Saint Nicholas of Flüe

My Lord and my God, take from me everything that distances me from you. My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you. My Lord and my God, detach me from myself to give my all to you.

-- Saint Nicholas of Flüe

Saint John Bosco

Let us regard those boys over whom we have some authority as our own sons. Let us place ourselves in their service. Let us be ashamed to assume an attitude of superiority. Let us not rule over them except for the purpose of serving them better. 

This was the method that Jesus used with the apostles. He put up with their ignorance and roughness and even their infidelity. He treated sinners with a kindness and affection that caused some to be shocked, others to be scandalized and still others to hope for God's mercy. And so he bade us to be gentle and humble of heart. 

-- Saint John Bosco from a letter

Saint Irenaeus of Lyons

Being obedient she became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race.

-- Saint Irenaeus of Lyons

Pope Saint Pius X

Truly we are passing through disastrous times, when we may well make our own the lamentation of the Prophet: "There is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land" (Hosea 4:1). Yet in the midst of this tide of evil, the Virgin Most Merciful rises before our eyes like a rainbow, as the arbiter of peace between God and man. 

-- Pope Saint Pius X

Saint Thomas Aquinas

Hence we must say that for the knowledge of any truth whatsoever man needs divine help, that the intellect may be moved by God to its act. But he does not need a new light added to his natural light, in order to know the truth in all things, but only in some that surpasses his natural knowledge. 

-- Saint Thomas Aquinas

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem

Since Christ Himself has said, "This is My Body" who shall dare to doubt that It is His Body?

-- Saint Cyril of Jerusalem

Saint Mary Mazarello

Make up your mind to become a saint.

-- Saint Mary Mazarello

Saint Ignatius of Antioch

Mary's virginity and giving birth, and even the Lord's death escaped the notice of the prince of this world; these three mysteries worthy of proclamation were accomplished in God's silence.

-- Saint Ignatius of Antioch

Saint Francis de Sales

Salvation is shown to faith, it is prepared for hope, but it is given only to charity. Faith points out the way to the land of promise as a pillar of fire hope feeds us with its manna of sweetness, but charity actually introduces us into the Promised Land. 

-- Saint Francis de Sales

Saint John the Almoner

If we are able to enter the church day and night and implore God to hear our prayers, how careful we should be to hear and grant the petitions of our neighbor in need. 

-- Saint John the Almoner

Saint Ambrose of Milan

To avoid dissensions we should be ever on our guard, more especially with those who drive us to argue with them, with those who vex and irritate us, and who say things likely to excite us to anger. When we find ourselves in company with quarrelsome, eccentric individuals, people who openly and unblushingly say the most shocking things, difficult to put up with, we should take refuge in silence, and the wisest plan is not to reply to people whose behavior is so preposterous. Those who insult us and treat us contumeliously are anxious for a spiteful and sarcastic reply: the silence we then affect disheartens them, and they cannot avoid showing their vexation; they do all they can to provoke us and to elicit a reply, but the best way to baffle them is to say nothing, refuse to argue with them, and to leave them to chew the cud of their hasty anger. This method of bringing down their pride disarms them, and shows them plainly that we slight and despise them. 

-- Saint Ambrose of Milan

Saint Agnes of Rome

Christ made my soul beautiful with the jewels of grace and virtue. I belong to Him whom the angels serve. 

-- Saint Agnes of Rome

Saint Augustine of Hippo

I will suggest a means whereby you can praise God all day long, if you wish. Whatever you do, do it well, and you have praised God. 

-- Saint Augustine of Hippo

Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi

Come, Holy Spirit. Spirit of truth, you are the reward of the saints, the comforter of souls, light in the  darkness, riches to the poor, treasure to lovers, food for the hungry, comfort to those who are wandering; to sum up, you are the one in whom all treasures are contained. 

-- Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi

Saint Jaime Hilario Barbal

God be blessed; I’ll pray for all of you in heaven. What more could I desire than to die for no other crime but that of being a religious and for having made my contribution to the Christian education of children. Dear father and family, I have been judged and condemned to death. I accept the sentence with joy. No charges have been brought against me. I have been condemned to death only because I am a religious. Do not weep for me, I am not worthy of pity. I shall die for God and for my country. Farewell, I shall be waiting for you in heaven. 

-- Saint Jaime Hilario Barbal writing to his family after learning of his death sentence

Saint John Bosco

No matter how good food is, if poison is mixed with it, it may cause the death of him who eats it. So it is with conversation. A single bad word, an evil action, an unbecoming joke, is often enough to harm one or more young listeners, and may later cause them to lose God's grace.

-- Saint John Bosco

Saint Teresa of Avila

We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials.

-- Saint Teresa of Avila

Saint Francis de Sales

God takes pleasure to see you take your little steps; and like a good father who holds his child by the hand, He will accommodate His steps to yours and will be content to go no faster than you.

-- Saint Francis de Sales

Saint Clare of Assisi

Love God, serve God: everything is in that.

-- Saint Clare of Assisi

Saint Gregory Nazianzen on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

Today let us do honor to Christ’s baptism and celebrate this feast in holiness. Be cleansed entirely and continue to be cleansed. 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. You are to enjoy more and more the pure and dazzling light of the Trinity, as now you have received – though not in its fullness – a ray of its splendor, proceeding from the one God, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

-- Saint Gregory Nazianzen from a sermon on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys

God is not satisfied if we preserve the love we owe our neighbour; we must preserve our neighbour in the love he ought to have for us.

-- Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys

Saint Theodosius of Cappadocia

If anyone receives not the four general councils as the four gospels, let him be anathema.

-- Saint Theodosius of Cappadocia

Saint Peter Emyard

Our Lord avoided any offensive personal remarks when He preached. He attacked only the vices of a school, of a caste, also the bad examples and scandals. He did not reveal hidden crimes or secret defects.

-- Saint Peter Emyard

Saint Theophilus of Antioch

And about your laughing at me and calling me Christian, you know not what you are saying. First, because that which is anointed is sweet and serviceable, and far from contemptible. For what ship can be serviceable and seaworthy, unless it be first anointed? Or what castle or house is beautiful and serviceable when it has not been anointed? And what man, when he enters into this life or into the gymnasium, is not anointed with oil? And what work has either ornament or beauty unless it be anointed and burnished? Then the air and all that is under heaven is in a certain sort anointed by light and spirit; and are you unwilling to be anointed with the oil of God? Wherefore we are called Christians on this account, because we are anointed with the oil of God.

-- Saint Theophilus of Antioch

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Let us understand that God is a physician, and that suffering is a medicine for salvation, not a punishment for damnation.

-- Saint Augustine of Hippo

Pope Saint Gregory the Great

Our fatherland is paradise, heaven. We have departed from it by pride, disobedience, abuse of the senses, therefore it is needed that we return to it by obedience, contempt of the world, and by taming the desires of the flesh; thus we return to our own country by another road. By forbidden pleasures we have forfeited the joys of paradise, by penance we must regain them.

-- Pope Saint Gregory the Great

Saint Peter Chrysologus

Today the Magi find, crying in a manger, the One they have followed as He shone in the sky. Today the Magi see clearly, in swaddling clothes, the One they have long awaited as He lay hidden among the stars.

Today the Magi gaze in deep wonder at what they see: heaven on earth, earth in heaven, man in God, God in man, one whom the whole universe cannot contain now enclosed in a tiny body. As they look, they believe and do not question, as their symbolic gifts bear witness: incense for God, gold for a king, myrrh for one who is to die.

So the Gentiles, who were the last, become the first: the faith of the Magi is the first fruits of the belief of the Gentiles.

-- Saint Peter Chrysologus from a sermon

Saint John Nepomucene Neumann

O my Jesus, I, a poor, ignorant young man, have become a shepherd in Thy sheepfold. . . . Grant that not one of those confided to me be lost. . . . Teach me to live, and, if needs be, to die for my people that they all may be saved, that they all may love Thy dear Mother! . . . Mary, thou who art ever victorious over heresies, pray for all who are walking in the paths of accursed error! . . . My Jesus, what shall, I, a poor creature, do to lead many souls — yea, all souls — to Thee?

-- Saint John Nepomucene Neumann

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

The accidents of life separate us from our dearest friends, but let us not despair. God is like a looking glass in which souls see each other. The more we are united to Him by love, the nearer we are to those who belong to Him.

-- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

Are you troubled? think but of Jesus, speak but the name of Jesus, the clouds disperse, and peace descends anew from heaven. Have you fallen into sin? so that you fear death? invoke the name of Jesus, and you will soon feel life returning. No obduracy of the soul, no weakness, no coldness of heart can resist this holy name; there is no heart which will not soften and open in tears at this holy name. 

-- Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory Nazianzen

Note: Since January 2 is the memorial of both Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory Nazianzen, today I decided to give you a quotation from each.

Through the Holy Spirit we are restored to paradise, led back to the Kingdom of heaven, and adopted as children, given confidence to call God "Father" and to share in Christ's grace, called children of light and given a share in eternal glory. 

-- Saint Basil the Great

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Different men have different names, which they owe to their parents or to themselves, that is, to their own pursuits and achievements. But our great pursuit, the great name we wanted, was to be Christians, to be called Christians. 

--Saint Gregory Nazianzen