FAVORITE QUOTES
"It is important to 'understand others, not condemn them.'"
Pope Francis (Catholic News Service, 9/2015)
"It was not the effigy that guarded the men, but the men who guarded
the effigy. For what earthly reason was Minerva worshiped as the
protector of the land and people, when she could not even protect the
guards of her temple?"
Augustine, City of God
End of Chapter 2
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You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd.
Flannery O'Connor
as quoted on mliccione.blogspot.com/2008/09
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Nothing disconcerts the human mind as much as the simplicity of the divine works when compared to the great effects they obtain . . .
Tertullian, On Baptism (from Mary Mirror of the Church, Cantalamessa)
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Who is not satisfied with God alone is much too greedy.
Augustine
From A retreat with Teresa of Avila
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Ability is what you are capable of doing.
Motivation determines what you do.
Attitude determines how well you do it.
Sparkpeople.com
“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)
“Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build.”
(Psalm 127)
“Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong. Your every act should be done with love.”
(1 Corinthians 16:13)
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"We need people who can explain the Catholic position simply and clearly--and who are ordinary people; who are teachers or lawyers or working in post offices or whatever--so that the listener will feel Now I understand and perhaps for the first time will see what the Church is saying."
Jack Valero, A Coordinator of the Catholic Voices Project in the U.K. (National Catholic Register, July 18-31, 2010)
"There are all different kinds of voices calling you to all different kinds of work, and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God rather than of Society, say, or the Superego, or Self-Interest. By and large a good rule for finding out is this. The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done. If you really get a kick out of your work, you've presumably met requirement (a), but if your work is writing TV deodorant commercials, the chances are you've missed requirement (b). On the other hand, if your work is being a doctor in a leper colony, you have probably met requirement (b), but if most of the time you're bored and depressed by it, the chances are you have not only bypassed (a) but probably aren't helping your patients much either. Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do. The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." (emphasis added)
Frederick Buechner
My father used to say, "Don't raise your voice. Improve your argument." Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in Reader's Digest
God cannot fill what is full.--He can fill only emptiness--deep poverty--and your "Yes" is the beginning of being or becoming empty. It is not how much we really "have" to give--but how empty we are--so that we can receive fully in our life and let Him live His life in us.
Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light
It is only when we realise [sic] our nothingness, our emptiness, that God can fill us with Himself. When we become full of God then we can give God to others, for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.
Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light
Bad company corrupts good morals.
St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:33
People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.
Soren Kierkegaard
It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.
Mother Theresa
You can't see paradise if you don't peddle.
The movie, Chicken Run
Sometimes when I'm faced with an unbeliever, an atheist, I am tempted to invite him to the greatest gourmet dinner that one could ever serve, and when we finished eating that magnificent dinner, to ask him if he believes there's a cook.
Ronald Reagan (as quoted in House to House, Heart to Heart)
The first degree of humility is obedience without delay.
St. Benedict
Always in the midst of busy lives and much activity, we must continually strive to maintain our interior quiet.
Attributed to St. Elizabeth Seton, in A Retreat with
Elizabeth Seton (St. Anthony Messenger Press)
If you hear criticisms, pray for me, that the Lord may forgive me if the criticism is just and, if it is unjust, forgive whoever utters it.
Pope John XXIII, Journal of a Soul
"We do not experience an open confrontation against the Church, but there is a sustained effort to erode the Christian culture and replace our core values with a strange list of 'rights' that attacks life, family and community under the mantle of a false 'freedom of choice.'"
Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino,
Archbishop of Havana [Cuba] in The National
Catholic Register
"[the document] calls for a Church "not depending so much on great programs and structures, but in men and women who have incarnated the values of the Gospel in their hearts."
The National Catholic Register, The Document
of Aparecida [Brazil], No. 11
