Saint Augustine of Hippo

Neither are the souls of the pious dead separated from the Church which even now is the kingdom of Christ. Otherwise there would be no remembrance of them at the altar of God in the communication of the Body of Christ.

-- Saint Augustine of Hippo from "The City of God"

Saint Thomas More

And, therefore, my own good daughter, do not let your mind be troubled over anything that shall happen to me in this world. Nothing can come but what God wills. And I am very sure that whatever that be, however bad it may seem, it shall indeed be the best. 

-- Saint Thomas More in a letter from prison to his daughter Margaret

Saint John of the Cross

Live in the world as if only God and your soul were in it; then your heart will never be made captive by any earthly thing. 

-- Saint John of the Cross

Saint Gregory Nazianzen

Nothing gives such pleasure to God as the conversion and salvation of men, for whom his every word and every revelation exist. He wants you to become a living force for all mankind, lights shining in the world. You are to be radiant lights as you stand beside Christ, the great light, bathed in the glory of him who is the light of heaven. 

--Saint Gregory Nazianzen

Saint Jude Thaddeus

To the one who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you unblemished and exultant, in the presence of His Glory, to the only God, Our Savior, through Jesus Christ Our Lord be glory, majesty, power, and authority from ages past, now, and for ages to come. Amen

-- Saint Jude Thaddeus from The Epistle of Jude 1:24-25

Saint Conrad of Parzham

It was God's will that I should leave everything that was near and dear to me. I thank him for having called me to religious life where I have found such peace and joy as I could never have found in the world. My plan of life is chiefly this: to love and suffer, always meditating upon, adoring and admiring God's unspeakable love for his lowliest creatures. 

-- Saint Conrad of Parzham

Saint Quodvultdeus

The children die for Christ, though they do not know it. The parents mourn for the death of martyrs. The Christ child makes of those as yet unable to speak fit witnesses to himself. But you, Herod, do not know this and are disturbed and furious. While you vent your fury against the child, you are already paying him homage, and do not know it.

-- Saint Quodvultdeus from a sermon about the Holy Innocents

Saint Margaret Clitherow

God be thanked, I am not worthy of so good a death as this. 

-- Saint Margaret Clitherow when advised of her death sentence

Saint Anthony Mary Claret

For myself, I say this to you: The man who burns with the fire of divine love is a son of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and wherever he goes, he enkindles that flame; he deserves and works with all this strength to inflame all men with the fire of God’s love. Nothing deters him: he rejoices in poverty; he labors strenuously; he welcomes hardships; he laughs off false accusations; he rejoices in anguish. He thinks only of how he might follow Jesus Christ and imitate him by his prayers, his labors, his sufferings, and by caring always and only for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

-- Saint Anthony Mary Claret

Saint John of Capistrano

Those who are called to the table of the Lord must glow with the brightness that comes from the good example of a praiseworthy and blameless life. They must completely remove from their lives the filth and uncleanness of vice. Their upright lives must make them like the salt of the earth for themselves and for the rest of mankind. The brightness of their wisdom must make them like the light of the world that brings light to others. They must learn from their eminent teacher, Jesus Christ, what he declared not only to his apostles and disciples, but also to all the priests and clerics who were to succeed them, when he said, “You are the salt of the earth. But what is salt goes flat? How can you restore its flavor? Then it is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” Jesus also said: “You are the light of the world.” Now a light does not illumine itself, but instead it diffuses its rays and shines all around upon everything that comes into its view. So it must be with the glowing lives of upright and holy clerics. By the brightness of their holiness they must bring light and serenity to all who gaze upon them. They have been placed here to care for others. Their own lives should be an example to others, showing how they must live in the house of the Lord.

-- Saint John of Capistrano

Saint Vincent de Paul

The Church teaches us that mercy belongs to God. Let us implore Him to bestow on us the spirit of mercy and compassion, so that we are filled with it and may never lose it. Only consider how much we ourselves are in need of mercy. 

-- Saint Vincent de Paul 

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

I am about to go before God, and I understand now more than ever that one thing is needful – to work for Him alone, and do nothing for self or for creatures. Jesus wishes to own your heart completely. Before this can be, you will have much to suffer … but oh! what joy when comes the happy hour of going Home! I shall not die – I do but enter into Life … and whatsoever I cannot tell you here upon earth I will make you understand from the heights of Heaven.

-- Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

Saint Paul of the Cross

I hope that God will save me through the merits of the Passion of Jesus. The more difficulties in life, the more I hope in God. By God's grace I will not lose my soul, but I hope in His mercy.

-- Saint Paul of the Cross

Saint Isaac Jogues

My confidence is placed in God who does not need our help for accomplishing his designs. Our single endeavor should be to give ourselves to the work and to be faithful to him, and not to spoil his work by our shortcomings. 

-- Saint Isaac Jogues

Saint Luke the Evangelist

In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up, after He had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He had chosen. To them He presented himself alive after His Passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God.

-- Saint Luke the Evangelist from Acts of the Apostles 1: 1 - 3

Saint Ignatius of Antioch

I am writing to all the churches to let it be known that I will gladly die for God if only you do not stand in my way. I plead with you: show me no untimely kindness. Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God's wheat and bread. Pray to Christ for me that the animals will be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God...The prince of this world is determined to lay hold of me and to undermine my will which is intent on God. Let none of you here help him; instead show yourselves on my side, which is also God's side...Rather within me is the living water which says deep inside me: "Come to the Father.

-- Saint Ignatius of Antioch from his Letter to the Romans

Saint Gerard Majella

Who except God can give you peace? Has the world ever been able to satisfy the heart? 

-- Saint Gerard Majella

Saint Teresa of Avila

Oh my Lord! How true it is that whoever works for you is paid in troubles! And what a precious price to those who love you if we understand its value.

-- Saint Teresa of Avila

Saint Cyril of Alexandria

Who can put Mary's high honour into words? She is both mother and virgin. I am overwhelmed by the wonder of this miracle. Of course no one could be prevented from living in the house he had built for himself, yet who would invite mockery by asking his own servant to become his mother? Behold then the joy of the whole universe. Let the union of God and man in the Son of the Virgin Mary fill us with awe and adoration.

-- Saint Cyril of Alexandria

Saint John Climacus

To be removed from things of the senses is to contemplate things of the spirit.

-- Saint John Climacus

Saint Polycarp of Smyrna

Stand fast, therefore, in this conduct and follow the example of the Lord, 'firm and unchangeable in faith, lovers of the brotherhood, loving each other, united in truth,' helping each other with the mildness of the Lord, despising no man. 

-- Saint Polycarp of Smyrna , Letter to the Philippians

Saint Francis de Sales

We need not fear to be puffed with the knowledge of what God has done for us, if we keep well before us the truth that whatever good there may be in us, is not of us. Though a mule is laden with the precious treasures of a prince, is it not still a clumsy, filthy beast?

-- Saint Francis de Sales

Saint Daniel Comboni

We will have to labour hard, to sweat, to die: but the thought that one sweats and dies for love of Jesus Christ and the salvation of the most abandoned souls in the world, is far too sweet for us to desist from this great enterprise.

-- Saint Daniel Comboni from a letter to his parents

Saint John Chrysostom

If we have obtained the grace of God, none shall prevail against us, but we shall be stronger than all who oppose us.

-- Saint John Chrysostom

Saint Peter Julian Eymund

If the love of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament does not win our hearts, Jesus is vanquished! Our ingratitude is greater than His Goodness our malice is more powerful than His Charity. 

-- Saint Peter Julian Eymund

Saint Anselm of Canterbury

Mary was raised to the dignity of Mother of God rather for sinners than for the just, since Jesus Christ declares that he came to call not the just, but sinners.

-- Saint Anselm of Canterbury

Saint Mary Faustina Kowalska

Neither graces, nor revelations, nor raptures, nor gifts granted to a soul make it perfect, but rather the intimate union of the soul with God. These gifts are merely ornaments of the soul, but constitute neither its essence nor its perfection. My sanctity and perfection consist in the close union of my will with the will of God.

-- Saint Mary Faustina Kowalska from her diary "Divine Mercy in my Soul"

Saint Francis of Assisi

Let us also love our neighbors as ourselves. Let us have charity and humility. Let us give alms because these cleanse our souls from the stains of sin. Men lose all the material things they leave behind them in this world, but they carry with them the reward of their charity and the alms they give. For these they will receive from the Lord the reward and recompense they deserve.

-- Saint Francis of Assisi

Saint Nicholas of Flüe

My Lord and my God, remove far from me whatever keeps me from You. My Lord and my God, confer on me whatever enables me to reach You. My Lord and my God, free me from self and make me wholly Yours. Amen

Saint Nicholas of Flüe

Saint Gemma Galgani

If I saw the gates of Hell open and I stood on the brink of the abyss, I should not despair, I should not lose hope of mercy, because I should trust in You, my God. 

-- Saint Gemma Galgani