Quote for the Night

[Shin]

'The shortest, yea, the only way to reach sanctity, is to conceive a horror for all that the world loves and values.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

[Therese]

Better that only a few Catholics should be left, staunch and sincere in their religion, than that they should, remaining many, desire as it were, to be in collusion with the Church's enemies and in conformity with the open foes of our faith.

- St. Peter Canisius (1521-1597)

[Shin]

'For according to the measure of its purity, as I said in the former Conference, each mind is both raised and moulded in its prayers if it forsakes the consideration of earthly and material things so far as the condition of its purity may carry it forward, and enable it with the inner eyes of the soul to see Jesus either still in His humility and in the flesh, or glorified and coming in the glory of His Majesty: for those cannot see Jesus coming in His Kingdom who are still kept back in a sort of state of Jewish weakness, and cannot say with the Apostle: "And if we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know Him so no more;" [2 Cor. v. 16.] but only those can look with purest eyes on His Godhead, who rise with Him from low and earthly works and thoughts and go apart in the lofty mountain of solitude which is free from the disturbance of all earthly thoughts and troubles, and secure from the interference of all sins, and being exalted by pure faith and the heights of virtue reveals the glory of His Face and the image of His splendour to those who are able to look on Him with pure eyes of the soul.

    But Jesus is seen as well by those who live in towns and villages and hamlets, i.e., who are occupied in practical affairs and works, but not with the same brightness with which He appeared to those who can go up with Him into the aforesaid mount of virtues, i.e., Peter, James, and John. For so in solitude He appeared to Moses and spoke with Elias.'

St. John Cassian

[Therese]

The best advice that I can give you is this. Church traditions -- especially when they do not run counter to the Faith -- are to be observed in the form in which previous generations have handed them down.

- St. Jerome, Epistulae, lxxi.6

[Therese]

Latinis potius literis erudiantur, quam ut facultas concedatur, adhibendi in Missae celebratione vulgarem linguam [Let them rather learn Latin letters, than that the faculty be conceded of using the vulgar tongue in the celebration of Mass].

- Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758), De Missa Sacrificio, 1.2, c. 2. n. 14

[Therese]

The Church must steadily and firmly heed that although the language of the people may change, the language of liturgy should not be altered. Thus, the Mass must be said in the language in which it was said from the beginning, even if such a language be already, antiquated and strange to the people, for it is wholly enough, if the learned men understand it.

- Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758), De Missae Sacrificio, 2, II

[James - a humble servant]

Christ made my soul beautiful with the jewels of grace and virtue.  I belong to Him whom the angels serve.

 ~ St. Agnes

[Shin]

St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr, pray for us! 

'. . . two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self.'

St. Augustine

[James - a humble servant]

St. Augustine, pray for us......

[Shin]

'Although we have received the power to become the children of God (cf. John 1:12), we do not actually attain this sonship unless we strip ourselves of the passions. Let no one think that he has actually become a child of God if he has not yet acquired divine qualities.

We are sons of God or of Satan according to whether we conform to goodness or to evil.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan

[Shin]

'Thus it was that the human race was bound in a just doom and all men were children of wrath. Of this wrath it is written: "For all our days are wasted; we are ruined in thy wrath; our years seem like a spider's web." Likewise Job spoke of this wrath: "Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble." And even the Lord Jesus said of it: "He that believes in the Son has life everlasting, but he that believes not does not have life. Instead, the wrath of God abides in him." He does not say, "It will come," but, "It now abides." Indeed every man is born into this state. Wherefore the apostle says, "For we too were by nature children of wrath even as the others."

Since men are in this state of wrath through original sin -- a condition made still graver and more pernicious as they compounded more and worse sins with it -- a Mediator was required; that is to say, a Reconciler who by offering a unique sacrifice, of which all the sacrifices of the Law and the Prophets were shadows, should allay that wrath. Thus the apostle says, "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, even more now being reconciled by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him."'

St. Augustine

[Shin]

'But whosoever shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father, who is in heaven.'

Matthew 10:33

[Therese]

Say your Pater, Ave, and Credo in Latin ... so as to join in the universal language of the Church.

--St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)

[Therese]

"The fort is betrayed even of them that should have defended it."

--St. John Fisher, 16th-century English bishop

[CyrilSebastian]

               Faith is like a bright ray of sun light. It enables us to see God     
               in all things as well as all things in God.       
 
                St. Francis de Sale

[Shin]

A truly beautiful quote!