Saint Quote: Blessed Emilian Kovch

With the exception of heaven, this is the only place I wish to be. Here we are all the same: Poles, Jews, Ukrainians, Russians. I am the only priest. When I celebrate the liturgy, they pray for all, each one in his own language. Doesn't God understand all languages?

–- Blessed Emilian Kovch writing to his children from the concentration camp

Saint Quote: Pope Blessed John XXIII

Mother and Teacher of all nations – such is the Catholic Church in the mind of her Founder, Jesus Christ; to hold the world in an embrace of love, that men, in every age, should find in her their own completeness in a higher order of living, and their ultimate salvation. She is “the pillar and ground of the truth.” To her was entrusted by her holy Founder the twofold task of giving life to her children and of teaching them and guiding them – both as individuals and as nations – with maternal care. Great is their dignity, a dignity which she has always guarded most zealously and held in the highest esteem.

-- Pope Blessed John XXIII from "Mater et Magistra – On Christianity and Social Progress, May 15, 1961"

Saint Quote: Blessed John Henry Newman

I have a place in God’s counsels, in God’s world, which no one else has;

whether I be rich or poor, despised or esteemed by man,

God knows me and calls me by my name.

God has created me to do Him some definite service;

He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another.

I have my mission–I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.

Somehow I am necessary for His purposes,

as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his

–if, indeed, I fail, He can raise another, as He could make the stones children of Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work;

I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons.

He has not created me for naught.

I shall do good, I shall do His work;

I shall be an angel of peace,

a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it,

if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.

Therefore I will trust Him.

Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away.

If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him;

in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him;

if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.

My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end,

which is quite beyond us.

He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life, He may shorten it;

He knows what He is about.

He may take away my friends,

He may throw me among strangers,

He may make me feel desolate,

make my spirits sink, hide the future from me

–still He knows what He is about.

-- Blessed John Henry Newman

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.)

A Way To Read the Saints Free!

Post by Steve Smith.

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: 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

Saint Quote: Blessed John Cardinal Henry Newman

Liberalism in religion is the doctrine that there is no positive truth in religion, but that one creed is as good as another. . . . [it holds that] Revealed religion is not a truth, but a sentiment and a taste; not an objective fact, not miraculous; and it is the right of each individual to make it say just what strikes his fancy.

-- Blessed John Cardinal Henry Newman

Saint Quote: Blessed Edward Joannes Maria Poppe

According to the divine plan, action must be fed with prayer. The interior life is the wellspring of the apostolate. Do not believe in the slogan, ‘The priest is sanctified in sanctifying others’ – it’s an illusion. The real formula is, ‘Sanctify yourself so as to sanctify others.’ 

-- Blessed Edward Joannes Maria Poppe

Saint Quote: Blessed Mary Elizabeth Hesselblad

We must nourish a great love for God and our neighbors; a strong love, an ardent love, a love that burns away imperfections, a love that gently bears an act of impatience, or a bitter word, a love that lets an inadvertence or act of neglect pass without comment, a love that lends itself readily to an act of charity. 

-- Blessed Mary Elizabeth Hesselblad

Saint Quote: Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman

We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.

-- Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman

Saint Quote: Blessed Pope John Paul II

If the agony on the Cross had not happened, the truth that God is Love would have been unfounded. Yes! God is Love and precisely for this he gave his Son, to reveal himself completely as Love. Christ is the One who “loved…to the end.” (John 13.1) “To the end” means to the last breath.

-- Blessed Pope John Paul II from "Crossing The Threshold of Hope"

Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich

The Church is the only one, the Roman Catholic! And if there were left upon earth but one Catholic, he would be the one, universal Church, the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ against which the gates of Hell shall never prevail. 

-- Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich

Pope Blessed John Paul II

While every word of Elizabeth’s greeting is filled with meaning, her final words would seem to have fundamental importance: “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (Lk 1:45). These words can be linked with the title “full of grace” of the angel’s greeting. Both of these texts reveal an essential Mariological content, namely the truth about Mary who has become present in the mystery of Christ precisely because she “has believed.” The fullness of grace announced by the angel means the gift of God himself. Mary’s faith, proclaimed by Elizabeth at the Visitation, indicates how the Virgin of Nazareth responded to this gift.

-- Pope Blessed John Paul II

Blessed Mary Frances Schervier

"You are my friends if you do what I command you.... I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another." (John 15:14,17) If we do this faithfully and zealously, we will experience the truth of the words of our father Saint Francis who says that love lightens all difficulties and sweetens all bitterness. We will likewise partake of the blessing which Saint Francis promised to all his children, both present and future, after having admonished them to love one another even as he had loved them and continues to love them. 

-- Blessed Mary Frances Schervier

Blessed Titus Brandsma

He who wants to win the world for Christ must have the courage to come in conflict with it.

-- Blessed Titus Brandsma

Pope Blessed John XXIII

Christianity is the meeting-point of earth and heaven. It lays claim to the whole man, body and soul, intellect and will, inducing him to raise his mind above the changing conditions of this earthly existence and reach upwards for the eternal life of heaven, where one day he will find his unfailing happiness and peace.

-- Pope Blessed John XXIII

Blessed John Henry Newman

I have a place in God’s counsels, in God’s world, which no one else has;

whether I be rich or poor, despised or esteemed by man,

God knows me and calls me by my name.

God has created me to do Him some definite service;

He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another.

I have my mission–I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.

Somehow I am necessary for His purposes,

as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his

–if, indeed, I fail, He can raise another, as He could make the stones children of Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work;

I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons.

He has not created me for naught.

I shall do good, I shall do His work;

I shall be an angel of peace,

a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it,

if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.

Therefore I will trust Him.

Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away.

If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him;

in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him;

if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.

My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end,

which is quite beyond us.

He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life, He may shorten it;

He knows what He is about.

He may take away my friends,

He may throw me among strangers,

He may make me feel desolate,

make my spirits sink, hide the future from me

–still He knows what He is about.

-- Blessed John Henry Newman

Blessed Maria of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ

I want to be holy, loving Jesus in the Eucharist, suffering with Christ Crucified and seeing Christ in my brothers and sisters. 

-- Blessed Maria of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha

I have deliberated enough. For a long time my decision on what I will do has been made. I have consecrated myself entirely to Jesus, son of Mary, I have chosen Him for husband and He alone will take me for wife.

-- Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha