Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

During painful times, when you feel a terrible void, think how God is enlarging the capacity of your soul so that it can receive him--making it, as it were, infinite as he is infinite.  Look upon each pain as a love token coming to you directly from God in order to unite you to him.

Pope Benedict XV

I want all the Church's children to be saturated with and strengthened by the Bible, and acquire the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ.

St. Maximilian Kolbe

The culmination of the Mass is not the consecration, but communion.

Thomas Howard

To be Catholic is to be a man or woman of the Gospel.

St. Francis of Assisi

Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

Matthew 1:18-25 RSV-CE2

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.  When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to send her away quietly.  But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."  All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel" (which means, God with us).  When Joseph woke from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife, but knew her not until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus.

The Didache

On the Lord's own day, assemble in common to break bread and offer thanks; but first confess  your sins, so that your sacrifice may be pure.  However no one quarreling with your brother may join your meeting until they are reconciled; your sacrifice must not be defiled.  for here we have the saying of the Lord:  In every place and time offer me a pure sacrifice; for I am a mighty King. says the Lord; and my name spreads terror among the nations.

Simone Weil

A science which does ot bring us closer to God is worthless.

St.Ambrose

You are not making a gift of your possessions to the poor person.  You are handing over to him what is his.  For what has been given in common for the use of all, you have arrogated to yourself.  The word is given to all, and not just only to the rich.

Pope John Paul II

Evangelization is not only the Church's living teaching. the first proclamation of the faith (kerygma) and instruction, formation in the faith (catechesis); it is also the the entire wide-ranging commitment to reflect on revealed truth, a commitment which has been expressed from the very beginning in the works of the Fathers in the East and the West.

Hilaire Belloc

When friendship disappears then there is a space left open to that awful loneliness of the outside world which is like the cold space between the planets. It is an air in which men perish utterly. 

Pope John Paul II

It is not wrong to want to live better; what is wrong is a style of life which is presumed to be better when it is directed to "having" rather  than "being."

Scott Hahn

The liturgy is...where the early Church kept the Scriptures.  Indeed, the books we know as the New Testament were canonized not so much for devotional reading--which was rare in those days before the printing press--but for liturgical proclamation.

Pope Benedict XVI

In fact, a church without a credible biblical foundation is only a chance historical product, one organization among others, and the humanly constructed framework of which we spoke. But the Bible without the Church is no longer the powerfully effective Word of God, but  an assemblage  of various historical sources, a collection of heterogeneous books from which one tries to draw, from the perspective of the present moment, whatever one considers useful.

Note: This statement was made in an interview that was published in 1985 as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, as Prefect for the CDF.

St. Augustine of Hippo

What is the baptism of Christ? The washing of water by the Word. Take away the water, it is no baptism; take away the Word it is no baptism.

Pope Pius XI

The denial of the right of workers to form unions for protection against oppression by the employing class is criminal injustice.

St. Thomas Aquinas

If all evil were prevented, much good would be absent from the universe.  A lion would cease to live if there were no slaying of animals; and there would be no patience of martyrs if there were no tyrannical persecution.

St. Francis of Assisi

Let the brothers ever avoid appearing gloomy, sad, and clouded, like the hypocrites; but let one ever be found joyous in the Lord, gay, amiable, joyous as it meet.

Clement of Alexandria

The Sacrifice most acceptable to God is complete renunciation of the body and its passions.  This is the only real piety.

Karl Rahner, SJ

What Christ gives us is quite explicit if his own words are interpreted according to their Aramaic meaning.  The expression "This is my body" means "This is myself."

Blessed Pope John XXIII

If often happens that I awake at night and begin to think about a serious problem and decide I must tell the pope about it.  Then I wake up completely and remember that I am the Pope.

Dietrich Von Hildebrand

Our belief in the teachings of the Church de fide must be an absolute and unconditional one, but we should not imagine that our fidelity to the Church's theoretical authority is satisfied merely by acceptance of ex cathedra pronouncements.  We must also adhere wholeheartedly to teachings of the Church in matters of morality, even if they are not defined ex cathedra.  The teachings of the encyclical Humanae Vitae, for example, is binding because its content had always been part of the teaching of the Church; in it we are confronted with the theoretical authority of the Church embodied in the tradition of the ordinary Magisterium. It is not a mere practical commandment of the Church, like the commandment to go to church on Sunday.

Tertullian

Nothing that is God's is obtainable by money.

St. Thomas Aquinas

A sacrament is a remembrance of the past, a proof of the present, and a promise of the future.

St. Augustine of Hippo

There is something in humility which strangely exalts the heart.

St. Bernard of Clairveaux

For us the Jews are Scripture's living words, because they remind us of what Our Lord suffered.  They are not to be persecuted, killed, or even put to flight.

James Cardinal Gibbons

If we examine the source of our troubles and agitations, we find that they almost invariably spring from a desire of approval, or fear of contempt.

Revelation 3:20, RSV-CE2

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Thomas à Kempis

Never be entirely idle: be either reading, or writing, or praying, or meditating, or endeavoring something for the public good.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen

The Sermon on the Mount is at such variance with all that our world hold dear that the world will crucify anyone who tries to live up to its values.  Because Christ preached them, He had to die.  Calvary was the price He paid for the Sermon on the Mount.  Only mediocrity survives. Those who call black black, and white white, are sentenced for intolerance. Only the grays live.

Catechism of the Catholic Church 1921

Authority is exercised legitimately if it is committed to the common good of society.  To attain this it must employ morally acceptable means.

Walter Hilton

When you attack the roots of sin, fix your thought on the God whom you desire rather than upon the sin which you hate.

St. Gregory Nazianzen

Your natural beauty suffices your husband, but if flaunted before many men like a net to catch a flock of birds, what will be the result?
You will be pleased by those whom your beauty pleases, returning glance for glance, gaze for gaze, then smiles and little words of love, guarded at first, but soon becoming familiar until you are openly behaving amorously.
Take heed, my tongue, lest I mention what follows!  But I will say this: Everything such foolish lovers say or do is an incitement to evil; one thing inevitably leads to another in these wretched flirtations as one piece of iron, drawn by a magnet, draws another in its turn.

St. Josemaria Escriva

You're not humble when you humble yourself, but when you are humbled by others and bear it for Christ.

St. Thomas More

I die the king's good servant, but God's first.

St. Basil

Anger is a kind of temporary madness.

Blessed Theresa of Calcutta

GOd does not create poverty. We do, because we do not share.

G. K. Chesterton

The reformer is always right about what is wrong.  He is generally wrong about what is right.

Pope Leo XIII

The chief and most excellent rule for the right use of money is one which the Christian philosophers hinted at, but which the Church has traced out clearly, and has not only made known to men's minds, but has impressed upon their lives.  It rests upon the principle that it is one thing to have a right to possession of money, and nother to have the right to use money as one wills.

G. K. Chesterton

The dipsomaniac and the abstainer both make the same mistake.  They both regard wine as a drug and not as a drink.

Pope Paul III (1534-1549)

By our Apostolic authority we define and proclaim that Indians, or any peoples who may hereafter be discovered by Catholics, although they be not Christian, must in no way be deprived of their liberty or their possessions.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem

If any man receive not Baptism, he has not salvation; except only the Martyrs, who even without the water receive the kingdom.

St. Athanasius

We do not worship a creature. Far be the thought!  For such an error belongs to heathens and Arians.  But we worship the Lord of Creation, Incarnate, the Word of God.  For if the flesh also is in itself a part of the created world, yet it has become God's body.  And we neither divide the body, being such, from the word, and worship it by itself, nor when we wish to worship the Word do we set Him far apart from the Flesh, but knowing, as we said above, that "the Word was made flesh" we recognize Him as God also, after having come in the flesh.  Who, accordingly, is so senseless to say to  the Lord: "Leave the Body that I may worship Thee".

Gaudium et Spes, 65

Growth is not to be left to a kind of mechanical course of the economic activity of individuals, nor to the authority of the government.  For this reason, doctrines which obstruct the necessary reforms under the guise of false liberty, and those which subordinate the basic rights of individual persons and groups to the collective organization of production must be shown to be erroneous.

Pope Pius XII

The faithful, more precisely the lay faithful, find themselves on the front lines of the Church's life, for  them the Church is the animating principle for human society.  Therefore, they in particular ought to have an ever clearer consciousness not only of belonging to the church, but being the Church; that is to say, the community of the faithful on earth under the leadership of the Pope, the head of all, and of the bishops in communion with him.  These are the Church.

St Irenaeus

Why did the serpent not attack the man, rather than the woman?  You say he went after her because she was the weaker of the two.  On the contrary, In the transgression of the commandment, she showed herself to be stronger...For she alone stood up to the serpent.  She ate from the tree, but with resistance and dissent after being dealt with perfidiously.  But Adam partook of the fruit given by the woman, without even beginning to make a fight, without a word of contradiction--a perfect demonstration of consummate weakness and a cowardly soul.  The woman, moreover, can be excused; she wrestled a demon and was thrown.  But Adam will not be able to find an excuse...he had personally received the commandment from God.

(source: A Father Who Keeps His Promises, by Scott Hahn, Servant Books, 1998)

St. Augustine of Hippo

Breathe into me Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy.  Move in me Holy Spirit, that my work, too may be holy.  Attract my heart Holy Spirit, that I may love only what is holy.  Strengthen me Holy Spirit, that I may defend all that is holy.  Protect me, Holy Spirit, that I may always be holy. Amen.

St. Ignatius of Antioch

Therefore it is fitting that you agree with the opinion of the bishop as you are doing. Your rightly famous presbytery is worthy of God.  It is in harmony with the bishop like strings tuned to a harp.  For this reason, Jesus Christ is praised in your harmony and in your united love.

Pope John Paul II

Even when not motivated by a selfish refusal to be burdened with the life of someone who is suffering, euthanasia must be called a false mercy, and indeed a disturbing "perversion" of mercy. True "compassion" leads to sharing another's pain; it does not kill the person whose suffering we cannot bear.  Moreover, the act of euthanasia appears all the more perverse if it is carried out by those, like relatives, who are supposed to treat a family member with patience and love, or by those, such as doctors, who by virtue of their specific profession are supposed to care for the sick person in the most painful terminal stages.

St. Francis deSales

God has supreme hatred for sin, and yet He most wisely permits it.  This is to allow rational creatures to act according to their natural condition; it is also to render the good more worthy of commendation when they do not violate the law, even though they are able ti violate it.  Let us therefore adore and bless this holy permission.

Pope Pius XI

But no reason, however grave, may be put forward by which anything intrinsically against nature may become conformable to nature and morally good.  Since, therefore, the conjugal act is destined primarily for the begetting of children, those who in exercising it deliberately frustrate its natural power and purpose, sin against nature and commit a deed which is shameful and intrinsically vicious.

St. Thomas Aquinas

In the world of sense we find there is an order of efficient causes. There is no case known (neither is it, indeed, possible) in which a thing is found to be the efficient cause of itself; for so it would be prior to itself, which is impossible. Now in efficient causes it is not possible to go on to infinity,because in all efficient causes following in order, the first is the cause of the intermediate cause, and the intermediate is the cause of the ultimate cause, whether the intermediate cause be several, or only one. Now to take away the cause is to take away the effect. Therefore, if there be no first cause among efficient causes, there will be no ultimate, nor any intermediate cause. But if in efficient causes it is possible to go on to infinity, there will be no first efficient cause, neither will there be an ultimate effect, nor any intermediate efficient causes; all of which is plainly false. Therefore it is necessary to admit a first efficient cause, to which everyone gives the name of God.

Pope Benedict XV

The Spirit, the Paraclete, enriched the human race with the sacred Letters in order to instruct it in the things of God.  And in his great providence, he also raised up very holy and learned people over the centuries not only to prevent this heaven-sent treasure form remaining fruitless, but also to provide for the faithful plentiful "consolation from Scripture" (Rom 15:4). All agree that St. Jerome rightly holds the first place among them.  The Catholic Church recognizes him and honors him as the 'Greatest Doctor" given by God for the explanation of the Sacred Scriptures.

Patrick Madrid

When through laziness or some other excuse we ignore or neglect to study and ponder God's written Word, we find ourselves cut off from a major source of information about Jesus Christ--who he is, what he dis for us and why we should have faith in him, love him, and obey his teachings.  Sacred Scripture reveals all these things for us.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Had there been no Immaculate Conception, then Christ would have been said to be less beautiful, for He would have taken His Body from one who was not humanly perfect!  There ought to be an infinite separation between God and sin, but there would not have been if there was not one Woman who could crush the cobra's head.

Dei Verbum , article 10.

It is clear, therefore, that sacred tradition, Sacred Scripture and the teaching authority of the Church, in accord with God's most wise design, are so linked and joined together that one cannot stand without the others, and that all together and each in its own way under the action of the one Holy Spirit contribute effectively to the salvation of souls.

Luke 1:46-55

And Mary said, "my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden.  For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.  And his mercy is upon those who fear him from generation to generation.  He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in his imagination of their hearts, he has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and rich he sent empty away.  He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity forever."

St. Clement of Rome

Let us fix our gaze on the blood of Christ and realize how precious it is to His Father, seeing that it was poured out for our salvation and brought to grace of our conversion to the whole world.  Let us look back over all the generations, and learn from generation to generation the Lord has given an opportunity of repentance to all who would return to Him.

St. John of Damascus

It appears then, that the most proper of all the names given to God is "He That Is," as He Himself said in answer to Moses on the mountain, "Say to the sins of Israel, 'He That Is has sent me,'" (Exodus 3:14) for He keeps all being in His own embrace, like a sea of essence, infinite and unseen.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 808

The Church is the Bride of Christ: he loved her and handed himself over for her.  He has purified her by his blood and made her the fruitful mother of all God's children.

St. Augustine

The soul is to the human body as the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church.

St. Gregory Lopez

If I were to die within a few hours, I would do nothing more than I do now.  For now I am actually giving to God all that I have.  I cannot give more unless God in his mercy bestows it on me.

Pope St. Gregory the Great

The proof of love is in the works.  Where love exists, it works great things.  But when love ceases to act it ceases to exist.

Bl. Theresa of Calcutta

Spread love everywhere you go. Be the living expression of God's kindness.  Kindness in your face.  Kindness in your smile.  Kindness in your warm greeting.

St. Perpetua

Stand fast in the faith, and love one another, and don't take offense at our suffering.

Pope Paul VI

“No more war! Never again war! If you wish to be brothers, drop your weapons."

St. Bernard of Clairveaux

The peacemakers shall be called the sons of God, who came to make peace between God and man. What then shall the sowers of discord be called, but the children of the devil? And what must they look for but their father's portion?

Bl. Pope John XXIII

Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.

Pope St. Pius X

My hope is in Christ, who strengthens the weakest by His Divine help. I can do all in Him who strengthens me. His Power is infinite, and if I lean on him, it will be mine. His Wisdom is infinite, and if I look to Him counsel, I shall not be deceived. His Goodness is infinite, and if my trust is stayed in Him, I shall not be abandoned.

St. Francis de Sales

“Marital intercourse is certainly holy, lawful and praiseworthy in itself and profitable to society, yet in certain circumstances it can prove dangerous, as when through excess the soul is made sick with venial sin, or through the violation and perversion of its primary end, killed by mortal sin; such perversion, detestable in proportion to its departure from the true order, being always mortal sin, for it is never lawful to exclude the primary end of marriage which is the procreation of children.”

Matthew 16:13-20

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesare'a Philip'pi, he asked his disciples, "Who do men say that the Son of man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Eli'jah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.

G. K. Chesterton

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.

St. John Vianney

"All the good works in the world are not equal to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass because they are the works of men; but the Mass is the work of God. Martyrdom is nothing in comparison for it is but the sacrifice of man to God; but the Mass is the sacrifice of God for man."

Scott Hahn

We are called to be trusting children of God and of the Church, our mother. My studies have led me to realize that we are priviledged to read the sacred page within an unfathomable community: the communion of saints, the voices of Catholic Tradition, the great cloud of witnesses from all of history. Our guide is the Holy Spirit, working through the Church's Magisterium.

St. Augustine of Hippo

Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others.

John 20:19-23

Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Pride is an admission of weakness; it secretly fears all competition and dreads all rivals.

St. Irenaeus

"The tradition of the Apostles has been made manifest throughout the world, and can be found in every Church by those who wish to know the truth."

St. Thomas Aquinas

• "I firmly believe and know as certain that Jesus Christ, True God and True Man, Son of God and Son of the Virgin Mary, is in this Sacrament."