Saint Quote: Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

I think that in Heaven my mission will be to draw souls by helping them to go out of themselves in order to cling to God by a wholly simple and loving movement, and to keep them in this great silence within which will allow God to communicate Himself to them and to transform them into Himself.

–- Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

Saint Quote: Blessed John Duns Scotus

O Lord, our God, you have proclaimed yourself to be the first and last. Teach your servant to show by reason what he holds with faith most certain, that you are the most eminent, the first efficient cause and the last end.

–- Blessed John Duns Scotus from De Primo Principio or A TREATISE ON GOD AS FIRST PRINCIPLE

Saint Quote: Saint Peter Ou

Be loyal to the Lord, accept his will.

–- Saint Peter Ou in a letter to his wife from prison

Saint Quote: Saint Maximus the Confessor

The human nature of God's Son, not by itself but by its union with the Word, knew and showed forth in itself everything that pertains to God.

–- Saint Maximus the Confessor

Saint Quote: Saint Zachary

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people: And hath raised up an horn of salvation to us, in the house of David his servant: As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, who are from the beginning: Salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us: To perform mercy to our fathers, and to remember his holy testament, The oath, which he swore to Abraham our father, that he would grant to us, That being delivered from the hand of our enemies, we may serve him without fear, In holiness and justice before him, all our days. And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways: To give knowledge of salvation to his people, unto the remission of their sins: Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, in which the Orient from on high hath visited us: To enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death: to direct our feet into the way of peace.

–- Saint Zachary from Luke 1: 68 - 79

Saint Quote: Saint Charles Borromeo

Let us fear lest the angered judge say to us: If you were the enlighteners of My Church, why have you closed your eyes? If you pretended to be shepherds of the flock, why have you suffered it to stray? Salt of the earth, you have lost your savor. Light of the world, they that sat in darkness and the shadow of death have never seen you shine. You were apostles; who, then, put your apostolic firmness to the test, since you have done nothing but seek to please men? You were the mouth of the Lord, and you have made that mouth dumb. If you allege in excuse that the burden was beyond your strength, why did you make it the object of your ambitious intrigues?

–- Saint Charles Borromeo

Saint Quote: Saint Alphais of Cudot

[The soul is] simple, invisible, incorporeal, not divided into parts like the body, present as a whole in whatever she does. The soul is not in a particular place. As God is everywhere, so the soul is everywhere in the body, more powerfully in heart and brain, as one says that God is in a special way in heaven.

–- Saint Alphais of Cudot

Saint Quote: 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 Quote: Saint Simon Stock

Carmel's Flower,

Vine ever blossoming,

Heaven's splendor!

Virgin who bore a child.

No one is like thee.

Mother gentle and kind.

Yet never touched by man!

To Carmelites give thou the privilege.

Help us Star of the Sea.

–- Saint Simon Stock

Saint Quote: Blessed Maria Restituta Kafka

I have lived for Christ; I want to die for Christ.

–- Blessed Maria Restituta Kafka her last recorded words before being beheaded by the Nazi's

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: Saint Jude the Apostle

But you, my dearly beloved, be mindful of the words which have been spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who told you, that in the last time there should come mockers, walking according to their own desires in ungodlinesses. These are they, who separate themselves, sensual men, having not the Spirit. But you, my beloved, building yourselves upon your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto life everlasting.

–- Saint Jude the Apostle from The Epistle of Jude 1: 17 - 21

Saint Quote: Saint John Chrysostom

It is possible to offer fervent prayer even while walking in public or strolling alone, or seated in your shop...while buying or selling...or even while cooking.

-- Saint John Chrysostom

Saint Quote: Saint John Mary Vianney

My little children, your hearts, are small, but prayer stretches them and makes them capable of loving God. Through prayer we receive a foretaste of heaven and something of paradise comes down upon us. 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 Mary Vianney

Saint Quote: Saint Alban Bartholomew Roe

My friend, I find that thou art a prophet; thou hast told me often I should be hanged.

–- Saint Alban Bartholomew Roe to one of his former gaolers

Saint Quote: 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 Quote: Saint John of Capistrano

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 from the treatise Mirror of the Clergy

Saint Quote: Saint Peter of Alcantara

No tongue can express the greatness of the love which Jesus Christ bears to our souls. He did not wish that between Him and His servants there should be any other pledge than himself, to keep alive the remembrance of Him.

–- Saint Peter of Alcantara

Saint Quote: Saint Augustine of Hippo

God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.

–- Saint Augustine of Hippo

Saint Quote: Saint Louise de Marillac

Oh, how true it is that souls who seek God will find Him everywhere but especially in the poor. How I cherish your thoughts on this subject. They gave me great cause to praise God.

–- Saint Louise de Marillac

Saint Quote: 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 Quote: Saint Anthony of Padua

Happy the man whose words issue from the Holy Spirit and not from himself!

–- Saint Anthony of Padua

Saint Quote: 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

Novena To Saint Jude Starts October 20

On Sunday, October 20, 2013 I will be praying a Novena To Saint Jude the Apostle, which will end on the feast day of Saint Jude and Saint Simon, on October 28.

Saint Jude is the patron of lost or desperate causes, and several reasons are given for this patronage. Click here to read more on "Favorite Prayers and Scripture".

Saint Quote: Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

What a weakness it is to love Jesus Christ only when He Caresses us, and to be cold immediately once He afflicts us. This is not true love. Those who love thus, love themselves too much to love God with all their heart.

–- Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

Saint Quote: 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 Quote: Saint Cyprian of Carthage

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 Cyprian of Carthage

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: Pope Saint Leo the Great

Christian, recognize your dignity and, now that you share in God's own nature, do not return to your former base condition by sinning. Remember who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Never forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of the Kingdom of God.

-- Pope Saint Leo the Great from a Sermon

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: Saint Francis Borgia

I have great doubts about the salvation of those who do not have special devotion to Mary.

-- Saint Francis Borgia

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: Saint Francis Xavier

It is not the actual physical exertion that counts toward a man's progress, nor the nature of the task, but the spirit of faith with which it is undertaken.

-- Saint Francis Xavier

Saint Quote : Saint Louis de Montfort

When the Holy Rosary is said well, it gives Jesus and Mary more glory and is more meritorious than any other prayer.

-- Saint Louis de Montfort

Saint Quote: Saint Faith

Lord Jesus, who art always ready to assist your servants, fortify me at this hour, and enable me to answer in a manner worthy of you.

-- Saint Faith from a prayer attributed to her during her trial

Saint Quote: Saint Faustina

"Before I come as the just judge, I am coming first as the King of Mercy. Before the day of justice arrives, there will be given to people a sign in the heavens of this sort: "All light in the heavens will be extinguished, and there will be great darkness over the whole earth. Then the sign of the cross will be seen in the sky, and from the openings where the hands and the feet of the Savior were nailed will come forth great lights which will light up the earth for a period of time. This will take place shortly before the last day." 

-- Saint Faustina from "Divine Mercy in my Soul"

Saint Quote: Saint Francis of Assisi

We must not be wise according to the flesh. Rather we must be simple, humble and pure. We should never desire to be over others. Instead, we ought to be servants who are submissive to every human being for God's sake. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on all who live in this way and persevere in it to the end. He will permanently dwell in them. They will be the Father's children who do his work.

-- Saint Francis of Assisi from a letter

Saint Quote: Saint Gerard of Brogne

How happy are they who have no other obligation but to praise the Lord night and day, and who live always in His presence.

-- Saint Gerard of Brogne

Saint Quote: Saint Jerome (On Guardian Angels)

How great the dignity of the soul, since each one has from his birth an angel commissioned to guard it. 

-- Saint Jerome in his commentary on Matthew

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