1 Corinthians 15:12-22 RSV-CE2

Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.  We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.  For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised.  If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.  Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.  If for this life only we hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied.
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For as by a man came death, by a man has come also resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.

St. Thomas More

The Church was gathered and the faith was believed before any part of the New Testament was put into writing.   And which writing was or is the true Scripture neither Luther nor Tyndale knoweth but by the credence they give to the Church.

St. Ignatius of Loyola

We are to put aside all judgment of our own, and keep the mind ever ready and prompt to obey in all things the true Spouse of Christ our Lord, our holy Mother, the hierarchical Church.

St. Ignatius of Antioch

I write and command all the churches that I willingly die for God, if in fact you do not prevent me.  I appeal to you to not to be inopportune even with a noble purpose.  Permit me to be food for the beasts; through them I will reach God.  I am the wheat of God, and I compete through the beasts' teeth to be found the pure bread of Christ.

Pope John Paul I

The Rosary is an impoverished prayer?  What then would be a "rich" prayer?  The Rosary is a procession of Paters, the prayer taught by Jesus; of Aves, the salutation of God to the Virgin by means of an angel; of Glorias, the praise of the Most Holy Trinity.

G.K. Chesterton

"My country, right or wrong," is something no patriot would think of saying, except in an extreme case.  It is like saying, "My mother, drunk or sober."

Hilaire Belloc

If England had not broken off, the Reformation would have failed and our civilization have been today one Christian thing.  It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this historical catastrophe.  It has had effects which have gone on spreading from that long distant date, more than 400 years ago, to our own time, and those evil effects are if anything increasing rather than diminishing.

St. Augustine of Hippo

God, it is true, foresaw the evil man would do (foreseeing it, of course, he did not force man to do it) but at the same time knew the good that he would himself one day make come out of it

Luke 1:26-38, RSV-CE2

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.
And he came to her and said "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!" But she was greatly troubled at this saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be.  And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there will be no end."
And Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no husband?"
And the Angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who is called barren.  For with God, nothing is impossible."
And Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done according to your word." And the angel departed from her.

Isaiah 6:1-13 RSV-CE2

In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.  Above him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory."

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was full of smoke.  And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the glory, the LORD of hosts!"
Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said : "Behold, this has touched your lips ; your guilt has been taken away, and your sin forgiven." And I heard the voice of the LORD saying, "Whom shall I send, and who shall go for us?" Then I said "Here am I Send me!" And he said,

"Go and say to this people:
'Hear and hear, but do not understand; see and see, but do not perceive'
Make the heart of this people fat, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes;
Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."

Then I said, "How long, O LORD?"
And he said:

"Until the cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without men, and the land is utterly desolate, and the LORD removes men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains standing when it is felled."
The holy seed is its stump.

.

St. Thomas Aquinas

One difference between an organic body and the Church's mystical body is this: the members of an organism are all knit together at one given period of time, whereas the members of the mystical body are dispersed throughout the ages , for the Church's body is made up of people of every century, from the beginning to the end of the world.

Carl Betts

If you are ever looking for a quote that articulates a truth of the Catholic Faith, just open to a rnadom page in the Catechism. There will be something there, I guarantee it.

Catechism of the Catholic Church 121

The Old Testament is an indispensable part of Sacred Scripture.  Its books are divinely inspired and retain a permanent value, for the Old Covenant has never been revoked.

Jacques Fesch

In prison there are two possible solutions. You can rebel against your situation, or you can regard yourself as a monk.

Pope Pius XI

Dead matter leaves the factory ennobled and transformed, whereas men are corrupted and degraded.

St. Basil

The bread you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe you do not wear is the the garment of him who is naked; the shoes you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the acts of charity you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.

St. Cyril of Alexandria

As two pieces of wax fused together make one, so he who receives Holy Communion is so united with Christ that he is in Christ, and Christ is in him.

Blessed Mother Theresa

We cannot to great things in life: we can only do Small things with great love.

Pope John Paul II

The saints have always been the source and origin of renewal in the most difficult moments in the Church's history.

St. Thomas More

A meek man ought to be have in this way during tribulation; he should neither speak proudly himself nor retort to what is spoken wickedly, but should bless those who speak evil of him and suffer willingly, either fore justice' sake if he had deserved it or for God's sake if he has deserved nothing.

Rabbi David C. Dalin

Very few of the many recent books about Pius XII and the Holocaust are actually about Pius XII and the Holocaust.  The liberal bestselling attacks against the pope and the Catholic Church are really an intra-Catholic argument about the direction of the Church today.  The Holocaust is simply the biggest club for liberal Catholics to use against traditional Catholics in their attempt to bash the papacy and thereby smash traditional Catholic teaching--especially on issues relating to sexuality, including abortion, contraception, celibacy, and the role of women in the Church.  The anti-papal polemics of ex-seminarians like Garry Willis and John Cornwell (author of Hitler's Pope), of ex-priests like James Carroll, and of other lapsed or angry liberal Catholics exploit the tragedy of the Jewish people during the Holocaust to foster their own political agenda of forcing changes on the Catholic Church today.

Note: Rabbi Dalin is a professor of History and Political Science at Ave Maria Universtiy.  This quote comes form his book, The Myth of Hitler's Pope.  Though Jewish, I feel that his defense of Pope Pius XII is worthy of inclusion in this blog.

Council of Hippo, Canon 36 (AD 383)

It was agree that, apart from the canonical Scriptures, nothing is to be read in church under the title of divine Scriptures. These are the canonical Scriptures:  Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the four books of Kings, the two books of Paralipomenon, Job, the Psalter of David, the five books of Solomon, , the twelve books of the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, obit, Judith, Esther, the two books of Ezra, the two books of Maccabees.
Belonging to the New Testament: the four books of the Gospels, the book of the Acts of the Apostles, the thirteen letters of the Apostle Paul, and the letter to the Hebrews of the same author, two letters of Peter, three of John, one of James, one of Jude, and the Apocalypse of John.
TO confirm this canon, the church across the sea [Rome] should be consulted.  The reading of the passions of the martyrs is to be allowed when their anniversaries are celebrated. 

G. K. Chesterton

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes--our ancestors.  It is the democracy of the dead.  Tradition refuses to the small and arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking about.

Knute Rockne

One man practicing sportsmanship is far better than a hundred teaching it.

Pope John Paul II

It is manifestly unjust that a privileged few should continue to accumulate excess goods, squandering available resources, while masses of people are living in misery at the lowest level of subsistence.  Today, the dramatic threat of ecological breakdown is teaching us the extent to which greed and selfishness--both individual and collective--are contrary to the order of creation, an order which is characterized by mutual interdependence.

St. John of the Cross

A Christian should always remember that the value of his good works is not based on their number and excellence, but on the love of God that prompts them.

James 2:14-26, RSV-CE2

What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him?  If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food,  and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?  So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.  But some one will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.  You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe--and shudder.  Do you want to be shown, you shallow man, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works,  and the scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness"; and he was called the friend of God.  You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.  And in the same way was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?  For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2524

The forms taken by modesty vary from one culture to another.  everywhere, however, modesty exists as an expression of the spiritual dignity proper to man.  It is born with the awakening consciousness of being a subject. Teaching modesty to children and adolescents means awakening in them respect for the human person.

G. K. Chesterton

To become a Catholic is not to leave off thinking, but to learn how to think.

St. Bernard of Clairveaux

To flee from persecution implies no fault in in him who flees, but in him who persecutes.

St. Thomas Aquinas

When you debate with unbelievers, be warned to begin with, against striving to demonstrate the articles of faith.  That would be to minimize their grandeur, fro they surpass the minds of angels, let alone of men.  We believe them because God reveals them.  Your intention should be to defend the faith, not to prove it up to the hilt,

Pope Pius XI

But no reason, however grave, may be put forward by which anything intrinsically against nature may be conformable to nature and morally good.  Since, therefore, the conjugal act is destined primarily by nature 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. Isidore of Seville

Confession heals, confession justifies, confession grants pardon of sin.  All hope consists in confession.  In confession there is a chance for mercy.  Believe it firmly.  DO not doubt, do not hesitate, never despair of the mercy of God.  Hope and have confidence in confession.

St. Thomas Aquinas

It is safer to teach that the Incarnation was ordained by God as a remedy for sin, and that if no sin had come, the Incarnation would not have taken place. Nevertheless, God's power should not be circumscribed: he might have become incarnate even if sin had never entered.

Michalangelo

My soul I leave to God, my body to the earth, and my worldly goods to my next of kin.

St. Thomas Aquinas

God therefore neither wills evil to be done, nor wills it not to be done, but wills to permit evil to be done, and this is good.

Pope Paul VI

Liturgy is like a strong tree whose beauty is derived from the continuous renewal of its leaves, but whose strength comes from the old trunk, with solid roots in the ground.

St. John of the Cross

Where there is no love, put love--and you will find love.

Pope Pius XI

Let those about to enter wedlock pray diligently for divine help, so that they may make their choice in  accordance with Christian prudence, not led by the blind and unrestrained impulse of lust, nor by any desire for riches, nor by any other base influence, but by a true and noble love and sincere affection for the future partner.

St. Athanasius

He became what we are that he might make us what he is.

St. Vincent de Paul

Tolerance is the bond of all friendship, and unites people in heart and opinion and action, not only with each other, but in unity with our Lord, so that they may really be at peace.

St. Thomas Villanova

If you want God to hear your prayers, hear the voice of the poor.  If you wish God to anticipate your wants, provide those of the indigent without waiting for them to ask you.  Especially anticipate the needs of those who are ashamed to beg.  To make them ask for alms is to make them buy it.