The soul can feed only on God; only God can suffice it; only God can fill it; only God can satiate its hunger. Its God is absolutely necessary to it. ~St. John Vianney

May your faith be increased so as to realize the fact that you are never alone, wheresoever you may be, that the great God is with you, in you. ~St. Katherine Drexel

"You cannot please both God and the world at the same time. They are utterly opposed to each other in their thoughts, their desires, and their actions." ~St. John Vianney

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. ~St. Rose of Viterbo

The intellectual and ideological separation of Christ from his Church is one of the first realities we must deal with as we propose a New Evangelization of culture and people today. Already in his encyclical letter God is Love (Deus caritas est) our Holy Father reminded us that "the Church is God's family in the world" and that "the Church's deepest nature is expressed in her three-fold responsibility: of proclaiming the word of God, celebrating the sacraments, and exercising the ministry of charity." Further he points out that "these duties presuppose each other and are inseparable." ~Donald Cardinal Wuerl

Feast of Christ the King

Almighty and merciful God, you break the power of evil and make all things new in your Son Jesus Christ, the King of the universe. May all in heaven and earth acclaim your glory and never cease to praise you. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

God speaks in the silence of the heart, and we listen. And then we speak to God from the fullness of our heart, and God listens. And this listening and this speaking is what prayer is meant to be....  ~Mother Teresa

Thanksgiving Day (USA)

"I try hard to hold fast to the truth that a full and thankful heart cannot entertain great conceits. When brimming with gratitude, one's heartbeat must surely result in outgoing love, the finest emotion that we can ever know." ~As Bill Sees It, page 37

"The only cure for sagging or fainting faith is Communion. Though always Itself, perfect and complete and inviolate, the Blessed Sacrament does not operate completely and once for all in any of us. Like the act of Faith it must be continuous and grow by exercise. Frequency is of the highest effect. Seven times a week is more nourishing than seven times at intervals." ~J.R.R. Tolkien

In the face of the too real dangers that surround me I repeat: 'Lord, I have placed all my hope in you. I will never be confounded.' ~St. Damien de Veuster

About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they're just one thing, and we shouldn't complicate the matter. ~St. Joan of Arc

Frodo: “I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.”

Gandalf: “So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world Frodo, besides the will of evil.” ~J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

"If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one." ~Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta

God lets the soul share his goodness so that it becomes one with him. The nearer the soul comes to him, the more it partakes of what is his. ~St. Catherine of Genoa

May I feel in my heart, as far as possible, that abundance of love with which you, Son of God, were inflamed. ~St. Francis of Assisi

In the measure that grace's kingdom is extended, sin's power is weakened. ~St. Bernard

Who except God can give you peace? Has the world ever been able to satisfy the heart? - St. Gerard Majella

Monastic life is not really about self-realization, in the immediate sense of these words: it is far more about self-transcendence. These are noble words, but the reality they describe is a lifetime of feeling out of one’s depth: confused, bewildered, and not a little affronted by the mysterious ways of God. This is why those who persevere and are buried in a monastic cemetery can rarely be described as perfectly integrated human beings. ~Michael Casey, OSB, from Strangers to the City: Reflections on the Beliefs and Values of the Rule of Saint Benedict, (2005), p.4.

"I give thanks unto my God for this; that I am found worthy to be among those whom the world hates." ~St. Jerome

Oh Jesus, in that hour when darkness like a cloak shall be spread over all things, may your grace shine on us in place of the earthly sun. ~St. Ephrem the Syrian

I think it would do orthodox Christians well to remember that the children of Judah went into the Babylonian captivity not because of the sins of Babylon but because of their own. Now, as it should always be, is time for reflection, confession and repentance and to remove the motes from our own eyes before seeking the remove the specks from the eyes of our neighbor. If we are captives in Babylon, we have only ourselves to blame. ~Anonymous

"No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples." ~Blessed John Paul II

The greatest grace God can give someone is to send him a trial he cannot bear with his own powers --- and then sustain him with His grace so he may endure to the end and be saved. ~Saint Justin Martyr

Election Day USA 2012

"Allow Christ to exercise his purifying action in society. Do not crucify him anew." ~Pope Benedict XVI in his "Message to Politicians," which was released 11 Oct 12.

Let us be raised to the one who made the dust of our lowliness into the body of his glory. ~St. Leo the Great

The renewal of the Church is also achieved through the witness offered by the lives of believers: by their very existence in the world, Christians are called to radiate the word of truth that the Lord Jesus has left us. The Council itself, in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, said this: While “Christ, ‘holy, innocent and undefiled’ (Heb 7:26) knew nothing of sin (cf. 2 Cor 5:21), but came only to expiate the sins of the people (cf. Heb 2:17)... the Church ... clasping sinners to its bosom, at once holy and always in need of purification, follows constantly the path of penance and renewal. The Church, ‘like a stranger in a foreign land, presses forward amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God’, announcing the cross and death of the Lord until he comes (cf. 1 Cor 11:26). But by the power of the risen Lord it is given strength to overcome, in patience and in love, its sorrow and its difficulties, both those that are from within and those that are from without, so that it may reveal in the world, faithfully, although with shadows, the mystery of its Lord until, in the end, it shall be manifested in full light.”~Pope Benedict XVI, from his Apostolic Letter  announcing the Year of Faith, Oct 11,2011

God made us so that we might become partakers of the divine nature and sharers in his eternity, and so that we might come to be like him through deification by grace. ~St. Maximus the Confessor 

Feast of All Souls

"Love does not dominate; it cultivates." ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Happy Feast of All Saints!

The New Evangelization begins with each of us taking it upon ourselves to renew once again our understanding of the faith and our appropriation of it in a way that more deeply, willingly and joyfully embraces the Gospel message and its application today. ~From Cardinal Donald Wuerl's Report at the Synod of Bishops, Oct 8, 2012