Pope Saint Clement I of Rome On Martyrs of Rome

To these men who spent their lives in the practice of holiness, there is to be added a great multitude of the elect, who, having through envy endured many indignities and tortures, furnished. us with a most excellent example. Through envy, those women, the Danaids and Dircae, being persecuted, after they had suffered terrible and unspeakable torments, finished the course of their faith with stedfastness, and though weak in body, received a noble reward. Envy has alienated wives from their husbands, and changed that saying of our father Adam, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh." Envy and strife have overthrown great cities and rooted up mighty nations.

These things, beloved, we write unto you, not merely to admonish you of your duty, but also to remind ourselves. For we are struggling on the same arena, and the same conflict is assigned to both of us. Wherefore let us give up vain and fruitless cares, and approach to the glorious and venerable rule of our holy calling. Let us attend to what is good, pleasing, and acceptable in the sight of Him who formed us. Let us look steadfastly to the blood of Christ, and see how precious that blood is to God, which, having been shed for our salvation, has set the grace of repentance before the whole world. 

-- Pope Saint Clement I of Rome from The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

Pope Saint Clement I of Rome On Saints Peter and Paul

Let us take the noble examples of our own generation. It was due to jealousy and envy that the greatest and most holy pillars were persecuted and fought to the death. Let us pass in review the good Apostles: a Peter, who through unmerited jealousy underwent not one or two, but many hardships and, after thus giving testimony, departed for the place of glory that was his due. Through jealousy and strife Paul demonstrated how to win the prize of patient endurance: seven times he was imprisoned; he was forced to leave and stoned; he preached in the East and the West; and, finally, he won the splendid renown which his faith had earned. He taught the right manner of life to the whole world, traveled as far as the Western boundary, and, when he had given testimony before the authorities, ended his earthly career and was taken up into the holy place as the greatest model of patient endurance.

-- Pope Saint Clement I of Rome from The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

Saint Irenaeus of Lyons

The glory of God gives life; those who see God receive life. Men will therefore see God if they are to live; through the vision of God they become immortal and attain to God himself. God is the source of all activity throughout creation. He cannot be seen or described in his own nature and in all his greatness by any of his creatures. Yet he is certainly not unknown. Through his Word the whole creation learns that there is one God the Father, who holds all things together and gives them their being. As it is written in the Gospel, “No man has ever seen God, except the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father; he has revealed him.” From the beginning the Son is the one who teacher us about the Father; he is with the Father from the beginning. The Word revealed God to men and presented men to God. Life in man is the glory of God; the life of man is the vision of God. If the revelation of God through creation gives life to all who live upon the earth, much more does the manifestation of the Father through the Word give life to those who see God.

-- Saint Irenaeus of Lyons from "Against the Heresies"

Saint Cyril of Alexandria

The divinely inspired Scriptures affirm that the Word of God was made flesh, that is to say, he was united to a human body endowed with a rational soul. He undertook to help the descendants of Abraham, fashioning a body for himself from a woman and sharing our flesh and blood, to enable us to see in him not only God, but also, by reason of this union, a man like ourselves. It is held, therefore, that there is in Emmanuel two entities, divinity and humanity. Yet our Lord Jesus Christ is nonetheless one, the one true Son, both God and man; not a defied man on the same footing as those who share the divine nature by grace, but true God who for our sake appeared in human form. We are assured of this by Saint Paul’s declaration: “When the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law and to enable us to be adopted as sons.

-- Saint Cyril of Alexandria from a letter

Saint Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer

Jesus suffers to carry out the will of the Father. And you, who also want to carry out the most holy Will of God, following the steps of the Master, can you complain if you meet suffering on your way?

-- Saint Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer

Saint Francis Xavier

I wish the university students would work as hard at converting these people as they do at their books, and so settle their account with God for their learning and the talents entrusted to them. 

This thought would certainly stir most of them to meditate on spiritual realities, to listen actively to what God is saying to them. They would forget their own desires, their human affairs, and give themselves over entirely to God's will and his choice. 

They would cry out with all their heart: "Lord, I am here! What do you want me to do?" Send me anywhere you like - even to India!"

-- Saint Francis Xavier in a letter to Saint Ignatius Loyola

Saint Augustine of Hippo

The Church observes the birth of John as a hallowed event. We have no such commemoration for any other fathers; but it is significant that we celebrate the birthdays of John and of Jesus. This day cannot be passed by. And even if my explanation does not match the dignity of the feast, you may still meditate on it with great depth and profit. John appears as the boundary between the two testaments, the old and the new. That he is a sort of boundary the Lord himself bears witness, when he speaks of “the law and the prophets up until John the Baptist.” Thus he represents times past and is the herald of the new era to come. As a representative of the past, he is born of aged parents; as a herald of the new era, he is declared to be a prophet while still in his mother’s womb. For when yet unborn, he leapt in his mother’s womb at the arrival of blessed Mary. In that womb he had already been designated a prophet, even before he was born; it was revealed that he was to be Christ’s precursor, before they ever saw one another. These are divine happenings, going beyond the limits of our human frailty. When John was preaching the Lord’s coming he was asked, “Who are you?” And he replied: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” The voice is John, but the Lord “in the beginning was the Word.” John was a voice that lasted only for a time; Christ, the Word in the beginning, is eternal.

-- Saint Augustine of Hippo from a sermon on the birth of John the Baptist

Saint Thomas More

Every tribulation which ever comes our way either is sent to be medicinal, if we will take it as such, or may become medicinal, if we will make it such, or is better than medicinal, unless we forsake it.

-- Saint Thomas More

Saint John Fisher

Had you but tasted one drop of the sweetness which inebriates the souls of those religious from their worship of this Sacrament, you would never have written as you have, nor have apostatized from the faith that you formerly professed. 

-- Saint John Fisher, writing to the bishop of Winchester

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

He who wishes to love God does not truly love Him if he has not an ardent and constant desire to suffer for His sake. 

-- Saint Aloysius Gonzaga 

Saint Moses the Ethiopian

God will not hear our prayers unless we acknowledge ourselves to be sinners. We do this when we ponder on our own sins alone, and not on those of our neighbor.

-- Saint Moses the Ethiopian

Saint Jude Thaddeus

But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; they said to you, "In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions." It is these who set up divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

-- Saint Jude Thaddeus from The Letter of Jude

Saint Serenus the Gardener

It has pleased God to reserve me for this present time. It seemed awhile ago as if he rejected me as a stone unfit to enter his building, but he has the goodness to take me now to be placed in it; I am ready to suffer all things for his name, that I may have a part in his kingdom with his saints.

-- Saint Serenus the Gardener at his trial

Saint Emily de Vialar

Since God does so much for me, what could I not do for him? 

-- Saint Emily de Vialar

Saint Louis de Montfort

If you put all the love of all the mothers into one heart it still would not equal the love of the Heart of Mary for her children.

-- Saint Louis de Montfort

Saint Faustina Kowalska

For there are three ways of performing an act of mercy: the merciful word, by forgiving and by comforting; secondly, if you can offer no word, then pray - that too is mercy; and thirdly, deeds of mercy. And when the Last Day comes, we shall be judged from this, and on this basis we shall receive the eternal verdict.

-- Saint Faustina Kowalska

Christ the King Print by stvsmith2009
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Saint. John of the Cross

The soul who is in love with God is a gentle, humble and patient soul.

-- Saint. John of the Cross

Saint Anthony of Padua

We should speak, then, as the Holy Spirit gives us the gift of speech. Our humble and sincere request to the Spirit for ourselves should be that we may bring the day of Pentecost to fulfillment, insofar as he infuses us with his grace, by using our bodily senses in a perfect manner by keeping the commandments. Likewise we shall request that we may be filled with a keen sense of sorrow and with fiery tongues for confessing the faith so our deserved reward may be to stand in the blazing splendor of the saints and to look upon the triune God.

-- Saint Anthony of Padua from a sermon

Pope Saint Pius X

My hope is in Christ, who strengthens the weakest by His Divine help. I can do all in Him who strengthens me. His Power is infinite, and if I lean on him, it will be mine. His Wisdom is infinite, and if I look to Him for counsel, I shall not be deceived. His Goodness is infinite, and if my trust is stayed in Him, I shall not be abandoned. 

-- Pope Saint Pius X

Saint John Vianney

My little children, your hearts, are small, but prayer stretches them and makes them capable of loving God. Through prayer we receive a foretaste of heaven and something of paradise comes down upon us. Prayer never leaves us without sweetness. It is honey that flows into the souls and makes all things sweet. When we pray properly, sorrows disappear like snow before the sun. 

-- Saint John Vianney

Saint Thomas Aquinas (Corpus Christi)

Since it was the will of God’s only-begotten Son that men should share in His divinity, He assumed our nature in order that by becoming man He might make men gods. Moreover, when He took our flesh He dedicated the whole of its substance to our salvation. He offered His body to God the Father on the altar of the cross as a sacrifice for our reconciliation. He shed His blood for our ransom and purification, so that we might be redeemed from our wretched state of bondage and cleansed from all sin. But to ensure that the memory of so great a gift would abide with us for ever, He left His Body as food and His Blood as drink for the faithful to consume in the form of bread and wine.

-- Saint Thomas Aquinas

Saint Ephrem of Syria

You victorious martyrs who endured torments gladly for the sake of the God and Savior, you who have boldness of speech toward the Lord himself, you saints, intercede for us who are timid and sinful men, full of sloth, that the grace of Christ may come upon us, and enlighten the hearts of all of us that so we may love him. 

-- Saint Ephrem of  Syria

Saint Thomas of Villanova

Dismiss all anger and look into yourself a little. Remember that he of whom you are speaking is your brother, and, as he is in the way of salvation, God can make him a Saint, in spite of his present weakness.

-- Saint Thomas of Villanova

Saint Marcelino Champagnat

To educate a child....is to make him a good Christian and a good citizen. 

-- Saint Marcelino Champagnat

Saint Boniface

Let us continue the fight on the day of the Lord. The days of anguish and of tribulation have overtaken us; if God so wills, "let us die for the holy laws of our fathers," so that we may deserve to obtain an eternal inheritance with them.

-- Saint Boniface

Saint Optatus of Mileve

The Church, then, is One, and her holiness is not measured by the pride of individuals, but is derived from the Sacraments. It is for this reason that she alone is called by Christ His Dove and His own beloved Bride.

-- Saint Optatus of Mileve

Saint Basil the Great

The Godhead is common; the fatherhood particular. We must therefore combine the two and say, 'I believe in God the Father.'

The like course must be pursued in the confession of the Son; we must combine the particular with the common and say 'I believe in God the Son,' so in the case of the Holy Ghost we must make our utterance conform to the appellation and say 'in God the Holy Ghost.'

Hence it results that there is a satisfactory preservation of the unity by the confession of the one Godhead, while in the distinction of the individual properties regarded in each there is the confession of the peculiar properties of the Persons.

-- Saint Basil the Great

Beat The Summer Heat With Mystic Monk Coffee

Warmer weather is here, and now is the time of year when we start looking for cool beverages to help keep us soothed, refreshed, and comfortable.

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Don't forget the great tea they offer as well, as some people... like me... prefer iced tea over iced coffee. I wouldn't be a true son of the south if I didn't like sweet iced tea (it's the law)!

Remember, your purchase of Mystic Monk Coffee and Tea helps support the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming, and gives my finances a much needed boost as well!

Saint Augustine of Hippo

The sin is caused not by the flesh, but by the will of the soul, and the corruption contracted from sin is not sin, but sin's punishment.

-- Saint Augustine of Hippo