All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful. ~Flannery O’Connor

“Our educational establishment these days, while so tolerant of and even insistent upon diversity in all other aspects of life seems bent on eliminating diversity of moral judgment — particularly moral judgment based on religious views.” ~ Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

Nothing is hidden from the Lord Jesus, but even our secrets are close to him. Let us then do everything in the knowledge that he is dwelling within us, so that we may be his temples and he may be God within us. ~St. Ignatius of Antioch

“When I first found out I had cancer, I didn't know what to pray for. I didn't know if I should pray for healing or life or death. Then I found peace in praying for what my folks call, 'God's perfect will.' As it evolved, my prayer has become, 'Lord, let me live until I die.' By that I mean I want to live, love, and serve fully until death comes. If that prayer is answered, how long really doesn't matter. Whether it's just a few months or a few years is really immaterial.” ~ Sister Thea Bowman

Dear Friends, Christ is not so much interested in how often in your lives you stumble and fall, as in how often you pick yourselves up again. He does not demand glittering achievements, but He wants His light to shine in you. He does not call you because you are good and perfect, but because He is good and He wants to make you His friends. Yes, you are the light of the world because Jesus is your light. You are Christians - not because you do special and extraordinary things, but because Christ is your life. You are holy because His grace is at work in you. ~Pope Benedict XVI

Dear Young People: Christ, risen from the dead, shines in this world and he does so most brightly in those places where, in human terms, everything is somber and hopeless. He has conquered death -- he is alive -- and faith in him, like a small light, cuts through all that is dark and threatening. ~Pope Benedict XVI

The life of a Christian is nothing but a perpetual struggle against self; there is no flowering of the soul to the beauty of its perfection except at the price of pain. ~St. Padre Pio

When the Church ceases to be evangelical, she ceases to be the Church.

In particular, the Catholic Church is the friend of the poor. Like Christ, she welcomes without exception all who approach her to hear the divine message of peace, hope and salvation. Moreover, in obedience to the Lord, she continues to do so without regard for "tribe and tongue and people and nation" (cf. Rev 5:9), for in Christ, we "are one body" (cf. Rom 12:5). ~Pope Benedict XVI

"Christ's entire mission is summed up in this: to baptize us in the Holy Spirit, to free us from slavery of death and 'to open heaven to us', that is, access to the true and full life that will be a 'plunging ever anew into the vastness of being, in which we are simply overwhelmed with joy'." ~Pope Benedict XVI

The ministry of evangelization...begins with an encounter with one Person, the Person of Jesus, and effects a change within us, a conversion of heart, which touches every area of our lives. Life with Christ brings joy, peace, and fulfillment. It brings healing, forgiveness, and truth. But it also oftentimes means a change in perspective and direction, a breaking away from what is comfortable or convenient, or “the norm.” This purification can be painful, but it is exactly in this struggle that the Lord will be glorified through us. In our weakness, He is strong. In our brokenness, He makes us whole. He wishes to use us, to move in us, in such a way that our own lives become a means of evangelization toward everyone we meet. Christ needs disciples who are not afraid to speak of his love and mercy from their own lived experiences, from the depths of their changed being.

~Deacon Ralph Poyo, 2011 Maine Catholic Men's Conference keynote speaker

Through baptism we become part of a family much larger than our biological family. It is a family of people "set apart" by God to be light in the darkness. These set-apart people are called saints. Although we tend to think about saints as holy and pious, and picture them with halos above their heads and ecstatic gazes, true saints are much more accessible. They are men and women like us, who live ordinary lives and struggle with ordinary problems. What makes them saints is their clear and unwavering focus on God and God's people. Some of their lives may look quite different, but most of their lives are remarkably similar to our own. The saints are our brothers and sisters, calling us to become like them. ~Henri J.M. Nouwen

“To put the Eucharist at the center of Christian life means to put Jesus at the heart of everything. In the Eucharist we are called to enter into Trinitarian love. By making the Holy Mass the center of our interior life, we are united to Jesus and, in him, to the whole Church, to all [people].”~Bishop Javier Echevarría

"Death and life have met in an inseparable mystery, and life has triumphed. The God of salvation has shown himself to be the uncontested Lord, whom all the ends of the earth will celebrate, and before whom all the families of peoples will bow down in worship. It is the victory of faith, which is able to transform death into a gift of life -- the abyss of suffering into a source of hope." ~Pope Benedict XVI

"Nourishing Our Own Inner Monasteries"

Let silence be placed around us
like a mantle.
Let us enter into it,
as through a small secret door;
stooping,
to emerge into,
an acre of peace,
where stillness reigns
and God is ever present.

(silence)

Then comes the voice of God
in the startled cry
of a refugee child,
waking
in unfamiliar surroundings
Then comes the voice of God,
in the mother,
fleeing with
her treasure
in her arms, and saying,
"I am here."

Then comes the voice of God,
in the father
who points to the stars
and says:
"There is our signpost.
There is our lantern.
Be of good courage."

(Silence)

O Lord, may the mantle of silence
become a cloak of understanding
to warm our hearts in prayer.

Amen

                     ~by Kate McIIhagga

"...we can’t claim to love God and be a “good Catholic,” but then ignore what it means to be Catholic in our business dealings, our social policies and in our political choices. Christian faith is always personal but never private. It either guides our behavior all the time, both in public and in private, or it’s phony. And if it’s phony, we should stop trying to fool ourselves. We need to be faithful Catholics first." ~Archbishop Charles J. Chaput

Prayer @ Ground Zero

O God of love, compassion, and healing,
look on us, people of many different faiths and traditions,
who gather today at this site,
the scene of incredible violence and pain.

We ask you in your goodness
to give eternal light and peace
to all who died here—
the heroic first-responders:
our fire fighters, police officers,
emergency service workers, and Port Authority personnel,
along with all the innocent men and women
who were victims of this tragedy
simply because their work or service
brought them here on September 11, 2001.

We ask you, in your compassion
to bring healing to those
who, because of their presence here that day,
suffer from injuries and illness.
Heal, too, the pain of still-grieving families
and all who lost loved ones in this tragedy.
Give them strength to continue their lives with courage and hope.

We are mindful as well
of those who suffered death, injury, and loss
on the same day at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Our hearts are one with theirs
as our prayer embraces their pain and suffering.

God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world:
peace in the hearts of all men and women
and peace among the nations of the earth.
Turn to your way of love
those whose hearts and minds
are consumed with hatred.

God of understanding,
overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy,
we seek your light and guidance
as we confront such terrible events.
Grant that those whose lives were spared
may live so that the lives lost here
may not have been lost in vain.
Comfort and console us,
strengthen us in hope,
and give us the wisdom and courage
to work tirelessly for a world
where true peace and love reign
among nations and in the hearts of all.

                                                                                                 ~Pope Benedict XVI

God is with us in the reality of life, not the fantasy! It is embrace, not escape, that we seek! ~Pope Benedict XVI

I do not understand how it is possible not to trust in God, who can do all things. With God, everything; without God, nothing. ~St. Faustina Kowalska

"There can be no authentic Christianity, no life-giving Christianity, no Christianity worth living and dying for without a daily taking up of the Cross and a following in the Golgotha-bound footsteps of the one who lived and died for us. This taking up of the Cross does not produce maudlin or miserable religion but offers abundant life to those with generosity of spirit, imagination, and daring (Jn 10:10)."

~ Fr. Anthony J. Gittins, CSSp

Our Lord wants me to be a free nun covered with the poverty of the cross. Of free choice, my God, and out of love for you, I desire to remain and do whatever be your Holy will in my regard.

~Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta

The Glory of God is always found in movements of love, in communication of life, never in static routine, cramped piety, thoughtless repetition of official acts, conventional observance, external religious acts that could easily become the letter that kills, the continuing tyranny of the old, sinful self. The Spirit, by contrast, is wind, fire, light, water, Glory: the unexpected, the transforming, the self-communicating, the self-outpouring Power that shapes by embracing and not letting go. The way of the disciple is necessarily a way of discipline, because discipleship is the living school in which we learn how to be like Christ by intimate association with him. ~Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about [Jesus]: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic---on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg---or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up as a fool, you can spit on Him and kill Him as a demon, or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." ~ C. S. Lewis

Beware of no one more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us. ~Charles Spurgeon

"Living in Gods grace demands that we allow ourselves neither to get trapped in the past by sins nor suffocated by the future in our desire to control. We need to be reunited with God every moment of the day in prayer." ~Mark Hart