christ, with the imperfect mixed feelings which now satisfy you, with a certain amount of faith, and trust, and fear of God’s judgements, but with nothing of that real delight in Him, in His attributes, in His Will, in His commandments, in His service, which saints possess in such fullness, and which alone can give the soul a comfortable title to the merits of His death and passion?

--Blessed John Henry Newman, “Purity and Love”

QUOTATION: Pride

Pride is the exaltation of self as an absolute standard of truth, goodness and morality. It judges everything by itself, and for that reason everyone else is a rival, particularly God.

--Fulton J. Sheen, Preface to Religion

QUOTATION: Religion within the Bounds of Reason

The comfortable attempt to spare oneself the belief in the mystery of God's mighty actions in this world and yet at the same time to have the satisfaction of remaining on the foundation of the biblical message leads nowhere; it measures up neither to the honesty of reason nor to the claims of faith. One cannot have both the Christian faith and "religion within the bounds of pure reason"; a choice is unavoidable.

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

QUOTATION: The Church Tolerant and Intolerant

The Church is intolerant in principle because she believes. She is tolerant in practice because she loves. The enemies of the Church are tolerant in principle because they do not believe. They are intolerant in practice because they do not love.

-- Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange

QUOTATION: Clergy

The people of God want pastors, not bureaucrats or clergy acting like government officials.

--Pope Francis, My Door is Always Open: a Conversation on Faith, Hope and the Church in a Time of Change

QUOTATION: Speak the Truth

It’s your obligation to speak the truth, and everyone can either take it or leave it. But the truth must be in us.

--Mother Angelica

QUOTATION: When You Decide to Become a Serious Christian...

As soon as the children of this world perceive that you desire to follow a devout life they will shoot at you a thousand arrows of mockery and detraction. The most malicious will calumniate your change as being hypocrisy, bigotry, and artifice. They will say that the world has frowned on you and that being rejected by it you turned to God. Your friends will make a world of objections which they imagine to be very wise and charitable. They will tell you that you will fall into a melancholy state of mind; that you will lose credit in the world; that will you will make yourself insupportable; that you will grow old before your time; that your domestic affairs will suffer; that you must live in the world like one in the world; that salvation may be had without so many mysteries; and a thousand similar trivialities. 

My Philothea, all this is nothing but foolish and empty babbling. These people are not interested in your health or in your welfare. “If you had been of the world,” says the Savior, “the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” We have seen gentlemen and ladies pass the whole night, even many nights, together at chess or cards. Is there any concentration more absurd, stupid, or gloomy, than that of gamesters? Yet worldly people do not say a word, nor do their friends ever trouble themselves about them. Should we spend an hour in meditation, or rise in the morning a little earlier than usual in order to prepare ourselves for Communion, every one runs for a physician to cure us of our hypochondria and jaundice. Such persons can pass thirty nights in dancing without experiencing any inconvenience; but if they watch a single Christmas night, every one of them coughs and complains that he is sick the next morning. Who does not see that the world is an unjust judge, gracious and favorable to its own children, but harsh and rigorous toward the children of God?

--St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life.

QUOTATION: Prayer

If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you.

--Mother Teresa of Calcutta, No Greater Love.

QUOTATION: Denounce Error

Whenever it becomes necessary to expose statements that disguise some suspected error or danger under the veil of ambiguity, one must denounce the perverse meaning under which the error opposed to Catholic truth is camouflaged.

--Pope Pius VI, Auctorem Fidei

QUOTATION: Humility

Pay very great attention, daughters, to this point, which I shall now tell you; for at one time it may be humility and virtue to consider ourselves to be bad, and at another time it may be a very great temptation; and because I have experienced this, I know it to be true. However great our humility may be, it does not disturb or disorder the soul, but brings peace, delight, and calmness. Should anyone, seeing herself to be wicked, clearly understand that she deserves to be in Hell, and can scarcely dare ask for mercy, if this be true humility, this grief has a certain sweetness and satisfaction attendant upon it, so that we would not wish to see ourselves without: it does not disturb nor straiten the soul, but rather enlarges her, and disposes her for serving God the more fervently. But the other kind of grief troubles and disorders everything, and quite throws the soul into confusion, and is very painful. I believe the devil tries to make us think we have humility, and at the same time (if he can) to make us distrust God. When you find yourselves in this state, avoid, as much as you can, thinking on your own misery, meditate on the mercy of God, and how He loves you, and how much He suffered for you.

--St. Teresa of Avila, Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer

QUOTATION: Fairweather Followers

Jesus has many lovers of His kingdom of heaven, but He has few bearers of His Cross. Many desire His consolation, but few desire His tribulation. He finds many comrades in eating and drinking, but He finds few who will be with Him in His abstinence and fasting. All men would joy with Christ, but few will suffer anything for Christ. Many follow Him to the breaking of His bread, for their bodily refreshment, but will follow Him to drink a draft of the chalice of His Passion. Many honor His miracles, but few will follow the shame of His cross and His other ignominies. Many love Jesus as long as no adversity befalls them, and can praise and bless Him whenever they receive any benefits from Him, but if Jesus withdraws a little from them and forsakes them a bit, they soon fall into some great grumbling or excessive dejection or into open despair.

--Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

QUOTATION: Faith is a Gift

A Catholic is sometimes impatient with one who has not the faith, wrongly thinking that the reason he sees the truth so clearly is because of his own innate cleverness, and the reason his neighbour does not see it is due either to his stupidity or his stubbornness. Faith, it must be remembered, is not due to our wisdom, and the lack of faith is not due to their ignorance. Faith is solely a gift of God.

--Fulton J. Sheen, Preface to Religion

QUOTATION: Judgement Day

All, past, present, and future will be judged: thus the Apostle says: We must all be manifested before the judgement-seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the proper things of the body according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil. Of the wicked, some will be condemned, but not be judged: namely unbelievers whose works will not be discussed, since He that believeth not is already judged. Some will be both condemned and judged, namely the faithful who die in mortal sin: The wages of sin is death, because on account of the faith which they had they will not be excluded from the judgement. Of the good, some will be saved and will not be judged, namely those who for God’s sake are poor in spirit; indeed, they will judge others: You who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel, which is to be referred not only to the disciples, but also to all the poor; otherwise Paul who labored more than the others would not be of their number: and consequently we must understand these words refer to all who follow the Apostles, and of men with an apostolic spirit. Hence the Apostle says: know ye not that we shall judge the angels? – The Lord will enter into judgement with the ancients of his people and its princes. Some, however, will be both saved and judged, those, namely, who die in the state of righteousness: since although they died righteous, yet through being occupied with temporal matters they fell somewhat, and therefore they will be judged, yet saved; in fact, they will be judged concerning all their works both good and bad: Walk in the ways of thy heart…and know that for all these God will bring thee into judgement. All things that are done God will bring into judgement for every error, whether it be good or evil.

--St. Thomas Aquinas, Exposition of the Apostles’ Creed

QUOTATION: Worldliness

Do not have Jesus Christ on your lips, and the world in your hearts.

--St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Romans, 7

QUOTATION: Hell

In truth-- one thing is certain; there exists a night into whose solitude no voice reaches; there is a door through which we can only walk alone -- the door of death. In the last analysis all the fear in the world is fear of this loneliness. From this point of view, it is possible to understand why the Old Testament has only one word for hell and death, the word sheol; it regards them as ultimately identical. Death is absolute loneliness. But the loneliness into which love can no longer advance is -- hell.

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

QUOTATION: Evangelization

What will reconvert the world of today? Only a constellation of saints can lead the masses back to Christ and the Church. Mere democratic aspirations, as conceived by Lamennais and many others, are not sufficient.

 --Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, Life Everlasting

QUOTATION: Freedom

Freedom is always the best environment for thinkers, civic associations and the communications media to carry out their activities with passion and creativity in service of the common good.

--Pope Francis, Address to Civil Society in Bolivia, July 8, 2015

QUOTATION: The Unborn Jesus

Even whilst he was in the womb of Mary every particular sin passed in review before Jesus, and each sin afflicted him immeasurably.

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

QUOTATION: Humility

To be taken with love for a soul, God does not look on its greatness, but on the greatness of its humility.

--St. John of the Cross

QUOTATION: Prayer

Our prayers should be burning words coming forth from the furnace of hearts filled with love.

--Mother Teresa of Calcutta, No Greater Love

QUOTATION: Why Become Catholic?

And now, my brethren, who are not Catholics, perhaps you will tell me, that, if all inquiry is to cease when you become Catholics, you ought to be very sure that the Church is from God before you join it. You speak truly; no one should enter the Church without a firm purpose of taking her word in all matters of doctrine and morals, and that, on the ground of her coming directly from the God of Truth.

--Blessed John Henry Newman, “Faith and Doubt”

QUOTATION: Becoming Chaste

Do not imagine that you will overwhelm the demon of fornication by entering into an argument with him. Nature is on his side and he has the best of the argument. So the man who decides to struggle against his flesh and to overcome it by his own efforts is fighting in vain. The truth is that unless the Lord overturns the house of the flesh and builds the house of the soul, the man wishing to overcome it has watched and fasted for nothing. Offer up to the Lord the weakness of your nature. Admit your incapacity and, without your knowing it, you will win for yourself the gift of chastity.

--St. John Climacus

QUOTATION: Knowledge of Self

To know oneself is, above all, to know what one lacks. It is to measure oneself against Truth, and not the other way around. The first product of self-knowledge is humility…

--Flannery O’Connor

QUOTATION: Hope

The first man was more blessed in paradise than any righteous man in this state of mortal frailty, as far as concerns the enjoyment of present good. But as for the hope of the future, any man in the extreme of bodily suffering is happier than the first-created, for it has been revealed to man with the certainty of truth—it is no mere opinion—that, free from all distresses, he will share with the angels the endless enjoyment of God Most High, whereas the first man, in all the bliss of paradise, had no certainty about his future.

--St. Augustine, City of God, Book XI, Chapter 12

QUOTATION: Confession

Let those who say that the confessional was instituted by a priest try sitting in the stuffy confessional boxes of our churches for five or six hours on Saturdays and on the eves of the feast days and of the First Fridays, listening to the routine misgivings and failings of human nature, and he will know it is the most trying of all the priest’s labors—yet sweet because he knows and feels that he is carrying on the blessed ministrations Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

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

QUOTATION: Pride

Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, contentment, or even common sense.

--C.S. Lewis