Thursday

Top 50 Saints' Quotes

Top 50 Saints' Quotes
By Marcel of Aggie Catholics


MAY 22, 2010 (http://marysaggies.blogspot.com) - The top 50 Saints' quotes, in an arbitrary ranking. There are many others that I didn't put on the list that are great. Feel free to leave them in the comments.

  1. "Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ."
    -St. Jerome

  2. "Since Christ Himself has said, "This is My Body" who shall dare to doubt that It is His Body?"
    -St. Cyril of Jerusalem

  3. "Teach us to give and not count the cost."
    -St. Ignatius de Loyola

  4. "Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you."
    -St. Augustine

  5. "Don't you long to shout to those youths who are bustling around you: Fools! Leave those worldly things that shackle the heart - and very often degrade it - leave all that and come with us in search of Love!"
    -St. Josemaria Escriva

  6. "For me prayer is a surge of the heart, it is a simple look towards Heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy."
    -St. Therese of Lisieux

  7. "To convert somebody go and take them by the hand and guide them."
    -St. Thomas Aquinas

  8. "On the question of relating to our fellowman – our neighbor’s spiritual need transcends every commandment. Everything else we do is a means to an end. But love is an end already, since God is love."
    -St. Teresia Benedicta (Edith Stein)

  9. "If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze!"
    -St. Catherine of Sienna

  10. "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy."
    -St. Francis

  11. "Our hearts were made for You, O Lord, and they are restless until they rest in you."
    -St. Augustine of Hippo

  12. "Charity is certainly greater than any rule. Moreover, all rules must lead to charity."
    -St. Vincent de Paul

  13. "Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you!"
    -St. Augustine

  14. "O Master, make me chaste, but not yet!"
    -St. Augustine

  15. "’Eat my flesh,’ [Jesus] says, ‘and drink my blood.’ The Lord supplies us with these intimate nutrients, he delivers over his flesh and pours out his blood, and nothing is lacking for the growth of his children"
    -St. Clement of Alexandria

  16. "Priests have received a power which God has given neither to angels nor to archangels. It was said to them: ‘Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose, shall be loosed.’ Temporal rulers have indeed the power of binding; but they can only bind the body. Priests, in contrast, can bind with a bond which pertains to the soul itself and transcends the very heavens. Did [God] not give them all the powers of heaven?...What greater power is there than this? The Father has given all judgment to the Son. And now I see the Son placing all this power in the hands of men. They are raised to this dignity as if they were already gathered up to heaven"
    -St. John Chrysostom

  17. "The nation doesn’t simply need what we have. It needs what we are."
    -St. Teresia Benedicta (Edith Stein)

  18. "We are to love God for Himself, because of a twofold reason; nothing is more reasonable, nothing more profitable."
    -St. Bernard of Clairvaux

  19. "We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials."
    -St. Teresa of Avila

  20. "Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church."
    -St. Ignatius of Antioch

  21. "If this is the way You treat Your friends, no wonder You have so few!"
    -St. Teresa of Avila

  22. "Give something, however small, to the one in need. For it is not small to one who has nothing. Neither is it small to God, if we have given what we could."
    -St. Gregory Nazianzen

  23. "Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort me and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger."
    -St. Patrick

  24. "Christ said, “I am the Truth”; he did not say “I am the custom."
    -St. Toribio

  25. "All the efforts of the human mind cannot exhaust the essence of a single fly."
    -St. Thomas Aquinas

  26. "There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers."
    -St. Teresa of Avila

  27. "I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible"
    -St. Ignatius of Antioch

  28. "You cannot be half a saint; you must be a whole saint or no saint at all."
    -St. Therese of Lisieux

  29. "You must ask God to give you power to fight against the sin of pride which is your greatest enemy – the root of all that is evil, and the failure of all that is good. For God resists the proud."
    -St. Vincent de Paul

  30. "Let us go forward in peace, our eyes upon heaven, the only one goal of our labors."
    -St. Therese of Lisieux

  31. "When you approach the tabernacle remember that he has been waiting for you for twenty centuries."
    - St. Josemaria Escriva

  32. "From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us!"
    -St. Teresa of Avila

  33. "Love God, serve God; everything is in that."
    -St. Clare of Assisi

  34. "Pray with great confidence, with confidence based upon the goodness and infinite generosity of God and upon the promises of Jesus Christ. God is a spring of living water which flows unceasingly into the hearts of those who pray."
    -St. Louis de Montfort

  35. "Apart from the cross, there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven."
    -St. Rose of Lima

  36. "The creator of the heavens obeys a carpenter; the God of eternal glory listens to a poor virgin. Has anyone ever witnessed anything comparable to this? Let the philosopher no longer disdain from listening to the common laborer; the wise, to the simple; the educated, to the illiterate; a child of a prince, to a peasant."
    -St. Anthony of Padua

  37. "Charity is that with which no man is lost, and without which no man is saved."
    -St. Robert Bellarmine

  38. "Whether, therefore, we receive what we ask for, or do not receive it, let us still continue steadfast in prayer. For to fail in obtaining the desires of our heart, when God so wills it, is not worse than to receive it; for we know not as He does, what is profitable to us."
    -St. John Chrysostom

  39. "What does the poor man do at the rich man’s door, the sick man in the presence of his physician, the thirsty man at a limpid stream? What they do, I do before the Eucharistic God. I pray. I adore. I love." -St. Francis

  40. "Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to heaven."
    -Pope St. Pius X

  41. "We will either accuse ourselves or excuse ourselves."
    -St. John Vianney

  42. "If a man wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark."
    -St. John of the Cross

  43. "He loves, He hopes, He waits. If He came down on our altars on certain days only, some sinner, on being moved to repentance, might have to look for Him, and not finding Him, might have to wait. Our Lord prefers to wait Himself for the sinner for years rather than keep him waiting one instant."
    -St. Julian Peter Eymard

  44. "Love is the most necessary of all virtues. Love in the person who preaches the word of God is like fire in a musket. If a person were to throw a bullet with his hands, he would hardly make a dent in anything; but if the person takes the same bullet and ignites some gunpowder behind it, it can kill. It is much the same with the word of God. If it is spoken by someone who is filled with the fire of charity- the fire of love of God and neighbor- it will work wonders."
    -St. Anthony Mary Claret

  45. "Our Lord loves you and loves you tenderly; and if He does not let you feel the sweetness of His love, it is to make you more humble and abject in your own eyes."
    -St. Pio of Pietrelcino

  46. "You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working, and just so, you learn to love by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves."
    -St. Francis de Sales

  47. "Pray, Hope, and Don't Worry"
    -St. Pio of Pietrelcino

  48. "All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle."
    -St. Francis

  49. "Tribulation is a gift from God - one that he especially gives His special friends."
    -St. Thomas More

  50. "If I speak to thee in friendship's name, thou think'st I speak too coldly, if I mention love's devoted flame, thou say'st I speak too boldly"
    - St. Thomas More
From the "he never said it" file:
  • "Preach the Gospel at all times. If necessary, use words." -St. Francis
From the "not quite yet canonized" file:
  • "There are not over a 100 people in the U.S. that hate the Catholic Church, there are millions however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church. Which is, of course, quite a different thing."
    -Servant of God Fulton J. Sheen
  • "Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to genius."
    -Servant of God Fulton J. Sheen
  • "Hearing nuns’ confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn."
    -Servant of God Fulton J. Sheen
  • "We can do no great things; only small things with great love."
    -Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
  • "Joy is a net of love by which we catch souls."
    -Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
  • "It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
    -Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
  • "As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live."
    -Venerable John Paul II
  • "Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors to Christ."
    -Venerable John Paul II
  • "The human person is a good towards which the only proper attitude is love."
    -Venerable John Paul II
  • "Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought."
    -Venerable John Paul II
In my opinion, the most quotable Catholic of all time is G.K. Chesterton - so I have not included any of his here, there are too many.

Add your favotite to this list. Post your comment below.

Going Forth

Going Forth
Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2010
(PentecostC)
By Sarah Waninger

Sunday Readings
Lecturas y Comentarios
Sunday Readings Bible Study
Prayer of the Hours
Burning Question: What do say when asked if you are a Christian?


In today’s reading Jesus sends his disciples to continue doing the works that he has taught them. He blesses them to take the Holy Spirit with them on their travels, wherever they would be going next.

As a graduating senior, this message of peace and accompaniment means so much to me, more now than ever before in my life. I have learned so much about life, God, myself, my faith, and the world around me in my time at SLU. I am really struggling to accept the fact that this phase of my life is over. It is sad but glad.

As my friends and I scatter literally to all parts of the country: Indiana, California, Texas, Michigan, Massachusetts, etc., I am excited to see what this new phase brings for each of us. It is time to take the gifts, great blessings and life lessons given us during this university time and go forward to into the world.

I am both nervous and excited for my next step. Medical school in Indiana will be a challenging and difficult learning experience. But I am confident that the learnings and blessings I have received from SLU in the last four years will continue to provide the peace that Jesus wishes his disciples in today’s gospel.

It is a time of great transition for me and my companions. A time of new challenges and of course goodbyes. I hope the training and life I have built here and the love and guidance of the Holy Spirit will continue to work in my heart and the hearts of my classmates as we go forth. Jesus is sending us forth as his disciples today.

Sarah Waninger
Senior, Saint Louis University

How to Change the World

How to Change the World
Seventh Sunday of Easter, May 16, 2010 (AscensionC)
By Fr. Ron Rolheiser

Sunday Readings (Seventh Sunday Easter C)
Sunday Readings (Ascension Sunday)
Lecturas y Comentarios
Sunday Readings Bible Study
Prayer of the Hours
Burning Question: What are the 5 reasons we pray?


The Easter readings are full of hope for the end of the world, or at least for the end of my life. But these readings on the feast of the Ascension are the most hopeful readings for my day-to-day life that I’ve read in a long time.

In the first reading, the Apostles ask Jesus when he will restore Israel, and Jesus says “I’m not, you are. But don’t worry, you will receive the Holy Spirit, through whom you will do great things.”

In the second reading, St. Paul tells the Ephesians that God will give them wisdom and revelation to help them make a difference in the world. In the Gospel, Jesus tells the Apostles that they will transform the world through God’s power.

As a graduating senior, there is a lot of unknown in the future, and unknown always brings fear and worry. But these readings give me hope.

I have no idea what I will be doing in the next three years, and I don’t know how to make a difference in the world, or even if I can. But Jesus sounds like he has confidence in me.

There is always going to be unknown in my life, but God has sent the Holy Spirit to me. In reality, I don’t think that I have to change the world. If I can listen to God’s call and trust in God, the rest will be taken care of. God gives me hope that through him, I will do great things.

Clayton Chmiel
Senior, Saint Louis University
--

Surpasses Understanding

Surpasses Understanding
Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 9, 2010 (6EasterC)
By Colleen Corcoran

Sunday Readings
Lecturas y Comentarios
Prayer of the Hours

Discussion Questions & Online Bible Study

Burning Question: What does the Holy Spirit do in your life?

In this week’s Gospel is one of my favorite Bible verses: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27). This is one of my favorite because of the comfort I feel when I read it.

I can imagine Jesus speaking it calmly to his disciples as he tries to convey the depth of his love. In my head, I see him looking at his friends and giving each person a significant glance. Maybe the reason I find it so calming is the peace that it evokes in my heart.

As an involved SLU student, I never see too much down-time in my day, and I usually run about campus in a state of perpetual activity. When I do get a moment of world-given peace, it usually involves me taking a nap to re-vamp for my coming activities.

I can feel a stark contrast between this peace and the spiritual peace that Jesus offers. Although not as tangible, God’s peace always seems more substantial to me.

Studying abroad this semester, I have often thought of the final line of the verse: “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

Being placed in entirely new situations on a daily basis can take a toll on my mind and spirit. Be it by getting lost in Paris, or stuck in Germany, I find that life likes to throw me curveballs.

In these situations, I try to remember that it doesn’t signify the end of the world, and I should not let my fear get the best of me. Trying to find my inner strength, I’ll think of that scripture verse or the ones when Jesus promises to be with us always.

There, in my mental picture of Jesus before his disciples, I find the peace and confidence that I need to tackle my problems.

Colleen Corcoran, Sophomore

Saint Louis University

View this story in ParishWorld.net