THE SAINTS SPEAK-ARCHIVE 2012-2013
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Comment by Dawn Marie on March 3, 2013 at 8:38am
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'If you wish to be saved, welcome words of truth, and never reject criticism uncritically.'
St. Mark the Ascetic
'Keep your heart in peace and let nothing trouble you, not even your faults. You must humble yourself and amend them peacefully, without being discouraged or cast down, for God's dwelling is in peace.'
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
'I see now, that true charity consists in bearing with the faults of those about us, never being surprised at their weaknesses, but edified at the least sign of virtue. I see above all that charity must not remain hidden in the bottom of our hearts: "nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house." It seems to me that this lamp is the symbol of charity; it must shine out not only to cheer those we love best but all in the house.'
St. Therese of Lisieux
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"There is nothing great in being humble towards those who treat us with regard, for even worldly people do this: but we should especially be humble towards those who make us suffer"
Pope St. Gregory the Great"When the Almighty Creator shall appear in the form of the Son of man, so scarce will the elect be, that not so much the cries of the faithful as the torpor of the others will hasten the world's fall."
St. Bede the VenerableThe Sin Against the Holy Ghost
"The Lord said that to those sinning against the Holy Spirit, it should not be forgiven either here or in the future world [Matt. 12:32]. But how many do we know that sin against the Holy Spirit, such as various heretics ... who return to the Catholic faith, and here have received the pardon of their blasphemy, and have enjoyed the hope of gaining indulgence in the future? And not on this account is the judgment of the Lord not true, or will it be thought to be in any way weakened, since with respect to such men, if they continue to be thus, the judgment remains never to be relaxed at all; moreover, never because of such effects is it not imposed.
Just as consequently is also that of the blessed John the Apostle: There is a sin unto death: I do not say that prayer should be offered for this: and there is a sin not unto death: I do say that prayer should be offered for this [1 John 5:16, 17]. It is a sin unto death for those persisting in the same sin; it is not a sin unto death for those withdrawing from the same sin.
For there is no sin for whose remission the Church does not pray, or which she cannot forgive those who desist from that same sin, or from which she cannot loose those who repent, since the power has been divinely given to her, to whom it was said: 'Whatsoever you shall forgive upon earth ...' [cf. John 20:23]; 'whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven' [Matt. 18:18]. In whatsoever all are [included], howsoever great they may be, and of whatsoever kind they may be, although the judgment of them nevertheless remains true, by which he is denounced [as] never to be loosed who continues in the course of them, but not after he withdraws from this same [course]."
Pope St. Gelasius I, c. 495 A.D.
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"Now we owe to the Holy Ghost...love, because He is God: 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength' (Deut. vi., 5). He is also to be loved because He is the substantial, eternal, primal Love, and nothing is more lovable than love. And this all the more because He has overwhelmed us with the greatest benefits, which both testify to the benevolence of the Giver and claim the gratitude of the receiver."
Pope Leo XIII
"He who disdains to be made humble, cannot be saved"
St. Bede the Venerable
"The observance of Lent is the very badge of Christian warfare. By it we prove ourselves not to be enemies of the cross of Christ. By it we avert the scourges of divine justice. By it we gain strength against the princes of darkness, for it shields us with heavenly help. Should mankind grow remiss in their observance of Lent, it would be a detriment to God's glory, a disgrace to the Catholic religion, and a danger to Christian souls. Neither can it be doubted that such negligence would become the source of misery to the world, of public calamity, of private woe."
Pope Benedict XIV, 1741 A.D.
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"I will put enmities between thee and the woman; she shall crush thy head.' Thus does God avenge Himself on His enemy. The victory won over the woman is made to turn against the proud conqueror, and become his humiliation and his defeat. In his fiendish craft, he had directed his first attack, not against the man, but against the woman. She, by nature, was weaker and more credulous; and if he conquered her, he hoped - too well, alas! - that Adam would be led to turn against his Creator, in order not to displease the creature.
All happened as he willed it: but now, see how God uses the woman to foil and punish him.
He enkindles in her heart an implacable hatred against His and our enemy. This cruel serpent may raise his proud head, and, here and there, find men that will adore him: the day will come, when a woman's foot shall crush this head, which refused to bend before God. This daughter of Eve, whom all generations are to call blessed, shall be prefigured by other women: by Debbora, Judith, Esther, and others, all celebrated for their victories over the serpent. She shall be followed, until the end of time, by an uninterrupted succession of Christian virgins and matrons, who, with all their weaknesses, shall be powerful in cooperating with God's designs, and, as the apostle says, the unbelieving husband shall be sanctified by the believing wife.' Thus will God punish the serpent's pride."
Dom Prosper Gueranger
"If God does not stop those temptations with which you are assailed, He does it for reasons that are sure to result to your advantage. First of all, He wishes you to know and feel from experience, that you have become stronger, more powerful than your enemy. He wishes also that this temptation may keep you, as it were, in a balance, and that the dangers which threaten you prevent you from being exalted, on account of the graces you have received.
God wills also that you should be tempted, in order that the devil, who is in doubt if you have renounced him, at length knows, by your patience, that you are still true to your Lord and Savior; more than this, God's intention is, that your soul should be fortified through temptation, and it thus remains stronger than ever.
God permits the enemy to attack you, in order that you may realize by that, how great and precious is the treasure He has entrusted to you. For Satan would not have attacked you so violently, had he not seen you elevated to a condition more glorious than that in which you were before. It was that which irritated him so much when he saw Adam living in so glorious a garden; it was that, also, that made him so vexed against Job, when he saw that God even bestowed on him so many praises."
St. John Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church
St. Paul
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"Pride also beyond all other passions disturbs the mind of man. And hence the very frequent warnings against it. It is moreover a contempt of God; for when a man ascribes the good he does to himself and not to God, what else is this but to deny God? For the sake then of those that so trust in themselves, that they will not ascribe the whole to God, and therefore despise others, He puts forth a parable, to show that righteousness, although it may bring man up to God, yet if he is clothed with pride, casts him down to hell."
St. Theophylact
"All those who are willing to be saved through the cross will find salvation there. But those who desire to be saved without it will perish miserably. There is no salvation except in this cross."
St. Francis de Sales"The more we suffer, the more we are favored by God."
St. Jane Frances de Chantal
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'O blissful penance, which has purchased for me so great a reward!'
St. Peter of Alcantara, to St. Teresa of Jesus, appearing to her after his death
'Ah! that each day I could die a thousand cruel deaths for Christ and for the salvation of one single soul!'
St. Ignatius of Loyola
'If you say, "Show me your God," I will say to you, "Show me what kind of person you are, and I will show you my God." Show me then whether the eyes of your mind can see, and the ears of your heart hear.
It is like this. Those who can see with the eyes of their bodies are aware of what is happening in this life on earth. They get to know things that are different from each other. They distinguish light and darkness, black and white, ugliness and beauty, elegance and inelegance, proportion and lack of proportion, excess and defect. The same is true of the sounds we hear: high or low or pleasant. So it is with the ears of our heart and the eyes of our mind in their capacity to hear or see God.
God is seen by those who have the capacity to see him, provided that they keep the eyes of their mind open. All have eyes, but some have eyes that are shrouded in darkness, unable to see the light of the sun. Because the blind cannot see it, it does not follow that the sun does not shine. The blind must trace the cause back to themselves and their eyes. In the same way, you have eyes in your mind that are shrouded in darkness because of your sins and evil deeds.
A person's soul should be clean, like a mirror reflecting light. If there is rust on the mirror his face cannot be seen in it. In the same way, no one who has sin within him can see God.'St. Theophilus of Antioch
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'Men may deprive me of property and honour; sickness may take away my strength and other means of serving You; I may even lose Your grace by sin; but never, never will I lose my hope in Thee. I will cherish it unto that dreadful moment when all hell will be unchained to snatch my soul away. "No one hath hoped in the Lord and hath been confounded." (Eccles. ii. 11).'
St. Claude de la Colombiere
'Do not complain then of your poverty, my daughter, - we only complain of that which is unwelcome, and if poverty is unwelcome to you, you are no longer poor in spirit. Do not fret under such assistance as is needful; therein lies one great grace of poverty. It were overambitious to aim at being poor without suffering any inconvenience, in other words, to have the credit of poverty and the convenience of riches. Do not be ashamed of being poor, or of asking alms. Receive what is given you with humility, and accept a refusal meekly. Frequently call to mind Our Lady's journey into Egypt with her Holy Child, and of all the poverty, contempt and suffering they endured. If you follow their example you will indeed be rich amid your poverty.'
St. Francis de Sales
'If a man is not envious or angry, and does not bear a grudge against someone who has offended him, that does not necessarily mean that he loves him. For, while still lacking love, he may be capable of not repaying evil with evil, in accordance with the commandment (cf. Rom. 12:17), and yet by no means be capable of rendering good for evil without forcing himself. To be spontaneously disposed to "do good to those who you hate you" (Matt. 5:44) belongs to perfect spiritual love alone.'
St. Maximos the Confessor
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'We cannot restrain Our tears, when We see that some Italians now are so wicked and so wretchedly deceived that they admire the vile teachings of impious men. In fact, they are not afraid to plot with them for this great destruction of Italy. You are aware indeed, that the goal of this most iniquitous plot is to drive people to overthrow the entire order of human affairs and to draw them over to the wicked theories of this Socialism and Communism, by confusing them with perverted teachings. But these enemies realize that they cannot hope for any agreement with the Catholic Church, which allows neither tampering with truths proposed by faith, nor adding any new human fictions to them. This is why they try to draw the Italian people over to Protestantism, which in their deceit they repeatedly declare to be only another form of the same true religion of Christ, thereby just as pleasing to God.'
Pope Bl. Pius IX
'Man acts so far as he can in accordance with his own wishes; but God decides the outcome in accordance with justice.'
St. Mark the Ascetic
'By preference, the devil attacks man at the moment of awaking; before the mind has had time for pious thoughts, he presents to it bad and forbidden ones.'
St. Ignatius of Loyola
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'One of the most excellent means of obtaining perseverance is discretion; we must not wish to do everything at once, or become a saint in four days.'
St. Philip Neri
'Correction should be given calmly and with discernment, at seasonable times, according to the dictates of reason, and not at the impulse of anger.'
Ven. Louis de Granada
'It is your self love which makes you resent not being able to do what others can do or having so much dismay on finding that you have need of the help of others; if you were dead to self, you would not be so unhappy.'
The Lord, to St. Gemma Galgani
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'In trying to get rid of bad habits, it is of the greatest importance not to put off going to confession after a fall, and also to keep to the same confessor.'
St. Philip Neri
'We should not only turn our thoughts to Heaven in prayer, but we should accustom ourselves to behold God in everything.'
St. Ignatius of Loyola
'You know that there is no middle course, and that it is a question of being saved or lost for all eternity. It depends on us: either we may choose to love God eternally with the Saints in Heaven after we have done violence to self here below by mortifying and crucifying ourselves as they did, or else renounce their happiness by giving to nature all for which it craves.'
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
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