Saint John Vianney

The family is the most ancient institution which God founded in Paradise, when He called the first pair of human beings into existence. The first blessing which God gave was for the wellbeing of the family. With family life, the history of the world commences.

-- Saint John Vianney

Saint Peter Julian Eymard

How kind is our Sacramental Jesus! He welcomes you at any hour of the day or night. His Love never knows rest. He is always most gentle towards you. When you visit Him, He forgets your sins and speaks only of His joy, His tenderness, and His Love. By the reception He gives to you, one would think He has need of you to make Him happy. 

-- Saint Peter Julian Eymard

Saint Helier of Jersey

Lead me in Your way, 
and I will walk in Your truth. 
Let my heart rejoice 
that it may fear Your Name. 
My God, 
save me from the clutches of the sinner 
who works against Your law: 
for You are the one I await. 
Amen.

-- Saint Helier of Jersey from a prayer by him

Saint Gabriel of the Sorrowful Mother

Love Mary! She is loveable, faithful, constant. She will never let herself be outdone in love, but will ever remain supreme. If you are in danger, she will hasten to free you. If you are troubled, she will console you. If you are sick, she will bring you relief. If you are in need, she will help you. She does not look to see what kind of person you have been. She simply comes to a heart that wants to love her. She comes quickly and opens her merciful heart to you, embraces you and consoles and serves you. She will even be at hand to accompany you on the trip to eternity. 

-- Saint Gabriel of the Sorrowful Mother

Saint Eugene de Mazenod

I find my happiness in pastoral work. It is for this that I am a bishop, and not to write books, still less to pay court to the great, or to waste my time among the rich. It is true...that this is not the way to become a cardinal, but if one could become a saint, would it not be better still? 

-- Saint Eugene de Mazenod

Saint Thomas Aquinas

To know whom to avoid is a great means of saving our souls.

-- Saint Thomas Aquinas

Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina

Help yourself during this troubled period by reading holy books. This reading provides excellent food for the soul and conduces to great progress along the path of perfection. By no means is it inferior to what we obtain through prayer and holy meditation. In prayer and meditation it is ourselves who speak to the Lord, while in holy reading it is God who speaks to us. Before beginning to read, raise your mind to the Lord and implore Him to guide your mind Himself, to speak to your heart and move your will.

-- Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina

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

Saint Basil the Great

What is the mark of love for your neighbor? Not to seek what is for your own benefit, but what is for the benefit of the one loved, both in body and in soul.

-- Saint Basil the Great

Saint Peter Damian

It is not sinners, but the wicked who should despair; it is not the magnitude of one’s crime, but contempt of God that dashes one’s hopes.

-- Saint Peter Damian

Saint Ephraem of Syria

Virtues are formed by prayer.

Prayer preserves temperance.

Prayer suppresses anger.

Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy.

Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit, and raises man to Heaven.

-- Saint Ephraem of Syria

Saint Teresa of Avila

We cannot be sure whether we are loving God, although we may have good reason that we are. But we can know quite well whether we are loving our neighbor.

-- Saint Teresa of Avila

Pope Saint Leo the Great

Virtue is nothing without the trial of temptation, for there is no conflict without an enemy, no victory without strife. 

-- Pope Saint Leo the Great

Saint Athanasius the Great

The Word who became all things for us is close to us, our Lord Jesus Christ who promises to remain with us always. He cries out, saying: See, I am with you all the days of this age. He is himself the shepherd, the high priest, the way and the door, and has become all things at once for us. 

-- Saint Athanasius the Great

Saint Basil the Great

When we contemplate the blessings of faith even now, as if gazing at a reflection in a mirror, it is as if we already possessed the wonderful things which our faith assures us we shall one day enjoy.

-- Saint Basil the Great

Pope Saint Pius X

Frequent and daily Communion is greatly desired by our Lord and the Church.

-- Pope Saint Pius X

Saint Cyril

Make your people known for the unity and profession of their faith. Inspire the hearts of your people with your word and your teaching. You called us to preach the Gospel of your Christ and to encourage them to lives and works pleasing to you. 

-- Saint Cyril

Saint Thomas More

If we try to escape sadness by seeking our consolation in sleep,we will fail to find what we are seeking, for we will lose in sleep the consolation we might have received from God if we had stayed awake and prayed.

-- Saint Thomas More

Saint Thomas of Villanova

If you want God to hear your prayers, hear the voice of the poor. If you wish God to anticipate your wants, provide those of the needy without waiting for them to ask you. Especially anticipate the needs of those who are ashamed to beg. To make them ask for alms is to make them buy it.

-- Saint Thomas of Villanova

Saint Bernadette of Lourdes

I went back each day for fifteen days, and each time, except one Monday and one Friday, the lady appeared and told me to look for a stream and wash in it and to see that the priests build a chapel there. I must also pray, she said, for the conversion of sinners. I asked her many times what she meant by that, but she only smiled. Finally, with outstretched arms and eyes looking up to heaven, she told me she was the Immaculate Conception. 

-- Saint Bernadette of Lourdes from a letter

Saint Maximilian Kolbe

The most deadly poison of our times is indifference. And this happens, although the praise of God should know no limits. Let us strive, therefore, to praise Him to the greatest extent of our powers. 

-- Saint Maximilian Kolbe

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

Saint Jerome Emiliani

If then you remain constant in faith in the face of trial, the Lord will give you peace and rest for a time in this world, and for ever in the next.

-- Saint Jerome Emiliani

Saint Colette of Corbie

We must faithfully keep what we have promised. If through human weakness we fail, we must always without delay arise again by means of holy penance, and give our attention to leading a good life and to dying a holy death. May the Father of all mercy, the Son by his holy passion, and the Holy Spirit, source of peace, sweetness and love, fill us with their consolation. Amen. 

-- Saint Colette of Corbie

Saint Paul Miki

The only reason for my being killed is that I have taught the doctrine of Christ. I thank God it is for this reason that I die. I believe that I am telling the truth before I die. I know you believe me and I want to say to you all once again: Ask Christ to help you become happy. I obey Christ. After Christ's example, I forgive my persecutors. I do not hate them. I ask God to have pity on all, and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain. 

-- Saint Paul Miki

Saint Agatha

Lord, my creator, you have protected me since I was in the cradle. You have taken me from the love of the world and given me patience to suffer. Now receive my spirit. 

-- Saint Agatha

Saint Joseph of Leonessa

Every Christian must be a living book wherein one can read the teaching of the gospel. This is what Saint Paul says to the Corinthians, 'Clearly you are a letter of Christ which I have delivered, a letter written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh in the heart' (2 Corinthians 3:3). Our heart is the parchment; through my ministry the Holy Spirit is the writer because 'my tongue is nimble as the pen of a skillful scribe'(Psalms 45:2)

-- Saint Joseph of Leonessa

Saint Aelred

How I savor it when I see the Lord of all majesty showing himself as far as bodily exertion and human emotion are concerned not like the strong but the weak. What a comfort it is to me in my weakness! Truly this weakness of my Lord without doubt brings me strength and stability in my weakness. I am entrusted with the care of my brother's body and soul (for I do not love the whole man if I neglect anything belonging to either -- for it is very difficult for the mind not to be tempted when the flesh has too much to suffer). If I see him in distress, whether it be on account of the austerity of the food or because of work or the vigils -- if, I say, I see that he is tormented in body and tempted in spirit, if I see him in such affliction and...do not on occasion accommodate myself to the infirmities of the weak I am not running in the fragrance of Christ's ointments but with the harshness of the pharisees.

-- Saint Aelred

Saint Francis of Assisi

If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.

-- Saint Francis of Assisi