Quotes

Complete abstinence…

Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)

Desire in prayer…

God wills that our desire should be exercised in prayer, that we may be able to receive what He is prepared to give.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)

That God has promised you pardon when you amend your life, I cannot deny. But tell me, pray: I agree and I grant you and I know that God has promised you forgiveness. But who has promised you tomorrow? Where you read that you will receive forgiveness, when you do penance, read for me also how much longer you have to live. It is not there, you say. Therefore you do not know how long more you have to live. Then reform your life, and be always prepared.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)

For better things…

Our Lord did not ask us to give up the things of earth, but to exchange them for better things.
–Blessed Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)

Love people and use things…

You must remember to love people and use things, rather than to love things and use people.
–Blessed Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)

The Rosary is…

The Rosary is the best therapy for these distraught, unhappy, fearful, and frustrated souls, precisely because it involves the simultaneous use of three powers: the physical, the vocal, and the spiritual, and in that order.
–Blessed Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)

Daily lead us to the Cross…

The way to our personal sanctification should daily lead us to the cross. This way is not a sorrowful one, because Christ himself comes to our aid, and in his company there is no room for sadness.
–Saint Josemaría Escrivá (1902-1975)

God offers each day…

What does Jesus Christ do in the Eucharist? It is God who, as our Savior, offers himself each day for us to his Father’s justice. If you are in difficulties and sorrows, he will comfort and relieve you. If you are sick, he will either cure you or give you strength to suffer so as to merit Heaven. If the devil, the world, and the flesh are making war upon you, he will give you the weapons with which to fight, to resist, and to win victory. If you are poor, he will enrich you with all sorts of riches for time and eternity. Let us open the door of his sacred and adorable Heart, and be wrapped about for an instant by the flames of his love, and we shall see what a God who loves us can do.
–Saint John Vianney (1786-1859)

Know one’s imperfection…

It is the function of perfection to make one know one’s imperfection.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)

Cost of obedience…

The cost of obedience is small compared with the cost of disobedience.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)

Be fit for future…

None can become fit for the future life, who has not practiced himself for it now.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)

Be mindful of the poor…

Be particularly mindful of the poor, so that what you take from yourself by living sparingly you may lay away in heavenly treasures. Let the needy Christ receive that of which the fasting Christian deprives himself. Let the self-restraint of the willing soul be the sustenance of the one in need. Let the voluntary neediness of the one possessing an abundance become the necessary abundance of the one in need.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)

To seek the greatest good…

To seek the greatest good is to live well, and to live well is nothing other than to love God with the whole heart, the whole soul, and the whole mind: It is therefore obvious that this love must be kept whole and uncorrupt, that is temperance; it should not be overcome with difficulties, that is fortitude, it must not be subservient to anything else, that is justice; it must discriminate among things so as not to be deceived by falsity or fraud, that is prudence.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)

By thinking of the presence…

By habitually thinking of the presence of God, we succeed in praying twenty-four hours a day.
–Saint Paul of the Cross (1694-1775)

Be faithful to prayer…

If God grants you the gift of prayer, be faithful to it; take care, however, that you do not become slothful in the practice of virtues and the imitation of Jesus.
–Saint Paul of the Cross (1694-1775)

Pray according to the Holy Spirit…

I do not tell you to pray in my way, but in that of God. Leave your soul at liberty to receive the divine impressions according to God’s pleasure. We should pray according to the dictates of the Holy Spirit.
–Saint Paul of the Cross (1694-1775)

Stay in your own heart…

Stay in the solitude of your own heart before God, and keep three lamps burning before the altar– faith, hope, and love — before the presence of God in your heart.
–Saint Paul of the Cross (1694-1775)

This repose of the soul in God…

“O amiable Goodness!” “O infinite Charity!” “O my God and my All!” “O supreme Sweetness!” Make these aspirations, or any others, as God will inspire you; but remember that if, in making one of these short prayers of love, your soul regain her peace and recollection in God, it is unnecessary to make a second; continue, rather, this silence, this repose of the soul in God, which includes excellently all the acts that we can ever make.
–Saint Paul of the Cross (1694-1775)

Let your desire be…

Let your desire be the vision of God, your fear the loss of Him, your sorrow His absence, and your joy in that which may take your to Him; and your life shall be in great peace.
–Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

The grateful heart…

Out of suffering comes the serious mind; out of salvation, the grateful heart; out of endurance, fortitude; out of deliverance faith. Patient endurance attends to all things.
–Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

Contemplative prayer is…

Contemplative prayer in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us.
–Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

Storms pass quickly…

For the storms, like a wave, pass quickly. And the fair weather returns, because the presence of the Lord they experience makes them soon forget everything.
–Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

Yield ourselves entirely…

Christ does not force our will, He only takes what we give Him. But He does not give Himself entirely until He sees that we yield ourselves entirely to Him.
–Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

In your generosity…

Seek to distinguish yourself from others only in your generosity. Be like gods to the poor, imitating God’s mercy. Humanity has nothing so much in common with God as the ability to do good.
–Saint Gregory Nazianzen (329-c. 391)

Feed one dying of hunger…

Feed him who is dying of hunger; if you have not fed him you have killed him.
–Saint Ambrose of Milan (339-397)

God forgives sins…

See how good God is, and how easily He forgives sins; He not only restores what has been lost with his forgiveness but grants unhoped for benefits.
–Saint Ambrose of Milan (339-397)

Heal the wounds through penance…

It is not enough to remove the arrow from the body. We also have to heal the wound caused by the arrow. It is the same with the soul; after we have received forgiveness for our sins, we have to heal the wound that remains through penance.
–Saint John Chrysostom (347-407)

Read our Lord’s Passion constantly…

We should read our Lord’s Passion constantly; what great benefit we will gain by doing so. Even if you are as hard as stone, when you contemplate that He was sarcastically adorned, then ridiculed, beaten and subjected to the final agonies, you will be moved to cast all pride from your soul.
–Saint John Chrysostom (347-407)

Distract from prayer…

Even the straws under my knees shout to distract me from prayer.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)

Fill yourself first…

Fill yourselves first and then only will you be able to give to others.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)

No sin or crime…

There is no sin or crime committed by another which I myself am not capable of committing through my weakness; and if I have not committed it, it is because God, in his mercy, has not allowed me to and has preserved me in good.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)

Let good friends…

When we are harassed by poverty, saddened by bereavement, ill, or in pain, let good friends visit us. Let them be persons who not only can rejoice with those who rejoice but can weep with those who weep. Let them be persons who know how to give useful advice and how to win us to express our own feelings in conversation.
–Saint Augustine (354-430)

Proclaim and practice…

Whoever has the mission of proclaiming great things is also under obligation to practice them.
–Saint Gregory the Great (c. 540-604)

God promised pardon, not tomorrow…

If we knew at what time we were to depart from this world, we would be able to select a season for pleasure and another for repentance. But God, who has promised pardon to every repentant sinner, has not promised us tomorrow.
–Saint Gregory the Great (c. 540-604)

The omnipotence of God is…

The omnipotence of God is shown, above all, in the act of his forgiveness and the use of his mercy, for the way He has of showing his supreme power is to pardon freely.
–Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

Christ suffered…

He suffered at the hands of the Gentiles and the Jews, of men and of women –an example being the maids who accused Peter. He suffered at the hands of princes and their officials, and at the hands of the ordinary people too. He suffered at the hands of relatives and friends and acquaintances, on account of Judas who betrayed him and of Peter who denied him. In short, Christ suffered as much as it is possible for man to suffer. Christ suffered at the hands of his friends who abandoned him, He suffered as blasphemies were hurled at him; his honor and self-esteem suffered from all the taunts and jibes; He was even stripped of his clothes, the only possessions he had. In his soul he felt sadness, emptiness and fear; in his body, the wounds and the cruel lashes of the whip.
–Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

What is suitable…

His Majesty knows best what is suitable for us; it is not for us to advise him what to give us, for He can rightly reply that we know not what we ask.
–Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

Your cross a gift…

The everlasting God has in His wisdom foreseen from eternity the cross that He now presents to you as a gift from His inmost heart. He has blessed it with His holy name, anointed it with His grace, perfumed it with His consolation, taken one last glance at you and your courage and then sent it to you from heaven, a special greeting from God to you, an alms of the all-merciful love of God.
–Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)

However small the sins…

However small the sins that you may confess may be, always have sincere sorrow for them, together with a firm resolution to correct them in the future. Many who confess their venial sins out of custom and concern for order, but without thought of amendment, remain burdened with them for their whole lives and thus lose many spiritual benefits and advantages.
–Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)

Language should be…

Your language should be restrained, frank, sincere, candid, unaffected and honest. Be on guard against equivocation, ambiguity or dissimulation. While it is not always advisable to say everything that is true, it is never permissible to speak against the truth. You must become accustomed never to tell a deliberate lie whether to excuse yourself or for some other purposes, remembering always that God is the ‘God of truth.’
–Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)

The heart rather than words…

To mutter something with the lips is not praying if one’s heart is not joined to it. To speak it is necessary first to have conceived interiorly what we wish to say. There is first the interior word, and then the spoken word, which causes what the interior has first pronounced to be understood. Prayer is nothing other than speaking to God. Now it is certain that to speak to God without being attentive to Him and to what we say to Him is something that is most displeasing to Him…God tests more the heart of the one who prays rather than the words pronounced by one who prays.
–Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622)

The devil is a…

The devil is a great chained dog which puts people to flight, which makes a great noise, but which only bites those who come too close.
–Saint John Vianney (1786-1859)

If we do not receive…

Won’t you agree with me that, if we do not receive what we ask God for, it is because we do not pray with faith, with a sufficiently pure heart, with enough trust, or because we do not persevere in prayer as we should? God has never denied and never will deny anything to those who ask for his graces in the right way.
–Saint John Vianney (1786-1859)

Recite the Rosary with fervor…

Have you not often met poor old women who are most faithful to the pious recitation of the Rosary? You also must do all that you can to recite it with fervor. Get right down, at the feet of Jesus: it is a good thing to make oneself small in the presence of so great a God.
–Blessed Columba Marmion (1858-1923)

By Mary, God…

By Mary, God descended from Heaven into the world, so that by her men might ascend from earth into Heaven.
–Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe (Fifth — Sixth Century)

Better one fervently…

It is better to say one Our Father fervently and devoutly than a thousand with no devotion and full of distraction.
–Saint Edmund (c. 841-868)

From your head to your heart…

Sit down alone and in silence. Lower your head, shut your eyes, breathe out gently and imagine yourself looking into your own heart. Carry your mind, i.e. your thoughts, from your head to your heart. As you breathe out, say, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” …. Try to put all other thoughts aside. Be calm, be patient, and repeat the process very frequently.
–Saint Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022)

Kindness flows…

God’s Soul is the wind rustling plants and leaves, the dew dancing on the grass, the rainy breezes making everything to grow. Just like this, the kindness of a person flows, touching those dragging burdens of longing. We should be a breeze helping the homeless, dew comforting those who are depressed, the cool, misty air refreshing the exhausted, and with God’s teaching we have got to feed the hungry: This is how we share God’s soul.
–Saint Hildegarde of Bingen (1098-1179)

The gracious eternal God…

The gracious, eternal God permits the spirit to green and bloom and to bring forth the most marvelous fruit, surpassing anything a tongue can express and a heart conceive.

–Johannes Tauler (c. 1300-1361)

Look into your own heart…

In prayerful silence you must look into your own heart. No one can tell you better than yourself what comes between you and God. Ask yourself. Then listen!

–Johannes Tauler (c. 1300-1361)

Works of mercy…

When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice.
–Saint Gregory the Great (c. 540-604)

Contemplate his passion…

Let us contemplate with the eyes of our heart, Jesus, that is, our Saviour, the Lamb without spot, how He bore therein all our sins; how heavily, all alone, He trod the wine-press, that like the grape that is pressed with all care, He, too, might be pressed in the wine-press of His Passion, and might pour upon us richly, and give us to drink, the red wine of His precious Blood, so as to make us drunk with His love. –Johannes Tauler (c. 1300-1361)

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)

Have charity always…

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)

Prayer is an activity…

Prayer is an activity becoming to the dignity of the mind, or rather, is its real use.
–Saint Nilus of Sinai (d. 430)

Pray to be…

Pray firstly to be purified of passions, secondly to be freed from ignorance and forgetfulness, and thirdly to be delivered from all temptation and forsaking.
–Saint Nilus of Sinai (d. 430)

Give to the poor…

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)

Prayer is the speaking…

Prayer is the speaking of the mind to God. What structure does the mind need so that, not looking back, nor hither and thither, it may rise to the Lord and converse with Him, with no intermediary?
–Saint Nilus of Sinai (d. 430)

Examine yourself to see…

Examine yourself, then, to see whether worldly cares may still have a hold on you; whether you are very preoccupied with feeding and clothing your body, and with your other pursuits and your recreation, as though your own power kept you alive, and you were obliged to make provision for yourself, when you have been commanded to have no anxiety whatever concerning yourself.
–Pseudo-Macarius (Fourth- Fifth Century)

Let us love silence till the…

Let us love silence till the world is made to die in our hearts. Let us always remember death, and in this thought draw near to God in our heart–and the pleasures of this world will have our scorn.
–Saint Isaac of Syria (Seventh Century)

Prayer is putting…

Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at his disposition, and listening to his voice and the depths of our hearts.

–Saint Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)

Seeking Christ through the Church…

If we are sincerely seeking Christ, we will find Him through the Church He founded.

The world offers celebrities to idolize…the Church offers Saints to follow.
The world offers noise…the Church offers Peace.
The world offers false dreams…the Church offers the Truth.
The world offers and celebrates vice…the Church offers a life of Virtue.
The world offers earthly pleasures…the Church offers eternal Heaven.

–Randy Hain (June 19, 2014)

Judging our neighbor…

Nothing is more serious, nothing more difficult to deal with, as I say repeatedly, than judging and despising our neighbor. Why do we not rather judge ourselves and our own wickedness which we know so accurately and about which we have to render an account to God? Why do we usurp God’s right to judge?
–Saint Dorotheus of Gaza (Sixth Century)

Sinners ought to pray…

If He who is without sin prayed, how much more ought sinners to pray?
–Saint Cyprian of Carthage (c. 200-258)

God is bountiful…

He who asks God for a real favor, obtains it, for God is bountiful and generous, and readily bestows His gifts.
— Saint Gregory Nazianzen (329-c. 391)

God longs ardently…

God accepts our desires as though they were of great value. He longs ardently for us to desire and love him. He accepts our petitions for benefits as though we were doing him a favor. His joy in giving is greater than ours in receiving. So let us not be apathetic in our asking, nor set too narrow bounds to our requests; nor ask for frivolous things unworthy of God’s greatness.
–Saint Gregory Nazianzen (329-c. 391)

Forgiveness has risen…

Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again: for forgiveness has risen from the grave!

–Saint John Chrysostom (347-407)

Education of children…

The primary goal in the education of children is to teach, and to give examples of a virtuous life.

–Saint John Chrysostom (347-407)

Prayer is the means…

Prayer should be the means by which I, at all times, receive all that I need, and, for this reason, be my daily refuge, my daily consolation, my daily joy, my source of rich and inexhaustible joy in life.
–Saint John Chrysostom (347-407)

Prayer is a…

It is simply impossible to lead, without the aid of prayer, a virtuous life. What prayer could be more true before God the Father than that which the Son, who is Truth, uttered with His own lips? Prayer is the place of refuge for every worry, a foundation for cheerfulness, a source of constant happiness, a protection against sadness.
–Saint John Chrysostom (347-407)

One who bears a grudge…

Christ gave his life for you, and do you hold a grudge against your fellow servant? How then can you approach the table of peace? Your Master did not refuse to undergo every kind of suffering for you, and will you not even forgo your anger?… If you refuse to forgive your enemy you harm not him but yourself… There is no one God detests and repudiates more than the person who bears a grudge, whose heart is filled with anger, whose soul is seething with rage.
–Saint John Chrysostom (347-407)

Subdue by silence…

It is far easier to subdue and conquer an angry person by silence and yielding, than by answering.

–Saint John Chrysostom (347-407)

Grace looks to…

Grace looks to eternal things and does not cling to those which are temporal, being neither disturbed at loss nor angered by hard words, because she has placed her treasure and joy in heaven where nothing is lost.

–Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471)

Christ gave us his flesh…

Christ gave us his flesh to eat in order to deepen our love for him. When we approach him, then, there should be burning within us a fire of love and longing… The wise men paid homage to Christ’s body even when it was lying in a manger… They only saw Christ in a manger, they saw nothing of what you now see, and yet they approached him with profound awe and reverence. You see him, not in a manger but on an altar, not carried by a woman but offered by a priest; and you see the Spirit bountifully poured out upon the offerings of bread and wine.

–Saint John Chrysostom (347-407)

Only fear sin…

There is only one thing to be feared and that is sin. Everything else is beside the point.

–Saint John Chrysostom (347-407)

God-shaped vacuum…

There is a God-shaped vacuum in every man that only Christ can fill.

–Saint Augustine (354-430)

Doing our duty…

In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is our duty.

–Saint Augustine (354-430)

The world is a book…

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.

–Saint Augustine (354-430)

Truth and understanding…

All truth and understanding is a result of a divine light which is God.

–Saint Augustine (354-430)

Love and God will…

Love, and He will draw near; love, and He will dwell within you.

–Saint Augustine (354-430)

What God is not…

We can know what God is not, but we cannot know what He is.

–Saint Augustine (354-430)

No peace until…

In all the paths on which people journey in this world they will find no peace until they draw near to the hope which is in God.

–Saint Isaac of Syria (Seventh Century)

Without temptations…

Without temptations, it is not possible to learn the wisdom of the Spirit. It is not possible that Divine love be strengthened in your soul. Before temptations, a man prays to God as a stranger. When temptations are allowed to come by the love of God, and he does not give in to them, then he stands before God as a sincere friend. For in fulfilling the will of God, he has made war on the enemy of God and conquered him.

–Saint Isaac of Syria (Seventh Century)

Fortune and misfortune…

For the valiant man fortune and misfortune are like his right and left hands; he uses both.

–Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)

Spiritual discouragement…

Doesn’t God consider spiritual discouragement worse than any other sin? Yes indeed!

–Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)

Humility implies strength…

Humility implies not weakness, rather the strength that comes from self-knowledge.
–Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)

Three sorts of prayer…

Prayer is of three sorts. The one is perpetual: it is holy perpetual desire, which prays in the sight of God… for this desire directs all thy works, spiritual and corporal, to His honor, and therefore it is called perpetual…The other kind is vocal prayer, when the offices or other prayers are said aloud. This is ordained to reach the third – that is, mental prayer: your soul reaches this when it uses vocal prayer in prudence and humility, so that while the tongue speaks the heart is not far from God… And whenever one felt one’s mind to be visited by God, so that it was drawn to think of its Creator in any wise, it ought to abandon vocal prayer, and to fix its mind with the force of love upon that wherein it sees God visit it.

–Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)

True goodness is unconscious…

The more saintly we become, the less conscious we are being holy. A child is cute so long as he does not know that he is cute. As soon as he thinks he is, he turns into a brat. True goodness is unconscious.

–Blessed Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)

We deceive ourselves…

Every person has a little corner in his heart he never wants anyone to venture into, even with a candle. That is why we deceive ourselves and why our neighbors know us better than we know ourselves.

–Blessed Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)

Pay attention to Mary…

Let those who think that the Church pays too much attention to Mary give heed to the fact that Our Blessed Lord Himself gave ten times as much of His life to her as He gave to His Apostles.

–Blessed Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)

Giving up prayer…

No soul ever fell away from God without giving up prayer. Prayer is that which establishes contact with Divine Power and opens the invisible resources of heaven. However dark the way, when we pray, temptation can never master us. The first step downward in the average soul is the giving up of the practice of prayer, the breaking of the circuit with divinity, and the proclamation of one’s owns self sufficiency.

–Blessed Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)

Let us work for our salvation…

Let us work for the food which does not perish – our salvation. Let us work in the vineyard of the Lord to earn our daily wage in the wisdom which says: Those who work in me will not sin. Christ tells us: The field is the world. Let us work in it and dig up wisdom, its hidden treasure, a treasure we all look for and want to obtain. If you are looking for it, really look. Be converted and come. Converted from what? From your own willfulness.

–Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)

Half your prayer is in silence…

Be faithful to the time spent in prayer and make sure that at least half of your prayer is spent in silence. This will bring you closer to Jesus.

–Saint Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)

We can practice humility…

These are the few ways we can practice humility:

To speak as little as possible of one’s self.
To mind one’s own business.
Not to want to manage other people’s affairs.
To avoid curiosity.
To accept contradictions and correction cheerfully.
To pass over the mistakes of others.
To accept insults and injuries.
To accept being slighted, forgotten and disliked.
To be kind and gentle even under provocation.
Never to stand on one’s dignity.
To choose always the hardest.

–Saint Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)

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