Saint Jaime Hilario

 

 

The day you learn to surrender yourself totally to God, you will discover a new world, just as I am experiencing. You will enjoy a peace and a calm unknown, surpassing even the happiest days of your life.

-- Saint Jaime Hilario

Pope Saint Leo the Great

Although the universal Church of God is constituted of distinct orders of members, still, in spite of the many parts of its holy body, the Church subsists as an integral whole, just as the Apostle says: “We are all one in Christ,” nor is anyone separated from the office of another in such a way that a lower group has no connection with the head. In the unity of faith and baptism, our community is then undivided. There is a common dignity as the apostle Peter says in these words: “And you are built up as living stones into spiritual houses, a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices which are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” And again: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of election.” For all, regenerated in Christ, as made kings by the sign of the cross. They are consecrated priests by the oil of the Holy Spirit, so that beyond the special service of our ministry as priests, all spiritual and mature Christians know that they are a royal race and are sharers in the office of the priesthood. For what is more king-like than to find yourself ruler over your body after having surrendered your soul to God? And what is more priestly than to promise the Lord a pure conscience and to offer him in love unblemished victims on the altar of one’s heart? 

-- Pope Saint Leo the Great from a sermon

Pope Saint Gregory the Great

The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist.

-- Pope Saint Gregory the Great

Saint Isidore of Seville

Confession heals, confession justifies, confession grants pardon of sin. All hope consists in confession. In confession there is a chance for mercy. Believe it firmly. Do not doubt, do not hesitate, never despair of the mercy of God. Hope and have confidence in confession.

-- Saint Isidore of Seville

Saint Phillip Neri

Humility is the safeguard of chastity. In the matter of purity, there is no greater danger than not fearing danger. When a person puts himself in an occasion of sin, saying, " I shall not fall", it is almost an infallible sign that he will fall, and with great injury to his soul. We must specifically and regularly pray for God's assistance and not rely on our own strength.

-- Saint Phillip Neri

Saint John Zedazneli

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 Zedazneli to his disciples

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. 

If teaching and preaching is your job, then study diligently and apply yourself to whatever is necessary for doing the job well. Be sure that you first preach by the way you live. If you do not, people will notice that you say one thing, but live otherwise, and your words will bring only cynical laughter and a derisive shake of the head. 

We must meditate before, during and after everything we do. The prophet says: "I will pray, and then I will understand." 

This is the way we can easily overcome the countless difficulties we have to face day after day, which, after all, are part of our work. In meditation we find the strength to bring Christ to birth in ourselves and in other men. 

-- Saint Charles Borromeo 

Saint Martin de Porres

Forgive my error, and please instruct me, for I did not know that the precept of obedience took precedence over that of charity.

-- Saint Martin de Porres to his superior after being reprimanded for taking an injured Indian to his room.

Saint Theresa of Avila

The devil will try to upset you by accusing you of being unworthy of the blessings that you have received. Simply remain cheerful and do your best to ignore the devil's nagging. If need be even laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Satan, the epitome of sin itself, accuses you of unworthiness! When the devil reminds you of your past, remind him of his future!

-- Saint Theresa of Avila

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Neither are the souls of the pious dead separated from the Church which even now is the kingdom of Christ. Otherwise there would be no remembrance of them at the altar of God in the communication of the Body of Christ.

-- Saint Augustine of Hippo from "The City of God"

Saint Thomas More

And, therefore, my own good daughter, do not let your mind be troubled over anything that shall happen to me in this world. Nothing can come but what God wills. And I am very sure that whatever that be, however bad it may seem, it shall indeed be the best. 

-- Saint Thomas More in a letter from prison to his daughter Margaret

Saint John of the Cross

Live in the world as if only God and your soul were in it; then your heart will never be made captive by any earthly thing. 

-- Saint John of the Cross

Saint Gregory Nazianzen

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. 

--Saint Gregory Nazianzen

Saint Jude Thaddeus

To the one who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you unblemished and exultant, in the presence of His Glory, to the only God, Our Savior, through Jesus Christ Our Lord be glory, majesty, power, and authority from ages past, now, and for ages to come. Amen

-- Saint Jude Thaddeus from The Epistle of Jude 1:24-25

Saint Conrad of Parzham

It was God's will that I should leave everything that was near and dear to me. I thank him for having called me to religious life where I have found such peace and joy as I could never have found in the world. My plan of life is chiefly this: to love and suffer, always meditating upon, adoring and admiring God's unspeakable love for his lowliest creatures. 

-- Saint Conrad of Parzham

Saint Quodvultdeus

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.

-- Saint Quodvultdeus from a sermon about the Holy Innocents

Saint Margaret Clitherow

God be thanked, I am not worthy of so good a death as this. 

-- Saint Margaret Clitherow when advised of her death sentence

Saint Anthony Mary Claret

For myself, I say this to you: The man who burns with the fire of divine love is a son of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and wherever he goes, he enkindles that flame; he deserves and works with all this strength to inflame all men with the fire of God’s love. Nothing deters him: he rejoices in poverty; he labors strenuously; he welcomes hardships; he laughs off false accusations; he rejoices in anguish. He thinks only of how he might follow Jesus Christ and imitate him by his prayers, his labors, his sufferings, and by caring always and only for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

-- Saint Anthony Mary Claret

Saint John of Capistrano

Those who are called to the table of the Lord must glow with the brightness that comes from the good example of a praiseworthy and blameless life. They must completely remove from their lives the filth and uncleanness of vice. Their upright lives must make them like the salt of the earth for themselves and for the rest of mankind. The brightness of their wisdom must make them like the light of the world that brings light to others. They must learn from their eminent teacher, Jesus Christ, what he declared not only to his apostles and disciples, but also to all the priests and clerics who were to succeed them, when he said, “You are the salt of the earth. But what is salt goes flat? How can you restore its flavor? Then it is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” Jesus also said: “You are the light of the world.” Now a light does not illumine itself, but instead it diffuses its rays and shines all around upon everything that comes into its view. So it must be with the glowing lives of upright and holy clerics. By the brightness of their holiness they must bring light and serenity to all who gaze upon them. They have been placed here to care for others. Their own lives should be an example to others, showing how they must live in the house of the Lord.

-- Saint John of Capistrano

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 Thérèse of Lisieux

I am about to go before God, and I understand now more than ever that one thing is needful – to work for Him alone, and do nothing for self or for creatures. Jesus wishes to own your heart completely. Before this can be, you will have much to suffer … but oh! what joy when comes the happy hour of going Home! I shall not die – I do but enter into Life … and whatsoever I cannot tell you here upon earth I will make you understand from the heights of Heaven.

-- Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

Saint Paul of the Cross

I hope that God will save me through the merits of the Passion of Jesus. The more difficulties in life, the more I hope in God. By God's grace I will not lose my soul, but I hope in His mercy.

-- Saint Paul of the Cross

Saint Isaac Jogues

My confidence is placed in God who does not need our help for accomplishing his designs. Our single endeavor should be to give ourselves to the work and to be faithful to him, and not to spoil his work by our shortcomings. 

-- Saint Isaac Jogues

Saint Luke the Evangelist

In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up, after He had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He had chosen. To them He presented himself alive after His Passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God.

-- Saint Luke the Evangelist from Acts of the Apostles 1: 1 - 3

Saint Ignatius of Antioch

I am writing to all the churches to let it be known that I will gladly die for God if only you do not stand in my way. I plead with you: show me no untimely kindness. Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God's wheat and bread. Pray to Christ for me that the animals will be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God...The prince of this world is determined to lay hold of me and to undermine my will which is intent on God. Let none of you here help him; instead show yourselves on my side, which is also God's side...Rather within me is the living water which says deep inside me: "Come to the Father.

-- Saint Ignatius of Antioch from his Letter to the Romans

Saint Gerard Majella

Who except God can give you peace? Has the world ever been able to satisfy the heart? 

-- Saint Gerard Majella

Saint Teresa of Avila

Oh my Lord! How true it is that whoever works for you is paid in troubles! And what a precious price to those who love you if we understand its value.

-- Saint Teresa of Avila

Saint Cyril of Alexandria

Who can put Mary's high honour into words? She is both mother and virgin. I am overwhelmed by the wonder of this miracle. Of course no one could be prevented from living in the house he had built for himself, yet who would invite mockery by asking his own servant to become his mother? Behold then the joy of the whole universe. Let the union of God and man in the Son of the Virgin Mary fill us with awe and adoration.

-- Saint Cyril of Alexandria

Saint John Climacus

To be removed from things of the senses is to contemplate things of the spirit.

-- Saint John Climacus

Saint Polycarp of Smyrna

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 Polycarp of Smyrna , Letter to the Philippians

Saint Francis de Sales

We need not fear to be puffed with the knowledge of what God has done for us, if we keep well before us the truth that whatever good there may be in us, is not of us. Though a mule is laden with the precious treasures of a prince, is it not still a clumsy, filthy beast?

-- Saint Francis de Sales

Saint Daniel Comboni

We will have to labour hard, to sweat, to die: but the thought that one sweats and dies for love of Jesus Christ and the salvation of the most abandoned souls in the world, is far too sweet for us to desist from this great enterprise.

-- Saint Daniel Comboni from a letter to his parents

Saint John Chrysostom

If we have obtained the grace of God, none shall prevail against us, but we shall be stronger than all who oppose us.

-- Saint John Chrysostom

Saint Peter Julian Eymund

If the love of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament does not win our hearts, Jesus is vanquished! Our ingratitude is greater than His Goodness our malice is more powerful than His Charity. 

-- Saint Peter Julian Eymund

Saint Anselm of Canterbury

Mary was raised to the dignity of Mother of God rather for sinners than for the just, since Jesus Christ declares that he came to call not the just, but sinners.

-- Saint Anselm of Canterbury

Saint Mary Faustina Kowalska

Neither graces, nor revelations, nor raptures, nor gifts granted to a soul make it perfect, but rather the intimate union of the soul with God. These gifts are merely ornaments of the soul, but constitute neither its essence nor its perfection. My sanctity and perfection consist in the close union of my will with the will of God.

-- Saint Mary Faustina Kowalska from her diary "Divine Mercy in my Soul"

Saint Francis of Assisi

Let us also love our neighbors as ourselves. Let us have charity and humility. Let us give alms because these cleanse our souls from the stains of sin. Men lose all the material things they leave behind them in this world, but they carry with them the reward of their charity and the alms they give. For these they will receive from the Lord the reward and recompense they deserve.

-- Saint Francis of Assisi

Saint Nicholas of Flüe

My Lord and my God, remove far from me whatever keeps me from You. My Lord and my God, confer on me whatever enables me to reach You. My Lord and my God, free me from self and make me wholly Yours. Amen

Saint Nicholas of Flüe

Saint Gemma Galgani

If I saw the gates of Hell open and I stood on the brink of the abyss, I should not despair, I should not lose hope of mercy, because I should trust in You, my God. 

-- Saint Gemma Galgani 

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

Saint Jerome

The measure of our advancement in the spiritual life should be taken from the progress we make in the virtue of mortification; for it should be held as certain that the greater violence we shall do ourselves in mortification, the greater advance we shall make in perfection. 

-- Saint Jerome

Pope Saint Gregory the Great

You should be aware that the word “angel” denotes a function rather than a nature. Those holy spirits of heaven have indeed always been spirits. They can only be called angels when they deliver some message. Moreover, those who deliver messages of lesser importance are called angels; and those who proclaim messages of supreme importance are called archangels.

Whenever some act of wondrous power must be performed, Michael is sent, so that his action and his name may make it clear that no one can do what God does by his superior power.

-- Pope Saint Gregory the Great from a homily

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Suppose an evil person would offend you, or one whom you judge to be evil or even imagine so. Would you abandon so many others who are good?

-- Saint Augustine of Hippo

Saint Remigius Isoré

I have heard that it is very difficult to convert Chinese, and so I had never, ever, wanted to go to China. A kind of resentment had slipped into my heart at the very word, China. But the Provincial enlightened me. I understood that it was the will of God that I should go to China. Joy and gratitude then filled my heart.

-- Saint Remigius Isoré

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 Marie Victoire Therese Couderc

 

 

I abandon myself with my whole heart to God's will, and to God's good pleasure — and when I have in all sincerity made this act of self-surrender, I experience great tranquility and perfect peace.

-- Saint Marie Victoire Therese Couderc

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Suppose an evil person would offend you, or one whom you judge to be evil or even imagine so. Would you abandon so many others who are good?

-- Saint Augustine of Hippo

Saint Ignatius of Antioch

No earthly pleasures, no kingdoms of this world can benefit me in any way. I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth. He who died in place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sakes is my one desire.

-- Saint Ignatius of Antioch

Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina

Stay with me, Lord, for it is necessary to have You present so that I do not forget You. You know how easily I abandon You. 

Stay with me, Lord, because I am weak and I need Your strength, that I may not fall so often. 

Stay with me, Lord, for You are my life and without You I am without fervor. 

Stay with me, Lord, for You are my light and without You I am in darkness. 

Stay with me, Lord, to show me Your will. 

Stay with me, Lord, so that I hear Your voice and follow You. 

Stay with me, Lord, for I desire to love You very much and alway be in Your company. 

Stay with me, Lord, if You wish me to be faithful to You. 

Stay with me, Lord, as poor as my soul is I want it to be a place of consolation for You, a nest of Love. 

Stay with me, Jesus, for it is getting late and the day is coming to a close and life passes, death, judgment and eternity approaches. It is necessary to renew my strength, so that I will not stop along the way and for that, I need You. It is getting late and death approaches, I fear the darkness, the temptations, the dryness, the cross, the sorrows. O how I need You, my Jesus, in this night of exile! 

Stay with me tonight, Jesus, in life with all its dangers, I need You. 

Let me recognize You as Your disciples did at the breaking of the bread, so that the Eucharistic Communion be the Light which disperses the darkness, the force which sustains me, the unique joy of my heart. 

Stay with me, Lord, because at the hour of my death, I want to remain united to You, if not by Communion, at least by grace and love. 

Stay with me, Lord, for it is You alone I look for, Your Love, Your Grace, Your Will, Your Heart, Your Spirit, because I love You and ask no other reward but to love You more and more. 

With a firm love, I will love You with all my heart while on earth and continue to love You perfectly during all eternity. Amen.

-- Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, his prayer after Holy Communion

Saint Thomas of Villanova

If there are people who refuse to work, that is for the authorities to deal with. My duty is to assist and relieve those who come to my door.

-- Saint Thomas of Villanova