Quote for the Day

[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)


So true!!

[Therese]

When I saw the definition of the Mass in the instruction that precedes the Novus Ordo, I said: "This definition of the Mass is unacceptable; I must go to Rome to see the Pope." I went and said: "Holy Father you cannot allow this definition. It is heretical. You cannot leave your signature on a document like this." The Holy Father replied to me: "Well, to speak truthfully, I did not read it. I signed it without reading it."

- Charles Cardinal Journet of Geneva (1891-1975), explaining that Pope Paul VI signed texts that he had not read.

[Therese]

If an angel should come down from heaven and show me any other thing than I have believed all my lifetime past, I would not believe him.

- Blessed John Forest, one of the martyrs of the English Reformation

[Shin]

'For you, brethren, are become followers of the churches of God which are in Judea, in Christ Jesus: for you also have suffered the same things from your own coutrymen, even as they have from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus, and the prophets, and have persecuted us, and please not God, and are adversaries to all men; prohibiting us to speak to the Gentiles, that they may be saved, to fill up their sins always: for the wrath of God is come upon them to the end.'

1 Thess. 2:14-16

[Shin]

'In the world there is an inner world, a second world which every Christian must avoid, for it knows not God and the devil is its ruler. It was of this world that Jesus Christ said: "I pray not for the world" (John 17:9). In this world are found those who live solely for vanity and pleasure; it is where the one aim is to please and flatter, where there is hardly anything that is innocent and good, and where people glory in all that ought to make us ashamed.'

St. Claude de la Colombiere

[Therese]

"Nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good."

- Pope Leo XIII, Sapientiae Christianae

[Therese]

"Only one offense is now vigorously punished, an accurate observance of our fathers' traditions. For this cause the pious are driven from their countries and transported into the deserts. The people are in lamentation.... Joy and spiritual cheerfulness are no more; our feasts are turned into mourning; our houses of prayer are shut up; our altars are deprived of spiritual worship. No longer are there Christians assembling, teachers presiding, saving instructions, celebrations, hymns by night, or that blessed exultation of souls, which arises from communion and fellowship of spiritual gifts.... The ears of the simple are led astray, and have become accustomed to heretical profaneness. The infants of the Church are fed on the words of impiety. For what can they do? Baptisms are in Arian hands; the care of travelers, visitation of the sick, consolation of mourners, succors of the distressed.... Which all, being performed by them, become a bond to the people... so that in a little while, even though liberty be granted us, no hope will remain that they, who are encompassed by so lasting a deceit, should be brought back again to the acknowledgment of the truth."

- St. Basil the Great (ca. 330-ca. 379), Epistulae, in a letter to the bishops of Italy and Gaul (in 376)

[Therese]

"Persecutions serve to bring forth saints."

- Saint Augustine (354-430)

[Shin]

'It seems as though our Redeemer from the cross said to us all, "See what it is to love," whenever, in order to avoid something that is troublesome, we abandon works that are pleasing in his sight, or at times even go so far as to renounce his grace and his love. He has loved us even unto death, and came not down from the cross till after having left his life thereon.'

St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

[Shin]

'When Abraham entered the promised land he bought a sepulchre for himself and by means of this tomb, he inherited the land. . . [The tomb is] the place of tears and compunction.'

St. Poemen

[Shin]

'The time will come when we shall no longer be seated near the rivers of Babylon, tearful and sad, but sedebimus in pulchritudine pacis, in requie opulenta. [We will sit in the beauty of peace, in splendid rest.]

St. Gaspar del Bufalo

[Shin]

'And all the days of thy life have God in thy mind: and take heed thou never consent to sin, nor transgress the commandments of the Lord our God.'

Tobais 4:6

[odhiambo]

'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]

This is one of my favorite quotes about how to properly keep Christian feasts and celebrations and eat virtuously. 

[Shin]

'. . . if we want to cast carnal desires from our hearts, we should at once plant spiritual pleasures in their place, so that our mind, always bound to them, might have the wherewithal to abide in them constantly and might spurn the allurements of present and temporal joys.'

St. John Cassian

[CyrilSebastian]

                    Look at me and the children whom the Lord has given me:     
                    we are signs and portents to Israel from the Lord of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion.   
 
                    The Book of Isaiah: Chapter 8 Verse 18