“Radical obedience to Christ is not easy... It's not comfort, not health, not wealth, and not prosperity in this world. Radical obedience to Christ risks losing all these things. But in the end, such risk finds its reward in Christ. And he is more than enough for us.” ~David Platt

“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.

It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.”  ~Bl. John Paul II

"Being a Christian is more than just an instantaneous conversion. It is a daily process whereby you grow to be more and more like Christ." ~Billy Graham

“A saint is not a person who is good. A saint is someone who has tasted the goodness of God.” ~Thomas Merton

“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.” ~C.S. Lewis

"What miracles! Who would ever have imagined such! ... If the angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion." -St. Maximilian Kolbe

“Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing. And prayer is the turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that He will provide the help we need. Prayer humbles us as needy and exalts God as wealthy.” ~John Piper

The Christian is not a separate species of human being, but what each person is called to be. And the monk is not a separate species of Christian. He tries to be what each Christian ought to be. Conformity to Christ in faith, hope and love, this is holiness, and each person is called to this holiness. ~The Carthusian Statutes

Bear joyful witness to the truth of the Gospel which liberates our minds and enlightens our efforts to live wisely and well, both as individuals and as members of society. ~Pope Benedict XVI

"Recognize that the Holy Spirit stands in the same

relation to your soul as air stands in relation to your body."

~St. John of Kronstadt

"[O]nly avid discipleship to Christ through the Spirit brings the inward transformation of thought, feeling, and character that “cleans the inside of the cup” (Matthew 23:25) and “makes the tree good” (Matthew 12:33). As we study with Jesus we increasingly become on the inside—with the “Father who is in secret” (Matthew 6:6)—exactly what we are on the outside, where actions and moods and attitudes visibly play over our body, alive in its social context. An amazing simplicity will take over our lives—a simplicity that is really just transparency.

This requires a long and careful learning from Jesus to remove the duplicity that has become second nature to us—as is perhaps inevitable in a world where, to “manage” our relations to those about us, we must hide what we really think, feel, and would like to do, if only we could avoid observation." ~Dallas Willard

"Our life is a paschal life: with the blood of the resurrection flowing in our veins we run towards eternal joy, love has triumphed over death. For us, everything  is hidden under a veil of faith. So then, our faith must be alive! Let us live like people who see the invisible, who are animated by the Spirit of God. Let us put our confidence in God to whom we have entrusted all of our being and all of our life and go forward towards the meeting with the unexpected that comes to us from God, from the hands of the Father. Let us allow ourselves to be carried by the joy of the risen and living Christ." ~A Carthusian hermit

"The word of God does not belong to him who hears or speaks it, but to him who puts it into practice." ~St. Giles of Assisi

“In order to resist fear and discouragement, it is necessary that through prayer -- through a personal experience of God re-encountered, recognized and loved in prayer -- we taste and see how good the Lord is (Psalm 34).” ~Jacques Philippe

"Practicing Jesus's words, as his apprentices, enables us to understand our lives and to see how we can interact with God's redemptive resources, ever at hand. This in turn gives us an increasing freedom from failed intentions as we learn from him how to, simply, do what we know to be right. By a practiced abiding in his words, we come to know the truth, and the truth does, sure enough, make us free (John 8:36). We are able to do the good we intend." ~Dallas Willard

Jesus needs neither books nor Doctors of Divinity in order to instruct souls; He, the Doctor of Doctors  He teaches without noise of words." ~St. Therese of Lisieux

"Everyday, Jesus humbles himself just as He did when He came from His heavenly throne into the Virgin’s womb; everyday He comes to us and lets us see Him in abjection, when He descends from the bosom of the Father into the hands of the priest at the altar." ~St. Francis of Assisi

In embracing a hidden life we do not abandon the great family of our fellow men. . . If therefore we are truly living in union with God, our minds and hearts, far from becoming shut in on themselves, open up to embrace the whole universe and the mystery of Christ that saves it. Apart from all, to all we are united. ~Statute 4.34.1-2 of the Carthusian Order

"Christians, in a word, must sanctify themselves, and they would learn, as St. Theresa insists, that no one can become a saint alone. They must cease treating the Sermon on the Mount and the eight Beatitudes as pretty, decorative pieces in the Christian religion, an expression of the delicate poetic sensibilities of Jesus. They must begin to see in these teachings what they really are, mainly, the Divine pattern for human life, formed by God Himself, and imposed on us all." ~Fr. John Hugo

"[W]hen a person truly knows Jesus Christ and believes in him, he experiences his presence in life and the power of his Resurrection and he cannot do anything but communicate this experience. And if this person meets with misunderstanding or adversity, he conducts himself as Jesus did in his Passion: he responds with love and with the power of truth." ~Pope Francis, April 15, 2013

"Do not worry about the mockery of fools. Remember that the Saints, who always scorned the world and the mundane, have thwarted the world and its maxims." ~St. Padre Pio

"Let us always remain meek and humble, that we might defeat the empty promises and the hatred of the world…The way of the Christians is the way of Jesus….If we want to be followers of Jesus, there is no other way: none other than that, which He indicated to us - and one of the consequences of this is hatred – it is the hatred of the world, and also the prince of this world…The origin of the hate [we experience], then is this: that we are saved. It is that prince who does not want that we should have been saved, who hates.” ~Pope Francis; Saturday, May 4, 2013

"If they, why not I? If these men and women could become saints, why cannot I with the help of Him who is all-powerful?" ~St. Augustine

In the Eucharist, Christ is truly present and alive, working through his Spirit; yet, as Saint Thomas said so well, "what you neither see nor grasp, faith confirms for you, leaving nature far behind; a sign it is that now appears, hiding in mystery realities sublime". He is echoed by the philosopher Pascal: "Just as Jesus Christ went unrecognized among men, so does his truth appear without external difference among common modes of thought. So too does the Eucharist remain among common bread". ~Bl. Pope John Paul II

The most powerful way you can influence people is to lead them closer to Jesus. ~Dr. Charles Stanley

"You see, the new things of God are not like the novelties of this world, all of which are temporary; they come and go, and we keep looking for more. The new things which God gives to our lives are lasting, not only in the future, when we will be with him, but today as well. God is even now making all things new; the Holy Spirit is truly transforming us, and through us he also wants to transform the world in which we live." ~Pope Francis