Recent Posts

                            {A} Dutch Crocus King of the Striped   
                            {B} Spring Crocus with light purple petals which have dark purple stripes   
                            {C} Pope Pius XI instituted the Feast of Christ the King in his encyclical Quas primas.

'The three most common forms of desire have their origin in the passion of self-love. These three forms are gluttony, self-esteem and avarice. All other impassioned thoughts follow in their wake, though they do not all follow each of them. The thought of unchastity follows that of gluttony; of pride, that of self-esteem. The others all follow the three most common forms. Thus thoughts of resentment, anger, rancor, envy, listlessness and the rest all follow these three most common forms.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan

'Those whose circumstances in the world would have assured them an ample fortune, labor in religion with the greater success in promoting the glory of God.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

'Since it is impossible to be saved unless we perform our works in accordance with the commandment of God, and since we disregard none of the commandments without peril -- for it is a terrible arrogance to set ourselves up as the critics of our Lawgiver, now approving some of his laws, now dismissing others -- let us who are combatants for piety and who esteem the life of tranquility and freedom from affairs as our collaborator in the keeping of the Gospel decrees, set before ourselves a common mind and purpose: that not so much of a single one of the commandments escape us. For if the man of God must be perfect -- as it is written and as our earlier discourse on these matters has shown -- it is entirely necessary that he be pruned. (cf. John 15:1) by every one of the commandments unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13); for according to the divine law a beast with a blemish even though clean, was unacceptable as a sacrifice to God (cf. Lev. 21. 19-20).'

St. Basil the Great

'If we wish to have the love of the Divine Heart as our guest, we must empty and detach our heart from its affection for creatures and for ourselves.'

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

'In our ascetic warfare we can neither rid ourselves of evil thoughts apart from their causes, nor of their causes without ridding ourselves of the thoughts. For if we reject the one without the other, before long the other will involve us in them both at once.'

St. Mark the Ascetic

'God's ways are incomprehensible. He uses very sharp files, which penetrate the heart and remove the rust. His files are all spiritual.'

St. Paul of the Cross

The Book of Wisdom   
Chapter 9 Verse 8 Solomon's Prayer     
You have bid me build a temple on your holy mountain   
and an altar in the city that is your dwelling place,   
a copy of the holy tabernacle which you had established from of old.

'What, my brothers, do you see nothing but the rags of these poor creatures? And do you see nothing beneath the rags but the poor creatures themselves? St. Gregory gave to a man in rags, but the man was Jesus Christ Himself.'

St. Camillus de Lellis

'I have given myself entirely to God, even to the hour of my death, and I feel that I shall die happy if during life I entertain a great love for the Most Blessed Sacrament and for the Blessed Virgin, my Mother.'

Bl. Peter Julian Eymard