It is necessary that
temptations should happen for who shall be crowned but he that shall
lawfully have fought and how shall a man fight if there be none to attack
him. - St. Bernard
* * *
NO COMPLAINT TO BE
MADE OF ADVERSITY - Let not man complain when suffering adversity for by the
bitterness of the lower he is taught the love of the higher. Let not
the traveler going to his native land prefer the stable to his home. - St.
Augustine
* * *
Teach your children
this lesson: The rewards of evil are temporary; the rewards of
Godliness are eternal. - St. Cyprian
* * *
THE LAW OF
CONSCIENCE - There is no law that is so implanted in man as the law of
conscience. - St. Augustine
* * *
ON CLOTHING - Clothe
yourself with the silk of honesty, the fine linen of righteousness and the
purple of chastity. Thus painted, you will have God for your lover.
- Tertullian
* * *
If you believe what
you like in the gospel, and reject what you dislike, it is not the gospel
you believe, but yourself. - St. Augustine
* * *
Man's life is
nothing but inconsistencies, boredom and anxiety.
* * *
HE DIFFICULTY OF
CONVERSION - Believe me, it is not easy to turn from sin to God. Thou
couldst sooner create a world than make thyself a new creature. The
resurrection of thy body, if it were dead in the grave, were an easier work
than the resurrection of thy soul to newness of life.
* * *
THE ORIGIN OF OUR
DISEASES - Our diseases arise from the sins of the soul. Death, itself
indeed the sum of all, hath its root and foundation from sin; much more all
our other diseases. Our very capability of suffering did itself
originate there. - St. John Chrysostom
* * *
THE RIGHTEOUS IN
ADVERSITIES - When, in this life, the spirit of the righteous man travails
most in adversities, he thirsts the more ardently after the beholding of His
Maker's face. - St. Gregory the Great
* * *
A GOOD CONSCIENCE -
A good conscience strengthens faith. Many, by losing their hold on
one, have made shipwreck of the other.
* * *
THOROUGHLY CATHOLIC
- We are of the strong conviction that, if every man sat down for a thousand
years and thinks, all men would be thoroughly Catholic. But hardly
anyone thinks today. Everyone acts like a pessimistic skeptic while
the Catholics behave like atheists.
* * *
UNWORTHY CELEBRANT -
All the Sacraments, while they are injurious to those who administer them
unworthily, are beneficial to those who receive them worthily. - At.
Augustine
* * *
We always find that
those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the
greatest trials. - St. Teresa of Avila
* * *
Man is born to run
after trivia and reject matters of major importance, like the salvation of
one's soul. This shows his state of original sin.
* * *
In times of trials,
sorrow and sufferings, science will not console you if you are ignorant of
morality. But knowledge of morality will console you even if you are
deficient in your knowledge of science.
* * *
Your suffering will
provide the means to purchase heaven. The things that are according to
your liking will not. - Blessed Raphaela Mary
* * *
Can any sin be
called light, since every sin involves some contempt of God. - St. Eucherius
* * *
HE WHO LOVES THE
WORLD SUFFERS THE MOST - He suffers temporal evils the most whose hopes and
joys, whose very glory is centered in the world; who hath no happy
anticipation of heaven, whose very hope is in this world. - St. Cyprian
* * *
GOD AND EVIL - God
does not regard what amount of evil each person may be able to do, but what
amount of evil he may have a mind to do. - St. Gregory the Great
* * *
DELIVER US FROM EVIL
- God delivers us from evil when the evil itself is manifestly taken from
us, or when that which we fear is not allowed to approach us. - St.
Augustine
* * *
BAPTISMS - Were you
baptized in the name of the Father? Then you are Jewish but
good. Were you baptized by the Son? Then you are no longer
Jewish but not yet perfect. Were you baptized by the Holy Spirit?
Then this is perfection.
* * *
SIGNS OF THE END
TIMES - I fear the wars among nations; I fear the divisions
among Christians; I fear the hatred among Brethren. God forbid
that it should happen in our days. However, let us be prepared for it.
- St. Cyril of Jerusalem
* * *
The golden age only
comes to men when they have, if only for a moment, forgotten gold.
* * *
God sends us
trials either to show off our virtues or to correct our imperfections. - St.
Augustine
* * *
Suffering
does not degrade you but exalts you. Human tribulation teaches you, it
does not destroy you. - St. Isidore of Seville
* * *
Let us
understand that God is a Physician and that suffering is a medicine for
salvation, not a punishment for damnation. - St. Augustine
* * *
God sends us just
enough affliction according to our needs. - St. John Chrysostom
* * *
We always find that those who walked closest
to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials. - St. Teresa of
Avila
* * *
Trials are
meant to prove and improve ourselves. - St. Ignatius
* * *
Heresy is the evil mingling of chalk in the
milk of God. - Iraeneus
* * *
God's
hottest anger against sinners is when he shows no anger. - St. Jerome
* * *
The
Sacrament of Matrimony or Holy Matrimony was designed by God to make us Holy
more than to make us happy.
* * *
Never
receive the gifts of God in silence; do give thanksgiving for them. - St.
Basil
* * *
The
covering ought to show that which is covered to be better than the cover, as
the image is superior to the temple, the soul to the body and the body to
the clothes. - St. Clement of Alexandria
* * *
Man is a
good thing that has become spoiled. - St. Augustine
* * *
You shall
not procure an abortion or kill a newborn child. - Didache
* * *
God is
merciful. His justice consists in withholding mercy to those who do
not deserve it. - Augustine
* * *
A clergyman
who engages in business and who rises from poverty to wealth and from
obscurity to a high position, avoid as you would a plague. - St. Jerome
* * *
Death is
the end of sin; and if we were to live longer, our guilt would only be the
greater. - Ambrose and Tatian
* * *
A woman who
has deliberately destroyed a fetus must pay the penalty of murder. - Basil
the Great
* * *
Formerly, the heretics were manifest, but now
the Church is filled with heretics in disguise. - St. Cyril of Jerusalem
* * *
To become a
Catholic is not to abandon thinking but to learn how to think. - G. K.
Chesterton
* * *
To desire inordinately the episcopal office is
the mother of schism. - Tertullian
* * *
The widows,
orphans and the poor were referred to by the Didascalia Apostolica as "the
altar of Christ." Because they were alone and forsaken they were
always the first to be helped.
* * *
One stone
doesn't make an entire tower any more than obeying one commandment lifts the
soul to the required height of perfection. - St. Gregory of Nyssa
* * *
He who does
not believe according to the tradition of the undivided Universal Church is
an unbeliever. - St. John Damascene
* * *
No thinking man believes what he reads in the
newspaper; no thinking journalist believes a quarter of it. - G. K.
Chesterton
* * *
If the soul
is not clothed with the teachings of the Church, it cannot have Jesus
enthroned in it. - St. Jerome
* * *
It is
useless to try to teach what you don't know, and is worse still to be
ignorant of your ignorance. - St. Jerome
* * *
A monk asked Abbot Poemen: "Father, teach me the first step in the spiritual life."
The Abbot replied: "It is written, 'I will declare my sinfulness and
think of my sins.'"
* * *
No
coarseness should be allowed in conversations; for modesty and chastity are
usual attributes of the intelligent even more than of virgins. A
God-loving mind is the light which illumines the soul as the sun does the
body. - St. Anthony, "Test on Saintly Life"
* * *
He who
secretly slanders his neighbor, him I drove away. - Psalm 100, 5
* * *
Learn to
feel for the ills of our neighbors. Suffer and we shall learn to
endure the ills our neighbors will inflict on us. - St. John Chrysostom
* * *
In the eye
of the angry man, a mote changes into a beam. - St. Gregory the Great
* * *
Heretics
are not those who err from ignorance, but those who owe their ignorance to
their indolence. In effect, heretics are not ignorant people but indolent
people. - St. John Chrysostom, "Hom. 17, On 1 Tim."
* * *
To do wrong
and to repent afterwards is the next best thing to always doing right. - St.
Synesius
* * *
The prayer
of a sick person is his patience and his acceptance of the sickness for the
love of Jesus Christ. - St. Charles of Sezze
* * *
The saints
were so completely dead to themselves that they cared very little whether
others agreed with them or not. - St. John Vianney
* * *
Without the
burden of afflictions, it is impossible to reach the height of grace. The
gifts of grace increase as the struggles increase. - St. Rose of Lima
* * *
Those who
covet honor, I mean, a great name, really covet no substantial thing at all.
- Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman
* * *
The honors
of this world, what are they but puff and emptiness and peril of falling? -
St. Augustine
* * *
Argument is
a fishing line baited with veracity (defense of truth, self-justification,
self-defense) by which we are seduced into swallowing the hook of sin. In
this manner, hooked by tongue and throat, the poor soul is wont to be
ravished by evil spirits. - St. Simeon
* * *
The
majority's opinion is the best option for men because it can command
obedience; but the majority is always the least clever.
* * *
Humility is the only
virtue the devil cannot imitate. If pride made demons out of angels, there
is no doubt humility could make angels out of demons. - St. John Climacus
* * *
Nothing can satisfy one
whom God does not satisfy. - St. Alphonsus Liguori
* * *
He who prays most
receives most. - St. Alphonsus Liguori
* * *
There are two kinds of
men (or women) who monopolize conversation. The first are those who like the
sound of their own voice; the second are those who do not know what the
sound of their own voice is like.
* * *
No man can attain to the
knowledge of God but by humility. The way to mount high is to descend. -
Blessed Giles of Assisi
* * *
Just as clouds hide the
sun, evil thoughts becloud the mind and ruin it.
* * *
God is an infinite
circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. - St.
Augustine
* * *
Eggs warmed in the bosom
hatch; unconfessed evil thoughts warmed in one's soul hatch into evil
actions.
* * *
When is a person able to
testify to the souls of others? When he can testify to his own soul first.
When is he capable of
correcting others? When he can correct himself first. -
St. Columba
* * *
Through humility we can
attain a wisdom that cannot be learned from men and attain and possess
things that cannot be attained from men. - Blessed John Ruysbroeck
* * *
The human mind and human
knowledge have always known when man is on the wrong track; but could never
put man on the right track.
* * *
Those who love money and
honor fall down before the devil and adore him. - St. Anthony of Padua
* * *
There is more value in a
little study of humility and in a single act of it than in all the knowledge
of the world. - St. Teresa of Avila
* * *
A snake can shed its old
skin only if it crawls into a tight hole, and we can shed our old tendencies
only if we crawl through the narrow way.
* * *
Remembrance of death is
the encouragement to zeal.
* * *
A Christian soul who
loves to argue is lost.
* * *
Just as magnet attracts
all kinds of iron dust, a man in the grip of his bad habits attracts all
kinds of vices.
* * *
The highest and noblest
act of reason is to recognize that there is an infinite number of things
which are beyond reason.
* * *
A chicken cannot fly
heavenward because its body is too heavy; neither can a man heavy with
worldly desires fly to heaven.
* * *
Love of honor is the
food of anger. Good works quenches loneliness.
* * *
A cloister will cure
external pride; but only Christ can cure internal pride.
* * *
If a man cannot bear
being reviled, he will not see glory. If he is not cleansed of gall, he will
not savor sweetness. - St. Barsanuphius
* * *
Unremitting prayer is
the death of loneliness.
* * *
When we try to find out
how many minutes we are advanced in faith, most often we shall discover we
are eighteen years behind.
* * *
When a group of men
says, "I have the right to think the way I want," and the other
group says, "I do not wish to think," then the human race has
entered an era of barbarism.
* * *
If we saw an angel, we
would die of pleasure. - St. Bridget of Sweden
* * *
A strong faith is the
mother of renunciation. Lack of faith is the mother of self-indulgence.
* * *
What the eyes have not
seen and what the ears do not hear do not stir desire in the soul; so
ignorance of vices is a great help to the soul.
* * *
Winds stir the depths of
the sea into a frenzy and anger stirs the soul into madness.
* * *
Skepticism is nothing
else than a way for the human intellect to destroy itself. For the skeptic
says: no one can be right; I am right about this.
* * *
You will effect more by
kind words and a courteous
manner, than by anger or sharp rebuke, which should never be used but in
necessity. - St. Angela Merici
* * *
Detachment from the
things perceived by the senses leads to vision of things spiritual.
* * *
A wearer of perfume is
detected, whether he wishes it or not, by the aroma around him. A carrier of
God's spirit is detected in his speech and even in his lowliness.
* * *
Silence and solitude are
the foes of vainglory.
* * *
Vain people do not see
the truth when it is before them and assume things to be true when they are
not, with the result that their opinions are always thoroughly wrong and
unsound.
* * *
A true Christian must
act with deeper motives, think with supernatural wisdom, look with
discerning eyes but talk like ordinary people.
* * *
It is not good to have
too much freedom; it is not good to have everything you need.
* * *
Injustice is when one
satisfies his concupiscence to the extent of doing wrong to others.
* * *
The only
worthy revolution is the revolution into orthodoxy, i.e. when we go against
the current to remain in the true practice of our religion.
* * *
St. Francis de Sales
stated that, when he wrote, he never quoted the chapter and verses of
Scripture because the learned do not need such information.
* * *
He who thinks himself to
be something is NOTHING, and exhibits at the outset a proof of his
worthlessness by such a disposition. - St. John Chrysostom
* * *
Anger is a kind of
temporary madness. - St. Basil
* * *
Guard your tongue when
your husband is angry. - St. Monica
* * *
From excessive
questioning and strife of words, nothing can be discovered. - St. John
Chrysostom: Homily 17, "On I Tim."
* * *
Turn away from that
charity that is disturbed by jealousy or envy. - St. Ephraim
* * *
Depression is when you
realize that the present pleasures are false but fail to realize that absent
pleasures are vain.
* * *
There is no sin nor
wrong that gives man such a foretaste of hell in this life as anger and
impatience. - St. Catherine of Sienna
* * *
The world would have
peace if the men of politics would only follow the Gospels. - St. Brigitta
of Sweden
* * *
Patient endurance is the
perfection of charity. - St. Ambrose
* * *
The state of marriage is
one that requires more virtue and constancy than any other. It is a
perpetual exercise in mortification. - St. Francis de Sales
* * *
Wisdom leads us back to
the innocence of childhood.
* * *
In order to avoid
discord, never contradict anyone except in case of sin or some danger to a
neighbor. - St. Louis IX
* * *
Reason, itself, is the
best proof that it is insufficient in demonstrating spiritual truths.
* * *
Just as the tree is full
of leaves and the threshing floor of chaff, so is the world full of
unbelievers ruled by Satan. - St. Augustine
* * *
The world has lived with
women in it for a good many centuries now; and the FAITHFUL WIFE and LOVING
MOTHER is the first and greatest among women. - Tertullian
* * *
God loves those who, for
His sake, firstly, rid themselves of possessions, secondly, rid themselves
of friends and thirdly, rid themselves of self.
* * *
Souls rise more to
spiritual things the more they die to fleshly things. - St. Augustine
* * *
There are two
contemplatives in this world. The Catholic contemplative who is
contemplating SOMEONE and the other contemplatives who are contemplating NO
ONE. - G. K. Chesterton
* * *
In times of trials,
sorrow and sufferings, science will not console you if you are ignorant of
morality. But knowledge of morality will console you even if you are
deficient in your knowledge of science.
* * *
Can any sin be called
light, since every sin involves some contempt of God? - St. Eucherius
* * *
There are three states
of the soul -- ignorance, opinion and knowledge. Those who are in ignorance
are the pagans, those in knowledge are the true Christians, and those in
opinion are the heretics. - Clement of Alexandria
* * *
Selfishness is a passion
whose object is the body. - St. Maximus
* * *
Holy people do good not
to be seen but so that God may be revealed through these works. - St.
Augustine
* * *
To sin is human, but to
persist in sin is devilish. - St. Catherine of Sienna
* * *
The perfect person's
every action is a testimony to Christ Jesus and that abstinence from every
sin is a denial of self leading to Christ. - Origen
* * *
It is human to fall, but
angelic to rise again. - St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier
* * *
Ambition is the mother
of hypocrisy and prefers to sulk in corners and dark places. It cannot
endure the light of day. It is an unclean vice wallowing in the depths,
always hidden, but ever with an eye to advancement. - St. Bernard
* * *
There is no such thing
as bad weather. All weather is good because it is God's. - St. Teresa of
Avila
* * *
Receive all the
accidents that befall you as good, knowing that nothing happens without God.
* * *
Nothing will so avail to
divide the Church as love for power. - St. John Chrysostom
* * *
At the end-times, many
people and nations will develop an identical way of thinking and, with great
happiness, will pronounce the Antichrist as king. - St. Ephraim
* * *
He can no longer have
God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother. - St. Cyprian
* * *
He who complains and
murmurs is not even a good Christian. - St. John of the Cross
* * *
Christians are not born
but made. - St. Jerome
* * *
Judas was one of the
first Christians; in fact, he was one of Christ's chosen few who put his
hand in the same dish. So he was a genuine traitor. Because a traitor is
always first a friend; otherwise he could never be a foe. - G. K. Chesterton
* * *
Unswerving hope is the
gateway to detachment. No hope is the floodgates of attachments.
* * *
It is an accepted fact
in the modern world that the Catholic Church has the monopoly on
REASON. Nothing, except Rome, defends the reliability of Reason. - G.
K. Chesterton
* * *
Faith and withdrawal
from the world are the enemies of avarice.
* * *
Be thine own accuser and
God will be thine indulger. - St. Bernard
* * *
Since man lost his true
good in the garden of Eden, in a sickening delusion he finds it in anything,
even in his own destruction, even in things contrary to God, to reason or to
nature.
* * *
Everything which is done
perishes if it is not anxiously preserved in humility. - St. Gregory the
Great
* * *
Self-criticism begets
obedience to Christ's commands and the longing for spiritual health.
* * *
The fear of death is a
sign that one is not following Christ. - St. Cyprian
* * *
Men do not fear a
powerful hostile army as the powers of hell fear the name and protection of
Mary. - St. Bonaventure
* * *
Just as goats destroy
every green thing around, humility destroys all vices of the soul.
* * *
Fire does not give birth
to snow and seeking honor does not lead those seeking it to heaven.
* * *
Anger is a kind of
temporary insanity. - St. Basil
* * *
Self-control is the
mother of health. The mother of self-control is the thought of death.
* * *
One spark has often set
fire to a great forest, and it has been found that one good deed done well
wipes away a multitude of sins.
* * *
One and the same trial
or affliction purifies and sanctifies the good while destroying and casting
out the bad. - St. Augustine
* * *
Prevention of birth is
premature murder. - Tertullian
* * *
FASTING in respect to
food is of no benefit to those who fail to fast with all their senses; for
whosoever is successfully waging his battle must be temperate in all things.
- St. Isidore of Seville
* * *
For whether it goes well
with you or whether it goes ill, yet His will is going to be done in you. I
pray that it be done also by you. - St. Augustine
* * *
One will possess the
Holy Spirit only in proportion to his reverence for and adhesion to the
Church of Christ. - St. Augustine
* * *
Hospitality is like the
Sandal Tree that imparts its fragrance even to the ax that cuts it down.
* * *
He who does not have the
Church as his mother cannot have God for his Father. - St. Cyprian
* * *
The world is God's; but
the worldly is the devil's. - Tertullian
* * *
Those who please the
world most, please Christ least. - St. Jerome
* * *
St. Jerome said:
"Whoever has received his share of trouble in this life, after death will
not have to suffer the tribulations he had suffered already. God's anger is
worst when God does not show he is angry; like the doctor who stops
treating you because he has given up hope of curing you."
* * *
Mary is so beautiful that to see her again one would be willing to die.
-St. Bernadette Soubirous
* * *
St. Francis de Sales, that great saint, would leave off writing, with the
letter of a word half-formed in order to reply to an interruption.-St. John
Vianney
* * *
St. Augustine said: “Anyone who has not earned a flogging in this life will
undergo torment in hell. But if we humbly receive whatever punishment God
may give us with a grateful heart, we obtain forgiveness for our sins and
everlasting happiness.”
* * *
Faith and withdrawal from the world are the enemies of avarice.
* * *
Just as tempered iron can sharpen what is untempered, a zealous soul can
frequently save lazy ones.
* * *
St. Augustine said: “The world’s joy is vanity. We long for it to come but
when it has come we fail to hold on to it.”
* * *
Christ is the only one true reformer. He alone said “Blessed is the Poor,”
in a world that thinks that it is cursed to be poor.
* * *
The Catholic Religion is the only religion that can make an ordinary man
feel extraordinary and the extraordinary feel ordinary.
* * *
Galloping horses vie with one another and go faster; a zealous community
encourages individual zeal.
* * *
It is really not so repulsive to see the poor asking for money as to see
the rich asking for more money. And advertisement is the rich asking for
more money.
* * *
Prayer is necessary for salvation; that’s why Christ commanded us to
pray.-St. Alphonsus Liguori
* * *
As our body cannot live without nourishment, so our soul cannot spiritually
be kept alive without prayer.-St. Augustine
* * *
Thieves do not pounce on a warrior with armor. The evil one does not
readily pounce on the man armored with prayer.
* * *
We have no source of knowledge but God Himself. - St. Hilary of Poitier
* * *
(10-06-10)
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