Our pilgrimage on earth cannot be exempt from trial. We progress by means of trial. No one knows himself except through trial, or receives a crown except after victory, or strives except against an enemy or temptations. The one who cries from the ends of the earth is in anguish, but is not left on his own… We have heard in the gospel how the Lord Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil in the wilderness.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)
Real friends want to be with one another every moment they can spare. Sometimes they spend entire days together. Christ’s friends are that way, too; kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament is the great joy of their life. They have found that his talk is not bitter, his company not boring.
–Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787)
To come to God who is everything and consequently all good, no fatigue must seem to us too great; we must not be put off either by the difficulties we meet on the way, but accept bitterness and welcome every kind of cross with eagerness. By these means, which are precisely those of Jesus Christ, it is not difficult to come to the true God, to live in charity, to walk in love.
–Saint Teresa Margaret (1747-1770)
Live simply that others might simply live.
–Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821)
When we receive Holy Communion, we experience something extraordinary – a joy, a fragrance, a well being that thrills the whole body and causes it to exalt. … If we really understood the Mass, we would die of joy.
–Saint John Vianney (1786-1859)
The many wonders of creation can only fill us with astonishment and admiration. But when we speak of the most holy Eucharist we can say that here is to be found the miracle of divine love for us…. Has there been, or will there ever be, a nobler or more magnanimous love than that which He has shown us in the sacrament of love?
–-Saint John Vianney (1786-1859)
