Saint Quote: Saint Therese of Lisieux

Jesus set the book of nature before me and I saw that all the flowers he has created are lovely. The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of its scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. I realized that if every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness and there would be no wildflowers to make the meadows gay. 

It is just the same in the world of souls - which is the garden of Jesus. He has created the great saints who are like the lilies and the roses, but he has also created much lesser saints and they must be content to be the daisies or the violets which rejoice his eyes whenever he glances down. Perfection consists in doing his will, in being that which he wants us to be. 

Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be - and becoming that person. 

-- Saint Therese of Lisieux, from "Story of a Soul"

Saint Quote: Saint Jerome

No one should think that I mean to explain the entire subject matter of this great book of the prophet Isaiah in one brief sermon, since it contains all the mysteries of the lord. It prophesies that Emmanuel is to be born of a virgin and accomplish marvelous works and signs. It predicts his death, burial and resurrection from the dead as the Savior of all men. Whatever is proper to holy Scripture, whatever can be expressed in human language and understood by the human mind, is contained in the book of Isaiah. 

-- Saint Jerome from a commentary on Isaiah

Saint Quote: Saint Charles Borromeo

I admit that we are all weak, but if we want help, the Lord God has given us the means to find it easily. Would you like me to teach you how to grow from virtue to virtue and how, if you are already recollected at prayer, you can be even more attentive next time, and so give God more pleasing worship? Listen, and I will tell you. If a tiny spark of God's love already burns within you, do not expose it to the wind, for it may get blown out. Keep the stove tightly shut so that it will not lose its heat and grow cold. In other words, avoid distractions as well as you can. Stay quiet with God. Do not spend your time in useless chatter.

-- Saint Charles Borromeo

Saint Quote: Saint Lorenzo Ruiz of Manila

That I will never do, because I am a Christian, and I shall die for God, and for him I will give many thousands of lives if I had them. And so, do with me as you please.

-- Saint Lorenzo Ruiz of Manila after being asked to renounce his faith at his trial

Saint Quote: Saint Vincent de Paul

Free your mind from all that troubles you; God will take care of things. You will be unable to make haste in this (choice) without, so to speak, grieving the heart of God, because he sees that you do not honor him sufficiently with holy trust. Trust in him, I beg you, and you will have the fulfillment of what your heart desires. 

-- Saint Vincent de Paul 

Saint Quote: Saint Marie Victoire Therese Couderc

God always gives more than we ask. 

-- Saint Marie Victoire Therese Couderc

Saint Quote: Blessed Hermann of Reichenau

Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy. Hail my life, my sweetness and my hope! To you do we cry, poor banished children of Eve! To you do we send up our sighs; mourning and weeping in this vale of tears! Turn, most gracious Advocate, your eyes of mercy toward me, and after this, our exile, show to us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus Christ! Clement, loving, sweet Virgin Mary! Amen. 

-- Blessed Hermann of Reichenau (author of Salve Regina and Alma Redemptoris Mater.)

Saint Quote: Saint Ignatius of Antioch

I no longer take pleasure in perishable food or in the delights of this world I want only God's bread, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, formed from the seed of David, and for drink I crave his blood, which is love that cannot perish.

-- Saint Ignatius of Antioch

Saint Quote: Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina

We must remember that faith is the greatest gift that God has offered man on this earth, because from an earthly man he becomes a citizen of Heaven. Let us guard this gift jealously. Woe to him who forgets himself, who forgets Heaven, whose faith grows weak, and worse still (may God preserve us all) who denies his faith. This is the greatest affront that man can offer to God.

-- Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina

Saint Quote: Saint Rose of Viterbo

Prayer reveals to souls the vanity of earthly goods and pleasures. It fills them with light, strength and consolation; and gives them a foretaste of the calm bliss of our heavenly home.

-- Saint Rose of Viterbo

Saint Quote: Saint Bede the Venerable (On Saint Matthew)

“Jesus saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him: Follow me.” Jesus saw Matthew, not merely in the usual sense, but more significantly with his merciful understanding of men.” He saw the tax collector and, because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him, he said to him: “Follow me.” This following meant imitating the pattern of his life – not just walking after him. Saint John tells us: “Whoever says he abides in Christ ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” “And he rose and followed him.” There is no reason for surprise that the tax collector abandoned earthly wealth as soon as the Lord commanded him. Nor should one be amazed that neglecting his wealth, he joined a band of men whose leader had, on Matthew’s assessment, no riches at all. Our Lord summoned Matthew by speaking to him in words. By an invisible, interior impulse flooding his mind with the light of grace, he instructed him to walk in his footsteps. In this way Matthew could understand that Christ, who was summoning him away from earthly possessions, had incorruptible treasures of heaven in his gift.

-- Saint Bede the Venerable from a homily

A Way To Read the Saints Free!

Post by Steve Smith.

Saint Quote: Saint Andrew Kim Taegon

This is my last hour of life, listen to me attentively: if I have held communication with foreigners, it has been for my religion and for my God. It is for Him that I die. My immortal life is on the point of beginning. Become Christians if you wish to be happy after death, because God has eternal chastisements in store for those who have refused to know Him.

-- Saint Andrew Kim Taegon the first native Korean priest, and the first priest to die for the faith in Korea.

Saint Quote: Saint Euphemia of Chalcedon

We are people endowed with reason, for whom it would be the greatest disgrace to abandon the one true God, the Maker of heaven and earth, in order to worship dumb, senseless idols. We are not afraid of torments you threaten us with. They will be easy for us to bear and will show the power of our God. 

                           
-- Saint Euphemia of Chalcedon

Saint Quote: Saint Vitalis of Gaza

Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart. 

-- Saint Vitalis of Gaza

Saint Quote: Saint Robert Bellarmine

And what is this yoke of yours that does not weary, but gives rest? It is, of course, that first and greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart.” What is easier, sweeter, more pleasant, than to love goodness, beauty, and love, the fullness of which you are, O Lord, my God?

-- Saint Robert Bellarmine

Saint Quote: Saint Cyprian of Carthage

You cannot have God for your Father if you do not have the Church for your mother…. God is one and Christ is one, and his Church is one; one is the faith, and one is the people cemented together by harmony into the strong unity of a body…. If we are the heirs of Christ, let us abide in the peace of Christ; if we are the sons of God, let us be lovers of peace. 

-- Saint Cyprian of Carthage, from "The Unity of the Catholic Church"

Saint Quote: Saint Catherine of Genoa

If it were given to a man to see virtue's reward in the next world, he would occupy his intellect, memory and will in nothing but good works, careless of danger or fatigue. 

-- Saint Catherine of Genoa

Saint Quote: Saint Ignatius of Loyola

If God causes you to suffer much, it is a sign that He has great designs for you, and that He certainly intends to make you a saint. And if you wish to become a great saint, entreat Him yourself to give you much opportunity for suffering; for there is no wood better to kindle the fire of holy love than the wood of the cross, which Christ used for His own great sacrifice of boundless charity. 

-- Saint Ignatius of Loyola

Saint Quote: Saint John Chrysostom

You have tasted the Blood of the Lord, yet you do not recognize your brother,. . . . You dishonor this table when you do not judge worthy of sharing your food someone judged worthy to take part in this meal. . . . God freed you from all your sins and invited you here, but you have not become more merciful. 

-- Saint John Chrysostom

Saint Quote: Saint Justin Martyr

As by the Word of God, Jesus our Savior was made Flesh and had both Flesh and Blood for our salvation, so also the food which has been blessed by the word of prayer instituted by Him is both the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Incarnate. 

--Saint Justin Martyr

Saint Quote: Saint John Gabriel Perboyre

O my Divine Saviour,

Transform me into Yourself.

May my hands be the hands of Jesus.

Grant that every faculty of my body

May serve only to glorify You.

Above all,

Transform my soul and all its powers

So that my memory, will and affection

May be the memory, will and affections

Of Jesus.

I pray You

To destroy in me

All that is not of You.

-- Saint John Gabriel Perboyre from a prayer by him

Saint Quote: Saint Nicholas of Tolentino

The heavens are not pure in the sight of Him Whom I serve; how then shall I, a sinful man, stand before Him? 

-- Saint Nicholas of Tolentino

Saint Quote: Saint Peter Claver

Man's salvation and perfection consists of doing the will of God which he must have in view in all things, and at every moment of his life.

-- Saint Peter Claver

Saint Quote: Saint Teresa of Avila

Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one. 

-- Saint Teresa of Avila 

Saint Quote: Saint John of Avila

Dear brothers and sisters, I pray God may open your eyes and let you see what hidden treasures he bestows on us in the trials from which the world thinks only to flee. Shame turns into honor when we seek God’s glory. Present affliction become the source of heavenly glory. To those who suffer wounds in fighting his battles God opens his arms in loving, tender friendship. That is why he (Christ) tells us that if we want to join him, we shall travel the way he took. It is surely not right that the Son of God should go his way on the path of shame while the sons of men walk the way of worldly honor: “The disciple is not above his teacher, nor the servant greater than his master.” 

-- Saint John of Avila from a letter

Saint Quote: Saint Poemen

When your brother attacks you, whatever the insults are, if you get angry at him, you are getting angry without cause. Even if he were to pull out your right eye, and to cut off your right hand, if you get angry at him, you are getting angry without cause. Yet if he were to try to take you away from God, then get angry! 

-- Saint Poemen

Saint Quote: Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.

-- Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Saint Quote: Saint Rosalia

I, Rosalia, daughter of Sinibald, Lord of Roses, and Quisquina, have taken the resolution to live in this cave for the love of my Lord, Jesus Christ.

-- Saint Rosalia

Saint Quote: Pope Saint Gregory the Great

Perhaps it is not after all so difficult for a man to part with his possessions, but it is certainly most difficult for him to part with himself. To renounce what one has is a minor thing; but to renounce what one is, that is asking a lot. 

-- Pope Saint Gregory the Great

Saint Quote: Blessed Brother Solomon Le Clerq

As for us, we hold to what we believed ten and twenty years ago; to what our forefathers believed one hundred years ago, and one thousand years ago, and to that which the whole Catholic world has always believed. 

-- Blessed Brother Solomon Le Clerq