For God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. – Saint John the Apostle

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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Saint Quote : Saint Therese of Lisieux



Kneeling before the tabernacle, I can think of only one thing to say to our Lord: "My God, you know that I love You." And I feel that my prayer does not weary Jesus; knowing my weakness, He is satisfied with my good will.

-- Saint Therese of Lisieux

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Saint Quote: Saint Jerome

 
 
You say in your book that while we live we are able to pray for each other, but afterwards when we have died, the prayer of no person for another can be heard.... But if the apostles and martyrs while still in the body can pray for others, at a time when they ought still be solicitous about themselves, how much more will they do so after their crowns, victories, and triumphs?

 -- Saint Jerome from "Against Vigilantius"

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Saint Quote: Pope Saint Gregory the Great

You should be aware that the word “angel” denotes a function rather than a nature. Those holy spirits of heaven have indeed always been spirits. They can only be called angels when they deliver some message. Moreover, those who deliver messages of lesser importance are called angels; and those who proclaim messages of supreme importance are called archangels.

And so it was that not merely an angel but the archangel Gabriel was sent to the Virgin Mary. It was only fitting that the highest angel should come to announce the greatest of all messages.

Some angels are given proper names to denote the service they are empowered to perform. In that holy city, where perfect knowledge flows from the vision of almighty God, those who have no names may easily be known. But personal names are assigned to some, not because they could not be known without them, but rather to denote their ministry when they came among us. Thus, Michael means “Who is like God”; Gabriel is “The Strength of God”; and Raphael is “God’s Remedy.”

Whenever some act of wondrous power must be performed, Michael is sent, so that his action and his name may make it clear that no one can do what God does by his superior power. So also our ancient foe desired in his pride to be like God, saying: I will ascend into heaven; I will exalt my throne above the stars of heaven; I will be like the Most High. He will be allowed to remain in power until the end of the world when he will be destroyed in the final punishment. Then, he will fight with the archangel Michael, as we are told by John: A battle was fought with Michael the archangel.

So too Gabriel, who is called God’s strength, was sent to Mary. He came to announce the One who appeared as a humble man to quell the cosmic powers. Thus God’s strength announced the coming of the Lord of the heavenly powers, mighty in battle.

Raphael means, as I have said, God’s remedy, for when he touched Tobit’s eyes in order to cure him, he banished the darkness of his blindness. Thus, since he is to heal, he is rightly called God’s remedy.

-- Pope Saint Gregory the Great from a homily

Monday, September 27, 2010

Saint Quote: Saint John Vianney

 
 
When it's God speaking.....the proper way to behave is to imitate someone who has an irresistable curiosity and who listens at keyholes. You must listen to everything God says at the keyhole of your heart.

-- Saint John Vianney

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Saint Quote : Saint Vincent de Paul

However great the work that God may achieve by an individual, he must not indulge in self-satisfaction. He ought rather to be all the more humbled, seeing himself merely as a tool which God has made use of.

-- Saint Vincent de Paul

Friday, September 24, 2010

Saint Quote : Saint Mary Hermina Grivot

 
 
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is half my life. The other half consists in loving Jesus and winning souls for Him.

-- Saint Mary Hermina Grivot

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Saint Quote : Saint Ignatius of Antioch

 
 
No earthly pleasures, no kingdoms of this world can benefit me in any way. I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth. He who died in place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sakes is my one desire.

 -- Saint Ignatius of Antioch

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Saint Quote : Saint Epiphanius of Salamis



We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things, both visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of God the Father, Only-begotten, that is, of the substance of the Father; God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made; consubstantial with the Father; through whom all things were made, both those in heaven and those on earth, both visible and invisible; who for us men and for our salvation came down and took flesh, that is, was born perfectly of the holy ever-virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit, was made man, that is, He received perfect man, soul and body and mind and all that man is, except sin, not from the seed of man nor as is usual with men, but He reshaped flesh into Himself, into one holy unity; not in the way that He inspired the prophets, and both spoke and acted in them, but He was made Man perfectly; for "the Word was made flesh (John 1:14)," not undergoing change, nor converting His own divinity into humanity; -- joined together into the one holy perfection and divinity of Himself; -- for the Lord Jesus Christ is one and not two, the same God, the same Lord, the same King; and He suffered in the flesh, and rose again and ascended into heaven in the same body, and sits in glory on the right of the Father, about to come in the same body in glory to judge the living and the dead; whose kingdom will have no end; and we believe in the Holy Spirit, who spoke in the Law and proclaimed in the Prophets and descended at the Jordan, speaking in the Apostles and dwelling in the saints; thus do we believe in Him: that the Spirit is Holy, Spirit of God, Spirit perfect, Spirit Paraclete, increate, and is believed to proceed from the Father and to receive from the Son.

We believe in one Catholic and Apostolic Church, and in one Baptism of repentance, and in the resurrection of the dead and the just judgement of souls and bodies, and in the kingdom of heaven, and in eternal life.

But those who say that there was a time when the Son or the Holy Spirit was not, or was made out of nothing or of another substance or essence, who say the Son of God or the Holy Spirit is liable to change or to becoming different, these people the Catholic and Apostolic Church, your Mother and ours, anathematizes; and again we anathematize those who do not confess the resurrection of the dead, and all heresies which are not consistent with this, the true faith.

-- Saint Epiphanius of Salamis a baptismal creed composed by him around 374 A.D.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Saint Quote : Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina

 
 
Charity is the queen of virtues. As the pearls are held together by the thread, thus the virtues by charity; and as the pearls fall when the thread breaks, thus the virtues are lost if charity diminishes.

-- Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina

Saint Quote : Saint Thomas of Villanova

 
 
Let them ask if Augustine or John Chrysostom used anathemas and excommunication to stop drunkenness and blasphemy.

-- Saint Thomas of Villanova after being cricized for his gentleness with sinners

Monday, September 20, 2010

Saint Quote : Saint Isidore of Seville

 
 
All spiritual growth comes from reading and reflection. By reading we learn what we did not know; by reflection we retain what we have learned.

-- Saint Isidore of Seville


Note: Saint Isidore of Seville is considered the leading candidate for Patron Saint of the Internet and computer users.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Saint Quote: Saint Francis Xavier



Many, many people hereabouts are not becoming Christians for one reason only: there is nobody to make them Christians.

--Saint Francis Xavier

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Saint Quote: Saint Euphemia

 
 
We are people endowed with reason, for whom it would be the greatest disgrace to abandon the one true God, the Maker of heaven and earth, in order to worship dumb, senseless idols. We are not afraid of torments you threaten us with. They will be easy for us to bear and will show the power of our God.

-- Saint Euphemia when ordered by a proconsul to sacrifice to a statue

Friday, September 17, 2010

What Does The Prayer Really Say?»Blog Archive » PRAYER REQUEST for seminarian with inoperable brain tumor

What Does The Prayer Really Say?»Blog Archive » PRAYER REQUEST for seminarian with inoperable brain tumor: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Also you can read this young man's most recent medical update here.

Saint Quote : Blessed John Cardinal Newman

 
 
Reason can but ascertain the profound difficulties of our condition, it cannot remove them.

-- Blessed John Cardinal Newman

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Saint Quote: Saint Robert Bellarmine



Sweet Lord, you are meek and merciful." Who would not give himself wholeheartedly to your service, if he began to taste even a little of your fatherly rule? What command, Lord, do you give your servants? "Take my yoke upon you," you say. And what is this yoke of yours like? "My yoke," you say, "is easy and my burden light." Who would not be glad to bear a yoke that does no press hard but caresses? Who would not be glad for a burden that does not weigh heavy but refreshes? And so you were right to add: "And you will find rest for your souls." And what is this yoke of yours that does not weary, but gives rest? It is, of course, that first and greatest commandment: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart." What is easier, sweeter, more pleasant, than to love goodness, beauty, and love, the fullness of which you are, O Lord, my God?

-- Saint Robert Bellarmine from "On the Ascent of the Mind to God"

Saint Quote : Saint Cyprian of Carthage

 
 
Let us remember one another in concord and unanimity. Let us on both sides of death always pray for one another. Let us relieve burdens and afflictions by mutual love, that if one of us, by the swiftness of divine condescension, shall go hence the first, our love may continue in the presence of the Lord, and our prayers for our brethren and sisters not cease in the presence of the Father's mercy.

-- Saint Cyprian of Carthage

Monday, September 13, 2010

Saint Quote : Saint Catherine of Genoa

 
 
Look at gold: the more you melt it, the better it becomes; you could melt it until you had destroyed in it every imperfection. Thus does fire work on material things. The soul cannot be destroyed in so far as it is in God, but in so far as it is in itself it can be destroyed; the more it is purified, the more is self destroyed within it, until at last it is pure in God.

-- Saint Catherine of Genoa

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Saint Quote: Saint Aelia Flaccilla

 
 
To distribute money belongs to the imperial dignity, but I offer up for the imperial dignity itself personal service to the Giver.

-- Saint Aelia Flaccilla

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Saint Quote : Saint John Chrysostom



It is ever thus; the more you envy your brother, the greater good you confer upon him. God, who sees all, takes the cause of the innocent in hand, and, irritated by the injury you inflict, deigns to raise up him whom you wish to lower, and will punish you to the full extent of your crime. 

-- Saint John Chrysostom

Friday, September 10, 2010

Saint Quote : Saint Columba of Ireland

 
 
O Lord, grant us that love which can never die, which will enkindle our lamps but not extinguish them, so that they may shine in us and bring light to others. Most dear Savior, enkindle our lamps that they may shine forever in your temple. May we receive unquenchable light from you so that our darkness will be illuminated and the  darkness of the world will be made less. Amen.

-- Saint Columba of Ireland

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Saint Quote : Saint John Gabriel Perboyre

 
 
O my Divine Savior, Transform me into Yourself. May my hands be the hands of Jesus. Grant that every faculty of my body May serve only to glorify You.

-- Saint John Gabriel Perboyre

Saint Quote : Saint Joseph of Volokolamsk

 
 
Know this, brethren: do not creep out of the church before the dismissal prayer, for he who exits from the divine chant or converses or whispers has been seduced by demons, as the Divine Scriptures bear witness.
                            
-- Saint Joseph of Volokolamsk

* Note: This quote reminds me of a story from a Catholic friend in Australia. It seems her parish priest was gone on a trip. The priest who was filling in was an all business Irish priest. It was in the heart of football season in Australia, and a good number of parishoners were slipping out of the parish before dismissal to get home in time to watch football, much to the Irish priests frustration. This had taken place on two straight Sunday's. The Irish priest told my friend he was going to put a stop to the early exits. The next Sunday, before the Mass began the priest said the following: "Before we begin Mass today, I want you all to keep one thing in mind. Judas was the only one to leave the Last Supper early." No one left early again.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Saint Quote: Saint Peter Claver

 
 
To love God as He ought to be loved, we must be detached from all temporal love. We must love nothing but Him, or if we love anything else, we must love it only for His sake.

-- Saint Peter Claver

Monday, September 6, 2010

Saint Quote : Saint Dominic de Guzman

A man who governs his passions is master of his world. We must either command them or be enslaved by them. It is better to be a hammer than an anvil.

-- Saint Dominic de Guzman




Sunday, September 5, 2010

Saint Quote of the Day : Saint James the Lesser Apostle

You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

-- Saint James the Lesser Apostle

Saint Quote : Saint Raymond of Penyafort

 
 
May the God of love and peace set your hearts at rest and speed you on your journey; may He meanwhile shelter you from disturbance by others in the hidden recesses of His love, until He brings you at last into that place of complete plenitude where you will repose forever in the vision of peace, in the security of trust, and in the restful enjoyment of His riches.

 -- Saint Raymond of Penyafort

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Saint Quote : Saint Anthony of Padua



Happy the man whose words issue from the Holy Spirit and not from himself!

-- Saint Anthony of Padua

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Saint Quote of the Day: Pope Saint Gregory the Great

 
 
If we knew at what time we were to depart from this world, we would be able to select a season for pleasure and another for repentance. But God, who has promised pardon to every repentant sinner, has not promised us tomorrow. Therefore we must always dread the final day, which we can never foresee. This very day is a day of truce, a day for conversion. And yet we refuse to cry over the evil we have done! Not only do we not weep for the sins we have committed, we even add to them.

-- Pope Saint Gregory the Great

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Saint Quote : Saint Irenaeus of Lyons

 
 
As long as any one has the means of doing good to his neighbours, and does not do so, he shall be reckoned a stranger to the love of the Lord.

-- Saint Irenaeus of Lyons