Words of Wisdom & Encouragement
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By the death of martyrs…
By the death of martyrs religion has been defended, faith increased, the Church strengthened; the dead have conquered, the persecutors have been overcome.
–Saint Ambrose of Milan (339-397)
Attractive floor covering…
There is your brother, naked, crying, and you stand there confused over the choice of an attractive floor covering.
–Saint Ambrose of Milan (339-397)
Consider as an enemy…
Who, indeed, can still consider as an enemy him with whom he has uttered the same prayer to God?
–Saint Basil the Great (330-379)
Take on Mary’s view…
Let us renounce our own human views to take on Mary’s, and so be led by her Spirit in all things. Let us adopt her outlook, her thoughts in everything. Let us not allow our natural inclinations to creep in.
–Venerable Edel Quinn (1907-1944)
An idealist who does…
An idealist who does not try to put his ideals into practice, is not worth much.
–Venerable Edel Quinn (1907-1944)
Impossible for us…
What is impossible for us is possible for Him; take Him at His word.
–Venerable Edel Quinn (1907-1944)
Think of the Passion…
No one at all can humbly read or think of the passion of our Lord… without reaping from this exercise fruit most useful for salvation; just as no one could touch flour or balm, even with the tips of his fingers, without having his fingers whitened with flour and perfumed with the odor of balm. Even if the image of Jesus crucified be only piously glanced at, the look will not have been in vain.
–Saint Louis de Blois (1506-1566)
Marvels of the Passion…
Amongst all the marvels of the passion what we should most dwell upon is the unspeakable love with which Christ suffered for us, that we may love Him more and suffer with Him more sweetly. But chiefly that we may imitate Him, and be conformed to His image.
–Saint Louis de Blois (1506-1566)
Respect with silence…
Never question God’s dealings with you. Respect God’s work in your soul with silence.
–John Hardon (1914-2000)
Ask Mary to teach us…
If Our Lord spent thirty years in obedience and dependence on Mary, doing His Father’s Will, what better example have we? Unite ourselves to Him, and ask Mary to teach us how to love perfectly, how to fulfill daily God’s Will in all things.
–Venerable Edel Quinn (1907-1944)
To feel depressed sometimes…
Yes, it’s proper to our nature to feel depressed sometimes and then at other times to feel very joyful and strong enough for anything. Blessed be God. These changing feelings can help us to understand just how changeable this life of ours really is. These feelings can also help us to detach ourselves and focus our desires toward heaven.
–Blessed Luisitia Josefa (1866-1937)
Take care body and soul…
Take good care of yourself, your soul and your body; try to keep them in good condition and strong so that you’ll be able to do whatever Our Lord requires of you.
–Blessed Luisitia Josefa (1866-1937)
Blessed be God who permits…
Blessed be God who permits our age, sicknesses, and moral suffering to make us feel so useless and unable do anything.
–Blessed Luisitia Josefa (1866-1937)
Don’t worry and drown yourself…
Make this detachment…
Observe the difference…
God hears each word…
To draw near to God..
Our apathy may…
Your soul must…
From the Spirit comes…
The Spirit is…
If the hierarchy of the Church…
God be with you…
Hope in mercy and grace….
Our only desire…
Those of our own household…
Never slander anyone…
Stir up your heart…
Teach and pray…
When your mind does wander…
Christians constantly remember…
In time of temptation…
Morning prayer is to…
His will is accomplished…
Little daily acts…..
Virtue and vice…
Patience is necessary…
God does everything well…
Ten truly detached men…
Great is the mercy of God…
If we stop to think how great is the mercy of God, we would never cease doing all the good we can, for while we on our side, for love of him, give to the poor what he gives us he promises us a hundred fold in Heavenly glory.
–Saint John of God (1495-1550)
To receive God’s mercy…
Suffer and endure…
Our own need for God…
Have love for trials…
Love Jesus above everything….
Love our Lord, Jesus Christ, above everything in the world, because the more you love Him, the more He will love you. Have charity always, for where charity is not found God is not there, even though he is everywhere.
–Saint John of God (1495-1550)
Charity quenches sin…
Have charity, first for our own souls, then with the neighbor. For, as water quenches fire, so charity quenches sin.
–Saint John of God (1495-1550)
One who knows God…
The splendor of heaven….
The Catholic Church is….
Show gratitude to God…
History converges on Christ…
All things, all history converges in Christ. A man of sorrow and hope, he knows us and loves us. As our friend he stays by us throughout our lives; at the end of time he will come to be our judge; but we also know that he will be the complete fulfilment of our lives and our great happiness for all eternity. I can never cease to speak of Christ for he is our truth and our light; he is the way, the truth and the life. He is our bread, our source of living water who allays our hunger and satisfies our thirst. He is our shepherd, our leader, our ideal, our comforter and our brother.
–Blessed Paul VI (1897-1978)
The source of all grace…
The source of all grace is God’s love for us, and he has revealed this not just in words but also in deeds.
–Saint Josemaría Escrivá (1902-1975)
Holiness grows where…
Holiness grows so fast where there is kindness. The world is lost for want of sweetness and kindness. Do not forget we need each other.
–Saint Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)
Simplicity and gentleness…
Simplicity and gentleness are a very saintly mode of spiritual life, but you cannot learn this in an external way. It must suffuse itself mystically within you so that your soul embraces this mode of life through the grace of God.
–Saint Porphyrios (1906-1991)
Leave all things to the will of God…
We shouldn’t continue relentlessly in order to acquire what we want; rather we should leave all things to the will of God… These always increase and we are never satisfied with what we have. The more we chase after these wants the more elusive they become… In our prayer we should ask only for the salvation of our soul.
–Saint Porphyrios (1906-1991)
To become a saint…
Jesus is my judge…
To bear our crosses…
When angry, find peace…
Serene in tribulations…
My beloved child, let us praise God in everything because all that happens is for our own good. Try to fulfill your duties the best you can and for God alone and always remain happy and serene in all the tribulations of life. As for me, I have placed all in the hands of God and I have been successful. We have to learn to detach ourselves a little, trust in God alone, and do God’s holy will with joy. How beautiful it is to be in the Hands of God, searching His Divine Gaze in readiness to do whatever He wishes.
–Blessed Luisitia Josefa (1866-1937)
Saints challenge us….
When all is said and done, the saints challenge us to become holy. Our discomfort with the saints is proof of our discomfort with our calling to live authentic lives. We have banished the saints from our modern practice of Catholicism because when they are present it is impossible to forget that we are called to holiness.
–Matthew Kelly (1973-
Hope is a good thing…
Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. Hope is one of those things that you can’t buy, but that will be freely given to you if you ask. Hope is the one thing people cannot live without. Hope is a thing of beauty.
–Matthew Kelly (1973-
Be bold. Be Catholic…
Be bold. Be Catholic. When the Catholic faith is actually lived it is incredible potent.
–Matthew Kelly (1973-
Distractions are normal…
Distractions are one of the more common difficulties in prayer. They are absolutely normal and should neither surprise nor sadden us. When we realize that we have become distracted from our prayer and our thoughts are wandering, rather than getting discouraged or angry, we should simply, peacefully and gently bring our minds back to God.
–Jacques Philippe (1947-
Regrets and worries…
One of the wisest sayings in the Gospel is “Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.” Let us absorb this lesson Jesus teaches. We often complain about how much we are suffering, without realizing that it’s our fault. As if today’s suffering weren’t enough, we add regrets about the past and worries for the future!
–Jacques Philippe (1947-
Meditation on Scripture…
Meditation on Scripture is the foundation of any authentic Christian prayer life. God speaks to us and awakens a response from us through meditation. Here is how dialogue in prayer begins.
–Jacques Philippe (1947-
Prayer becomes more simple…
Normally, too, prayer becomes more simple the further we progress in the spiritual life.
–Jacques Philippe (1947-
Faith is the door…
Faith is the door to the full inner life of the Church, a life which includes not only access to an authoritative teaching but above all to a deep personal experience which is at once unique and yet shared by the whole Body of Christ, in the Spirit of Christ.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
God never leaves us…
God, Who is everywhere, never leaves us. Yet He seems sometimes to be present, sometimes to be absent. If we do not know Him well, we do not realize that He may be more present to us when He is absent than when He is present.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
The depths of our being…
We are warmed by fire, not by the smoke of the fire. We are carried over the sea by a ship, not by the wake of a ship. So too, what we are is to be sought in the invisible depths of our own being, not in our outward reflection in our acts.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Actions fix character…
Whether we know it or not, the actions of our daily life are fixing our character for good or for evil. The things you do, the thoughts you think, the words you say are turning you either into a saint or a devil, to be placed at either the right or the left side of the Divine Judge.
–Blessed Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)
The Holy Hour becomes…
The Holy Hour becomes like an oxygen tank to revive the breath of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the foul and fetid atmosphere of the world.
–Blessed Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)
Mary is our mother…
The title of Mary as our mother is not merely symbolic. Mary is our mother in the most real and lofty sense, a sense which surpasses that of earthly maternity. She begot our life of grace for us because she offered up her entire being, body and soul, as the Mother of God. That is why an intimate bond exists between Mary & ourselves. She loves us, she knows us, she exerts herself to bring each one of us into the closest possible relationship with the Lord – that which we are above all supposed to be.
–Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891-1942)
In need of divine life…
‘And the Word became flesh‘. That truth became a reality in the manger at Bethlehem. But it was to be fulfilled in yet another form: ‘Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood, has eternal life.’ The Savior, who knows that we are human beings and will remain human beings who have to struggle daily with weaknesses, comes to our assistance in a truly divine manner. Just as the human body is in need of daily bread, so also does the divine life in us require constant nourishment.
–Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891-1942)
Detachment is…
Detachment is designated as a night through which the soul must pass. It is this in a threefold sense: in regard to the point of departure, the path, and the goal.
–Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (1891-1942)
The door of His heart open…
The Lord our King will hold the door of His heart open for anyone who wants to enter for an audience at any time.
–Saint Pio (1887-1968)
Place your heart gently…
Place your heart gently in Our Lord’s wounds. Have great confidence in His mercy for He will never abandon you.
–Saint Pio (1887-1968)
Temptations are from the devil…
Your temptations are from the devil and from Hell; but your sufferings and afflictions are from God and Heaven.
–Saint Pio (1887-1968)
The cross will not crush…
The Cross will not crush you; if its weight makes you stagger, its power will also sustain you.
–Saint Pio (1887-1968)
Progress in slow steps…
Be a man of faith….
You cannot be a man of faith unless you know how to doubt.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Become perfectly free…
I can only become perfectly free by serving the will of God.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Become not attached…
God doesn’t ask that we succeed in everything, but that we are faithful. However beautiful our work may be, let us not become attached to it. Always remain prepared to give it up, without losing your peace.
Love must cost…
Love to be real, it must cost— it must hurt— it must empty us of self.
–Saint Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)
To give ourselves fully…
To give ourselves fully to God is a means of receiving God himself.
–Saint Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)
Words that do not…
Words that do not give the light of Christ increase the darkness.
–Saint Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)
Things to share…
God gives us things to share, God doesn’t give us things to hold.
–Saint Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)
Our availability for prayer…
Our availability for prayer presupposes, not only faith in the importance of prayer, but also a real effort of interior detachment, which must be accepted in principle as being deep and without limit, in the very measure of our love.
–René Voillaume (1905 – 2003)
Paradox of divine love…
By a beautiful paradox of Divine love, God makes His Cross the very means of our salvation and our life. We have slain Him; we have nailed Him there and crucified Him; but the Love in His eternal heart could not be extinguished. He willed to give us the very life we slew; to give us the very Food we destroyed; to nourish us with the very Bread we buried, and the very Blood we poured forth. He made our very crime into a happy fault; He turned a Crucifixion into a Redemption; a Consecration into a Communion; a death into Life Everlasting
–Blessed Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)
Acquiescence to evil…
The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The Tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.
–Blessed Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)
To grow in faith…
It is an error to think that faith is so entirely a gift of God that it is not in our power to increase and strengthen it. Some… admire faith in the saints as a purely gratuitous grace; they persuade themselves that they can do nothing to increase their own faith and that the only thing to do is to remain passive until God grants them that favor; they will make no effort to grow in faith, saying that to do so is quite useless… We must get rid of these ideas, see why it is our faith is so weak, and acknowledge that it is our own fault and that, whatever we may say, the truth is that we do not believe because we do not wish to believe.
–Saint Claude de la Colombiere (1641-1682)
A fit of sadness…
If ever you have a fit of sadness or trouble, remember that it is because you are still attached to life, or health, or some comfort, or person, or thing that you ought to forget and despise that you may desire Jesus Christ only.
–Saint Claude de la Colombiere (1641-1682)
Renounced the world…
Every Christian has renounced the world and its pomps at baptism. This vow does not oblige you to live like a hermit, but it certainly obliges you to something. It is not an empty promise.
–Saint Claude de la Colombiere (1641-1682)
Difficulties at prayer…
However we do mental prayer, we can be sure of encountering difficulties. Some have already been mentioned: dryness, distaste, a sense of our own worthlessness, the feeling the effort to pray is useless. The first thing to say about such difficulties is that they should not come as a surprise or cause us to worry or be upset. Not only are they inevitable, they are actually good for us. They purify our love for God and strengthen our faith.
–Jacques Philippe (1947-
Discerning divine inspiration…
The most important criterion for discerning divine inspirations is the one that Jesus himself gives us in the Gospel: “A tree is known by its fruit.” An inspiration from God, if we follow it, will produce sound fruit: the fruits of peace, joy, charity, communion, and humility. An inspiration that comes from our flesh or from the devil will be sterile or even bear the negative fruits of sadness, bitterness, pride, and the like.
–Jacques Philippe (1947-
The presence of God…
Now God is not the God of the dead but of the living, and his presence, being the presence of the living God, is active, life-giving, healing, and sanctifying. One can’t stand in front of a fire without being warmed, or stay in the sun without being tanned, and in remaining in God’s presence and letting him act in the depths of our being, we are doing what really counts.
–Jacques Philippe (1947-
Gift of solitude…
Today, more than ever, we need to recognize that the gift of solitude is not ordered to the acquisition of strange contemplative powers, but, first of all, to the recovery of one’s deep self, and to the renewal of an authenticity which is presently twisted out of shape by the pretentious routines of a disordered togetherness.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
We stumble and fall…
We stumble and fall constantly even when we are most enlightened. But when we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not even know that we have fallen.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Ladder of success…
People may spend their whole lives climbing the ladder of success only to find, once they reach the top, that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.
–Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
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