Quote for the Day

[Shin]

'Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.

Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.'

John 6:26-27

St. Thomas Aquinas's Catena Aurea quotes various commentators on this passage:

'Alcuin. To take the passage mystically: on the day following, i. e. after the ascension of Christ, the multitude standing in good works, not lying in worldly pleasures, expects Jesus to come to them. The one ship is the one Church: the other ships which come besides, are the conventicles of heretics, who seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ. Wherefore He well says, Ye seek Me, because ye did eat of the loaves. Aug. How many there are who seek Jesus, only to gain some temporary benefit. One man has a matter of business, in which he wants the assistance of the clergy; another is oppressed by a more powerful neighbour, and flies to the Church for refuge: Jesus is scarcely ever sought for Jesus' sake.'

...

Which makes the thought -- how many seek Our Lord for His sake, truly, i.e. Himself spiritually, supernaturally, truly, rather than their mistaken natural conception of who He might be that suits themselves, or the various natural satisfactions they gain from a sort of pursuit of him, as some of the heretics might, thinking themselves pursuing God but actually pursuing their own satisfactions.

[Shin]

'They too seek Jesus, not for Jesus' sake, but for something else, who ask in their prayers not for eternal, but temporal blessings. The mystical meaning is, that the conventicles of heretics are without the company of Christ and His disciples. And other ships coming, is the sudden growth of heresies. By the crowd, which saw that Jesus was not there, or His disciples, are designated those who seeing' the errors of heretics, leave them and turn to the true faith.'

St. Bede the Venerable

[Shin]

'Nor can it be doubted, that it is more consonant with the order of nature that men should bear rule over women, than women over men. It is with this principle in view that the apostle says, "The head of the woman is the man;" and, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands." So also the Apostle Peter writes: "Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord."'

St. Augustine

[Patricia]

Okay St. Augustine, as you say 

[Shin]

I hope nothing about the natural law is unclear Patricia! 

[Shin]

'I ardently desire, and I ask you by the love and respect we bear to our Divine Master, that in our spiritual exercises we would remember one an other.'

St. Ignatius of Loyola

[James - a humble servant]

"There are two ways of knowing how good God is: one is never to lose Him, and the other is to lose Him and then to find Him."

~ Archbishop Fulton Sheen

[Shin]

'O Lord Jesus, I beseech thee for the salvation of all whom Thou wouldst have me pray for.'

St. Margaret of Cortona, her mother's prayer

[Shin]

Remember, O Christian soul, that thou hast this day, and every day of thy life: God to glorify- Jesus to imitate- The Angels and Saints to invoke- A soul to save- A body to mortify- Sins to expiate- Virtues to acquire- Hell to avoid- Heaven to gain- Eternity to prepare for- Time to profit by- Neighbors to edify- The world to despise- Devils to combat- Passions to subdue- Death perhaps to suffer- Judgment to undergo.

[James - a humble servant]

"An excellent method of preserving interior silence is to keep exterior silence. . . even in the world, each one of us can make his own solitude, a boundary beyond which nothing can force its way unperceived. It is not noise in itself that is the difficulty, but noise that is pointless; it is not every conversation, but useless conversations; not all kinds of occupation, but aimless occupations. In point of fact, everything that does not serve some good purpose is harmful. It is foolish, nay, more, it is a betrayal to devote to a useless objective powers that can be given to what is essential. There are two ways of separating ourselves from almighty God, quite different from one another but both disastrous, although for different reasons: mortal sin and voluntary distractions—mortal sin, which objectively breaks off our union with God, and voluntary distractions, which subjectively interrupt or hinder our union from being as close as it ought to be. We should speak only when it is preferable not to keep silence. The Gospel does not say merely that we shall have to give an account of every evil word, but of every idle thought."

~ St. Alphonsus Liguori

[Shin]

God bless holy silence.

[Shin]

'My dearest Saviour, Thou art the King of Heaven, the King of kings, the Son of God; and how is it, then, that I see Thee in this cave, forsaken by all? I see no one assisting Thee but Joseph and Thy holy Mother.

I desire to unite myself also to them in keeping Thee company.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

[Shin]

'O amiable Infant! though I see Thee in this cavern lying on straw poor and despised, yet faith teaches me that Thou art my God, who earnest down from heaven for my salvation. I acknowledge Thee, then, for my sovereign Lord and Saviour; but I have nothing, alas! to offer Thee. I have no gold of love, because I have loved creatures; I have loved my own caprices, but I have not loved Thee, O amiable infinite One! I have not the incense of prayer, because I have lived in a miserable state of forgetfulness of Thee. I have no myrrh of mortification, for I have often displeased Thy infinite goodness that I might not be deprived of my miserable pleasures. What then shall I offer Thee? I offer Thee my heart, filthy and poor as it is; do Thou accept it, and change it. Thou earnest into the world for this purpose, to wash the hearts of men from their sins by Thy blood, and thus change them from sinners into saints. Give me, there fore, I pray Thee, this gold, this incense, and this myrrh. Give me the gold of Thy holy love; give me the spirit of holy prayer, give me the desire and strength to mortify myself in everything that displeases Thee. I am resolved to obey Thee and to love Thee; but Thou knowest my weakness, oh, give me the grace to be faithful to Thee! Most holy Virgin, thou who didst welcome with such affection and didst console the holy Magi, do thou welcome and console me also, who come to visit thy Son and to offer myself to him. O my Mother, I have great confidence in thy intercession! Do thou recommend me to Jesus. To thee do I intrust my soul and my will; bind it forever to the love of Jesus!'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

[Shin]

'Brethren and fathers, most people call the present days feasts, because of they get drunk and debauched during them, not understanding that these days demand abstinence from meat, not indulgence in drunkenness and intoxication. That is proper to a pagan feast; it is the business of Christians to exercise self-control and not to satisfy the desires of the flesh, as the Apostle teaches. Nevertheless evil has progressed into law and leads the world as it wishes. But let us, brethren, flee intemperance even in partaking of things that are permitted, for we know that intemperance is the mother of sin.'

St. Theodore the Studite

[Shin]

'All things that are read in Holy Scriptures, we must hear with great attention to our instruction and salvation: but those things especially must be committed to memory, that serve most to confute heretics: whose deceits cease not to circumvent or ensnare all the weaker sort and the more negligent persons.'

St. Augustine

[Shin]

'I was under a necessity to write unto you, to beseech you to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.

For certain men are secretly entered in (who were written of long ago unto this judgment), ungodly men, turning the grace of Our Lord God unto riotousness, and denying their only Sovereign Ruler, and our Lord Jesus Christ.'

Jude 3-4