Quote for the Night

[Shin]

'And JESUS saith to him, the foxes have holes, and the fowls of the air nests: but the son of man hath nowhere to lay his head.'

Matthew 8:20

[Shin]

'A true Catholic is he who loves the truth revealed by God, who loves the Church, the Body of Christ, who esteems religion, the Catholic faith, higher than any human authority, talents, eloquence, and philosophy; all this he holds in contempt, and remains firm and unshaken in the faith which, he knows, has always from the beginning been held by the Catholic Church; and if he notices that any one, no, matter who he may be, interprets a dogma in a manner different from that of the Fathers of the Church, he understands that God permits such an interpretation to be made, not for the good of religion, but as a temptation, according to the words of St. Paul: "For there must be also heresies; that they also, who are reproved, may be made manifest among you." (I Cor. xi. 19) "And indeed, no sooner are novel opinions proclaimed, than it becomes manifest what kind of a Catholic a man is;"'

St. Vincent of Lerins

[Shin]

'Evils reinforce each other; so do virtues, thus encouraging us to still greater efforts.'

St. Mark the Ascetic

[Shin]

'Humility, which Christ recommended to us both by word and example, ought to include three conditions. First, we are to consider ourselves, in all sincerity, worthy of the contempt of men; secondly, to be glad that others should see what is imperfect in us and what might cause them to despise us; thirdly, when the Lord works any good in us or by our means, to conceal it, if possible, at the sight of our baseness, and if this cannot be done, to ascribe it to the Divine Mercy, and to the merits of others. Whoever shall attain to this humility, happy is he! And to him who shall not attain it, griefs will never be wanting.'

St. Vincent de Paul

[Shin]

'Everything may be done by the help of God, provided we have a sincere goodwill.'

St. Benedict Joseph Labre

[Shin]

'The rewards for the toils of virtue are dispassion and spiritual knowledge.

For these are mediators of the kingdom of heaven, just as passions and ignorance are mediators of eternal punishment.'

St. Maximos the Confessor

[Shin]

'This sect [the Free-masons], will cause evil not only to the Church, but also to kingdoms and sovereigns. Kings will recognize their fatal significance when too late. The Free-masons act against God now, but they will soon attack kings.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

[Shin]

'And they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the continual sacrifice: and they shall place there the abomination unto desolation.'

Daniel 11:31

[Shin]

'An intellect in control of itself is the temple of the Holy Spirit, but that of a glutton is like a nest of crows.'

St. Thalassios the Libyan

[Shin]

'The doctrines of Godliness are overturned; the rules of the Church are in confusion; the ambition of the unprincipled seizes upon places of authority; and the chief seat is now openly proposed as a reward for impiety; so that he whose blasphemies are the more shocking, is more eligible for the oversight of the people.

Priestly gravity has perished; there are none left to feed the Lord's flock with knowledge; ambitious men are ever spending, in purposes of self-indulgence and bribery, possessions which they hold in trust for the poor. The accurate observation of the canons are no more; there is no restraint upon sin.

Unbelievers laugh at what they see, and the weak are unsettled; faith is doubtful, ignorance is poured over their souls, because the adulterators of the word in wickedness imitate the truth. Religious people keep silence, but every blaspheming tongue is let loose. Sacred things are profaned; those of the laity who are sound in faith avoid the places of worship, as schools of impiety, and raise their hands in solitude with groans and tears to the Lord in heaven.'

St. Basil the Great

[odhiambo]

 He finds man in his corrupt affections become like the beasts that perish,
 and therefore He is laid in the manger, in the place of food,
 that we changing the life of beasts, might be brought to the knowledge that befits man, partaking not of hay, but of the heavenly bread, the life-giving body.
Saint Cyril

[Shin]

'He who lives in sin takes up the habits and the appearance of the beasts. The beast, which has not reason, knows nothing but its appetites. So the man who makes himself like the beasts loses his reason, and lets himself be guided by the inclinations of his body. He takes his pleasure in good eating and drinking, and in enjoying the vanities of the world, which pass away like the wind. I pity the poor wretches who run after that wind; they gain very little, they give a great deal for very little profit -- they give their eternity for the miserable smoke of the world.'

St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars

[Shin]

'Many go under the name of good men according to the standard of the world, and observe in some sort the commandments of the Law, who yet are not Christians. And these generally boast of themselves, as the Pharisees did; Are we blind also? But inasmuch as all that they do they do foolishly, without knowing to what end it tends, our Lord saith of them, Verily, verily, I say unto you. He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. [John 10:1]

Let the Pagans then, the Jews, the Heretics, say, "We lead a good life;" if they enter not by the door, what availeth it? A good life only profiteth, as leading to life eternal. Indeed those cannot be said to lead a good life, who are either blindly ignorant of, or wilfully despise, the end of good living.

No one can hope for eternal life, who knows not Christ, who is the life, and by that door enters into the fold.'

St. Augustine

[Shin]

'Both the man and the woman disobeyed the command, but for different reasons. The woman was deceived, the man was not. Yet in both man and woman there occurred a disruption of order in all their powers, from the highest to the lowest: first in their intellect, then in their senses, and finally in their actions. Both fell into disobedience and succumbed to greed because both had risen in pride. In the woman, it was out of avidity and desire for what she had not; in man, out of excessive love and concern for what he had. The woman believed that if she ate, she would be exalted; Adam, relying on his own greatness and God's love, did not expect a heavy punishment: never yet had he experienced the rigor of God's severity.'

St. Bonaventure

[Shin]

'Our true worth does not consist in what human beings think of us. What we really are consists in what God knows us to be.'

St. John Berchmans

[Shin]

'Long illnesses are the greatest favors that God confers on souls whom He loves most. . . Repose peacefully in the arms of your heavenly Spouse, Who loves you much; hold yourself on the cross of sickness as tranquilly and silently as is possible. If the cause of your illness be the wound of divine love which embalms your soul, it is well if you die under such a stroke: yours will be a death more precious than life.'

St. Paul of the Cross