Jerome's Pages on the Catholic Church and Faith -- 23
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QUOTATIONS CATHOLIC |
ABSTINENCE
Abstinence does not consist in refraining from material goods ... but in the complete giving up of one's own will. -- ST. BASIL
ADVENT
The Advent mystery is the beginning of the end of all in us that is not yet Christ. --THOMAS MERTON
ADVERSARIES
Learn to defend your convictions without hating your adversaries and love those who think differently from yourselves. --BLESSED FREDERIC OZANAM, one of the founders of St. Vincent de Paul Society
ANGEL(S)
Angel is the name of their office, not their nature. If you seek the name of their nature, it is spirit; if you seek the name of their office, it is angel; from what they are, spirit, from what they do, angel. --SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
God sets many angels in our paths but often we know them not; in fact we may go through life never knowing that they were agents or messengers of God to lead us in to virtue or to deter us from vice. But they symbolize that constant and benign intervention of God in human history, which stops us on the path to destruction or leads us to success or happiness. --BISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN
ANGER
However just your words, you spoil everything when you speak with anger. --ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
ANTI-SEMITISM
The Catholic Church is deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and displays of anti-semitism directed against Jews by Christians. -- POPE JOHN PAUL II, in a speech at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Israel (March, 2000)
ART
It is not enough to merely imitate the masters of old, one must seek to surpass them. -- MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI
ART, SACRED
Genuine sacred art draws man to adoration, to prayer and to the love of God, Creator and Saviour, the Holy One and the Sactifier. --Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2502
ARTIST'S ROLE
I think we need a more contemplative stance towards life, to see the deep religious and human truths that are there. We can only go so far with words and books. There is another level within us, a symbolic level or image level, that touches us very deeply. I think artists have the privilege in the Church, and they have had it throughout history, to open up that level so that people can see the mystery of God. The artist speaks, not just literally, but symbolically. I think visual images, if they are well done, can move us there. That's a ministry. --BROTHER MICHAEL MORAN, C. P., an American Passionist Brother and artist, on what an artist contributes to the world, the Church, and society.
ATHEISM
So much of what people call atheism is not so much the negation of God as the deification of the ego. All atheists believe in God, but the god is themselves. ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN
Through the Base Christian Communities, people discover their worth and dignity as human beings; that if they make an option for Christ and Gospel values, and for their brothers and sisters in community, then they're involved in the struggle to change society and to change their world. --BISHOP GEORGE MARSKELL, S.F.M., Canadian missionary to Brazil
BEAUTY
Beauty is one of the faces of God. It is God's memory of all that is holy and good, faithful and true. It often appears upon the scene when hope seems gone. It has the power to heal, restore, comfort, and delight that part of you that is overcome with grief. Beauty is God's way of reminding you of your own beauty. It is God remembering you. --SISTER MACRINA WIEDERKEHR, O.S.B.
BIBLE, THE
If you read quickly, it [the Bible] will benefit you little. You will be like a bee that merely skims the surface of a flower. Instead, in this new way of reading with prayer, you must become as the bee who penetrates into the depths of the flower. You plunge deeply within to remove its deepest nectar. --MADAME GUYON, in Short and Very Easy Way of Prayer
When our minds find inner agreement with the truth expressed in the passages [of the Bible], we embrace the mind of Christ as our own. These truths constitute the faith, hope, and love in which Christ lived. And as they become ours, Christ's mind becomes our mind. --DALLAS WILLARD
BIBLE & THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Analogous to the duty of the Church with regard to revealed truth is the function of the Supreme Court in our Government. The purpose of the Court is to interpret and decide the meaning of the Constitution, not to write a new one. To the credit of the the Founding Fathers of America, in their wisdom they foresaw the danger the Constitution would be in if it were left to the whim and manipulations of man. Therefore they established a Court of last appeal, the Supreme Court with whom resides the power to decide what is constitutional or unconstitutional. However, the Church of Rome differs from the Supreme Court of America, in that she is preserved from error by the guidance of the Holy Spirit when she decides on matters of faith and morals, binding the assent of all her members. Christ, Who was a foreseeing God, would not be excelled in wisdom by the Founding Fathers of America. He too, but more divinely so, foresaw the danger of passing a message through twenty centuries of men, and so by His own personal intervention made certain that His Gospel would not be changed in the telling.
Man himself cannot pass a message intact through twenty other men not to speak of twenty centuries. But Christ delivering the message was not a man, but God, present to all creatures in all places, throughout all days till the end of time.
Now if God could preserve the writers of Scripture from error while writing the truth -- a fact on which all Christians agree -- why can't He now prevent His Church from making an error in the interpretation and teaching of the truths contained therein? The only differences between writing and speaking lies in the accidental mode of communications. If I can write the truth, then certainly I should be able to speak it. If God could prevent me from making an error in writing, then certainly He can prevent me from making an error in teaching. --FATHER JOSEPH McCARTHY, One Church, in From the HouseTops magazine (Vol. XXXV, No.4, 1999)
The Catholic Church who, through the diligent work of her monks preserved the Bible for the people, has since then been said to have kept the Bible from the people. Need it be said by way of refutation that treasures are kept in vaults, not laid open on the benches of city parks. We chained our Bibles at the back of our churches for the same reason that the telephone company chains their telephone books to telephone booths, lest they should be stolen by a few and thus might not be available to all.
There would be no Bible today were it not for the Catholic Church, and all those who have a Bible have it because the Church of Rome preserved it for them. All non-Catholics who use the Bible must of necessity trust the decision of the Catholic Church in the fourth century that these are the inspired works of God. Otherwise, without this guarantee they surely have plenty of room for doubt and great cause for grave suspicion. --FATHER JOSEPH McCARTHY, One Church, in From the HouseTops magazine, (Vol. XXXV, No.4, 1999)
BIBLE & THE SOLE SOURCE OF GOD'S TEACHING
The Bible cannot be the sole source of God's teaching. Not once did Christ tell His apostles to write, nor did He write Himself. The command of Christ was clear and explicit: Go teach, Go preach, not "Go write." Those who hear you, hear Me; not "those who read your writing, read Me." Go into the whole world; peach the Gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15 can by no stretch of the imagination be interpreted as "Stay home for yourselves and write a Bible." The obvious fact remains that Christ gave to the whole world and to all men, preaching human apostles, not writers.
Moreover, Bibles were precious and few until the invention of printing in the 15th century. Only then was the common man able to lay hold of one. Certainly Christ did not make the way to salvation dependent solely upon the invention of printing, for God wishes all men to be saved. --FATHER JOSEPH McCARTHY, One Church, in From the HouseTops magazine (Vol. XXXV, No.4)
BODY
The body is the sacred thing consecrated and anointed with the holy oils in baptism and confirmation. It is the partner of the soul, which after death will again be reunited to the soul at the resurrection. Every part of the body then is good, each having its own function and work.... At death also the body is anointed on the five senses, that those sins committed through the senses be forgiven and washed away. --FATHER DESMOND MURRAY, O.P.
BOOK(S)
Since we cannot send missionaries everywhere, let us send good books, which can do as much as the missionaries themselves. -- ST. ANTHONY MARY CLARET
Everywhere have I sought rest and found it not, except sitting apart in a nook with a little book. --THOMAS A KEMPIS, author of Imitation of Christ
BROKENNESS
Our life is full of brokenness broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations. How can we live that brokenness without becoming bitter and resentful except by returning again and again to Gods faithful presence in our lives? FATHER HENRI J. M. NOUWEN
CATHOLICISM
So far as a man may be proud of a religion rooted in humility, I am very proud of my religion; I am especially proud of those parts of it that are most commonly called superstition. I am proud of being fettered by antiquated dogmas and enslaved by dead creeds (as my journalisitic friends repeat with so much pertinacity), for I know very well that it is the heretical creeds that are dead, and that it is only the reasonable dogma that lives long enough to be called antiquated. --G. K. CHESTERTON, in Autobiography, 1936
CHARACTER
Good character must be restored to its historical place as a central desirable outcome of the [education] enterprise. It is inadequate and irresponsible merely to concentrate on raising academic standards. Raising our moral standards will be the greatest gift we can give America's children. --DAVID W. KIRKPATRICK
CHASTITY
Chastity is not so much about sex as it is about reverence and respect. To be chaste is to experience in such a way as to be fully reverential and respectful. When this is done, when one is not chaste, then experience fragments and disintegrates the soul rather than builds it. Hence it is important to know that we can violate chastity as much by prematurity as by substance. Chastity is not just about what we experience, but also about when we experience it. An experience can be wrong simply because it is premature.
Thus, chastity is about waiting for the right moment for something, about living in tension and accepting incompleteness and inconsummation in life. --FATHER RON ROLHEISER, O.M.I.
CHILD
I know of nothing sadder
Than the lack-lustre eyes in a child's face. --MICHEL QUOIST
CHILDREN
How can there be too many children? That is like saying that there are too many flowers. -- MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA
By his divine nature, Christ is simple, by his human nature, he is complex. -- ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
Christ is a divine judge with a human heart, a judge who wants to give life. -- POPE JOHN PAUL II
Gaze upon Christ, Consider him, Contemplate him and desire to imitate him. -- ST. CLARE OF ASSISSI, to her nuns
Every action of Christ contains a lesson for us. --ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
In Christ we are all things, He is everything to us. If you have wounds to heal, He is a physician; if fever scorches you, He is a fountain. Would you punish evil doing, He is justice. If you need help, He is strength; if you fear death, He is life; if you hunger, He is food. --ST. AMBROSE
CHRIST, BLOOD OF
Let us fix our gaze on the blood of Christ, realizing how precious it is to his Father, since it was shed for our salvation and brought the grace of repentance to all the world. --ST. CLEMENT OF ROME, Letter to the Corinthians
CHRIST, DYING FOR
I have lived for Christ. I want to die for Christ. -- BLESSED SISTER RESTITUTA KAFKA, before her martyrdom in the hands of the Nazis
CHRISTIAN(S)
Salt does not exist for itself; it cannot salt itself. Just so Christians do not exist for themselves alone, but in relation to the world. -- BISHOP TERRENCE PRENDERGAST, S.J.
What the soul is in a body, this the Christians are in the world. -- DIOGNETUS, early Christian philosopher
CHRISTIAN PERFECTION
Christian perfection has but one limit, that of having none. --ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA
CHRISTIANITY
Christianity cannot be thought of except in terms of relationships with other persons, brothers and sisters in whom we make real the comradely love that we preach. ARCHBISHOP OSCAR A. ROMERO (of San Salvador)
Christianity is not that complex system of oppressive rules which the unbeliever describes; it is peace, joy, love, and a life which is continually renewed, like the mysterious pulse of nature at the beginning of Spring. -- POPE JOHN XXIII
CHURCH, CATHOLIC
From time to time friends outside the [Roman Catholic] Church consult me. They are attracted by certain features, repelled or puzzled by others. To them I can only say, from my own experience: "Come inside. You cannot know what the Church is like from outside. However learned you are in theology, nothing you know amounts to anything in comparison with the knowledge of the simplest actual member of the Communion of Saints." --EVELYN WAUGH, Engish novelist after his conversion to Catholicism from Anglicanism
I would not believe the Gospel unless moved thereto by the Church. ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
The Church, which is founded upon Christ, received from Him the keys of the kingdom of heaven -- that is, the power of binding and forgiving sins -- in the person of Peter. Therefore this Church, by loving and following Christ, is set free from evil. -- ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
Remember then how our fathers worked out their salvation; remember the sufferings through which the Church has grown, and the storms the ship of Peter has weathered because it has Christ on board. --ST. THOMAS BECKET
Trust the Church of God implicitly even when your natural judgment would take a different course from hers and would induce you to question her prudence or correctness. --CARDINAL JOHN HENRY NEWMAN
You cannot have God for your Father if you have not the Church for your mother. --ST. CYPRIAN, Bishop of Carthage, in The Unity of the Catholic Church, 251 A.D.
Being a Christian I glory in belonging to no other school than that of truth, which is the Church ... I live by my faith. --BLESSED FREDERIC OZANAM
CHURCH OF MARTYRS
The Church of the first millennium was born of the blood of the martyrs. At the end of the second millennium, the Church has once again become a Church of martyrs. --POPE JOHN PAUL II
The history of the Church is a record of the mercies of God on the human family. -- RT. REV. H. J. ALERDING
CONSCIENCE
Our conscience reminds us of the rightness and wrongness of some actions even (and especially) when we freely and deliberately choose the wrong ones. This quiet voice telling us what is right and wrong grows out of our human nature. God put it there, and it takes a great deal of energy and effort to silence it. The voice of our conscience echoes deep within our soul. -- BISHOP DONALD WUERL, Pittsburgh, USA
CONTEMPLATION
Seeing makes us knowledgeable, but contemplation makes us wise.
BALTASAR GRACIAN
CONTENTMENT
True contentment is a real, even an active, virtue -- not only affirmative but creative. It is the power of getting out of any situation all there is in it. --G. K. CHESTERTON
CONVERSION
Conversion is a true reflection of the Father's gift of freedom. One cannot trap conversion in a logical syllogism or any other form of ritual rationality. No enigma machine exists to break the code and expose the mysteries of human choice that are at work in one's response to Christ's invitation. No power on earth can so manipulate circumstances that conversion will be the inevitable result. --ROBERT OSTERMANN
The principle it [conversion by using unjust means or by using methods that exploit the difficulties of a person] violates is the principle of respect for religious freedom, that every human being should have the freedom ... to worship God in this way or that. Not because we believe that one religion is as good as another, no, but because we believe that the human person should be inviolable, should not be violated. If God gave us freedom and allowed us to use it even to the extent of offending God, who are we to use force on another in matters religious? -- CARDINAL FRANCIS ARINZE
He who wants to win the world for Christ must have the courage to come into conflict with it. -- BLESSED TITUS BRANDSMA
CONVICTION(S)
Our modern era has it only half right. We rightly affirm that religion is a personal thing, but his does not mean that it's not a public thing. Our personal convictions must affect our public lives, or we have to admit that we don't have any convictions at all. --CURTIS A. MARTIN, President of Catholics United for the Faith, Inc.
Only religion, only revelation, can explain things. Only God, who made the cosmos, can say what He made it for, what end it is to serve. -- ABBOT CHAPMAN, Spiritual Letters, 20th century
CREATOR
If things created are so full of loveliness, how resplendent with beauty must be the One who made them! --ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA
CROSS
Our Lord who saved the world through the Cross will only work for the good of souls through the Cross. --ST. MADELEINE SOPHIE BARAT
CULTURE & MISSIONARY ACTIVITY
Our initial missionary endeavour, for all its dedication, goodness and grace, was also marked by a lack of full respect for their [aboriginal peoples'] culture and traditions and even, at times, by positive weaknesses and sin inherent in our own selves. -- ARCHBISHOP PETER SUTTON, O.M.I., Keenwatin-Le Pas, Manitoba, Canada (on missionary efforts among aboriginal peoples of Canada)
DAILY
LIFE
Let us remember that the life in which we ought to be interested is
daily life. We can, each of us, call only the present time our own.
ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA
In death the relationship we have with the world is not abolished, but is
rather for the first time completed.
FATHER KARL RAHNER, S.J.
Life is given us that we may learn to die well, and we never think of it! To die well we must live well. -- ST. JOHN MARY VIANNEY, Cure of Ars, France
My life and death are not purely and simply my own business. I live by and for others, and my death involves others. --FATHER THOMAS MERTON, American Trappist monk
Death is always a taboo subject. It reminds us of our own demise. It is a mystery that both fascinates and frightens us. We cannot make sense of it.
Some people feel very awkward, particularly those who have never come face to face with death. They do not know what to say to someone who has suffered a loss. Yet, a person in mourning simply wants someone to listen to [him or] her and have [his or] her feelings validated. --SYLVIE MALABORSA
DELIGHT
In God alone is there primordial and true delight, and in all our delights it is this delight that we are seeking. --ST. BONAVENTURE
DESPAIR
Our courteous Lord does not want us servants to despair, even when we
sin; for our failing does not hinder Gods loving.
JULIAN OF NORWICH
DIALOGUE, ECUMENICAL
Ecumenical dialogue has three stages. To begin with, Christians stop calling one another names. Then there is a sympathetic study of one another's forms of belief, worship, and practice in order to discover areas of agreement. In the final stage the participants recognize that in the various Christian traditions there are barriers to union that can be overcome only by compromise and radical change on the part of one or other of the parties, or both.
Full union, therefore, can be accomplished only by a church or a denomination recognizing that it has been in error and moving to embrace the truth. --FATHER DANIEL CALLAM, C.S.B. (Catholic Insight, May 1999)
DIALOGUE, INTER-RELIGIOUS
When people meet in inter-religious dialogue, the end isn't to convince the other person to cross over to my religion. If that is the end, it not inter-religious dialogue. It is a debate, or an argument, friendly or otherwise. On the other hand, we hold that people who meet in inter-religious discussion and reflection should be open to conversion in another sense -- conversion to God, in the sense of openness to God; that is, the action of God in us. After all, religion is not what we achieve in our Catholic belief; it is merely what God works in us if only we will allow God to do so. -- CARDINAL FRANCIS ARINZE
By dialogue we let God be present in our midst, for as we open ourselves to one another, we open ourselves to God. -- POPE JOHN PAUL II
To do harm, to promote violence and conflict in the name of religion is a terrible contradiction and offense against God. We must all work to strengthen the growing commitment to interreligious dialogue, a great sign for hope for the peoples of the world. --POPE JOHN PAUL, in Egypt (February 24, 2000)
DIFFERENCE, MAKING A
It is never too late to begin. It is never too late to turn over a new leaf. In spite of the atom bomb, the jet plane, the conflict with Russia, ten just people may still save a city. -- DOROTHY DAY
DISAPPOINTMENT
And in every disappointment, great or small, let your heart fly directly to your
dear Savior, throwing yourself in those arms for refuge against every pain and
sorrow. Jesus will never leave you or forsake you. -- ST.
ELIZABETH SETON
DISCIPLE
What then is it to be a disciple? It is to experience being loved so completely that we are incapable of being other than totally Christ's. -- EDWARD J. FARRELL
DOING GOOD
Do something good for someone you like least today. --ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA
EDUCATION, CATHOLIC
The education of children and young people continues to be of fundamental importance in the Church's mission and for civil society itself. Therefore it is right that Christian parents continue to claim and support the right to a Catholic education which is truly free, in which a true religious education can be imparted, and in which the rights of the family will be properly respected and safeguarded. --POPE JOHN PAUL II
ERRING
Every person may err, but not the whole gathered together; for the whole hath a promise. --BISHOP ROBERT HUGH BENSON
E
Perhaps one of the finest gifts we could offer to Jesus Christ on the two thousandth anniversary of his birth would be that the Good News will at least be made known to every person in the world -- first of all through the living witness of Christian example, but also through the media: 'Communicating Jesus Christ: the Way, the Truth and the Life'. -- POPE JOHN PAUL II (message on 1997 World Communications Day)
The Church must continue to be missionary. Indeed, missionary outreach is part of her very nature. -- POPE JOHN PAUL II (in Tertio Millennio Adveniente, 69)
Driven by the fire of the Holy Spirit, the holy apostles traveled throughout the earth. Inflamed by the same fire, apostolic missionaries have reached, are now reaching, and will continue to reach the ends of the earth, from one pole to the other, in order to proclaim the word of God. They are deservedly able to apply to themselves those words of the apostle Paul: 'The love of Christ drives us on.' -- ST. ANTHONY MARY CLARET
Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses. -- POPE PAUL VI
Today, in many sectors, we are in a state of mediocrity. Evangelization has lost strength because our human contribution is poor and inadequate. The call to holiness is less strong in the family, in Catholic schools and in our parishes. We have to renew the core of the Church. --BISHOP ALBERTO BRAZZINI DIAZ-UFINO, Lima, Peru
EVANGELIZATION, NEW
The new evangelization calls for followers of Christ who are unconditionally pro-life: who will proclaim, celebrate and serve the Gospel of life in every situation. A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil ... I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary. --POPE JOHN PAUL II
FAITH
What is faith save to believe what you do not see? -- ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO (in Commentary on John)
The light of faith makes us see what we believe. -- ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
Faith is not a contract. Faith is surrender. If no other relationship in
our experience is one of self-surrender, if its all contractual, people
wont know how to believe.
ARCHBISHOP FRANCIS GEORGE
Many of us may have the form of faith, but we need to have the heart. -- FATHER PETER COUGHLIN, Ontario Bishops' Liaison person to the Charismatic Renewal
The true faith is one of the grandest, greatest and most sublime gifts of God to man. It is a gift we can never be sufficiently grateful for and which we can never value too highly ... But like every gift, it carries great obligations. It makes those who possess it doubly responsible. They have to watch over this treasure, to cultivate it, to make it bear fruit, to trade with it, not to bury it in a napkin. We have no warrant to treat it as if it were a charm or talisman, that will work its marvelous effects of itself and independently of our own personal efforts and co-operation. No, our responsibilities grow and increase in intensity, with every additional grace and favor we receive. --BISHOP J. VAUGHAN
Faith furnishes facts to the other sciences which these sciences, left to themselves, would never reach, and it invalidates apparent facts, which left to themselves, they would imagine. --CARDINAL JOHN HENRY NEWMAN
FAITH AND REASON
Both the light of reason and the light of faith come from God. Therefore there can be no contradiction between them. -- ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
FAMILY
The well-being of the individual and of the country depends chiefly upon the family and upon the home. It is in the home that the future man and woman is formed. If the children are to be adorned with Christian virtues they must have spent their earlier years under the elevating and perfecting influence of a good Catholic home. --POPE LEO XIII
In fact, the family is the particular and, at the same time, fundamental community of love and life on which all other communities and societies are based ... The family is also the first, fundamental environment where every person identifies and fulfills his own human and Christian vocation. Lastly, the family is a community that cannot be replaced by any other. --POPE JOHN PAUL II
FASTING
When the stomach is full, it is easy to talk of fasting. ST. JOHN MARY VIANNEY
FAULT
The reason for all disturbance, if we look to its roots, is that no one finds fault with himself. --ST. DOROTHEUS, Abbot
FEAR
When conscience commands anything, there is only one thing to fear, and that is fear. -- ST. TERESA OF AVILA
FETUS
A woman who deliberately destroys a fetus is answerable for murder. And any fine distinction as to its being completely formed or unformed is not admissible amongst us. -- ST. BASIL (in Letters, 4th century)
FORGIVENESS
If the people of the world could bring themselves to forgive others from the heart, it would spell the end of violence, ethnic cleansing, and genocides. It could mean the end of wars, and the beginning of living in peace and harmony. --FATHER BERNARD BRUNEAU, S.J.
FREEDOM
Freedom is a cherished gift. We value our personal freedom and make great effort, even sacrifices, to protect it. We need to recognize that true freedom is responsible freedom; only then will we know how to use it. At issue is not what we are able to do but what we ought to do. God created us free and gave us the ability to make choices. Personal freedom is manifest in the exercise of that power. -- BISHOP DONALD WUERL, Pittsburgh, USA
Nothing more foolish can be uttered or conceived than the notion that because man is free by nature, he is therefore exempt from law. Were this the case, it would follow that to become free, we must be deprived of reason, whereas the truth is that we are bound to submit to law precisely because we are free by our very nature. --POPE PIUS IX
FREEDOM, RELIGIOUS
It is a fundamental human right, a privilege of nature, though it is denied to many today, that man should worship God according to his convictions. It is no part of religion to force itself upon the unwilling; it must be embraced freely, and herein lies its virtue. If you wish to defend religion by bloodshed, you no longer defend, but profane it, for nothing is so much a mater of the free will. --FATHER DESMOND MURRAY, O.P.
GOD
Trust in God and God will provide. MOTHER
EUPHRASIA, Foundress of the Good Shepherd Sisters
Like Christ we open ourselves to God by opening ourselves to one another: loving...doing justice...seeking peace. In doing so we will honour and worship god 'neither on the mountain, nor in Jerusalem...but in spirit and truth'. -- FATHER GERALD CURRY, S.F.M.
The difference between the greatest sinner and the greatest saint is only a millimeter compared to the chasm of the difference between either one and God. But God leaps over that abyss and takes both repentant sinner and gracious saint into the same welcoming arms. -- SISTER VIRGINIA ANN FROEHLE, R.S.M.
It is easy to get caught up in the pressing issue of the moment, to lose sight of the bigger picture. But God is always there, waiting patiently for me, when I'm ready. -- MARIA MASSEI-ROSATO, who biked from Seattle to New York in a two-month trek
The wood does not change the fire into itself, but the fire changes the wood into itself. So are we changed into God, that we shall know God as God is. --MEISTER ECKHARDT
Cast yourself into the arms of God and be very sure that if He wants anything of you, He will fit you for the work and give you the strength. --ST. PHILIP NERI
Let nothing disturb you
Let nothing frighten you
All things are passing
God alone does not change
Patience achieves everything
Whoever has God lacks nothing
God alone suffices. -- ST. TERESA OF AVILA
What God does, He does well. --JEAN DE LA FONTAINE
Get out of the way and let God be God in you. -- MEISTER ECKHART, mystic
GOD, BELIEF IN
I cannot say I believe in God: I see Him. Without Him I understand nothing; without Him all is shadows. Not only have I kept this conviction, but I have increased, bettered it -- as you will see. Every period has its fads. I consider atheism a fad; it is the sickness of the times. I would sooner lose my skin than my belief in God. --HENRY FABRE, French naturalist
GOD, EXISTENCE OF
The moment I realized that God existed, I knew I could not do otherwise than to live for Him alone. --VENERABLE FR. CHARLES DE FOUCAULD
If He exists we must honor Him as He requires us to honor Him or else we shall be asked why. --ST. JOHN MARY VIANNEY
GOD, HATING
No man hates God without first hating himself. -- BISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN
GOD,
LOVE OF
The more we love of God, the more we will want to love God. ST.
JOAQUINA
If we love and desire to give ourselves to God, we are bound to give ourselves to the whole world. --EVELYN UNDERHILL
I cannot think of conversing with you, my Lord and my God, without desiring to melt like wax in the fire of Your divine love, and to overcome all that is earthly in me by loving You. --ST. TERESA OF AVILA
So abandon yourself utterly for the love of God, and in this way you will become truly happy. --BLESSED HENRY SUSO
Doing little things with a strong desire to please God makes them great. -- ST. FRANCIS DE SALES
GOD, REIGN OF
The new missiology makes a distinction between the Reign of God and membership by baptism in the visible church. I don't know why it is called new because it dates back to St. Paul who made a distinction between preaching the gospel and baptizing, between sowing the seed and reaping the harvest. --- FATHER ALEX McDONALD, S.F.M.
Jesus' proclamation and his dealings with his contemporaries are the representation and the realization of God's Reign. -- FATHER EDWARD SCHILLEBEECKX, O.P., theologian
GOD,
SEEKING
Enter the inner chamber of your mind. Shut out all things save God and
whatever may aid you in seeking God, and having barred the door of your chamber,
seek. ST.
ANSELM OF CANTERBURY
God speaks in the Gospels. God also speaks through life that new
gospel to which we ourselves add a page every day.
MICHEL QUOIST
Preach the Gospel always. If necessary, use words. -- ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISSI
GOSSIP
Silence again, about the faults of others, is necessary even when they are true, since knowing the facts does not give one permission to speak about them to others and so cause detraction and uncharity. The custom of carrying tales and blackening people's characters is a common fault and can be a grave sin. --FATHER DESMOND MURRAY, O.P.
The dangers of speech are many, chiefly gossip about others, not perhaps intentionally malicious, but often exaggerated and untrue. The sins of slander and calumny are more often committed than is generally believed. One who from vanity is forever detracting the little faults and failings of others, or even severely criticizing their good actions, puts poison into the minds of his hearers. Gross calumnies are easily detected, but this habit of backbiting does untold harm. --FATHER DESMOND MURRAY, O.P.
HAPPINESS
Our highest happiness consists in the feeling that another's good is purchased by our sacrifice. --BISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN
HEAVEN
Heaven is filled with converted sinners of all kinds, and there is room for more. --ST. JOSEPH CAFASSO
God's gaze, His ravishing smile. This is my heaven. -- ST.
THERESE OF LISIEUX
I find a heaven in the midst of saucepans and brooms. --ST. STANISLAUS KOSTKA
The gate of Heaven is very low; only the humble can enter it. --ST. ELIZABETH SETON
HERETIC(S)
Heretics are to be converted by an example of humility and other virtues far more readily than by any external display or verbal battles. So let us arm ourselves with devout prayers and set off showing signs of genuine humility and go barefooted to combat Goliath. --ST. DOMINIC
HISTORY, CHANGING OF
Good people, committed Christians, can and should change history. They might not see it that way, but if they're determined to serve the Church by serving others in family life, at work and in a whole array of other activities, that's what they're doing. And that's a sign of hope. --GREG BURKE, a writer
HOLINESS
God only knows one success and that is holiness. -- ABBOT MARMIAN
Holiness is not a luxury for the few; it is not just for some people. It is meant for you and for me and for all of us. It is a simple duty, because if we learn to love, we learn to be holy. --MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA
HOPE
Hope has been the sole companion of my life, the greatest aid in doubts, the strongest assistance in my weakness; hope, but not the hope in men, such as is thought to bring greater happiness and instead brings greater disaster, but hope in Christ, supported by the celestial promise that He will strengthen the weakest of men with a greatness of soul and divine help. --POPE ST. PIUS X
HUMBLE, THE
The humble realize that of themselves they are nothing, and that they stand in extreme need of help and grace of heaven; but the proud are convinced that they are full of grace and virtue. That is why God takes pleasure in showering His gifts on the former and in depriving the latter of His bounty. --ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
H
The first degree of humility is obedience without delay. --ST. BENEDICT, 6th century
INQUISITION
I consider this [the Inquisition] a sin that should make us reflect and lead us to repentance. The Church must always be tolerant. Therefore, we ask the Lord forgiveness for these facts, and ask that we not fall into these errors again. The Lord should make us understand that the church must not make martyrs, but be a church of martyrs. I don't know if I am the right person to ask forgiveness, but I am convinced that we always need to be aware of the temptation for the church, as an institution to transform itself into a state that persecutes its enemies. --CARDINAL JOSEPH RATZINGER, Vatican's top doctrinal official, Oct. 6, 1997, Bologna, Italy
INTOLERANCE OF THE CHURCH
Men have often branded the Church as intolerant, when she was only faithful. They have stigmatized her as relentless, when she was only true to her mission; because she condemned the book which breathed the venom of infidelity, they called her an enemy of letters; when she repudiated the theory which was in germ a heresy, they styled her the foe of science; because she anathematized a principle which led to revolution and anarchy, they named her the antagonist of civilization. Yet she has suffered everything in promoting the spiritual and temporal well-being of the race. She has been a martyr to her mission and her duty.
To the world the Church is an intolerant, bigoted and uncompromising institution, her light is darkness, her zeal is ambition, her love is cruelty and she deserves not a place among men. When they cry out against her intolerance, they hardly know the meaning of their clamor. In one way, their reproach is her glory. Yes, she is intolerant, for there are things she will not abide. She will not tolerate error, atheism or infidelity, nor any of the views which aim at the destruction of all religion, all morality and all civilization. The truths of God she must uphold. The sacred rights of men she will declare and fight for.
The Church believes in liberty, but she is intolerant of license. She believes in brotherly love, but not in communism. She believes that before God all men are equal, but she respects the condition in which the race finds itself. She will stand up for all rightful possessions, but will not brook injustice, oppression and slavery. Poor and rich are alike to her, but woe to the capitalist who defrauds the laborer of his wages, to the laboring man who rises up in unjust violence against his employer.
The intolerance of the Church is not a badge of shame, but a crown of glory. So-called Christian countries today are not suffering from intolerance, but from tolerance, for they tolerate both right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil, Christ and chaos. The slogan that "the modern world needs a religion without dogmas," can only mean a religion without truth or one which would be backboneless, since dogmas are but unchangeable truths. --FATHER DESMOND MURRAY, O. P., in A Saint of the Week, 1955
Make your dwelling in the side of Christ crucified in order to have a holy knowledge of the greatness of God's goodness. Be careful that you do not find yourself outside of his open heart. --ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA
The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the meeting place of two loves: the one, which descends from on high, is the Father's love poured out on the family of his children to draw them to himself; the other, which ascends from below, is the filial love of his children who, through the beloved Son, ascend towards the Father. --BISHOP EMILE GUERRY
JESUS
CHRIST
To me, Jesus is the Life I want to live, the Light I want to reflect, the Way to the Father, the Love I want to express, the Joy I want to share, the Peace I want to sow around me. Jesus is everything to me. -- MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA
He [Jesus Christ] is the living one. He is the victor over sin and death. He is not one who ascended into heaven in order to disappear from world history as if He had never been in it. He ascended to heaven after He had descended into the last depths of sin, death, and the lost world, and came out of this abyss, which contains everything, alive. --FATHER KARL RAHNER, S. J., theologian
Keep giving Jesus to your people, not by words, but by your example, by your being in love with Jesus, by radiating his holiness and spreading his fragrance of love everywhere you go. Just keep the joy of Jesus as your strength. Be happy and at peace. Accept whatever he gives -- and give whatever he takes with a big smile. You belong to him.... -- MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA
JUST, THE
What is God's altar if not the soul of those who lead good lives?...Rightly then, the heart of the just is said to be the altar of God. -- ST. GREGORY THE GREAT
LAITY, THE
Lay persons have a right and a duty to be apostles. -- BISHOP TERRENCE PRENDERGAST, S.J., Auxiliary Bishop of Toronto, Canada
LAITY, HOLINESS OF THE
Holiness is not limited to the sanctuary or to moments of private prayer; it is a call to direct our whole heart and life toward God and according to God's plan for this world. For the laity holiness is achieved in the midst of the world, in family, in community, in friendships, in work, in leisure, in citizenship. Through their competency and by their activity, lay men and women have the vocation to bring the fight of the Gospel to economic affairs, 'so that the world may be filled with the Spirit of Christ and may more effectively attain its destiny in justice, in love, and in peace.' -- U.S. CATHOLIC BISHOPS (in Economic Justice for All -- A Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy, 1986, #332)
LENT
Lent reminds us of the power that is sin and darkness, and of our need for repentance and forgiveness. It is a time to remember Christ's suffering and to remember that Christ continues to suffer today in the faces of the poor, the sick, the neglected, and the persecuted in our world. -- FATHER GERALD CURRY, S.F.M.
During Lent, penance should be not only inward and individual, but also outward and social. -- CONSTITUTION ON THE SACRED LITURGY (Sacrosanctum Concilium), 10; Second Vatican Council document
LIFE
Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning. -- CARDINAL JOHN HENRY NEWMAN
Each small task of everyday life is part of the harmony of the universe. -- ST. THERESE OF LISIEUX
Man's life comes from God. It is His gift, His image and imprint, a sharing in His breadth of life. God, therefore, is the sole Lord of this life. Man cannot do with it as he wills. --POPE JOHN PAUL II, in Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), 38.
There are also those who teach that the meaning of life lies solely in the quest for success, the accumulation of wealth, the development of personal abilities, without regard for the needs of others or respect for values. These and other kinds of false teachers of life...propose goals which not only fail to bring satisfaction but often intensify and exacerbate the thirst that burns in the human heart. --POPE JOHN PAUL II, message to young people, 1992
LIFE, CHRISTIAN
The three great virtues of faith, hope and charity constitute the whole substance of the Christian life. They may be called the marks of the new man in us: faith, because by our intelligence we acknowledge and accept the truth; hope and charity, because by the will we should love and seek those things which are above. Charity, love of God and love of our neighbor, is the greatest of these virtues, for it contains in itself the whole life of the new man.
By putting on the Christian life, the new way of living, the soul is clothed with a wedding garment, the white robe of grace. The things of the flesh are not done away with, but they should now be dominated and controlled by the spirit. Here then is the secret of this new life, this sanctification through Christ; to one who is faithful there is given sufficient strength to overcome, to dominate and to conquer those things that are of the flesh and sin. It is grace alone that can do this great work, not by our own power, but by that power given us by Christ. --FATHER DESMOND MURRAY, O.P.
LIFE, FULLNESS OF
I hope to see the day when people have enough to eat, just salaries, better working conditions, title to their land; because that is what God wants -- fullness of life for all people. -- BISHOP GEORGE MARSKELL, S.F.M., Canadian missionary to Brazil
LITERATURE, CATHOLIC
The earth needs to be flooded by a mighty deluge of Catholic and Marian literature, written in every language and reaching every country, so as to drown in the waves of truth all those voices of error that have been using the printing press as their most powerful ally. The globe must be encircled by the words of life in printed form, so that the world may once again experience the joy of living. -- ST. MAXIMILIAN KOLBE
LITURGY
Pray the liturgy rightly, enjoy this wonderful blessing from God, and be a blessing to all. --JOHN MICHAEL TALBOT
LOVE
Where there is no love, pour love in, and you will pull love out. ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS
Do small things with great love. --MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA
Driven by the forces of love, the fragments of the world seek each other so that the world may come into being. --FATHER PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN, S.J.
The greatest charism is loving, because only love reveals the truth within another person and mirrors this grace to them. --EDWARD J. FARRELL
For now, the world consists of opposites, but in the end more of those contrasts will remain. There will only be the fullness of love. How could it be otherwise? --ST. THERESA BENEDICTA OF THE CROSS (Edith Stein)
The way to love everything is to realize it might be lost. --G. K. CHESTERTON
LOVE FOR JESUS
Out of gratitude and love for Jesus, we should desire to be reckoned fools. Laugh and grow strong. --ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA, founder of the Jesuit Order
The future will be different if we make the present different.
PETER
MAURIN, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, USA
MARRIAGE
A man and woman joined in matrimony become partners in a divine undertaking: Through the act of procreation, God's gift is accepted and a new life opens to the future. --POPE JOHN PAUL II, in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, no. 43
A marriage without commitment, loyalty, friendship, and love will not be held together by sex -- or oxytocin -- alone ... Sex outside of marriage can distort our decision-making process and lead us into ill-advised marriages with low odds of survival... -- MARY BETH BONACCI,
MARRIAGE PREPARATION
Preparing engaged couples for marriage is everyone's duty. The prayers we recite and the kindnesses we show our brothers and sisters on their way to the altar will help them -- and their offspring -- on their pilgrimage to paradise. --FATHER C. M. MANGAN
MARTYR(S)
The martyr bears witness to the faith by remaining true to the point of death. --DAVID GOA, Curator of folk life at the Provincial Museum, Edmonton, Canada
Martyrs create faith, faith does not create martyrs. --MIGUEL DE UNAMUNO
MARTYRDOM
For the name of Jesus and the defense of the Church I am willing to die. -- ST. THOMAS BECKET, 1170
Had I a thousand lives, I would offer them all for God. Never shall I apostatize. You may kill me if that is what you want. To die for God -- such is my will. -- ST. LORENZO (Lawrence) RUIZ (Filipino lay missionary before his martyrdom in Nagasaki, Japan, 1637)
Do not desire crosses, unless you have borne well those laid on you; it is an abuse to long after martyrdom while unable to bear an insult patiently. --ST. FRANCIS DE SALES
MARY, VIRGIN
Whoever does not wish to have Mary Immaculate as his Mother will not have Christ
as his Brother either... -- ST. MAXIMILIAN KOLBE
From Mary we learn to surrender to God's Will in all things. From Mary we learn to trust even when all hope seems gone. From Mary we learn to love Christ her Son and the Son of God! -- POPE JOHN PAUL II
Such is the will of God that we should have everything through Mary. --ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI
When she was asked to become the mother of the Messiah, Mary's faith enabled her to give a humble and generous response.... Mary's faith was frequently tested during the public life of Jesus, especially when she witnessed the rejection of her son. At the foot of the cross, her pilgrimage of faith had its moment of most severe testing. Mary continued to believe that, because Jesus was the Son of God. His sacrifice would bring salvation to humanity. -- POPE JOHN PAUL II
By the fall a poison was handed to mankind through a woman [Eve], by the Redemption man was given salvation also through a woman [Mary]. -- ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
Through a woman [Eve] a curse fell upon the earth; through a woman [Mary] as well there returned to the earth a blessing. -- ST. PETER DAMIAN
Through Mary, we come to her Son more easily. -- POPE JOHN PAUL II
Mary is the sure path to our meeting with Christ. Devotion to the Mother of the Lord, when it is genuine, is always an impetus to a life guided by the spirit and values of the Gospel. --POPE JOHN PAUL II, in Ecclesia in America
Jesus is the mediator of justice; Mary obtains for us grace; for, as St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, St. Bernardine of Siena, St. Germanus, St. Antoninus, and others say, it is the will of God to dispense through the hands of Mary whatever graces he is pleased to bestow upon us. With God, the prayers of the saints are the prayers of His friends, but the prayers of Mary are the prayers of His mother. --ST. ALPHONSUS OF LIGUORI
MARY'S GRACE
No man is delivered or preserved from the world-wide snares of Satan save through Mary; and God grants His graces to no one except through her alone. -- ST. GERMANUS