One should not seek among others the truth that can be easily gotten from the Church. For in her, as in a rich treasury, the apostles have placed all that pertains to truth, so that everyone can drink this beverage of life. She is the door of life.
— Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (late Second Century)
About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they’re just one thing, and we shouldn’t complicate the matter.
–Saint Joan of Arc (1412-1431)
Keep to the ancient way and custom of the Church, established and confirmed by so many Saints under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And live a new life. Pray, and get others to pray, that God not abandon His Church, but reform it as He pleases, and as He sees best for us, and more to His honor and glory. For in these perilous and pestilential times, you will find no other recourse than to take refuge at the feet of Jesus Christ.
— Saint Angela Merici (1474-1540)
Thus the real life of that church consists in the mutual love and dependence, the common prayer, adoration and self-offering of the whole inter-penetrating family of spirits who have dared to open their souls without condition to that all-demanding, all-giving Spirit of Charity, in whom we live and move and without whom we should not exist.
— Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941)
The Church of Christ is One, Holy, Universal and Apostolic. She is herself a single spiritual body, whose head is Christ, and who has the one Holy Spirit abiding in her. The local parts of the Church are members of a single body of the Universal Church, and they, like branches of a single tree, are nourished by one and same sap from a single root. She is called holy because she is sanctified by the holy word, deeds, sacrifice and suffering of her founder, Jesus Christ, to which end He came in order to save human beings and lead them to holiness. The Church is called universal because she is not confined by place, not by time, nor by nation nor language.
–Saint Nicholas of Serbia (1880-1956)
It is now for the Catholic Church to bend herself to her work with calmness and generosity. It is for you to observe her with renewed and friendly attention.
–Saint John XXIII (1881-1963)
