Saint Irenaeus of Lyons

If one carefully reads the Scriptures, he will find there the word on the subject of Christ -- de Christo sermonem -- and the prefiguration of the new calling. He is indeed the hidden treasure in the field -- the field in fact is the world -- but in truth, the hidden treasure in the Scriptures is Christ. Because he is designed by types and words that humanly are not possible to understand before the accomplishment of all things, that is, Christ's parousia (coming).

-- Saint Irenaeus of Lyons

Saint Bernadette of Lourdes

You must receive God well; give Him a loving welcome, for then He has to pay us rent. 

-- Saint Bernadette of Lourdes

Saint Augustine of Hippo

God does not command impossibilities, but by commanding admonishes you do what you can and to pray for what you cannot, and aids you that you may be able. 

-- Saint Augustine of Hippo

Saint Thomas More

I shall remember how Saint Peter at a blast of wind began to sink because of his lack of faith, and I shall do as he did: call upon Christ and pray to him for help. And then I trust he shall place his holy hand on me and in the stormy seas hold me up from drowning. 

-- Saint Thomas More

Saint Ambrose of Milan

This Creed is the spiritual seal, our heart's meditation and an ever-present guardian; it is, unquestionably, the treasure of our soul.

-- Saint Ambrose of Milan

Saint Cyril

O Lord, my God, you have created the choirs of angels and spiritual powers; you have stretched forth the heavens and established the earth, creating all that exists from nothing. You hear those who obey your will and keep your commands in holy fear. Hear my prayer and protect your faithful people, for you have established me as their unsuitable and unworthy servant. “Make your people known for the unit and profession of their faith. Inspire the hearts of your people with your word and your teaching. You called us to preach the Gospel of your Christ and to encourage them to lives and works pleasing to you. “I now return to you, your people, your gift to me. Direct them with your powerful right hand, and protect them under the shadow of your wings. May all praise and glorify your name, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

-- Saint Cyril from an old Slavonic biography

Saint Josemaría Escrivá

Either we learn to find our Lord in ordinary, everyday life, or else we shall never find Him.

-- Saint  Josemaría Escrivá

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem

This synthesis of faith was not made to accord with human opinions, but rather what was of the greatest importance was gathered from all the Scriptures, to present the one teaching of the faith in its entirety. And just as the mustard seed contains a great number of branches in a tiny grain, so too this summary of faith encompassed in a few words the whole knowledge of the true religion contained in the Old and the New Testaments.

-- Saint Cyril of Jerusalem

Saint Bernadette of Lourdes

I had gone down one day with two other girls to the bank of the river Gave when suddenly I heard a kind of rustling sound. I turned my head toward the field by the side of the river, but the trees seemed quite still and the noise was evidently not from them. Then I looked up and caught sight of the cave where I saw a lady wearing a lovely white dress with a bright belt. On top of each of her feet was a pale yellow rose, the same color as her rosary beads. At this I rubbed my eyes, thinking I was seeing things, and I put my hands into the fold of my dress where my rosary was. I wanted to make the sign of the cross, but for the life of me I couldn’t manage it, and my hand just fell down. Then the lady made the sign of the cross herself, and at the second attempt I managed to do the same, though my hands were trembling. Then I began to say the rosary while the lady let her beads clip through her fingers, without moving her lips. When I stopped saying the Hail Mary, she immediately vanished. I asked my two companions if they had noticed anything, but they said no. Of course, they wanted to know what I was doing, and I told them that I had seen a lady wearing a nice white dress, though I didn’t know who she was. I told them not to say anything about it, and they said I was silly to have anything to do with it. I said they were wrong, and I came back next Sunday, feeling myself drawn to the place

-- Saint Bernadette of Lourdes from her account of her first vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Saint Alphonsus Liguori

He who does not acquire the love of God will scarcely persevere in the grace of God, for it is very difficult to renounce sin merely through fear of chastisement. 

-- Saint Alphonsus Liguori 

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

Saint Josephine Bakhita

Mary protected me even before I knew her! 

-- Saint Josephine Bakhita

Saint Colette of Corbie

We must faithfully keep what we have promised. If through human weakness we fail, we must always without delay arise again by means of holy penance, and give our attention to leading a good life and to dying a holy death. May the Father of all mercy, the Son by his holy passion, and the Holy Spirit, source of peace, sweetness and love, fill us with their consolation. Amen. 

-- Saint Colette of Corbie from her spiritual testament to her sisters

Saint Paul Miki

Like my Master I shall die upon the cross. Like him, a lance will pierce my heart so that my blood and my love can flow out upon the land and sanctify it to his name.

-- Saint Paul Miki

Saint Agatha

Lord, my creator, you have protected me since I was in the cradle. You have taken me from the love of the world and given me patience to suffer. Now receive my spirit. 

-- Saint Agatha 

Saint Joseph of Leonessa

O most holy cross, transform us completely into yourself.  Let your base become our feet, your beams our arms, your summit our head.  And so that we may become the cross, nail our feet that they may be fixed in you;  bind our arms that they may not act apart form you; open our side, wound breast and touch our heart with love for you.  Grant that our eyes may see nothing but you; our ears hear nothing but you; our nostrils smell nothing but you.  O cross, rest in us now, as once Christ rested upon you; may we thirst for you, just as Christ, while hanging upon you, thirsted for us. May we commend ourselves to Him who hun upon you, just as he commended himself to the Eternal Father. O sweet cross, o loving cross, be our defence and our support.

-- Saint Joseph of Leonessa

Pope Saint Clement

Since all things lie open to His eyes and ears, let us hold Him in awe and rid ourselves of impure desires to do works of evil, so that we may be protected by His mercy from the judgement that is to come. Which of us can escape His mighty hand?

-- Pope Saint Clement

Saint John Vianney

Prayer is nothing else but union with God. In this intimate union, God and the soul are fused together like two bits of wax that no one can ever pull apart. This union of God with a tiny creature is a lovely thing. It is a happiness beyond understanding.

-- Saint John Vianney

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