Saint Quote of the Day: Saint Peter Damian

Let us faithfully transmit to posterity the example of virtue which we have received from our forefathers.

-- Saint Peter Damian

Saint Quote: Saint Josemaria Escriva

Love Saint Joseph a lot. Love him with all your soul, because he, together with Jesus, is the person who has most loved our Blessed Lady and been closest to God. He is the person who has most loved God, after our Mother. He deserves your affection, and it will do you good to get to know him, because he is the Master of the interior life, and has great power before the Lord and before the Mother of God.

-- Saint Josemaria Escriva

Saint Quote: Saint Quodvultdeus (From A Sermon On The Holy Innocents)

A tiny child is born, who is a great king. Wise men are led to him from afar. They come to adore one who lies in a manger and yet reigns in heaven and on earth. When they tell of one who is born a king, Herod is disturbed. To save his kingdom he resolves to kill him, though if he would have faith in the child, he himself would reign in peace in this life and for ever in the life to come.

Why are you afraid, Herod, when you hear of the birth of a king? He does not come to drive you out, but to conquer the devil. But because you do not understand this you are disturbed and in a rage. To destroy one child whom you seek, you show your cruelty in the death of so many children.

You are not restrained by the love of weeping mothers and fathers mourning the deaths of their sons, nor by the cries and sobs of the children. You destroy those who are tiny in body because fear is destroying your heart. You imagine that if you accomplish your desire you can prolong you own life, though you are seeking to kill Life himself.

The children die for Christ, though they do not know it. The parents mourn for the death of martyrs. The Christ child makes of those as yet unable to speak fit witnesses to himself. But you, Herod, do not know this and are disturbed and furious. While you vent your fury against the child, you are already paying him homage, and do not know it.

To what merits of their own do the children owe this kind of victory? They cannot speak, yet they bear witness to Christ. They cannot use their limbs to engage in battle, yet already they bear off the palm of victory.

–- Saint Quodvultdeus from a sermon

Saint Quote: Saint John the Apostle

"Saint John the Apostle" -- by James Tissot

And this is His commandment, that we should believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ: and love one another, as He hath given commandment unto us.

–- Saint John the Apostle from 1 John 3:23

Saint Quote: Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe

Yesterday we celebrated the birth in time of our eternal King. Today we celebrate the triumphant suffering of his soldier. Yesterday our king, clothed in his robe of flesh, left his place in the virgin’s womb and graciously visited the world. Today his soldier leaves the tabernacle of his body and goes triumphantly to heaven.

–- Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe from a sermon

Saint Quote: Saint Romanos the Melodist

The Virgin today brings into the world the Eternal

And the earth offers a cave to the Inaccessible.

The angels and shepherds praise him

And the magi advance with the star,

For you are born for us, Little Child, God eternal!

–- Kontakion of Saint Romanos the Melodist

Saint Quote: Saint John Vianney

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 Quote: Saint Augustine of Hippo

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.

-- Saint Augustine of Hippo on the birth of John the Baptist

Saint Quote: Saint Bernardine of Siena (On Saint Joseph)

There is a general rule concerning all special graces granted to any human being. Whenever the divine favor chooses someone to receive a special grace, or to accept a lofty vocation, God adorns the person chosen with all the gifts of the Spirit needed to fulfill the task at hand. This general rule is especially verified in the case of Saint Joseph, the foster-father of our Lord, and the husband of the Queen of our world, enthroned above the angels. He was chosen by the eternal Father as the trustworthy guardian and protector of his greatest treasures, namely, his divine Son and Mary, Joseph’s wife. He carried out this vocation with complete fidelity until at last God called him, saying “Good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.” Remember us, Saint Joseph, and plead for us to your foster child. Ask your most holy bride, the Virgin Mary, to look kindly upon us, since she is the mother of him who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns eternally. Amen.

–- Saint Bernardine of Siena from a sermon

Saint Quote: Saint Ambrose of Milan

The child leaps in the womb; the mother is filled with the Holy Spirit, but not before her son. Once the son has been filled with the Holy Spirit, he fills his mother with the same Spirit. John leaps for joy, and the spirit of Mary rejoices in her turn. When John leaps for joy Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit, but we know that though Mary’s spirit rejoices, she does not need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Her son, who is beyond our understanding, is active in his mother in a way beyond our understanding. Elizabeth is filled with the Holly Spirit after conceiving John, while Mary is filled with the Holy Spirit before conceiving the Lord. Elizabeth says: Blessed are you because you have believed.

You also are blessed because you have heard and believed. A soul that believes both conceives and brings forth the Word of God and acknowledges his works.

–- Saint Ambrose of Milan from his commentary on Luke

Saint Quote: Saint Cyril of Alexandria

That anyone could doubt the right of the holy Virgin to be called the Mother of God fills with astonishment. Surely she must be the Mother of God if our Lord Jesus Christ is God, and she gave birth to him! Our Lord's disciples may not have used those exact words, but they delivered to us the belief those words enshrine, and this has also been taught us by the holy fathers.

–- Saint Cyril of Alexandria

Saint Quote: Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

Take care above all things, most honored lady, not to insult God's boundless loving kindness; you would certainly do this if you mourned as dead one living face to face with God, one whose prayers can bring you in your troubles more powerful aid than they ever could on earth. And our parting will not be for long; we shall see each other again in heaven; we shall be united with our Savior; there we shall praise him with heart and soul, sing of his mercies for ever, and enjoy eternal happiness.

–- Saint Aloysius Gonzaga from a letter to his mother

Saint Quote: Saint Catherine of Sienna

There is no sin or wrong that gives a man a foretaste of hell in this life as anger and impatience.

–- Saint Catherine of Sienna

Saint Quote: Saint Augustine of Hippo

God is more anxious to bestow His blessings on us than we are to receive them. For it is not God's way that great blessings should descend without the sacrifice first of great sufferings.

–- Saint Augustine of Hippo

Saint Quote: Saint Vincent de Paul

The Church teaches us that mercy belongs to God. Let us implore Him to bestow on us the spirit of mercy and compassion, so that we are filled with it and may never lose it. Only consider how much we ourselves are in need of mercy.

–- Saint Vincent de Paul

Saint Quote: Saint Alphonsus Liguori

I ought to imagine to myself that there are no others in the world but God and myself.

–- Saint Alphonsus Liguori

Saint Quote: Saint John of the Cross

In giving us His Son, His only Word, He spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word -- and He has no more to say...because what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son.

–- Saint John of the Cross

Saint Lucy of Syracuse

No one's body is polluted so as to endanger the soul if it has not pleased the mind. If you were to lift my hand to your idol and so make me offer against my will, I would still be guiltless in the sight of the true God, who judges according to the will and knows all things. If now, against my will, you cause me to be polluted, a twofold purity will be gloriously imputed to me. You cannot bend my will to your purpose; whatever you do to my body, that cannot happen to me.

-- Saint Lucy of Syracuse

Saint Quote: Our Lady of Guadalupe

Hear me and understand well, my son the least, that nothing should frighten or grieve you. Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything. Do not be afflicted by the illness of your uncle, who will not die now of it. be assured that he is now cured.

–- Our Lady of Guadalupe to Saint Juan Diego

Saint Quote: Pope Blessed Pius IX

And indeed it was wholly fitting that so wonderful a mother should be ever resplendent with the glory of most sublime holiness and so completely free from all taint of original sin that she would triumph utterly over the ancient serpent. To her did the Father will to give his only-begotten Son – the Son whom, equal to the Father and begotten by him, the Father loves from his heart – and to give this Son in such a way that he would be the one and the same common Son of God the Father and of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was she whom the Son himself chose to make his Mother and it was from her that the Holy Spirit willed and brought it about that he should be conceived and born from whom he himself proceeds.

–- Pope Blessed Pius IX from "Ineffabilis Deus – The Immaculate Conception"

Saint Quote: Saint Augustine of Hippo

God is more anxious to bestow His blessings on us than we are to receive them. For it is not God's way that great blessings should descend without the sacrifice first of great sufferings.

–- Saint Augustine of Hippo

Saint Quote: Saint Ambrose of Milan

There is a stream which flows down on God’s saints like a torrent. There is also a rushing river giving joy to the heart that is at peace and makes for peace.

–- Saint Ambrose of Milan from a letter

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Saint Quote: Saint Francis de Sales

Anxiety proceeds from an ill-regulated desire to be delivered from the evil we experience, or to acquire the good to which we aspire; nevertheless, nothing aggravates evil and hinders good so much as anxiety and worry.

-- Saint Francis de Sales

Saint Quote: Saint John Damascene

Even though your most holy and blessed soul was separated from your most happy and immaculate body, according to the usual course of nature, and even though it was carried to a proper burial place, nevertheless it did not remain under the dominion of death, nor was it destroyed by corruption. Indeed, just as her virginity remained intact when she gave birth, so her body, even after death, was preserved from decay and transferred to a better and more divine dwelling place. There it is no longer subject to death but abides for all ages.

–- Saint John Damascene

Saint Quote: Saint Francis Xavier

I have not stopped since the day I arrived. I conscientiously made the rounds of the villages. I bathed in the sacred waters all the children who had not yet been baptized. This means that I have purified a very large number of children so young that, as the saying goes, they could not tell their right hand from their left. The older children would not let me say my Office or eat or sleep until I taught them one prayer or another. Then I began to understand: "The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

–- Saint Francis Xavier

Saint Quote: Saint Edmund Campion

As to the treasons which have been laid to my charge, and for which I come here to suffer, I desire you all to bear witness with me that I am thereto altogether innocent. I am a Catholic man and a priest; in that Faith I have lived, and in that Faith do I intend to die. If you esteem my Religion treason, then I am guilty; as for the other treason, I never committed any, God is my judge.

–- Saint Edmund Campion

Saint Quote: Saint Irenaeus of Lyons

Being obedient she became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race. The knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience: what Eve bound through her disbelief, the Virgin Mary loosened by her faith.

–- Saint Irenaeus of Lyons

Saint Quote: Saint John Chrysostom (On Saint Andrew the Apostle)

After Andrew had stayed with Jesus and had learned much from him, he did not keep this treasure to himself, but hastened to share it with his brother Peter. Notice what Andrew said to him: "We have found the Messiah, that is to say, the Christ." Notice how his words reveal what he has learned in so short a time. They show the power of the master who has convinced them of this truth. Andrew's words reveal a soul waiting with the utmost longing for the coming of the Messiah, looking forward to his appearing from heaven, rejoicing when he does appear, and hastening to announce so great an event to others. To support one another in the things of the spirit is the true sign of good will between brothers, loving kinship and sincere affection.

–- Saint John Chrysostom from a homily on the Gospel of John

Saint Quote: Saint Saturninus of Toulouse

I adore one only God, and to him I am ready to offer a sacrifice of praise. Your gods are devils, and are more delighted with the sacrifice of your souls than with those of your bullocks. How can I fear them who, as you acknowledge, tremble before a Christian?

–- Saint Saturninus of Toulouse to his pagan priest exceutioners

Saint Quotes: Saint Louis IX and Pope Saint Leo the Great

Note: I couldn't decide between these two quotes for Thanksgiving here in the United States, so today you get 2 instead of 1.

In prosperity, give thanks to God with humility and fear lest by pride you abuse God's benefits and so offend him.

–- Saint Louis IX from a letter to his son

Dear friends, now that we have received instruction in this revelation of God's grace, let us celebrate with spiritual joy the day of our first harvesting, of the first calling of the Gentiles. Let us give thanks to the merciful God, "who has made us worthy," in the words of the Apostle, "to share the position of the saints in light; who has rescued us from the power of darkness, and brought us into the kingdom of this beloved Son."

–- Pope Saint Leo the Great from a sermon

Saint Quote: Saint John Eudes

A Christian has a union with Jesus Christ more noble, more intimate and more perfect than the members of a human body have with their head.

–- Saint John Eudes

Saint Quote: Saint Leonard of Port Maurice

First let us take these two undeniable truths as a basis: "God wants all men to be saved," "All are in need of the grace of God." Now, if I show you that God wants to save all men, and that for this purpose He gives all of them His grace and all the other necessary means of obtaining that sublime end, you will be obliged to agree that whoever is damned must impute it to his own malice, and that if the greater number of Christians are damned, it is because they want to be. "Thy damnation comes from thee; thy help is only in Me."

–- Saint Leonard of Port Maurice from a sermon

Saint Quote: Saint Peter Chrysologus

Each of us is called to be both a sacrifice to God and his priest. Do not forfeit what divine authority confers on you. Put on the garment of holiness, gird yourself with the belt of chastity. Let Christ be your helmet, let the cross on your forehead be your unfailing protection. Your breastplate should be the knowledge of God that he himself has given you. Keep burning continually the sweet smelling incense of prayer. Take up the sword of the Spirit. Let your heart be an altar. Then, with full confidence in God, present your body for sacrifice. God desires not death, but faith; God thirsts not for blood, but for self-surrender; God is appeased not by slaughter, but by the offering of your free will.

–- Saint Peter Chrysologus from a sermon

Saint Quote: Saint Columbanus of Luxieul

All we Irish dwelling on the edge of the world are disciples of Saints Peter and Paul and of the disciples who, under the Holy Spirit, wrote the Sacred Canon. We accept nothing outside this evangelical and apostolic teaching. There was no heretic, no Jew, no schismatic, but the Catholic Faith, as first delivered to us by you, the successor of the apostles, is kept unshaken.... We, indeed, are, as I have said, chained to the Chair of Saint Peter; for although Rome is great and known afar, it is great and honored with us only by this Chair.

–- Saint Columbanus of Luxieul

Saint Quote: Pope Saint Clement I

Charity unites us to God. There is nothing mean in charity, nothing arrogant. Charity knows no schism, does not rebel, does all things in concord. In charity all the elect of God have been made perfect.

–- Pope Saint Clement I

Saint Quote: Saint Cecilia

Arise, soldiers of Christ, throw away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

–- Saint Cecilia

Saint Quote: Saint Angela Merici

He says: A good tree, that is, a good heart as well as a soul on fire with charity, can do nothing but good and holy works. For this reason Saint Augustine said: "Love, and do what you will," namely, possess love and charity and then do what you will. It is as if he had said: Charity is not able to sin.

–- Saint Angela Merici

Saint Quote: Saint John Bosco

Do you want our Lord to give you many graces? Visit him often. Do you want him to give you few graces? Visit him seldom. Visits to the Blessed Sacrament are powerful and indispensable means of overcoming the attacks of the devil. Make frequent visits to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and the devil will be powerless against you.

–- Saint John Bosco

Saint Quote: Blessed Jozef Kowalski

Do not worry about me; I am in God’s hands. I want to assure you that I feel His help at every step. Despite the present situation, I am happy and completely at peace.

–- Blessed Jozef Kowalski writing to his parents from the Auschwitz concentration camp

Saint Quote: Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne

There are no difficulties except for those who worry too much about tomorrow.

–- Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne

Saint Quote: Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus

There is a perfect Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty, neither divided nor estranged. Wherefore there is nothing either created or in servitude in the Trinity; nor anything superinduced, as if at some former period it was non-existent, and at some later period it was introduced. And thus neither was the Son ever wanting to the Father, nor the Spirit to the Son; but without variation and without change, the same Trinity abideth ever.

–- Saint Gregory Thaumaturgus from a declaration of faith by Saint Gregory

Saint Quote: Saint Gertrude the Great

Stand fast, therefore, in this conduct and follow the example of the Lord, 'firm and unchangeable in faith, lovers of the brotherhood, loving each other, united in truth,' helping each other with the mildness of the Lord, despising no man.

-- Saint Gertrude the Great from her written work the Revelations

Saint Quote: Saint Raphael Kalinowski

God gave Himself completely for us, and we must sacrifice ourselves to God.

–- Saint Raphael Kalinowski from a letter to his sister

Saint Quote: Saint John Zedazeni

My sons, why do you stand idle? Do you not know that the Lord Jesus Christ has sent and guided us here for the benefit of this country? For this is a virgin land. Now it is time for you to go away separately and strengthen our brethren to walk in Christ's ways.

–- Saint John Zedazeni

Saint Quote: Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini

I will go anywhere and do anything in order to communicate the love of Jesus to those who do not know Him or have forgotten Him.

–- Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini

Saint Quote: Saint Josaphat Kuncevyc

You people of Vitebsk want to put me to death. You make ambushes for me everywhere, in the streets, on the bridges, on the highways, and in the marketplace. I am here among you as a shepherd, and you ought to know that I would be happy to give my life for you. I am ready to die for the holy union, for the supremacy of Saint Peter, and of his successor the Supreme Pontiff.

–- Saint Josaphat Kuncevyc

Saint Quote: Saint Martin of Tours

Lord, if your people still need me, I am ready for the task; your will be done.

–- Saint Martin of Tours

Saint Quote: Saint Andrew Avellino

One cannot separate the most Holy Eucharist from the Passion of Jesus.

–- Saint Andrew Avellino