Saint Richard Pampuri

Pray that neither self indulgence nor pride, nor any other evil passion, prevent me from seeing in my patients Jesus who suffers, and from healing and comforting Him. 

--Saint Richard Pampuri in a letter to his sister, a missionary nun

Saint Joseph Benedict Cottolengo

When I am in Heaven, where everything is possible, I will cling to the mantle of the Mother of God and I will not turn my eyes from you. But do not forget what this poor old man has said to you. 

-- Saint Joseph Benedict Cottolengo from his deathbed

Saint Catherine of Siena

Charity is the sweet and holy bond which links the soul with its Creator: it binds God with man and man with God. 

-- Saint Catherine of Siena 

Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort

There are three kinds of love: emotional love, rational love, and the supernatural love of faith. In other words, the love that resides in the lower part of man, in his body; the love in the higher part, his reason; and the love in the highest part of man, in the summit of the soul, that is, the intelligence enlightened by faith.

-- Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort

Blessed Emilian Kowcz

I understand that you are trying to get me released. But I beg you not to do this. Yesterday they killed fifty people. If I am not here, who will help them to get through these sufferings? They would go on their way to eternity with all their sins and in the depths of unbelief, which would take them to hell. But now they go to death with their heads held aloft, leaving all their sins behind them. And so they pass over to the eternal city.

-- Blessed Emilian Kowcz from the last letter to his family

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini

We must pray without tiring, for the salvation of mankind does not depend on material success, but on Jesus alone.

-- Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini

Pope Saint Leo the Great

For all, regenerated in Christ, as made kings by the sign of the cross. They are consecrated priests by the oil of the Holy Spirit, so that beyond the special service of our ministry as priests, all spiritual and mature Christians know that they are a royal race and are sharers in the office of the priesthood. 

-- Pope Saint Leo the Great

Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen

Woe to me if I should prove myself but a halfhearted soldier in the service of my thorn-crowned Captain. 

-- Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen

Saint Alphonsus Liguori

What folly it would be for travellers to think only of acquiring dignities and possessions in the countries through which they had to pass, and then to reduce themselves to the necessity of living miserably in their native lands, where they must remain during their whole lives! And are not they fools who seek after happiness in this world, where they will remain only a few days, and expose themselves to the risk of being unhappy in the next, where they must live for eternity? 

-- Saint Alphonsus Liguori

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

Learn from Saint Thérèse to depend on God alone and serve Him with a wholly pure and detached heart. Then, like her, you will be able to say ‘I do not regret that I have given myself up to Love’. 

-- Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

Saint Anselm of Canterbury

No one will have any other desire in heaven than what God wills; and the desire of one will be the desire of all; and the desire of all and of each one will also be the desire of God.

-- Saint Anselm of Canterbury

Saint Francis of Assisi

Take a moment to think of everything you're proud of about yourself and your life. Then ask yourself if you would have any of this without God's permission and aid? Give credit where credit is due; praise and thank Him, not yourself.

-- Saint Francis of Assisi

Saint John Chrysostom

It is clear through unlearned men that the cross was persuasive; in fact, it persuaded the whole world. 

--Saint John Chrysostom

Saint John Eudes

The Christian life is a continuation and completion of the life of Christ in us. We should be so many Christs here on earth, continuing His life and His works, laboring and suffering in a holy and divine manner in the spirit of Jesus. 

-- Saint John Eudes

Saint Thomas More

Nothing can come but that that God wills. And I make me very sure that whatsoever that be, seem it never so bad in sight, it shall indeed be the best. 

-- Saint Thomas More

Saint Bernadette Soubirous

You must receive God well; give Him a loving welcome, for then He has to pay us rent.

-- Saint Bernadette Soubirous

Saint Faustina Kowalska

And I understood that the greatest attribute of God is love and mercy. It unites the creature with the Creator. This immense love and abyss of mercy are made known in the Incarnation of the Word and in the Redemption [of humanity], and it is here that I saw this as the greatest of all God’s attributes.

-- Saint Faustina Kowalska

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

What a weakness it is to love Jesus Christ only when He Caresses us, and to be cold immediately once He afflicts us. This is not true love. Those who love thus, love themselves too much to love God with all their heart. 

 -- Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque 

Saint Francis de Sales

There is nothing which edifies others so much as charity and kindness, by which, as by the oil in our lamp, the flame of good example is kept alive.

-- Saint Francis de Sales

Saint Theresa of Avila

The devil will try to upset you by accusing you of being unworthy of the blessings that you have received. Simply remain cheerful and do your best to ignore the devil's nagging. If need be even laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Satan, the epitome of sin itself, accuses you of unworthiness! When the devil reminds you of your past, remind him of his future!

-- Saint Theresa of Avila

Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman

Right reason, that is, reason rightly exercised, leads the mind to the Catholic faith, and plants it there, and teaches it in all its religious speculations to act under its guidance.

-- Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman

Pope Saint Gregory the Great

When Mary Magdalen came to the tomb and did not find the Lord’s body, she thought it had been taken away and so informed the disciples. After they came and saw the tomb, they too believed what Mary had told them. The text then says: “The disciples went back home,” and it adds: “but Mary wept and remained standing outside the tomb.” We should reflect on Mary’s attitude and the great love she felt for Christ; for though the disciples had left the tomb, she remained. She was still seeking the one she had not found, and while she sought she wept; burning with the fire of love, she longed for him who she thought had been taken away. And so it happened that the woman who stayed behind to seek Christ was the only one to see him. For perseverance is essential to any good deed, as the voice of truth tell us: “Whoever perseveres to the end will be saved.”

-- Pope Saint Gregory the Great from a homily

Saint Gregory of Nazianzus

Let us be buried with Christ by Baptism to rise with Him; let us go down with Him to be raised with Him; and let us rise with Him to be glorified with Him. 

-- Saint Gregory of Nazianzus

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

Saint Melito of Sardis (For Easter)

The Lord, though he was God, became man. He suffered for the sake of whose who suffer, he was bound for those in bonds, condemned for the guilty, buried for those who lie in the grave; but he rose from the dead, and cried aloud: "Who will contend with me? Let him confront me." I have freed the condemned, brought the dead back to life, raised men from their graves. Who has anything to say against me? I, he said, am the Christ; I have destroyed death, triumphed over the enemy, trampled hell underfoot, bound the strong one, and taken men up to the heights of heaven: I am the Christ.

-- Saint Melito of Sardis from a letter

Saint Melito of Sardis

Born as a son, 
led forth as a lamb, 
sacrificed as a sheep, 
buried as a man, 
He rose from the dead as a God, 
for He was by nature God and Man. 
He is all things: He judges, and so He is Law; 
He teaches, and so He is Word; 
He saves, and so He is Grace; 
He begets, and so He is Father, 
He is begotten, and so He is Son; 
He suffers, and so He is Sacrifice; 
He is buried, and so He is Man; 
He rises again, and so He is God. 
This is Jesus Christ, to Whom belongs Glory for all ages.

-- Saint Melito of Sardis, Bishop, Martyr, and Early Church Father

Saint Francis de Sales

God desires that we should be saved. We too need constantly to desire what God desires. God not only means us to be saved, but actually gives us all we need to achieve salvation. So we are not to stop at merely desiring salvation, but go a step further and accept all the graces God has prepared for us, the graces constantly offered to us. It is all very well to say, "I want to be saved." It is not much use merely saying, "I want to take the necessary steps." We must actually take the steps. We need to make a definite resolution to take and use the graces God holds out to us. Our wills must be in tune with God's. Because God wants us to be saved, we should want to be saved. We should also welcome the means to salvation that God intends us to take....that is why general acts of devotion and prayer should always be followed by particular resolutions. 

-- Saint Francis de Sales

Saint Isidore of Seville

The more you devote yourself to study of the sacred utterances, the richer will be your understanding of them, just as the more the soil is tilled, the richer the harvest. 

The man who is slow to grasp things but who really tries hard is rewarded, equally he who does not cultivate his God-given intellectual ability is condemned for despising his gifts and sinning by sloth. 

Learning unsupported by grace may get into our ears; it never reaches the heart. But when God's grace touches our innermost minds to bring understanding, his word which has been received by the ear sinks deep into the heart.

-- Saint Isidore of Seville

Saint Paul of the Cross

What has a person to fear who lives in the arms and bosom of God?

-- Saint Paul of the Cross

Saint Francis of Paola

Fix your minds on the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Inflamed with love for us, he came down from heaven to redeem us. For our sake he endured every torment of body and soul and shrank from no bodily pain. He himself gave us an example of perfect patience and love. We, then, are to be patient in adversity.

-- Saint Francis of Paola from a letter